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PAGE 4A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
Thoughts on
local elections
Candidate qualifying was held March 5-9 for the
three Barrow County Board of Commissioners
seats and five county board of education seats
up for election this year. At least one Republican
candidate qualified for each seat, but only two
Democrats qualified countywide. That means, bar
ring any petition or write-in candidacy, only two of
the combined eight seats will be contested come
the November general election.
Is it healthy to have such little competition?
Look at the county commission seats. All
three incumbents will face
a challenger in the May 22
Republican primary, but there
are no Democrats running
for any of the three seats,
so the makeup of the next
commission effectively will
be determined over the next
two months as the candi
dates make their pitches to
Republican voters. Then there
will be almost six months of
absolutely nothing. If any of
the three challengers win,
they’ll be waiting more than
seven months to take office. And if that’s the case,
that means the incumbent, who the majority of
their district’s voters will have decided shouldn’t
represent them anymore, would still have more
than half a year to represent them.
On the board of education side, four of the five
board members who were up for re-election decid
ed not to seek another term. The one incumbent is
not facing any Republican primary or Democratic
opposition so she is virtually guaranteed another
four years.
That leaves four open seats, but only two of
them will actually be contested. Meanwhile, two
other Republican candidates, by virtue of being
the only ones to qualify, have a clear path to their
respective seats. One is a former school board
member; another, though well-known and active
in community organizations, has never been a
school board member. And though she may very
well excel in that role, she will be representing the
whole county, so wouldn’t voters from across the
county be interested in more than one perspective
to choose from?
REPUBLICAN VS. DEMOCRAT?
And what is the point of these county-level seats
being partisan?
Barrow County’s makeup is overwhelmingly con
servative and Republican, and not surprisingly the
county GOP is much more developed, organized
and influential than the Democratic Party here.
Realistically speaking, unless there is some major
scandal that affects either of the two school board
candidates who will face opposition in November,
they’re going to be elected. With the party label
next to their name, Democrats in Barrow County
face an extreme uphill climb in getting elected
to the county commission or school board. That
certainly plays a part in the party’s shortage of
candidates here.
With research, you can find a number of argu
ments for both partisan and nonpartisan local
elections.
One of the arguments in favor of partisan elec
tions is that nonpartisan elections are skewed
toward wealthier candidates. According to propo
nents, less wealthy and lesser-known candidates
may be disadvantaged.
But is that really any different from partisan elec
tions? As much as we’d all like to think of ourselves
as supporting the candidate who’s for the common
man’s interests, the dominant color of politics is
green.
There have been a number of Republican pres
idential candidates over the years who have had
similar messaging to the conservative populist
themes of Donald Trump’s campaign. But Trump
was the one with the celebrity stature and the inter
national brand.
Aside from some of Bernie Sanders’ devout
and unapologetically socialist beliefs and Lincoln
Chafee’s proposal for the U.S. to adopt the metric
system, you’d be hard-pressed to find any signif
icant policy differences between the Democratic
candidates. But Hillary Clinton had the name rec
ognition, the wealth and the influence, including
the backing of the upper brass at the Democratic
National Committee.
Money and power will always talk in politics,
whether at the national, state or local level. Just
about every community has its movers and shak
ers, and Barrow County is no exception.
Another argument for partisan elections is it gives
voters a more transparent ballot by providing more
information about the candidates and could even
increase voter turnout.
Recently our company’s paper in Madison
County reported on a county commission meeting
in which no action was taken on a proposal to
make all elections there nonpartisan.
“We believe voters should know when they cast
their vote whether they’re voting for a Democrat or
a Republican,” the county GOP chairman said to
the commission. “The transparency of the ballot
is important to maintain conservative principles
in local government. And removing party from
the ballot will allow candidates to hide behind the
See Thompson on Page 5A
The candidates for governor
are mostly wealthy
Do you have to be wealthy to run
for governor?
You might come to that conclusion
after paging through the financial
disclosure statements that candidates
were required to file with the state
ethics commission last week.
On the Republican side, three of
the five major candidates
profess to be millionaires:
their total financial assets
exceed their total liabilities
by at least $1 million.
State Sen. Michael
Williams (R-Cumming) has
been doing poorly in the
polls but quite well on the
balance sheet.
Williams sold a chain of
Sport Clips barber shops
in 2013 and walked away
with a lot of money in the
process. He now has a net
worth of $9.1 million, the highest of
any of the Republicans running.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp
wasn’t far behind Williams with a
net worth of $5.2 million, the money
primarily coming from agriculture-re
lated businesses in which Kemp
invested.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is the lead
ing money-raiser among Republican
candidates with nearly $7 million
reported so far, but he’s only in the
middle of the pack when it comes to
personal wealth. Cagle’s reported net
worth is $1.58 million.
Clay Tippins, a former Navy SEAL
who’s now a business consultant,
disclosed a net worth of $745,000,
while former Army officer Hunter Hill
is at $448,000.
There are two fringe Republican
candidates for governor who most
likely will finish with only a handful
of votes on election day. But both of
them appear to be in decent financial
shape on the personal level.
Eddie Hayes, an Athens restaurant
owner, reported a net worth of $1.26
million. Marc Alan Urbach, a former
teacher who lists his current occu
pation as “author,” claims to have a
net worth of $953,000 (he also says
he would be Georgia’s first Jewish
governor if elected).
Hayes and Urbach are the longest
of long shots in this race, but neither
of them will have to take a pauper’s
oath to run.
