Carter announced his plan Friday to seek a superior court judgeship this year instead of a third Senate term, two days after the Tifton Circuit’s chief judge said he would not seek a fourth term.
Since Carter, a Republican, was the only candidate to qualify in April for the senate seat, the special primary will be held only for the Republican nomination, according to a statement released by Handel’s office Wednesday.
Georgia Republican officials gave the plan their stamp of approval after a meeting with Handel Wednesday, state party Chair Sue Everhart said.
“It will be just like another Republican primary, except the Dems won’t have an opportunity to have another primary because they didn’t have a candidate to qualify (in April),” she said.
“Our attorney found the law and discussed it with (Attorney General) Thurbert Baker and the secretary of state and they both agreed that the law was explicit how it was to be handled,” Everhart said.
The announcement ended speculation about which party’s candidates would be allowed to participate if a special election were held, although qualifying for independent candidates does not end until Friday of this week.
The determination leaves open the possibility of a runoff for the Republican nomination, and at least three area Republicans have indicated an interest in the seat, Everhart said.
They include former Tifton Superior Court Judge Rusty Simpson, Tifton lawyer Bryce Johnson and state Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Lee County, she said.
Only Simpson has said with certainty he’ll seek the Senate seat, Everhart said.
Simpson told The Albany Herald Tuesday that he’d decided to run for the seat, while Rynders continued to wait for his wife and children to return from a vacation to discuss the decision with them.
“All this has broken since they’ve been gone,” Rynders said Wednesday. “I hope to have a decision by the middle or end of next week.”
Johnson, a Tifton lawyer who has worked in the campaigns of Rynders and Carter, qualified in April to run for Solicitor of State Court in Worth County.
Multiple sources also told The Albany Herald that a fourth man, Lee County Commissioner Wally Roberts, was considering a run for either the Senate post or Rynders’ House seat if it becomes vacant.
Roberts could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
District 13 spans Lee, Worth, Tift, Crisp, Turner, Ben Hill and Irwin counties and part of Wilcox.
Voters in the district will be informed at the Republican primary July 15 and in advance voting July 7-11 that votes cast for Carter, whose name will appear on the ballot, will not be counted, the statement said.
The date of the District 13 special primary will be Aug. 5, which also is the run-off date for the July 15 general primary.
Candidate qualifying for the special primary will begin at 9 a.m. July 16 and end at noon July 18.
Advance voting in the special primary will be held July 28 through Aug. 1, and the secretary of state’s office has designated Aug. 26 as the date for a run-off if one is needed in the special primary.