The first question to each of the five candidates who participated in a nonpartisan forum Tuesday night for Oconee County's state legislative races was about the candidates’s plans for seeking citizen input once they are elected.
“A lot of us are very frustrated that people who say they represent us refuse to meet with us,” retired University of Georgia Adult Education Professor Margaret Holt told Republicans Michael Broun and Doug McKillip.
The two are seeking the party’s nomination for the open seat for Georgia Senate District 46, which includes all of Oconee County.
When the second panel of the night got underway, Holt also asked Democrats William Gaulden and Ray Smith “if you have any particular plans for staying in touch with citizens if you are elected?” Gaulden and Smith are seeking the Democratic Party nomination for that same Senate District 46 race.
When the third panel for Georgia House District 120 got underway, Holt told Republican Chad Paton he shouldn’t be surprised by her question, which she repeated. The 120th includes the Northeast Precinct of Oconee County.
McKillip was direct in his response. “We are here,” he said, and, turning to the empty seat for Marc McMain, the third candidate for the party nomination in the Senate District 46 race, added: “Not everybody is.”
Paton did not mention, in his response, Ward Black, who also is seeking the Republican nomination for House District 120 and a did not attend, but Paton noted Ward’s absence in his closing comments.
The five candidates who did attend the nearly two-hour long forum fielded questions from the more than 60 people in attendance on a variety of topics, including immigration, the state budget surplus, property and income tax relief, and sports betting.
Forum Background
Katie Vickery and I organized the Candidate Forum, held at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park, on Hog Mountain Road west of Butler’s Crossing.
The Oconee Enterprise was a co-sponsor of the forum, which began at 5:30 p.m. and ran until 8 p.m.
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| Holt Asks About Access 4/21/2026 |
Penny Mills, retired executive dean of the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia, and David Clementson, professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, assisted with the program.
We structured the forum into three panels, one for the three Republican candidates for the party’s nomination for Senate District 46, which, in addition to Oconee County, includes parts of Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, and Walton counties.
The second panel was for the Democratic candidates for Senate District 46, and the third was for Republican candidates for House District 120, which includes parts of Clarke, Barrow, and Jackson counties in addition to the Northeast precinct of Oconee County.
We did not invite Suzanna Karatassos, who is running unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination in House District 120, to participate in the forum, but she was in the audience on Tuesday night.
We also did not invite incumbent Democratic Rep. Eric Gisler, who is unopposed in the party primary for House District 121 and who was in the forum audience, or Mack “Dutch” Guest IV, who is unopposed for the Republican Party nomination for that seat. Guest was not in the audience on Tuesday.
The remaining three precincts in Oconee County, as well as parts of Clarke County, make up the 121st House District.
On March 20 we sent invitations to the forum to all seven of the candidates seeking to represent Oconee County in the state legislature who are in competitive races in the May 19 primaries.
Black said he was “unavailable” and did not respond to a request that he send a representative.
McMain said that his wife's family was visiting that day and “no way I can change my schedule.” He also did not respond to a request that he send a representative.
Senate District 46 currently is represented by Republican Bill Cowsert, who is running for state Attorney General. House District 120 is represented by Republican Houston Gaines, who is running for the 10th Congressional District seat.
Holt’s First Question
“I'm interested in what your plans are to interact with the citizenry,” Holt said in the first session of the evening.
Holt, a retired University of Georgia Adult Education professor, has moderated programs for the National Issues Forum, a non-partisan, nationwide network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals.
“I've got a website that's got my cell phone number on it,” Broun said. “I sent out a mailer that's got my cell phone number on it. I hand out business cards. It's got my cell phone number on it.”
“I think being a public servant means accessibility, and so I plan to engage with anyone who wants to engage with me, in person, via phone, via email, whatever makes sense, because whoever has this job works for you. And that's the important thing to remember.”
“Of course, I completely agree with that,” McKillip said. “My cell phone number is everywhere.”
“And it's important to point out that we are here,” he continued, “and we are answering any question that anybody asks, regardless of the party, regardless of the affiliation or anything else, and not everybody is.”
“And so I think engagement is crucial,” he said, “and that is part of the reason why we are here tonight to engage with everyone.”
Other Responses:
“I want to know if you have any particular plans for staying in touch with citizens if you are elected,” Holt said to Gaulden and Smith.
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| Paton And Black Placard 4/21/2026 |
“What I've been doing for the last several months,” Smith said, “is reaching out, trying to talk with people.”