Over on the Democratic side, the
two candidates in the race are attor
neys and former legislators named
“Stacey.”
Stacey Evans of Smyrna is a trial
attorney who was awarded a sizeable
legal fee when she successfully repre
sented a client in a whistleblower law
suit involving Medicaid fraud. She has
put $1.2 million of her own money
into her campaign, but still reported
a net worth of $5.2 million.
Evans still owes $45,449 on student
loans she took out while attending
the University of Georgia and has an
outstanding bank loan of $24,800, but
it looks like she will have the fiscal
Write a Letter to the Editor:
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resources to pay them off as they
come due.
The one exception to all of these
solvent candidates for governor is
Stacey Abrams, who was the House
minority leader before stepping down
last year to devote full time to running
for governor.
Abrams’ personal financ
es, to put it politely, are a
mess.
She reported a net worth
of only $108,885. She owes
the IRS $54,052 in back
taxes, although she said
there is a plan in place to
pay them back (ironically,
as an attorney she has spe
cialized in tax law).
Abrams still owes $96,512
on student loans she took
out to pay the costs of
attending Spelman College,
the University of Texas and Yale Law
School. She has had some problems
with credit card debt as well and still
owes about $75,000 in that category.
None of this is criminal or unethi
cal, of course.
Abrams’ opponent in the
Democratic primary, as we have
already noted, also has some hefty
student loan balances to pay off.
Abrams has talked often about the
financial sacrifices she has made to
care for her parents.
She also is not the first person ever
to fall behind on their credit card
payments. Just ask millions of cash-
strapped Americans.
There has been no indication yet
that Evans will make an issue of
personal finances in the Democratic
primary race, but if Abrams should
get the Democratic nomination, then
all bets are off.
In that instance, you can look for
the Republican nominee to run TV
commercials claiming that Abrams’
financial difficulties are proof she’s
a “free-spending liberal” who wants
to squander the taxes paid by
“hard-working Georgians.”
When you’re a non-millionaire run
ning for statewide office, that’s going
to happen to you.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news
service at gareport.com that reports
on state government and politics.
He can be reached at tcrawford@
gareport.com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www.BarrowJournal.com
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
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Scott Thompson
Editor
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Office & Reporter
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Reporter
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The art of
being on the
campaign trail
With statewide candidates (as well as
local ones) having officially qualified for the
upcoming primary election, it is interesting
to note how campaigning has changed
through the decades.
Certainly technological advances have
made it possible for candidates who don’t
have the largest war chests in terms of
money to make a competitive go of it.
That’s certainly true of it when you consid
er how much effort
(and money) it
takes to win a state
wide campaign in
Georgia.
For those of us
who have always
lived in the Peach
State, we tend to for
get just how much
area Georgia cov
ers. However, if you
think about how
long it takes to drive
from the northern
part of the state to the coast or down to
the southernmost areas around Valdosta
or Thomasville, then you realize why
campaigning statewide is such a daunting
undertaking.
Still, even with Facebook and Twitter and
texting and emails and such, there is some
thing about old-fashioned campaigning
which includes meeting voters in person at
rallies or forums.
It seems this year many statewide can
didates are also using an old method of
campaign signs. In my travels around the
area, I have seen signs for numerous can
didates who are running for governor and
secretary of state. I even saw one for the
first time on Saturday for someone running
for lieutenant governor.
Growing up, I was always fascinated by
the signs of political candidates. I can’t real
ly explain why. It probably had something
to do with the campaign itself. I enjoyed
seeing the different designs used and the
color schemes and how they were placed
in high-traffic areas as well as in the yards of
people’s homes.
I also remember my mom never wanting
the sign for any candidate — be it statewide
or local — placed in our yard. In the sum
mer of 1990 (back when the primary was
still in the summer) I placed a sign for Roy
Barnes in our yard. A friend of the family
saw it and said to my mom, “I see you are
for Roy Barnes.”
My mom, no doubt looking for a place to
hide since someone had in fact placed a
campaign sign belonging to not just Barnes
but to any candidate, quickly responded,
“No, that sign belongs to Chris.”
That actually was not the first sign we had
in our yard, as six years earlier during the
race for county sheriff a family friend was
running and I insisted we place one of his
signs in our yard. The compromise ended
up being that my mom would allow the sign
but only if it was one of his smaller ones.
At one time, it was common for candi
dates, even statewide ones, to run ads in
local newspapers. I can remember this
being common well into the 1990s. You
don’t see it quite as often now although
certainly local candidates still do it.
However, community-based newspapers
are still a great way to reach older voters
who still make it a ritual to read the local
publication each week.
With the Georgia primaries now being
weeks earlier than they used to be, can
didates have less time to campaign once
they have officially qualified. Of course, a
candidate who is serious about winning
has already been in the campaign trail for
months or even a couple of years by this
point.
There will be various forums across the
state, especially for governor, in the com
ing weeks and those are worth being at
or watching on television if you get the
chance. The Atlanta Press Club also spon
sors televised debates each election year
offering a quality forum in a non-biased
approach.
There is no doubt that different can
didates will take different approaches to
getting their methods to potential voters in
2018. A great deal has changed since the
first election I voted in back in 1990. One
thing that remains the same, however, is
the fact that each candidate should be
studied carefully and your vote should be
earned.
Winder resident Chris Bridges is a former
editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He
welcomes feedback about this column at
pchrisbridges@gmail. com.