House Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones (R-Milton) got up Tuesday morning, August 10 as the most powerful woman in the state of Georgia.

At about 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, when it was apparent Nathan Deal had upset North Fulton favorite Handel for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Jones, who had been at Deal's side for 14 straight days -- campaigning with him non-stop across the state -- finally called it a night.

When she awoke a few hours later, two things were apparent. One, Jones was still the most powerful woman in the state. Two, don't mess with her North Fulton delegation. If you do, they'll take you out.

Handel, known for winning elections against all odds, lost a race she had no business losing in the final 48 hours of the campaign. Ahead by ten points with a week to go and having all the "mojo" imaginable on her side -- including a huge Monday media event with Sarah Palin -- Handel was the clear favorite going into the run-off on Monday night.

But a funny thing happened on the way to polls the next day.

The Handel campaign ran into a buzz saw they didn't anticipate and grossly underestimated. It's called the North Fulton House Delegation. The "Fab-Five" – Jones, Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell), Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta), Rep. Joe Wilkinson (R-Sandy Springs) and former House Speaker Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) engineered a last-minute blitzkrieg in North Fulton that cost Handel the nomination, and swung the election to Deal.

Handel told confidents she anticipated capturing 85 percent of the North Fulton Republican run-off vote. But her final tally was nowhere near that number, and the difference between what she expected and what she got county wide was 6,000 more votes for Deal. Handel, instead of winning by 3,500 votes, lost the election by about 2,500.

Here is what Ted Oglesby, political writer for the Gainesville Times newspaper had to say about it Wednesday morning, starting with the headline, Hometown Newspaper swings support to Deal:

"The North Fulton Beacon, in Karen Handel's community, never in its history had made a political endorsement. It wrote that they knew too much about her and felt a journalistic responsibility to expose it. Handel was expecting North Fulton where she lives to provide her victory margin, but I think that very long, blistering expose trimmed her Fulton vote just enough [for Deal to win]."

 BUT HANDEL BLEW IF OFF, THEN MOCKED THE DELEGATION

 But Handel, confident of victory, dismissed the North Fulton House delegation's ringing endorsement of Deal -- and total rebuke of her candidacy -- like nothing more than a few pesky flies in her preeminent victory ointment. Several sources involved with the Handel campaign, who requested anonymity, said that during a staff rally on Sunday night, Handel held up the August 8 edition of The Beacon and told her faithful she wanted to "frame the cover" and "display it prominently" in her new governor's office. "That's as close to my new office as these five will ever get" for the next four years," Handel reportedly said. 

However, her grudge and vendetta didn’t play out this time. So it looks like the "Fab-Five" will get a lot more time inside the governor's office than she will.

 HOW ALBERS PULLED IT OFF

 Speaking of political upsets, how did John Albers upset Brandon Beach, the longtime front-runner, in Tuesday's run-off election for the district 56 state senate seat? Albers defeated Beach by a little over 100 votes out of 14,000 ballots cast.

Let's start with Beach. Here is what Beach did right: he got his voters out, big time. Beach and his team worked hard in getting out their base, including David Belle Isle's supporters. Belle Isle finished third in the first go around and subsequently endorsed Beach. Beach got about 4,500 votes, while Belle Isle captured around 2,500 ballots on July 20. On August 10, both Beach and Belle Isle delivered their numbers admirably: Beach finished with nearly 7,000 votes in total.

Here's what Beach did wrong: he hired Rusty Paul last year as his chief political consultant. Paul, who was seemingly strategically disengaged in the run-off, took Beach's $40,000 in fees and direct mail mark-ups and went on vacation the final week. So no one was at the strategic wheel in the final two weeks, and Paul, on holiday, fell asleep at the switch. As a result, the Beach campaign relied on tactical execution in the final days-- which they implemented, but Albers out maneuvered them strategically -- and it paid off for the upstart -- with a stunning victory. Beach should demand a refund form Paul.

Here's what Albers did to win:

He made 17,645 personal phone calls to likely GOP primary voters at a clip of 100 per day over 170 days. This is verified. One tactic he used was to call everyone to wish them a "happy birthday." This sounds corny, but it worked.

He claims he or one of his volunteers knocked on 7,000 doors over the last 10 months. This is not substantiated, but we know he was out working neighborhoods daily, so whatever the true number was it made a difference.

After the first vote, he sat with his political consultant, who ran rings around Paul, and they deduced that if only the same July 20 voters came out, they'd lose -- simply put, the math didn’t work. So they targeted Republican primary voters who did NOT vote on July 20 and attempted to get them out to vote for Albers on August 10.

They went negative on Beach in the final seven days with a rain of "robo calls." Albers relentless barrage of negative phone calls accused Beach of promising to raise taxes, being hostile to pro-life legislation and painted him has a tool of business interests -- all false claims -- but Beach's campaign was slow to react.

They targeted legal Hispanic voters in Roswell and claimed Beach would introduce legislation to deport them. This was also false, but it worked. Beach's brain trust ignored this small but vibrant Roswell voter block, to their peril.

In the most devastating maneuver -- call it their silver bullet -- they hatched a diabolical Machiavellian type scheme and impersonated Roswell Councilwoman Betty Price in another "robo-call" barrage, again blaming Beach for everything wrong with North Fulton. We were surprised they didn't blame the Brave's Chipper Jones season ending injury on him, too.  Although Ms. Price, wife of the revered North Fulton Congressman Tom Price, immediately went on record as being "disgusted and dismayed" by the ploy -- and then endorsed Beach -- it wasn't enough. Albers continued to make the phony calls. Too many voters apparently thought the Price's were for Albers. Again, although Beach sent emails and this newspaper published the "bait and switch" plot, they never responded with a massive counter attack, like a district wide "robo call" blitz from Betty or Tom Price of their own, skewering Albers. Had they done this, Beach would be the state senator, not Albers.

GeorgiaCarry.org. Bang. The statewide gun lobby organization endorsed Albers while the National Rifle Association (NRA) backed Beach. But Georgia Carry has the bullets in Georgia, while the NRA shoots blanks. The local gun group, who started from scratch three years ago and has grown to 6,000 members, wanted to make a political statement: "If you get our endorsement, not the NRA's you win." So they mobilized and dispatched about 50 members to help the Albers' campaign in the final 72 hours to get out signs and get out the vote. What did the NRA do for Beach? They sent a nice letter to the candidate. Game over. Albers wins.

 ALPHARETTA BATTLE OF THE TITANS?

 We have a hot race for Alpharetta City Council, where two well-known local heavyweights will square off in Alpharetta's special November election for the chance to replace Belle Isle, who had to give up his council seat to run for the state senate. The contest will pit former Alpharetta Councilman Jim Paine against another former Alpharetta Councilmanl, John Monson. This is a fascinating race, with mayoral implications for 2011, when current Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas will retire.

Paine, who served 12 years, was term-limited out from running for his seat in 2009. But there is a loophole in the Alpharetta term limits ordinance, which allows Paine to run again for another seat.

Paine has told us he definitely plans to run for Alpharetta mayor in 2011.

Monson resigned his council seat last summer to take a job with CH2M-Hill, a local government contractor, but then lost the job shortly after the municipal election-qualifying deadline. So he's had a tough run.

Monson supported Belle Isle in the D-56 state senate race, and his friend has already endorsed him. Why? Because Belle Isle plans to run for Alpharetta mayor himself in 2011, and he wants Monson to knock out Paine, one of his two rivals, clearing the path for a showdown with the third mayoral candidate, current Alpharetta councilman Doug DeRito.