“And I plan to continue that, to continue to engage with people, to continue to listen, and ensure that I can be the best senator possible by reaching out to people, trying to understand their issues so that I can make good decisions in the chamber.”
“My plan is this,” Gaulden said. “I have started a newsletter, so you are more than welcome to sign up. If you're not on there yet, just send me an email. I'll hook you up.”
“My other thing is, my cell phone is on my campaign website, so call me, text me. I will respond,” he said. “I like to do town halls. Maybe even some Zoom meetings.”
“We need to make sure that we--those that are elected or running for office--are listening to the voters of the area,” Paton said when Holt posed the question to him.
“I think the easiest way to do that is to come to events like this where there are large gatherings of people, where it is appropriate for candidates or elected officials to interact with the voters and citizens of the district.”
“As a representative, yes, you would select me for my judgment,” he said, “but that judgment needs to be receptive to your input and what your beliefs, and wants, and needs are.”
“I want to come out, I want to earn people's votes. I want to hear from them to guide me in my policy and in my stance. I don't know that that can be said for the other candidate in this race,” Paton said in his closing comments, pointing to the empty chair with a placard with Black’s name on it.
Other Questions To Broun And McKillip
The second questioner asked Brown and McKillip to explain their positions on elimination of the state income tax and cuts to local property taxes as well as the reason for the $14.6 billion in reserves the state holds.
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| Broun 4/21/2026 |
Both Broun and McKillip live in Oconee County, and both are attorneys.
“We have $10 billion too much in the reserve fund,” McKillip said, “which is about $2 billion a year our government has been collecting that needs to go back to the taxpayer.”
If the state would “ just sunset” all the “tax breaks, carve-outs, and special tax considerations,” McKillip said, “I bet we could do a lot to reduce income tax, maybe to zero.”
McKillip said that property taxes “can't always be the piggy bank local governments go to to fund whatever their next pet project is...And so we need to rein in local governments on tax increases and tax assessments.”
Broun said he has advocated for smaller government, and “Smaller government means less government expenditure, so you don't need as much revenue.”
“But Doug's correct,” he continued. “Our tax code has been described as Swiss cheese. There are so many government handouts, cutouts, and holes.”
“So it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem,” he added. “And we can solve a spending problem in a smart way that keeps more money in all our pockets and keeps our families healthier and happier. And that's the goal, is letting us keep our money.”
Several of the members of the audience identified themselves as students at the University of Georgia, and one of the students asked the pair for their opinion on legalizing sports betting to fund scholarships.
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| Question On Housing Asked 4/21/2026 |
“I think sports betting probably is more of a blight than it is a benefit,” Broun said. “and it leads to too many negative undercurrents.”
“I am against gambling,” McKillip said. “It increases crime. It increases addiction...Any kind of gambling in the state is a bad idea.”
“Do you believe that the government should remain neutral between religion and non-religion,” another student asked. “Or do you believe it should privilege monotheistic beliefs?”
McKillip said he is a “deeply held believer in the separation of church and state. That said, we are a Judeo-Christian society, and many of the laws that you see in our criminal code can be traced back to that heritage. That said, there is to be no establishment of religion in any form whatsoever.”
“Personally, I think we could all use a little bit more God in all our lives,” Broun said. “I'm not an evangelist. I'm not going to preach to you. I am very firm in my faith and proud of it. But the government is not a place to do that.”
Another questioner asked what role the state should be playing in activities of the Department of Homeland Security, citing specifically the purchase of a warehouse in Social Circle for a detention facility without state and local government involvement.
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| McKillip 4/21/2026 |
“We’ve got to do right by our citizens or our communities to create safe, secure communities,” Broun said. “And sometimes that requires enforcement of laws, like immigration law. You've got to do it in a humane way. You've got to do it in a way that gives people due process, but also protects those that are meant to be protected, the citizens that are here legally.”
“I don't have a lot of sympathy on this front,” McKillip said. “If you're here illegally, you need to go, period. You need to go, and then we have the broadest, most open, available system for immigration in the world. And so apply...If you came here illegally under the Biden open border administration, you got to go.”
Another student asked: “Is there anything specific you plan to do to make housing and rent more affordable for young people just starting out their first jobs after college?”
McKillip said he supports proposed state legislation “that would gut many of the local government's abilities to add fees and cost and expense onto affordable housing...You're talking about 10 percent or 15 percent of the total cost of a reasonable unit getting sucked up by government.”
Broun said “It goes back to my point of less government means less taxes, less bureaucracy, less red tape. It keeps more money in your pocket. It makes things less expensive. As Doug was saying, if things cost less to build, they're going to charge you less rent. If property taxes aren't as high, they're going to charge you less rent.”
