By a margin of just 18 votes, Richard Garrett defeated incumbent Putnam County District 2 Commissioner Daniel Brown. His election last Tuesday also marked the lone county commission seat in Georgia to swap from Republican to Democratic representation this time around.
“I put it down to the fact that District 2, unlike the rest of the county, is slightly majority Democrat and slightly majority African American,” Garrett said at a post-election congratulatory party Sunday afternoon.
“I think that’s why this seat sort of makes sense as a Democrat seat, but I also think that myself, my wife, and all our supporters, we all worked really hard on this election, and it was so close, only won by 18 votes, that if we hadn’t done that I would not have won,” he added. “And so many people are not registered when they should be, or they’re registered, but they still don’t vote, or they just don’t come out or whatever it is. So, we had to work extra hard, I think, to get a win. And I can’t speak for other counties, but I know we put much effort in.”
Born in England and moving to Eatonton nearly seven years ago from Boston, Garrett freely acknowledges he and his wife, Karen, are more liberal in their political positions than many in the Deep South. However, he doesn’t feel that automatically puts him out of touch with local sentiments.
“We’re a [racially] mixed couple, so I think we were struck by how Eatonton is still segregated in many ways with one side of town as opposed to the other side of town,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a battle. I think it’s just that each side is sort of settled into its own way of things, and they don’t tend to socialize across.”
Since moving to Eatonton, Garrett has attended many county commission and city council meetings. His desire to help bridge that divide was a major factor in his decision to initially seek a city council seat last November. In that election, he lost by 53 votes to the incumbent, Chip Walker.
Garrett explained that that experience not only taught him lessons on campaigning but also honed his focus on issues he feels need to be addressed.
“I just felt that lots of important issues come before the commission, and I often felt the lack of different points of view, different perspectives, and different backgrounds on the commissioners,” he said. “I felt like more attention should be paid to certain issues and issues weren’t even getting onto the agenda that I thought should be on the agenda.
“So, I was hoping someone else would run because someone born and bred here sometimes just gives people that confidence and sense of, oh yeah, that makes sense. But many people just don’t want to run, and we couldn’t find anyone else to run for District 2, but I didn’t want it to go uncontested again,” Garrett continued. “I always think competition is good, choice is good. So, I said, ‘Alright, I did well in the city race; I know I learned something from that campaign, what I did wrong, what I did right, I should have tried this, should have done more of that,’ and that’s what we applied this time.”
Though Garrett is not a bully in a Chinese shop, he said he intends to make his voice heard once he is officially sworn in as a commissioner in January.
“There are some shorter-term things, and there are some longer-term things, but I want to go in off the bat and focus on something,” Garrett said, such as continuing issues with longer-term access at Jimmy Davis Park and the advisory council for it that Commissioner Brown established.
He also mentions a desire for the county commission to interact more often and coordinate more formal planning with Eatonton City Council and the need for more direct business encouragement from the county.
“Yes, we want to spend wisely, but we also need to be imaginative and creative,” Garrett said. “When the market’s not providing a solution, then to me, that’s the point of government. That’s the point of taxes. It’s not just about zoning hearings and paving and alcohol licenses. All that’s important, but let’s acknowledge where we have some gaps, some failings, and where we can help more.”