State Sen. Johnny Grant of Milledgeville is a Republican who was first elected in 2004.  Although his 25th district voted solidly for Gov. Sonny Perdue in the last election, it is one of only a handful of Senate seats that Democrats believe are even possible to wrest away from the majority party.  Enthusiasm on that front was even higher this year, as Grant's district is home to a large percentage of African American voters, especially in the rural counties of Greene, Hancock, Taliaferro and Warren.  Democrats believe that a presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, which now looks extremely likely, will draw an unusually high turnout among African Americans; sleepy Hancock County (population: 10,076, about 6% of the district) may have as many as 1,200 unregistered African American voters according to US Census and Secretary of State statistics.  Grant won the district in 2004 by less than 3,000 votes total.

In what was seen as one of the few highlights of Democratic qualifying, Ben Mitcham of Gray, in Jones County signed up to take the fight to Grant.  But that's no longer happening, reports the Jones County News.  Although Mitcham once lived in the district Grant now represents, the 2004 court-ordered redistricting moved the line and that's no longer the case.  Although many legislators have sought to use redistricting to take a potential challenger out of their district, Grant wasn't even yet elected when the current map was approved, and opted out of Republican efforts to manipulate some districts before the 2006 elections.