View of Marshall, Scott close on major issues
By MIKE STUCKA - mstucka@macon.com Sign up for daily e-mail news alerts

As a 26-year-old running for the Georgia House of Representatives, Austin Scott led a wave of Republicans who swept south Georgia. He hopes to lead a similar sweep at the national level with a Republican takeover of Congress.

But to do that he’ll have to beat U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, a Democrat who has stymied Republicans for years in an district that tends to favor Republicans.

That puts the 8th Congressional District race under a national spotlight, which may show that Marshall, who has been ranked as one of the most conservative Democrats, holds some views not far off from those of Scott. The candidates bring about the same amount of political experience: Scott, now 40, served 14 years in the Georgia Legislature. Marshall spent four years as Macon mayor in the late 1990s and has served eight years in Congress.

Marshall, 62, faces backlash over some of his votes. Among them was his support for the bank bailout bill known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was drafted by a Republican administration. Marshall said he wouldn’t have regrets if his TARP vote leads to his defeat.

“That was exactly the right vote, exactly what we needed to do,â€