Other Questions To Gaulden And Smith
Gaulden, a mortician from Athens-Clarke County, brought up his concern about school safety in his opening commenting, citing the bomb threat at Oconee County schools that same day, and the first person to rise to speak after Holt posed her question asked the candidates to elaborate.
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| Gaulden 4/21/2026 |
“What is your plan in helping promote that or ensuring safety among schools and students and among the rest of the community?” she asked.
Gauden said that the legislature had considered a bill this past session to require schools to place security detection devices at entrances to the schools, “But it didn't have funding for things that we need in our schools, like metal detectors, things to make people feel safe.”
“So I feel like we need to be able to fund those activities because schools are already on a tight budget,” he said. “So if we can fund them, we can make schools safer.”
Smith, a software engineer who lives in Oconee County, said “I don't think the metal detectors in general make people feel safe. I think metal detectors make people feel like they're in an institution.”
“It makes them feel like there is a pervasive danger around them,” he continued. “And I don't think that that's an environment that is conducive to learning for our students. So of course, we need to have ways of making sure that guns don't get in schools.”
“And first and foremost, the way that we can do that is to ensure that guns don't get into the hands of people that are going to misuse them,” he said.
The next questioner asked what role “local leaders” should plays in addressing the impact of “immigration and deportation policies” on “local Georgia residents?”
“I think it's important to realize that immigrants are what has made America strong,” Smith said. “I think it's important that we remember that America is a nation of immigrants. And so the vilifying of immigrants over and over again really makes me angry, frankly.”
“I agree wholeheartedly on that issue,” Gaulden said. “I'm against the ICE thing. I believe we can give them a better path to citizenship."
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| Question On Tax On Tips Asked 4/21/2026 |
“If they're here paying taxes, children going to school, we can make it easier,” he said. “Because most of the illegal people, I feel like, who are committing crimes are getting caught right now. So the ones that are not doing that...that are working hard, doing jobs, we need to make it easier for them to be able to become citizens.”
“I feel like we should put more counselors in schools so those children can be able to be counseled,” Gauden said in response to a question on mental health and its role in school safety. “Also, their parents need to be notified of their mental issues so we can help those children in the best possible way.”
“I agree 100 percent,” Smith said. “I think it's important that we focus on providing that mental health care, not just to kids. I think we all realize that there's a severe lack in accessibility for mental health services.”
In response to a question on the minimum wage, Smith said “I support increasing the minimum wage. I think it's ridiculous that we have not done so.”
“We all know how difficult it is to live here,” he said, “and one of the ways that we can resolve that is to make sure that people are paid a living wage.”
“Matter of fact, that was going to be my first bill, I hope, is to increase the minimum wage in the state of Georgia,” Gaulden said. “Did you know the minimum wage in this state is $7.25 an hour?”
“Who can live off of $7.25 an hour?” he asked. “Can you buy a house, a car, anything off of that?”
In response to a question on online betting, Smith said “I think that gambling in general is not a net benefit.”
“I don't believe we should go that route,” Gaulden said. “Being a Christian, I don't believe in betting.”
“There was talk in the last panel about attracting business to Georgia, which everybody thinks is important,” the next person to ask for the microphone said. “I guess the question is, what's the best way to do that fiscally?”
“The typical way that we try to induce businesses to come here is with tax rebates, tax credits, subsidies, that kind of thing,” Smith said, “and I think that oftentimes those end up biting us.”
“I think that another way that we can attract businesses is making sure that we have a well-informed, competent workforce,” he said. “We've been underfunding schools for ages. The Quality Basic Education formula, which is how we determine how much money schools get to educate our kids, it hasn't been updated since 1985.”
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| Smith 4/21/2026 |
“We need plumbers. People need to start their own (businesses). We need to incentivize them to start their own businesses right here in the state that can grow to multimillion-dollar businesses,” he added. “And I feel like we can do that right here at home.”
“If the minimum wage is raised,” another questionner asked, “say, for a restaurant, does the restaurant then not also raise their prices, kind of continuing that cycle? And if that's the case, then how do you kind of plan to stop that cycle?”
“This is an often-cited fear,” Smith said, “where you raise the minimum wage, prices inevitably end up getting raised. But increasing the minimum wage creates a virtuous cycle.”
“If people have more money to spend,” he continued, “they're better off in general. They end up going to those restaurants more frequently, even if the prices are slightly higher as a result of that.”
