Two candidates for seats on the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners who threw their hat in the ring for public office the last two days of qualifying last week set up the possibility of runoffs in two districts.
As was reported in The Bulletin last week, Commission Chairman Johnny Westmoreland and Scott Little qualified earlier in the week for a District 5 seat. It was also reported that District 4 incumbent Henry Craig would not be seeking re-election, and Jay Wright and Carol Ballew had qualified for the position.
Later in the week, Andrew Strickland signed up in District 4, while Pam Peacock qualified in District 5.
All candidates for those two seats qualified as Republicans, as did incumbent Sammy Hall in District 3. Commissioners Emily Davis and Kendrick Butts in Districts 1 and 2, respectively, are on the Democratic ballot. Hall, Davis, and Butts are unopposed.
In another local office, at least one late qualifier gave Probate Judge/Election Superintendent Todd Blackwell a sense of relief.
With qualifying closing at noon Friday and no names yet on the Non-Partisan Election Board of Education ballot for District 3, Dylan Amerson and Beverly Rayford both paid their entry fees that morning.
What if no one had qualified for the office?
“I would have reopened qualifying for next week,” Blackwell said last Friday.
The seat became open when long-time District 3 BOE member Lyn Chandler decided not to seek re-election.
Incumbent Shannon Hill is unopposed in Board of Education District 2, as is John Noah in District 4.
Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee, Tax Commissioner Cathy Freeman Settle, and Clerk of Superior Court Wanda T. Paul all qualified as Independents, and their names will not appear on the General Primary ballot. They will all be unopposed in the General Election in November.
Blackwell is unopposed in the Non-Partisan Probate Judge election.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale is unopposed in his bid for a second term, and he said a lot of credit is due to others.
“I am very thankful nobody ran against me,” he commented Saturday in a phone interview. “I think that’s due in large part to what my team with the district attorney’s office has been able to do over the course of the last three-plus years of my serving the circuit.”
In state legislative races, Milledgeville’s Senator Rick Williams will have opposition in the May Republican Primary, as one of three 2022 opponents, Leland Olinger, has qualified again. Olinger, whose platform focuses on the legalization of marijuana, received 3.7 percent of the votes in ’22.
No one qualified for the seat in the Democratic Primary.
State Rep. Mack Jackson, completing his first term as a member of the Baldwin County legislative delegation, faces opposition from a Sparta resident. Tracy Wheeler qualified as a Republican late in the week in District 128 to challenge the eight-term incumbent.
In newly-drawn District 149, a slight majority Black district, incumbent Republican Ken Vance will face either Floyd Griffin or Phyllis Tufts Hightower, a former candidate in House District 143, in November.
Hightower is a Jones County High and Georgia College and State University graduate and worked for 16 years with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. Griffin is a former Mayor of Milledgeville and State Senator, the first African American elected to those posts.