Local

Rogers avoids Ch. 2 cameras for second day

ATLANTA — For the second straight day, a Georgia state senator avoided Channel 2 Action News cameras and questions about his sudden resignation.

Channel 2's John Bachman tried all day Wednesday to find out why state Sen. Chip Rogers is leaving office a month after voters re-elected him. Rogers gave Gov. Nathan Deal his letter of resignation Wednesday.

Not expecting to see Rogers at the Capitol, Bachman actually crossed paths with Rogers and tried to ask him about his resignation. However, he just kept walking.

"Yeah, I was surprised last night when he stepped down," Cherokee County resident Tracy Caron said.

Even Caron was asking why, and why a month after the election?

It's costly timing. Now Fulton and Cherokee counties will have to spend half a million dollars on a special election to fill Rogers' Senate seat.

Since Rogers isn't talking, Bachman asked Deal if he knew why Rogers resigned .

"That's a question I can't answer, because it was his decision to leave elected office, so I can't answer that for him," Deal said.

"The timing is a difficult situation. I can assure you last week I had no inclination or idea that I'd be running for state Senate this week," said Rep. Sean Jerguson, from Cherokee County, who is doing just that.

He's resigning his state House seat to run for the vacated Senate seat.

Brandon Beach may run too. He lost to Rogers in the primary earlier this year.

"Spoken to my wife and will have an announcement in the morning," Beach told Bachman.

Neither Beach nor Jerguson wanted to say much about why Rogers would have resigned a month after the election.

Bachman asked the governor about Rogers avoiding questions from Channel 2 reporters.

"Well, those are personal decisions that every individual has to make, but I'm here today, I try to answer as many questions as I have the ability to answer," Deal said.

A special election will happen quickly because the goal is to have Rogers' seat filled by the start of the upcoming session in mid-January. It's likely the special election will be Jan. 8.

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