Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Oconee County Democratic Party Gave Its Endorsed Candidates Final Opportunity To Address Group At October Meeting

***Endorsed Republicans Rather Than “Fake” Democrats***

The Oconee County Democratic Party turned its final meeting before the Nov. 5 election over to the seven candidates running with party support, giving each a chance to say once again why voters should support them.

Legislative candidates Gareth Fenley, seeking to represent the 46th Senate District, which includes all of Oconee County, Andrew Ferguson, running in House District 120, and Eric Gisler, running in House District 121, were on hand.

Six of Oconee County’s eight precincts are in the 121 House District; the remaining two are in House District 120.

Reginald Wade, running for Oconee County Sheriff, and Katie Green, running for Post 5 on the Oconee County Board of Education, attended as well.

Lexy Doherty, running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District, which includes Oconee County, had to miss the meeting because of another commitment, and incumbent District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez sent in a brief video clip because a conflict in her schedule kept her from attending.

The five candidates present were received warmly by the audience, which expressed appreciation for their willingness to represent the party in a Republican county and do so with very limited financial resources.

Not so for the three candidates who qualified as Democrats without party support, criticized the party during the campaign, and have taken public stands at odds with those of most Democrats.

Party leaders asked the membership to vote for Republicans rather than what they called the three “fake Democrats.”

Advance voting for the Nov. 5 election continues at a high level, with 27.4 percent of the county’s registered voters having cast a ballot either in person or through a returned absentee ballot by the end of the day on Monday, the sixth day of early voting.

Legislative Candidates

Fenley 10/17/2024

Gareth Fenley, who is running against incumbent Republican Bill Cowsert in the 46th Senate District, told the gathered Democrats that she was running because “I'm a democracy geek...It may seem a little goofy or something, but it really is something that animates me as a passion that I've cared about ever since elementary school.”

“You'd think everyone would be for democracy,” she said, “But some folks on the opposition side are saying, no, this is not a democracy. We're a constitutional republic, and they're pushing back against making it easy, simple, and straightforward to vote.”

Fenley said she wants to end gerrymandering, is “very strongly and firmly for choice,” and wants to expand Medicaid

Ferguson 10/17/2024

Andrew Ferguson, running against incumbent Republican Houston Gaines in the 120th House District, said he wanted to “echo certainly everything Gareth said about the legislature and about reproductive rights."

“Republicans have controlled the Georgia legislature for 20 consecutive years,” Ferguson said. “We are 50th in healthcare. We are 49th for workers. We are 37th for children. We have a six week abortion ban.”

“We also have a $16 billion surplus,” he said, “with which we could address a lot of the issues that are affecting Georgia.”

Gisler 10/17/2024
Gisler, who is running in the 121st House District currently represented by Republican Marcus Wiedower, also said the state should expand Medicaid coverage.

“Repealing the abortion ban” is his second priority he said. “That is a travesty.”

“Number three,” he said, “I want to make sure we do something about gun violence in this state.”

Gisler said he also wants to end gerrymandering. “I want to put an independent redistricting commission in place to draw those lines,” he said.

School Board Candidate

Green is running for open Post 5 on the Board of Education. Brock Toole is the Republican candidate for that position. (I conducted video interviews with the them of them on Sept. 28.)

Green currently is coach of science teachers at Clarke Central High School.

Green 10/17/2024

“I've always been involved in education,” she said. “I will always be involved in education. And I think a great next step or me would be serving on the Oconee County Board of Education.”

With Board Chair Kim Argo retiring at the end of the year, Green said, “if I'm not elected, there will not be an educator on the Board...I think it makes sense to have an educator on the Board.”

Green said “A couple of my big issues are, transparency... (and) getting some more communication between the board and the citizens. Probably also the Board and the teachers, the Board and the parents.”

She also said she wants to make “sure that we're serving everyone,” not just the students who “want to take all the AP classes, and who want to go to a four year college right away, especially a top tier for four year college.”

“We know that there's a lot of great ways to have a productive and successful life that don't involve going to a four year college, or at least don't involve going to it right out of high school,” she said.

Sheriff Candidate

Wade, a native of Oconee County, is challenging incumbent Republican Sheriff James Hale, also an Oconee County native.

