Hell hath no fury like a party scorned.

The Georgia House Democratic Caucus hit Democratic women with a mailer Friday urging them to "do the unthinkable. We need you to pick up a Republican ballot this Tuesday, July 31, and vote Doug McKillip OUT of office."

With about three-fifths of Clarke County early voters pulling a GOP ballot in a county that's 60 percent Democratic, it looks like McKillip's opponent in the Republican primary, Regina Quick, is picking up lots of crossover support. But it looks like McKillip—or someone supporting him—is engaged in a bit of misdirection.

Joe Wisenbaker, chairman of the Clarke County Democratic Committee, reported hearing an ad on local radio telling Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary to show their support for President Obama—even though he's not on the ballot. Democrats aren't behind the ad, said party spokesman Eric Gray. Frankly, I would bet my bottom dollar that the money paying for that didn’t come from a single Democrat!" Wisenbaker wrote in an email to party members. "In all likelihood it was a well timed play by the high-priced ad agency that the state Republican leadership has given carte blanch to defeating Regina Quick in favor of their new fair-haired boy."

Meanwhile, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge sent out a mass email Sunday to his extensive personal contact list urging people to vote for Quick, calling McKillip's campaign "more negative than any I have ever seen." Eldridge says the timing of McKillip's party switch was suspicious, he was kept out of the loop on Caterpillar contrary to his claims, he redistricted Clarke and Oconee counties over local objections for his own benefit, and his campaign is funded almost completely by people outside the district.

Quick's campaign manager, Angela Meltzer, has circulated an email breaking down where the candidates' money is coming from. Almost 95 percent of the $97,775 McKillip raised from January through June came from outside district, compared to 25 percent of the $51,873. In July, McKillip has raised at least $16,500, according to recently-filed reports, mostly from Republican legislators. Illinois-based Caterpillar gave him $1,000.

Tea party and good-government groups rolled into Athens Friday evening to support a $100 cap on lobbyists' gifts to legislators. Quick and Democratic Rep. Keith Heard's primary challenger, Spencer Frye, who both signed a pledge to support the cap, appeared at the City Hall rally. "We have clear choices in terms of ethics in both those races," Common Cause Georgia Executive Director William Perry said.

Pam Davidson, a Republican running for Public Service Commission, a board that regulates mainly Georgia Power and natural gas companies, attacked incumbent Stan Wise, saying more than 80 percent of his campaign contributions came from utilities. "I will not take a dime or a cup of coffee from any entity I regulate," Davidson said.

Last-minute charges are also flying in the Athens-Clarke Commission District 6 race. In a letter to voters, candidate Ron Winders accused Jerry NeSmith of "blocking transportation projects in Atlanta and obstructing economic development projects in Clarke County." Winders criticized NeSmith, while serving on a committee that recommended SPLOST projects in 2010, of voting in favor of "a $6 million proposal that would have directly benefited him" and against "a Life Sciences Industrial park which would have benefited thousands of families."

NeSmith called the charges "slanderous half-truths." He surmised that Winders, in the former charge, was referring to a proposal for a new University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Office. That project was scaled back to $2.8 million by removing a pavilion where the Athens Farmers Market, which NeSmith helped found, could have located. The latter charge involved commercial real estate agent Gerry Whitworth asking the Athens-Clarke government to buy Athena Industrial Park in East Athens. "This half-baked, self-serving proposal was not supported by any economic development authority, the government, the Chamber of Commerce nor any objective third party," NeSmith said. "The SPLOST Committee hardly considered adding it to the short list."

Bill Douglas, the committee's chairman, came to NeSmith's defense in Athens Patch.

As an Atlanta resident in the 1980s, NeSmith successfully fought a plan to build a freeway through the Grant Park, Virginia Highlands, Morningside-Lenox Park and Druid Hills neighborhoods.