Happy Election Day, everyone! Less than three hours now until the polls close!
There are a slew of mayoral races, 3 SPLOST measures, and a decision to be made about the sale of distilled spirits on ballots in Middle Georgia.
Two of the area’s larger towns have mild-mannered mayoral elections underway. Warner Robins’s contest is a three-way race between incumbent Mayor Randy Toms, former Public Works Director Joe Musselwhite, and Councilman Chuck Shaheen. I don’t know of any polling in the mayoral race here in Milledgeville, so it’s up to turnout as to whether incumbent Mayor Gary Thrower returns to office or whether Mary Parham-Copelan takes the city’s helm.
Unlike those calm races, some of the smaller contests have drama. In Taylor, there’s a rematch between current Mayor Mary Ann Whipple-Lue and Kenneth Turner. Whipple-Lue and Turner’s race is the most heated, as her term has seen its share of controversy, including cases before the Georgia Supreme Court. In Roberta, incumbent Mayor Becky Smith is facing Jay Andrews after being accused of interfering in a GBI investigation involving her daughter.
Four folks (incumbent Mayor Barbara Williams, Ralph Davis II, Jo Ann Dankel and Jamie Johnson) are running for mayor in Fort Valley, where most of them agree that the city has a “perception problem.” Ed Barbee and James Collins are running to replace Stephen Tingen as mayor of Gray. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an article longer than a sentence on the race in McRae-Helena, but the incumbent Mayor Mike Young is being challenged by Fred Crawford and Morris K. McMillian.
SPLOSTs are on the ballot in Twiggs, Putnam, and Wilcox Counties.
Taylor County is voting on alcohol, and it’s not the first time. If at first you don’t succeed?
There are city council seats up for grabs throughout the area, and I voted on a Georgia Military Board of Trustees candidate without knowing that was a thing that existed. Oops. (There is a contested trustee, I’ve since learned, but my district was not.)
If you have predictions in any of these elections, feel free to discuss below.