Veteran state House Rep. James Mills won a ninth term Tuesday by a landslide 76 percent of the vote.
The District 25 incumbent was challenged by middle school teacher Chris Strickland, who said he wanted to see new leadership for Hall County.

"I'm very blessed and very thankful," said Mills. "I appreciate all the folks that have supported us during this campaign and the people who cast their vote."
Mills said he owes much of his victory to God.

"It's been a team effort and we've done our duty, but you just have to be content to do your best and leave the results up to God. This time it happened to go our way. And we're very, very thankful for that, and I appreciate the opportunity to serve once again.

"I think the No. 1 priority has got to be the state budget. We have a revenue shortfall and that's going to have to be dealt with. And secondly I'd like to see us, the legislature, move to freeze property taxes in some way for property owners and remove that property tax burden."

Mills said he also is interested in looking into the early voting process.

"Right now I believe the early voting process leaves the door wide open for too much fraud, and I think it is going to have to be scrutinized to the highest level," said Mills, who speculates there could have been some fraud during this year's early voting period. "I do know if you leave anything out too long it spoils. ...Voting is a very precious right, and it should be treated that way."

Mills will be back to work next week as the legislature decides on a new speaker of the house.
"I think on Monday we will vote on officers of the caucus, including who we will nominate from our caucus to be speaker of the house," Mills said.

Strickland said though he lost the race, he feels he accomplished a lot with his campaign.
"You're never happy when you lose," Strickland said. "I'm very excited. I think a lot of people in Hall County woke up this time."

One thing Strickland was pushing for was a special session with Gov. Sonny Perdue.
"I'm glad to hear that my opponent now agrees with me that we have to have a special session," Strickland said. "That's what I was saying throughout my entire campaign, if I didn't win and at least we accomplished that, that's a major victory for the state of Georgia."

Strickland said though it was a tough race, he will be lending his support to Mills. And running for office again is not out of the question.

"I'll be back. I will not go quietly into this good night," Strickland said. "We didn't win the race, but sometimes it's the battles that are more important."