Ronnie Thompson (Georgia Politician) - Gubernatorial Primary, 1974

Gubernatorial Primary, 1974

In 1974, Thompson cross-filed in both the Republican and Democratic parties for governor, a practice then allowed in Georgia but not used by previous candidates during the state's long period of Democratic hegemony. Thompson said that his cross-filing was intended to increase his name identification and propel him to the leading position among four Republican primary candidates. After the election, the state law permitting cross-filing was repealed in the Busbee administration. Thompson had considered running once again for U.S. Representative or for lieutenant governor but instead filed for governor. He expected to face then Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox of the Atlanta metro area, a former governor known nationally for his past appeals to segregation. Thompson called Maddox "a counterfeit conservative" and challenged the former governor to a head-to-head debate, which Maddox promptly rejected.

Thompson also clashed with J.B. Stoner, a self-avowed white supremacist, who ran as a Democrat for lieutenant governor to succeed Maddox. Stoner, the former attorney for James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., placed a controversial advertisement on the side of a bus of the Macon Transit Company. Thompson had the sign removed, and Stoner sued successfully in federal court to have the sign returned though it was seen as hostile to blacks. Stoner even urged blacks to support Thompson for governor, a recommendation he made tongue-in-cheek. Stoner received more votes in his race for lieutenant governor—73,449, or 9 percent of the total—than were cast for all candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

In the gubernatorial primary, Thompson faced four opponents, W. M. Coolidge, Harold Dye, Harry Geisinger, and George Lankford. Dye (born 1917) of Atlanta is a retired brigadier general who was a former member of the United Nations Military Armistice Commission and an official in the Georgia Department of Industry and Trade. Coolidge and Lankford were county commissioners in DeKalb and Cobb counties, respectively.

In the August 14 primary, held five days after the resignation of Richard Nixon as president, Thompson led with 17,830 votes (41 percent); Harold Dye finished second with 9,870 ballots (23 percent). Thompson received 21,848 Democratic votes, presumably at the expense of Lester Maddox, who led his party ballot with 277,921. Busbee finished second with 167,811, barely above the total of banker Bert Lance.