Wade 10/17/2024

Wade said he has “over 3,700 hours of police related training...(has) policed in three different departments and in two different cities, Athens in Augusta.”

“I've held most every law enforcement position from walking the beat on the street to working downtown to even investigating a police officer from internal affairs when they do wrong,” Wade said.

“I believe in integrity, I believe in character, and I do believe I'm back home at the right time to be the first ever. You fill in the blank.”

“I'm here speaking as the person who is the most neutral person on that ballot,” Wade said. “I'm for all people, all races, religions, colors, you name it.”

Wade said one of his first priorities “is this traffic problem. It is awful, but I think I can fix it.”

“And I'll tell you another thing,” he said. “There will be transparency. You won't have to guess what the crime scene is in Oconee.”

“So I say this to say to you,” Wade said. “Look at my qualification...you will see I'm more than well qualified. And if a home person, I'll just call me a home boy, can't come back home and deliver the best service to the community that he grew up in, why even dream?”

“But with your help, dreams do come true,” he said. “God bless you.”

Audience Response

Party Chair Harold Thompson said he wanted “to say thanks to everyone who ran as candidates this year...This is not an easy job to do.”

That prompted an audience member to applaud “these courageous people who stood up.”

“If you don't oppose the incumbent because you think you can't win, or you think the odds are stacked against you, they don't have to spend their money,” he said.

“If you oppose them, that money has to get spent,” he continued. “And so no matter what, that starts to chip away.”

“So thank you so much you all for stepping up and doing that,” he said. “Because no matter what happens, and I hope all of you win...remember, you have done something, no matter what happens.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” he said.

Amendments, Canvassing, “Fake” Democrats

At the request of Thompson, I followed the speakers with a summary of two articles I have posted here dealing with the local election question on reconstitution of the Board of Education and on the two proposed constitutional amendments and the one state-wide referendum.

Ken Davis 10/17/2024

Discussion late in the meeting turned to how to vote if no Democrat is running and then how to respond to the three candidates running without party support.

Suzannah Heimel filed to run as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Mark Thomas for Post 1 on the Board of Commissioners. Sheri Ward Long filed as a Democrat to run for the open Post 4 on the Board of Education, against Republican Adam Hammond. And Laura King filed as a Democrat to run against incumbent Republican Angela Elder-Johnson for Clerk of Superior Court.

Ken Davis, who is the Democratic Party member of the county Board of Elections and Registration, advised against writing in a name because the names are not counted unless the write-in is a qualified candidate and it makes the work of the Board more difficult.

Pam Davis, who is program chair for the Oconee County Democratic Party, said “as far as the...what we've been calling fake dems ---there's three of them--in my personal opinion...the incumbent Republicans that they're running against are not horrible.”

“We would suggest that you actually vote the Republicans in those races because Democrats (are) false Democrats...I think that's so dishonest...So I would rather the Republican get the vote,” Ken Davis said.

“When we're canvassing,” Terry Thompson said, “that's a big part of our message is not to vote for those three people...because nobody knows about them. They don't read the papers, unfortunately. I haven't found one person to know about them.”

Pam Hendrix organized a slate of candidates to run against incumbents. Heimel, King, and Long chose to run as Democrats without informing the Democratic Party leadership. Subsequently the candidates criticized both parties in their campaigns.

Video

The video below is of the entire meeting of the Oconee County Democrats on Oct. 17.

The meeting took place at the Oconee County Library in Wire Park in Watkinsville.

Thirty people attended.

Fenley began her comment at 4:05 in the video.

Ferguson began speaking at 9:56.

Gisler spoke at 15:19.

Green came to the front of the room to speak at 18:50 in the video.

Wade began speaking at 22:58.

I began speaking at 33:40 in the video.

Discussion about the “fake” Democrats follows this question at 1:03:46 in the video.

The Oconee County Republican Party is holding its October meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 28) at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus Lobby Meeting Room, 1305 Jennings Mill Road.

The theme is Governance in Oconee and Beyond, with members of the Board of Commissioners, Gaines, Wiedower, and Cowsert as invited speakers.

The Republican Party does not prohibit me or other reporters from attending its meetings, but it does prohibit video and audio recording of the meetings.

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