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Thu 1 Jul 2004 13:24
by Kevin McGehee
in Coweta County, GA
[Prognosticate THIS!]
[blogoSFERICS]
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In the extremely unlikely event that anyone is looking to me for advice on how to vote in Georgia’s July 20 primary, here are the candidates I plan on voting for.
[Hopefully this July 10 update will be the last. You know, no place that I’ve lived before has made it so difficult to find a comprehensive listing of candidates for office short of the sample ballots in the paper.]
Republican Primary
U.S. SENATE: Herman Cain
Also seeking the Republican nomination for this seat are two members of Congress: Mac Collins and Johnny Isakson. Of the two I would prefer Collins simply because he’s my congressman (he’s also Herman Cain’s), but any of these candidates would be perfectly acceptable to me in November. The large but uninspiring Democratic field is led by Rep. Denise Majette, who won her present freshman term in Congress by knocking off Cynthia McKinney (D-Coozbane) in the 2002 Democratic primary. Now that Majette is giving up that seat to run for the Senate, McKinney looks poised to regain her House seat. Frankly, whoever wins the GOP nomination for the Senate in Georgia this year is far and away the favorite to win in November.
If no candidate achieves a majority of the vote in the July 20 primary, the two receiving the highest vote totals will be in a runoff election on August 10.
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Georgia 8th District: Lynn Westmoreland
Westmoreland’s opponents for this congressional seat—now held by Mac Collins, see above—are state Sen. Mike Crotts and Dylan Glenn. I don’t know much about Crotts, and my admittedly uninformed take on Glenn is that he’s young, brash (read, unseasoned), and something of a carpetbagger encouraged to seek this seat by would-be power brokers in D.C. That last isn’t necessarily so bad, after all Herman Cain was encouraged to run for the Senate by RNC chair Ed Gillespie, but I think Glenn may need to put down some roots in the district and perhaps look to running for a legislative seat so he’ll have standing to run for Congress again at some point in the future. UPDATE, July 10: The sample ballots have finally appeared in the local paper, and Tom Mills is also seeking the nomination for this seat. I have seen nothing about this candidate in the area, so I think he’s a back-of-the-packer. However, he will probably help force a runoff.
UPDATE: All of the above having been said, I think if it comes down to a runoff between Dylan Glenn and Mike Crotts, Glenn gets my vote.
There are no Democrats in the race for this congressional seat; whoever wins the nomination—whether on July 20 or in the August 10 runoff—will be the next Congressman from the 8th District. UPDATE, July 10: Turns out there is a Democrat running for this seat: Sylvia Delmar. I’m sure Ms. Delmar will be campaigning this fall, but the area covered by this district is extremely unlikely to go Democrat in 2004.
GEORGIA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION: Bobby Baker
Public service commissioners were briefly among the most high-profile statewide elected officials, early in Georgia’s natural gas deregulation adventure. Only three years ago there were rumblings about scrapping deregulation altogether, but as people have gotten more accustomed to having choices and making their own decisions about gas service, the whole thing has smoothed out so much since then that public service commissioner is once again practically a stealth office. Baker is the incumbent, and his challenger for the Republican nomination, Roger Dozier, doesn’t seem to be offering a strong argument for why Baker should be ousted.
STATE SENATE, District 28: Mitch Seabaugh
Mitch does have one opponent for the nomination, Susan Ebersbach—but I think he’s pretty safe. There being only two candidates, this election will be settled on July 20.
STATE HOUSE, District 71: Billy Horne
When I was editor of the Coweta County GOP’s newsletter, Billy was the CCGOP First Vice Chair, and was elected Chairman last year but stepped down to seek this legislative seat. It would be great to send a personal friend to the legislature.
Billy’s sole opponent for this seat is fellow Republican Craig Bowen, of whom I know little. Whichever man wins the nomination on July 20 will be the next state representative from this district.
COWETA COUNTY SHERIFF: Mike Yeager (not a campaign website)
As with most of the offices already discussed, the office will be decided once the Republican nomination is won. Yeager’s opponent, Scott Smith, doesn’t seem to have much in the way of substance going for him. His campaign literature, what I’ve seen of it, is factually misleading, and his performance in a debate, as reported by the Newnan Times-Herald, was long on grandstanding rhetoric and short on detail. Yeager has been the sheriff here for a long time, and I see no reason to replace him now.
UPDATE: Scott Smith isn’t just a poor choice for sheriff, he’s a damn liar who would more than likely be Coweta’s answer to outgoing Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett. If Smith wins, I’m torn between moving out of the county or simply selling bumper stickers that read DON’T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR YEAGER.
