Republican staffers under the Gold Dome working on Georgia's Congressional maps say twenty-year incumbent U.S. Rep. John Lewis [pictured below] may soon be Governor Nathan Deal's (R-GA) new best friend. 

That's because the newly configured District 5 seat that is being drawn for the civil rights icon will effectively doom the campaign of Lewis' Democrat primary opponent, former Fulton County Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson, a moderate who resigned his post to challenge Lewis. Johnson has accused Lewis of being stuck in the past, and is attempting to define the contest as a generational battle. 

DENISE MAJETTE REDUX FIZZLES

Johnson's best -- and maybe only -- shot at upsetting Lewis centered on Buckhead Republicans. His campaign hoped to convince conservatives in the growing GOP enclave to crossover party lines and vote for Johnson to oust Lewis in the July 2012 primary. District 5 Republicans have nothing else of significance in their own primary. Turnout among Republicans is expected to be robust nonetheless due the one-cent regional sales transportation tax referendum which will be on the same ballot. Johnson's campaign hoped to use the same strategy of former Democrat Congresswoman Denise Majette, like Johnson a former Judge, who waged a massive GOP primary crossover campaign to topple the seemingly invincible incumbent Rep. Cynthia McKinney in the 2002 Democrat primary. 

But that strategy is about to go by the wayside, leaving Johnson [pictured right] out in the cold.

The new District 5 map will not include Buckhead, which will instead go into District 6, represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R). Insiders at the Capitol who are privy to the new map configuration say that Price has agreed to give up Cherokee county and replace it with Buckhead, Brookhaven and Vinings. Cherokee will likely then be divided up between U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R) and the newly created District 14.

District 5 will reportedly expand west into Paulding County and west to Douglas County. The new D-5 will then be represented by an overwhelming majority of African American voters, keeping it consistent with the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

"John Lewis' current district has too many whites in it now to meet the strict criteria of the VRA," said one House staff member working on the maps, who is not authorized to talk to the press. 

That leaves Johnson in political no man's land. Black voters, who have not been represented by Lewis, have no compelling reason to vote against the former Civil Rights leader. And with fewer Republicans now scattered in the newly configured district, the Majette GOP cross over strategy becomes geographically untenable and financially impossible to execute.

So when Gov. Deal signs the new D-5 map into law, he'll have a new best buddy: Lewis. After all, it'll be Deal who insures his primary re-nomination -- and in so doing -- his election to a twentieth term in Congress.

ODD MAN OUT -- JOHN BARROW -- SOLD OUT BY BLACK CAUCUS

Even a cat with nine lives eventually bites the dust. D-12 Democrat U.S. House Rep. John Barrow [pictured below] has survived several very tight elections in holding onto his North Savannah to Augusta based seat. But re-districting is about to change that. Republicans are targeting Barrow's seat and they plan on drawing new lines to make his 2012 re-election campaign a long shot at best, by adding more GOP voters to the already mostly conservative district.

While Barrow's new district lines will likely flip it into the Republican House column in the Peach State, the remaining four Georgia House Democrats get a job for life as part of the deal with state GOP mapmakers. Democrat U.S. Rep.'s Hank Johnson, Sanford Bishop -- who inherits Democrat stronghold Macon -- David Scott and Lewis all get more minority and Democrat voters in their respective districts, making them virtually untouchable in a general election.

Deal, for his part, is expected to authorize the new maps after the August Georgia General Assembly special session sanctions them. All four Democrat controlled districts will be in line with the legal provisions of the VRA. Therefore, no legal challenge from the Obama administration DOJ is expected.

jfredericks@beaconcast.com

Comments? Post below...