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DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I JANUARY 11,2023 DaWSOflNeWS >COnri DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Ga. House 7 special election heads to runoff
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
After a five-way special elec
tion on Jan. 3, two Republicans
will compete later this month for
the Georgia House District 7
seat formerly held by the late
Rep. David Ralston.
Sheree Ralston, his widow,
received a projected 45.02%, or
3,582 of 7,956 votes, according
to updated results from the
Georgia Secretary of State’s
office.
Opponent and fellow Fannin
County Development Authority
Chastain Ralston
member Johnny Chastain
received 39.28% or a projected
3,125 votes.
A special election runoff will
be held on Tuesday, Jan. 31,
since neither of the leading can
didates won more than 50 per
cent of the vote.
District 7 covers northwestern
Dawson and all of Fannin and
Gilmer counties.
On Wednesday, the Dawson
County Board of Elections and
Registration posted a voting
schedule for the runoff.
Advance voting for western
precinct voters only will take
place from Monday, Jan. 23 until
Friday, Jan. 27 from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. at the Board of Elections
office. The office is located at 96
Academy Avenue in
Dawsonville.
Election Day voting will take
place Jan. 31 from 7 a.m. to 7
p.m. at Fire Station 6, located at
2142 Hubbard Road.
Voter turnout
The other candidates garnered
the following vote percentages:
• Justin Heitman: 7.42%
• Brian K. Pritchard: 6.16%
• Richie Stone: 2.12%
Overall, the voter participation
rate for all three counties togeth
er was 17.52%.
“To the voters of the 7th
District: Thank you for your
faith in me. Tomorrow, the clock
starts over, and we are hitting the
ground running,” Sheree Ralston
said in a Tuesday night
Facebook post.
“The special election runoff is
January 31, and we are going to
bring our conservative message
and mountain values to every
voter in the district.”
In a post on his campaign’s
Facebook page, Chastain said he
was “humbled to say the least.”
“Nearly 8,000 voted, and we
came in a close second to some
one who we were told deserved
the seat. Less than 400 votes
separated us tonight. Now we
are in a 28 day sprint, and I need
all hands on deck.”
Baking up business credentials
DCHS alumna makes a name for herself through bakery services
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
When she was about 12
years old, Bernadine
Baptiste began watching
Food Network shows with
her older sister and became
fascinated with the process
of mixing together ingredi
ents to make a delicious
dish. She started experi
menting with different reci
pes and fell in love with
baking, decorating and
making beautiful edible cre
ations.
Now, the 18-year-old
Dawson County High
School alumna has expand
ed this passion into her own
small business and has been
working hard to bring her
cakes, cupcakes and other
baked goods to the commu
nity.
Baptiste said that the first
several years of baking and
decorating cakes and other
desserts consisted of pour
ing herself into learning the
craft and really honing her
skills.
“I was definitely not good
at first,” Baptiste said, “so it
took a lot of practice, a lot
of effort and a lot of me
begging my mom to just
buy some extra sugar or
chocolate from the store so
I could practice.”
In 2020 when the pan
demic hit, Baptiste and her
family were living in New
York and she began looking
for ways to pass the time
while staying at home and
being separated from so
much of the outside world.
It was then that her older
brother suggested the idea
of taking her baking to the
next level and starting her
See Bakery 14A
Photo courtesy of Bernadine Baptiste
18-year-old DCHS alum Bernadine Baptiste owns and operates a small baking
business, Made By Bernadine, through which she makes custom edible creations
for customers in her community.
McCormick
ready to get
started in DC
By Kelly Whitmire
kwh itm i r e@f o rsythnews.com
After years of being split between
Georgia’s 7th and 9th Congressional
Districts, a new representa
tive for Dawson County is
ready to get to work in
Washington, D.C.
Rep. Rich McCormick, a
surgeon and Navy and
Marine Corps veteran, was
chosen by voters in
November and has already
voted in the election
rounds for the next speaker of the U.S.
House of Representatives. He was formally
sworn in Saturday morning.
McCormick and his team have prepared
for his term with several weeks of meetings
on legislation, leadership, ethics and more
and “getting some of the phenomenal tal
ent, people who have real experience in
See McCormick 14A
McCormick
One pleads guilty in
vehicle fraud scheme
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
A California woman has entered a nego
tiated plea of guilty for her role in an
alleged scheme with three others to fraudu
lently buy vehicles, according to docu
ments filed Dec. 19 in Dawson County
Superior Court.
Jazmine Ranae Wheeler pleaded guilty
to one count of identity fraud, a felony,
after she was arrested in September.
Dawson County Sheriff’s Office war
rants and an indictment accused her of
writing a $35,096 check for a Mercedes
with the elderly victims’ banking details.
Wheeler was sentenced to 10 years, with
the first 276 days in confinement and the
remainder to be served on probation. As
part of her probation, she is prohibited
from contacting the victims or the other
three defendants.
In June, grand jurors in Dawson County
See Scheme 12A
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Inside
Volume 9, Number 2
© 2023, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
2A
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
5B
Deaths
2A
Legals
7B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
2A Local church
offering weekly
meals to those
in need.
6A Christmas trees
can be recycled
in month of
January.
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