COWETA COUNTY CORONER: W.H. “Wimp” Pierce
Pierce is the incumbent, challenged by Ray Yeager, Jr., whose relationship, if any, to Sheriff Yeager is unknown. I am unaware of any particular reason to replace Pierce, except possibly for his nickname. But anybody who performs autopsies gives lie to that epithet anyway. Again, the GOP nomination will determine the winner.
UPDATE: I’ve decided to support Pierce. Yeager is a sheriff’s deputy, which means even if he’s not related to the sheriff (I suspect he is), there’s still some question in my mind about electing him coroner. Coweta County already has two Cranfords in elected office, both judges, and I’m leery of even the appearance of nepotism in having, now, two Yeagers in very similar offices (in many jurisdictions, sheriff and coroner are held by the same person). Given the lack of substantial reason why Pierce needs to go, I think I have ample reason to side with the incumbent in this one.
COWETA COUNTY COMMISSION, District 4: [none]
Incumbent commissioner Leigh Schlumper is unopposed from either party. I may have to cast a write-in vote for Jefferson Davis Hogg to show how unimpressed I am with her.
STATE COURT SOLICITOR: [none]
Incumbent solicitor Robert Stokely is a headline-hunting drama queen, yet no one bothers to run against him. I’ll be casting a write-in vote for Larsen E. Pettifogger. <UPDATE> In the summer of 2005 Robert’s son Michael was killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Robert’s response to his loss forced me to reconsider my opinion of him, and I now regret this description of him. </UPDATE>
TAX COMMISSIONER: Tommy Ferrell, the incumbent, is unopposed.
SUPERIOR COURT CLERK: Cindy Brown, the incumbent, is unopposed.
COUNTY SURVEYOR: John R. Christopher, the incumbent, is unopposed.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, Coweta Circuit: Pete Skandalakis, the incumbent, is unopposed.
The only Democrat running for a county-level office in Coweta is an incumbent county commissioner, who is also the only elected Democrat at the county level in Coweta; he has a Republican opponent, but the odds, if history is any indicator, are long. One other commission seat, held by longtime incumbent Vernon “Mutt” Hunter, is up for grabs as Mutt retires from politics. Three Republicans are vying for the nomination and whoever wins it will be unopposed in November.
Non-Partisan Offices
GEORGIA SUPREME COURT: Grant Brantley. Incumbent Leah Sears has been a thorn in the side of Georgians opposed to judicial activism since her appointment. She needs to go.
GEORGIA COURT OF APPEALS: Mike Sheffield
There are six candidates for this office, and Sheffield is the only one who’s actually talking against legislating from the bench. He also fought against a rule barring judge candidates from talking, even in a general sense, about issues—and won. I think he deserves a chance. There are other Court of Appeals judges up for election but all are unopposed.
SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE, Coweta Circuit: [undecided]
Neither Dennis Blackmon nor Jack Kirby is saying much beyond banalities about their judicial philosophy. After the judicial candidates’ gag rule was struck down, many judicial candidates have agreed to go along with the spirit of the rule anyway, and this has led me to believe it might be best to deprive any such candidate of my vote, even if it means not voting at all in a given race. This may be one of those races.
UPDATE: I’m gonna go ahead and vote for Kirby. Lately he’s been more forthcoming about saying the things I was looking for.
STATE COURT JUDGE: [none]. John Herbert Cranford, the incumbent, is unopposed.
MAGISTRATE COURT JUDGE: [none]. Jim Stripling, an unsatisfactory incumbent, is unopposed. Maybe I’ll write in Judge Dredd. Or maybe Judge Knott.
PROBATE COURT JUDGE: [none]. Mary T. Cranford, the incumbent, is unopposed.
SCHOOL BOARD, AT-LARGE: Willie Boyd
There are five candidates for this office according to the County Board of Elections. Generally I tend to oppose incumbents on the school board, unless I know them personally and know that they’re not the lawfully purchased property of the most powerful and least criticized special interest group in America—the “education” establishment. Trouble is, I don’t know any of these candidates so the only thing I know for sure is I won’t be voting for Allan Payton.
UPDATE: Today’s paper profiled a couple of the candidates and I am now comfortable making a decision (as shown). As with the Republican primary, these non-partisan elections cannot be won outright without a majority of the vote; if none achieves a majority on July 20, the two best will face off again on August 10.
There remain a lot of offices unaccounted for—some offices cover more than one county (e.g., district attorney) so they’re not listed on the Coweta Board of Elections candidate list. I’ve been unable as of this time to find a list of candidates for these offices. I believe this about covers all of the offices in question. The holes have been filled thanks to the June 2004 issue of Coweta Republican, the newsletter of the Coweta County Republican Party.
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