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CITY PA GES
THE GOP
BATTLE FOR
FIVE POINTS
Republican Primary Pits Two
Neophytes
“They ate the barbecue, but whether
they're going to vote for her, I don’t know,"
says Morgan R. Bucky Redwine. “They gob
bled down my stew to the last teaspoon.”
Redwine, whose political barbecue expe
rience goes back to Gene Talmadge and who
was a Republican before Republican was
cool, provided the stew for a campaign gath
ering in honor of Linda Ford last week.
Ford, proprietor of Jingles, a Five Points
gift shop, is running against Carol Williams, a
Realtor with Brenda Blanton Realty, for the
7th Disti ict seat on the Athens-Clarke County
Commission. The current 7th District com
missioner, Doc Eldridge, is running for mayor.
Ford and Williams face each other in the first
all-Republican primary in Athens. (The last
time there was an all-Republican vote here, it
had to be protected by federal troops.)
The winner of the Republican primary on
Tuesday, July 21, will face Democrat Jeb
B r adberry in the general election in
November. Bradberry is unopposed in the
Democratic primary.
Williams and Ford have pretty much the
same platform ideas: more effective govern
ment, more support for police, lower taxes,
open government. Ford has been active pri
marily in Five Points business matters,
though since she began considering running
for the commission she has attended com
mission meetings regularly and even sat
through twice-a-week budget hearings.
Williams has been widely active in com
munity and government involvements such
as having served as president of the Athens-
Area Chamber of Commerce, president of the
Food Bank of Northeast Georgia Board of
Directors, charter member of Leadership
Athens and as a member of the Athens-
Clarke County Airport Authority.
Some say Williams spreads herself too
thin and doesn’t do much real work on the
various committees she joins.
Williams bridles at such criticism, saying,
“I would really take issue with that. Such a
statement is totally unfounded and is a dis
credit to the efforts of a lot of people.”
She: cited her work on the airport authori
ty to secure funding for re-opening the con
trol tower and installing the instrument land
ing system, pointing out that she made sev
eral trips to Washington, D.C., at her person
al expense. She also mentioned her role as
Chamber president, as evidence that her
civic involvements have been effective.
But Jack Curtis, who served on the
Airport Commission with Carol Williams,
said of her performance, “There were some
key issues in which a decisive stand was not
taken to fit the issues.”
Ford’s critics say she is too narrowly
focused on her Five Points concerns and not
much interested in the wider issues of gov
ernment.
Betty Scott, longtime Republican activist,
said she is supporting Linda Ford because
“she is a real smart girl; she’s very efficient,
very energized and very organized. She owns
her own small business, and she’s been pres
ident of the Five Points Business group. She’s
tried to learn what *he concerns of the coun
ty are and what the plans are to meet them.”
Ford, who has criticized the commission
for putting money into capital reserves
rather than refunding it to the taxpayers in
miliage rollbacks, could bolstei fiscal conser
vatives on the commission. On the other
hand, Ford declines to describe herself as
conservative on social issues. “That has a
negative connotation. I wouldn’t call myself a
liberal, either. Somewhere in between."
Though she describes herself as “conser-
vative-to-moderate," the impact of Williams’
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