Morning Fix: Are Primaries A Good Thing?

CHRIS CILLIZZA
The Washington Post

Barnes Running in Ga.: National Democrats scored a major recruiting coup in Georgia as former Gov. Roy Barnes announced Wednesday that he would run to reclaim his old office in 2010 when the seat is vacant. “I’ve listened and I realized that when I was governor before I didn’t do enough listening,” said Barnes of his upset loss in 2002 to then state Sen. Sonny Perdue (R). “I realize that I was impatient and that I had an aggressive agenda.” (Barnes was famously cast as “King Roy” by Perdue in one of the most infamous — and effective — ads in recent political history.) Barnes’ announcement drew immediate praise from the Democratic Governors Association Chairman Brian Schweitzer (Mont.) who lauded the former governor’s “knowledge and character”. Barnes’ entry into the contest will likely drive several other Democratic candidates out; before he announced, state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, former Secretary of State David Poythress and state Sen. DuBose Porter were declared.