Directly from the fine folks at the Board of Elections, the final list of candidates who qualified for this coming November's nonpartisan elections appears below.
Four seats on the Clarke County Board of Education are up for election this year. Given the chaos that has characterized the Board recently, it is no surprise that only one incumbent is unopposed. The two other incumbents are opposed and there are two candidates for the one open seat.
Five seats on the Athens-Clarke County Commission are up for election this year; three incumbents are unopposed, one incumbent is opposed, and there are two candidates for the one open seat.
The qualified candidates are:
Board of Education District 2
J.T. Jones
Vernon Payne (incumbent)
Board of Education District 4
Allison Wright (incumbent)
Board of Education District 6
James Francis Geiser
Charles Worthy (incumbent)
Board of Education District 8
Chinami Goodie
David Knox Huff
Commission District 2
Harry Sims (incumbent)
Commission District 4
Alice Kinman (incumbent)
Commission District 6
Edward Robinson
Valdis “Red” Petrovs
Commission District 8
Andy Herod (incumbent)
Commission District 10
Elton Dodson (incumbent)
Mike Hamby
I am not familiar with the challengers for the Board, though most any change there probably would be an improvement.
Insofar as the Commission is concerned, the interesting race is in District 6; Petrovs is a player in the PPA/OneAthens anti-poverty initiative, about which I remain dubious, but is making some good noises about trimming the budget. On the other hand, I suspect that Dodson and Hamby simply will try to outflank one another to the “progressive” left in District 10.
Regarding other offices, Ethelyn Simpson (incumbent) is the lone qualifier for State Court Judge (remember that this is a recently created position; Simpson was named to it by the Governor and must run for election this cycle) and Kenneth B. Brown has qualified to run for Sheriff as an independent (he has paid the qualifing fee, but still must file a nominating petition no later than 08 July).
Correction: In my previous comments, since revised, I was talking about Ed Vaughn, former candidate for Districts 7 and 9. I do not know anything about Edwin Robinson.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Clarke County Nonpartisan Qualifiers
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5 comments:
Do you have any idea where I can find un-biased information on the candidates? You have provided some great info, but I would like to dig a little deeper. I am a former homeschool parent that is now putting my kids in the public schools, and I all my information about the condition of the Clarke County Schools comes from the ABH or the School District's website, which paint opposite pictures of the condition of education in Clarke County.
Thanks!
Dawggal
You are correct in that the CCSD's web site frequently functions as a propaganda vehicle (with the caveat that not all of the news coming out of the District is bad).
Insofar as local schools are concerned, the elementary schools do a reasonable enough job; it is at the middle school and high school levels that things go so badly awry.
That is not to say that a motivated child (with motivated parents) cannot get a good education here. Obviously, such a child can do quite well in the CCSD (but then, wouldn't that child do well in any school system?).
I can point you to all kinds of information from the Georgia Department of Education about the CCSD and its individual schools. Unfortunately, however, I know nothing about the new folks who are running for the Board of Education.
Hopefully, with interest in the Board at a peak these days, local media will put these folks on the spot just as they do with candidates for the Commission.
Candidate web sites would be nice, too. Given the nature of Bord of Education races, though, I'm not really expecting much in that regard.
If you want info on ACC schools, talk to some of the profs at UGA's Coll. of Ed.
I wonder what the candidates think about this:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/18144719.html
decon
One very important contested partisan election coming up July 15, 2008 is the one for Chief Magistrate of Clarke County. The incumbent is being challenged by the former Chief Magistrate Michael
Coleman. The only way to vote in this election is to choose the Democratic Ballot. This choice will not appear on the Republican Ballot as one can verify by reading them at the Board of Elections website. If voters feel strongly about this race, as some do, it will be necessary to sacrifice the other Republican primary choices this time in order to have a voice in this race, especially if you may have been one of those mistreated in this court in the past. It is unfortunate that these choices must be made in order to have a vote in this vitally inportant election this year. This is just another of the many failures of the election law in Georgia. This contest should clearly be non partisan.
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