On January 30, the Georgia House Rules Committee sent HB 757 back to the Governmental Affairs Committee for revision. This is the bill that changes special elections for U.S. Senate that are simultaneous with a regularly-scheduled election. Current law says all special elections are non-partisan (although party labels are on the ballot). Parties don’t have nominees.

HB 757 would change that for certain U.S. Senate special elections, so that parties would have nominees and a partisan primary in advance of the general election. The Rules Committee sent it back because it was not happy with details of the bill. The bill may be amended to include special legislative elections also, or it might die. The bill was thought to be motivated by a desire to injure U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed last year and who must run in a special election this year. She is a moderate Republican and conservatives in the legislature favor someone else.