Mr. Isakson Goes To Washington

Voters in Georgia cast their ballots Tuesday night and tapped pre-election favorite Johnny Isakson to fill the congressional seat occupied by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich, who held the seat for 20 years in the heavily Republican Sixth District, won re-election in November with 71 percent of the vote. But the following week, he announced that he would step down as speaker and give up his congressional seat in the wake of stinging Republican losses in the House, for which he was widely blamed.

Isakson's victory came as little surprise. The only suspense had been whether he would get a majority in the seven-way race and avoid a runoff. By 11 p.m. EST Tuesday night, 97 percent of precincts had reported in and Isakson had garnered 65 percent of the vote. His closest competitor, Christina Jeffrey, had managed to scrape up just 26 percent.

Isakson, 54, a real estate millionaire and state lawmaker for 17 years has a reputation for consensus-building instead of partisan trench warfare. His approach is a far cry from that of his predecessor Gingrich.

"I've always been one to build consensus," he said in his victory speech. "I believe you make progress wherever you can find common ground and that's what I'm going to do."