Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Mills And Thomas File For Post 1 On Oconee County Board Of Commissioners; Saxon Files For Reelection To Post 4

Three Wednesday Qualifiers

Retired educator Penny Mills and contractor Mark Thomas filed for the Republican primary for Post 1 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners today, seeking to replace retiring Commissioner Jim Luke.

Mark Saxon, Post 4 commissioner, also filed today to run for reelection in the May 24 Republican primary. Saxon is retired from the U.S. Army.

So far, no one has filed to run against Saxon.

John Daniell, Post 2 commissioner, filed on Tuesday to run in the Republican primary for the Board of Commissioners Chair position. Incumbent Chair Melvin Davis has announced he plans to retire.

Qualifying for the May 24 primary elections continues through noon on Friday.

Monday And Tuesday

Dale Rogers yesterday qualified to run for Coroner. Incumbent Ed Carson qualified Monday, and the two will face off in the Republican primary on May 24.

Mark Saxon

On Monday, Sen. Bill Cowsert, Rep. Regina Quick and Rep. Chuck Williams, the county’s representatives in the General Assembly, qualified for the May 24 primary. So far, no one has qualified to run against them. All are Republicans.

The county’s four constitutional officers, Sheriff Scott Berry, Superior Court Clerk Angela Elder-Johnson, Probate Court Judge David Anglin, and Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle, also qualified for reelection on Monday. Anglin’s race is nonpartisan, but the other three will run as Republicans.

So far, only Sheriff Scott Berry among the four has opposition. Kevin "Chappy" Hynes, former chaplain to the University of Georgia football team, qualified Monday to run against Berry in the May Republican primary.

Incumbent Board of Education Chair Tom Odom also qualified on Monday for the May Republican primary.

BOE And BOC Replacements

The terms of BOE Post 4 member Tim Burgess and Post 5 member Wayne Bagley also expire, though neither has filed for reelection so far.

Thomas also is a member of the Board of Education and had to resign that spot when he qualified for the BOC Post 1 position.

The BOE can appoint his replacement.

Oconee County will need a special election in November to fill Daniell’s term. He had to resign his current post as soon as he qualified for the chair position.

Mills And Thomas

Mills is the former executive dean of the Oconee County campus of Gainesville State College, now the University of North Georgia. She was a professor of political science and earned her doctorate at the University of Arizona.

Mills is a member of the county’s Library Advisory Board and was a member of the county’s Planning Commission.

In addition to being on the Board of Education, Thomas also is member of the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority.

Thomas is owner of Mark Thomas Enterprises Inc, a grading and electrical contracting firm, and of Hot Thomas BBQ. He has a degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Georgia.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you mention Chappy Hynes, please refer to his law enforcement and training. Don't want people to think of him only as a former chaplain of a football team. thanks!

Lee Becker said...

Thank you for the feedback. On the state web site Hynes lists his occupation as CHAPLAIN-FCA, which I believe stands for Chaplain, Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He does not list a web site.

I have filed an open records request for all of the filing documents for each of the local candidates and will provide that information when I have it.

Hynes does list his email address, and I will send him an email asking for his biographical information.

Again, I thank you for your comment.