Last week, Rusty Kidd, Georgia’s only independent state legislator, was re-elected.  He faced one opponent, a Democrat.  Kidd won 57.3%-42.7%.  Kidd was the only independent who was able to qualify for either house of the Georgia legislature by petition this year.

On November 5, Kidd was hospitalized because a small bone in his neck was broken, but he is expected to be back at work well before the session opens.  He has been in a wheelchair for the past decade because of a past motorcycle accident.

Kidd is the son of Senator Culver Kidd, who is no longer living.  Senator Kidd was the author of the 1986 Georgia ballot access reform bill that lowered the statewide petitions from 2.5% of the number of registered voters, to 1%, and also provided that parties that poll at least 1% of the number of registered voters for any statewide race are ballot-qualified for all statewide offices.  It is because of Senator Kidd’s 1986 bill that the Georgia Libertarian Party has been on the ballot for the statewide offices, with no petitioning needed (except for the party’s initial petition in 1988), for over twenty years.