Daniel Shaver was given the opportunity by Oconee County Republican Party Chair Kathy Hurley on Monday night to make the case for Tim Echols, who is seeking re-election to the Public Service Commission from District 2, which includes Oconee County.
Echols has opposition in the June 17 Republican Party Primary, but neither Echols, challenger Lee Muns, nor incumbent District 3 Commissioner Fitz Johnson had accepted an invitation to appear at the May 19 meeting, Hurley said.
Hurley said that the three are busy traveling all over the state, since, while the Public Service Commissioners must live in the district they represent, they are elected statewide.
Shaver said Echols has been a strong proponent of nuclear power and cited the opening of the third and fourth units of Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro in 2023 and 2024 respectively as accomplishments of Echols.
The winner of the June 17 primary has Democratic opposition in November, and Shaver told the 35 in the audience at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus on Jennings Mill Road that it is important that they get out and vote in both the primary and the general election.
That argument was seconded by Georgia House District 120 Rep. Houston Gaines, who followed Shaver and gave a summary of the accomplishments of the legislative session that ended on April 4.
Chief among the accomplishments, Gaines said, was a $1 billion income tax rebate, increased spending for school safety and for the state’s prison system, and legal reform to reduce tort litigation and damages awarded.
Shaver On Echols
Shaver told the Republicans that he is a student at Kennesaw State University studying business management. His title, according to his LinkedIn profile, is Campaign Representative, and his assignment is to serve as a proxy for Echols.
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| Shaver 5/19/2025 |
Shaver said that Echols “has made sure we have a diverse but reliable energy grid.”
“He has made sure that, unlike the terrible state of California, solar energy would not be subsidized by rate payers,” Shaver continued.
“And finally, he has been a champion for nuclear power,” he said.
“In 2024 the fourth unit was finally completed” at Plant Vogtle, Shaver said, “and with its completion we now have the largest supply of nuclear energy in the entire U.S., making us one of the most reliable states in the U.S. for nuclear power and energy reliability.”
Shaver said that Echols is an ordained minister, runs a podcast on energy, and “is the proud father of seven.” He lives in Hoschton in Jackson County.
“We need to make sure we not only get him through the primary but also get him through the election in November,” Shaver said.
Echols biographical sketch on the Public Service Commission website says he is a champion of solar power and clean energy.
Shaver said Democrats are fielding their own candidate, “which is why it is paramount that every single one of you talk to your neighbors about the importance of this race and tell them to go vote for Commissioner Echols.”
Field Of Candidates, Early Voting
Muns, challenging Echols in the Republican Primary, is a Columbia County business owner.
Alicia M. Johnson, a resident of Savannah and a managing principal at Health Management Associates in Atlanta, is running unopposed in the Democratic June 17 primary to meet either Echols or Muns in District 2.
District 3 Representative Fitz Johnson is unopposed in the Republican Primary.
Four Democrats, Daniel Blackman, Peter Hubbard, Robert Jones, and Keisha Sean Waites, are competing for the party nomination in District 3. Blackman, Hubbard and Jones appeared before the Oconee County Democratic Party on May 15.
District 3 consists of only three counties: Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton.
District 2 consists of 38 counties from eastern metropolitan Atlanta to the Savannah River and from Hart County to Chatham County.
The five-member Public Service Commission sets the rates charged and the services provided by telecommunications, natural gas, and electric utilities in Georgia and also sets pipeline safety regulations.
Early in-person voting for the June 17 primaries begins on May 27 and runs through June 13, with Saturday voting on May 31 and June 7, at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
Gaines On Legislative Session
Hurley said she had invited both Gaines from House District 120 and Marcus Wiedower from House District 121 to provide an overview of the legislative session, but Wiedower had indicated last week he could not attend.
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| Gaines 5/19/2025 |
One of Oconee County’s four precincts, Oconee Northeast, is in Gaines’s District, while the remaining three precincts are in Wiedower’s District.
Gaines followed Shaver and began his comments by emphasizing the importance of the Nov. 4 election for Public Service Commission and of keeping the Commission under control of Republicans
“I do believe those races are really important,” he said, “and I’m worried we’re going to have really low voter turnout.”
Gaines said the amended budget passed by the legislature for the current fiscal year includes money to add the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to the McNutt Creek Road site planned for the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Georgia State Patrol.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget includes a $1 billion income tax rebate, Gaines said, which will result in $250 for individuals and $500 for joint filers. Income tax rate has been reduced again, to 5.19 percent, he said.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget also contains $162 million in school safety and security grants that school systems can use for school resource officers or other school security improvements beginning this fall, he said.
“We passed the most significant funding levels for our state prison system ever,” he said at the meeting on Monday.
In his April 13 newsletter, Gaines said the legislature had passed a $199.6 million increase in funds for the Department of Corrections, bringing the total to $1.7 billion.
Other Action
Gaines praised the passage of Gov. Brian Kemp’s priority for the session, tort reform.
“We are hoping this bill is going to put us in the mainstream across the county with other states,” Gaines said. “I think that is going to bring some balance to the courtroom.”
He also cited as an accomplishment passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which, he said, the legislature has been working on for more than a decade.
The legislature also passed a bill requiring cooperation with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests, Gaines said.
“Under the Biden administration, there were not a ton ICE immigration detainer requests happening,” Gaines said. “That is totally changed.”
“Certainly the Trump administration is doing such an incredible job on the immigration issue,” Gaines said. “Especially when you compare with what Biden did for the last four years.”
Gaines said he has not given up on his effort to change the composition of the Clarke County Board of Elections and Registration.
“We’re going to get it done next year,” he said. “The Board is not, in my opinion, a fair board. We’re going to fix that issue next year.”
(The Oconee County Republican Party does not allow video or audio recording of its meetings.)
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