Round Two: Last week, I wrote about the Democratic primary between state Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, and Spencer Frye. But the real one to watch is Rep. Doug McKillip, D-then-R-Athens, and Regina Quick, who also tangled in 2006. This race is so good, the debates ought to have ring girls.

Quick is not one to mince words, and she's had some strong ones for McKillip. Asked to explain her strong support among Democrats, she said at a recent Oconee County forum: "If they are crossing over to vote for me, it's because nobody likes a turncoat, and nobody likes a traitor." McKillip likes to say that Quick uses "Democratic talking points" about his anti-abortion bill and other issues and, in this case, he's right. Democrats are pissed. Meanwhile, she's reminding GOP voters that a pre-conversion "McFlip," as she calls him, supported Roy Barnes and Barack Obama. McKillip fires back by noting she's given money to Democratic candidates, too.

McKillip opens just about every public appearance by talking about his road to Damascus. He was saved and saw the light. It seems to be working on voters in the parts of the district outside of Clarke County, where they're meeting him for the first time. He's gotten a warmer reception at several Oconee County events than Quick, thanks to his abortion bill, family values talk and attack ads painting Quick as a liberal in disguise (literally; in one mailer, she's wearing a Ronald Reagan mask).

McKillip also has the full force of the Gold Dome GOP establishment behind him. House leaders, headlined by Speaker David Ralston, held a fundraiser for him July 11 in Oconee County. He raised almost $100,000 for his re-election bid in the second quarter alone, an absurd amount for a mere state House race.

Ralston denied drawing a district tailor-made for his prize party-switcher at a press conference before the fundraiser. Even if that's true, he couldn't have drawn McKillip a better one if he tried. Not everyone is happy about it, though. Some, like former state Rep. Bob Smith, R-Watkinsville, are backing Quick because they want to see Oconee County kept whole. She's vowed to join Rep. Chuck Williams, R-Watkinsville, who was drawn into more of a swing district as a result, to put the county back together again.

Quick is staunch fiscal conservative who's made a career out of taking Athens-Clarke County to the woodshed in property-tax lawsuits, and for that, many Athens Republicans are supporting her. She'll need a ridiculously large turnout in Clarke County, including hordes of Democratic crossover votes, to have a chance of winning. With Sunday sales, T-SPLOST and several other local races on the July 31 ballot, she might get it. Between early voting in the office and by mail, 477 people pulled Republican ballots and 291 pulled Democratic ones as of July 12, according to the Athens-Clarke Board of Elections. While it's not unusual for more Republicans to request absentee ballots, more Democrats tend to vote early in person, and Clarke County as a whole is almost two-thirds Democratic. It remains to be seen, though, how many early voters live in that district.

Clarification: State House candidate Spencer Frye asked to provide some additional context to his statement at a recent forum, reported in last week's Dope, criticizing Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, for voting to cut pre-K, and a Heard supporter's claim that Frye was lying. Frye says he contrasted Heard's vote in favor a 2008 bill providing tax credits to private-school students with his vote in favor of a state budget that cut pre-K spending. "Every one of Keith's votes is fully documented and can be easily looked up," he says. "To suggest that I am not being truthful is patently ridiculous and reflects the desperateness of his campaign." Heard, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, says he voted in favor of the budget because he gained concessions from Republicans.

Now Hiring: As you'll read once you've flipped the page to Athens Rising, Kevan Williams is going on hiatus. He'll be missed, but we want to continue the column in his absence, so if anyone with expertise and an interest in development would like to pick it up, email [email protected]. Matt Pulver is also ending his Google That Sh!t column. Hopefully, his work will continue to appear in some other form, but we're also looking for new voices and new column ideas, so send those to [email protected] as well. The pay is crap, but trust me, it's a lot of fun.

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