Early voting for the March 18 special election kicked off last week.
On Feb. 27, Madison City Hall hosted a Q-and-A forum to introduce the candidates running for the District 1 and 5 seats on the Morgan County Board of Commissioners.
Democrat Carl Jones, Republican Ed Latham, and Democrat Cedric Robertson are running for the District 1 seat left vacant after the death of Donald Harris in December.
Jones, a former Madison police officer, serves on the board of deacons at Barrows Grove Baptist Church. He is also an attendant at Jones & Turner Funeral Home.
“For all my adulthood, I’ve been a servant,” Jones shared. “I am not a politician; I’m a servant. I believe in helping the community. Every job I had involved the community, whether it was sacking groceries, or being a police officer, or serving on the board of deacons. I believe in helping people.
“I want to be able to tell you and let you know what’s going on in the whole county, not just District 1,” he continued. “I believe in Madison; I believe in Morgan County. We are a unique country, that’s why a lot of people move here. We have something special, and we can nurture that and make it grow and take it into the next millennium … I believe county commissioners and Morgan County government are in pretty good shape, but we can measure our growth with them, and we can make some positive changes. It’s not going to be easy, but I believe together, we can. We are better together.”
Latham, a longtime Morgan resident, resigned from the Madison City Council District 3 seat to run for Morgan’s District 1 seat.
He wants to reduce the tax burden on citizens by diversifying the tax digest. Latham discussed adding industry to the digest and increasing spending at local businesses to drive up the sales tax base.
“My goal is to lower taxes,” he said. “All the taxes will be enhanced by diversifying the tax index and that will help us protect our farms and clean industry and manage new residential housing that the people want.”
Robertson is a business owner who has spent many years volunteering, both as a recreation department coach and through a reading program in Morgan’s school system.
“I’m not a politician,” he shared. “I like to shoot straight from the hip. I’m not going to tell you a lie and tell you I can do something I know I can’t. But if there’s an answer out there and I don’t know the answer, I’m going to find the answer for you. I want to work for you.”
Another three-way race between Democrat Claudia Crenshaw, independent Zeke Lambert, and Republican Nathan Park will decide the fate of the District 5 seat vacated after the resignation of Bill Kurtz in January.
Crenshaw, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, wants to ensure equitable pay for employees, help the middle class and “underdogs,” and encourage more affordable housing.
Focused on ensuring secure water rights, Crenshaw said Morgan County has no safe access to water and relies heavily on wells and Piedmont Water.
“I’m very concerned. I don’t think many people in Morgan County realize that Buckhead (District 5) has a number of neighborhoods that are getting water from Piedmont Water, which is a for-profit, completely unregulated,” she said. “Since my office is where Greene, Putnam, and Morgan come together, I’ve heard a lot, and I see there are two new developments [coming to the Buckhead area]. All along the lake, people have water difficulties.”
Lambert, a lifelong resident of Morgan County, has experience. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgia College and a master’s degree in the same from LaGrange College. His roles have included vice president at the Bank of Madison and vice president at the Bank of Morgan County. Lambert also runs a family farm.
“I’m running to try to use my experience, my education, and understanding of how growth comes here and how it can be effective to look upon in trying to promote and protect the rural characteristics of Morgan County and the quality of life here that we all enjoy,” he said.
“When you get to dealing with other people’s money and people’s real estate, you learn a lot of things,” Lambert explained. “I probably have had experience in dealing with every department in Morgan County government, whether it was transactional real estate to learning and getting other industry here, and just seeing a lot of growth that has come as a result of Madison being one of the best places to live in America … I think that Morgan County really brought about that because of the people that are here, and the ag industry, particularly, that’s here.”
Park, a consultant with the Georgia Department of Transportation, is a volunteer firefighter for the Madison Fire Department and a coach for the recreation department. His wife is a teacher at Morgan County Primary School.
“I just feel like we’re in an extremely pivotal moment in our county’s growth, and we’ve got to figure out the best way to manage it and keep Morgan County as beautiful as it is,” Park shared about his decision to run.
The candidates answered questions about the millage rate, spending priorities, the controversial Rivian plant at nearby Stanton Springs, and more. To learn about their perspectives, see the “County Commission Candidate Forum” video at madisonga.com/749/ Live-Streaming.
Early voting for the March 18 election runs through March 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the elections office located at 237 N. 2nd St., Madison. On Election Day, polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at voters’ local polling sites. If a runoff election is needed, it will be held on April 15.