“I feel like the same thing,” Gaulden said. “I agree with him, that it wouldn't bring up prices that much because we are already in an inflation period right now, things are already high.”
“It would probably recycle the money right back in the system we already live in,” he added.
“What you think about the legalization of cannabis?” one of the students in the audience asked.
“”I'm in favor of federal legalization of marijuana,” Smith said. “I think it's ridiculous that that hasn't happened yet. There are people that are still in jail for a product that we know is significantly less dangerous than alcohol, and yet alcohol is sold on practically every corner.”
“I'm just going to say I'm going to need to look more into that question,” Gaulden said.
“Would you all support changing Georgia's tax code to be no tax on tips and overtime?” another citizen asked.
“I would. I really would,” Gaulden said, “because I feel like if you have more money in your pocket, you can spend more money. So if we could eliminate those taxes, I feel like we can increase our economic impact right here in the state of Georgia, because that would recycle the dollars right back in Georgia.”
“At face value, I think I would say yes, with a few caveats,” Smith said. “There are some things that are deemed tips in tax code that we wouldn't think of as tips...Gratuities generally are defined more broadly. So I would want to be very careful about how we design that legislation so that it's targeting the people that we actually want to get the benefit.”
Other Questions To Paton
Paton’s first question, after the one posed by Holt, came from Oconee County Commissioner Amrey Harden, who said, “Thank you, Chad, for being here tonight.” He then asked Paton to elaborate on his background.
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| Paton 4/21/2026 |
Paton is on leave of absence from his faculty position at the University of Georgia, where he teaches nutritional biochemistry. He also serves in the Army National Guard as a Major. He lives in Athens-Clarke County.
“So I grew up in Michigan,” Paton said. “Grew up in a very small town...I moved here in 2015. I moved my lab. I was at Texas Tech University prior to that. Came here in 2015 with my wife. We both are faculty at the University of Georgia.”
“I grew up from a, I would say, a blue-collar, working-class family,” he said. “Hard work, integrity were something that were just expected. You're going to be honest, you're going to work hard, you're going to do the right thing, and you're always going to stand up for that principle.”
“In the other sessions, we had talked about the candidates' thoughts on immigration,” the next person to ask for the microphone said. “And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what your opinions are on that matter?”
“When we talk about immigration, we're really talking about two types of immigration,” Paton said. “Through the process of legal immigration status and illegal immigration status, or outside of the legal process.”
“When we have individuals that are breaking through the border or coming into the country, circumventing those laws, what it's doing, it's undercutting the process for those that came here the right way.”
“So I think immigration is a good thing when it's done the right way, when it's done fairly, and with impartiality,” Paton said.
In response to a question on providing adequate student housing, Paton said “I think capping registration is a good thing.”
Paton said he favored term limits at the state and federal level, but he did not favor term limits for the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We have vilified immigrants entering the U.S.,” another person asked. “How would you address corporations or employers that have enabled this?”
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| Harden Asks For Background 4/21/2026 |
“We have heard a lot of different answers touching on affordability, touching on immigration, touching on minimum wage,” Paton said. “All of these are interconnected.”
“We have jobs that need to be performed,” he said. “We have companies that want those jobs performed for the least amount of money, and we, as consumers, want to pay as little as possible, but as workers, want to get paid as much as possible.”
“So you have all of these competing interests,” he said.
“When we start to open up the border for unfettered immigration, now you have a very large influx of low-skilled workers that will take many jobs that local Georgians could be filling.”
“So I don't think that having unfettered immigration helps the cost of living for the average Georgian, because, you may have to pay less for some services, but now you don't have that individual, your neighbor, that's...being employed,” he said.
“Just because it's a difficult problem and because it's one that I think leads to a lot of emotional response, it doesn't mean that we should not address it,” he said. “We absolutely have to address it.”
Crowd
In the weeks leading up to the Forum, we had asked Kathy Hurley from the Oconee County Republican Party and Harold Thompson from the Oconee County Democratic Party to announce the Forum to their members.
Hurley did not do that, but Thompson did, and Thompson, but not Hurley, attended the Forum on Tuesday.
The audience did include prominent members of both parties, including Commissioners Harden and Chuck Horton, both Republicans, and Democrat Rep. Gisler.
We had asked audience members to be respectful of the different perspectives being presented, and they were.
The Oconee County Democratic Party, in partnership with Democratic County committees across Georgia’s Congressional District 10, is holding a Democratic Voter Fair from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday (April 25) at the Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road.
The event is being organized as an opportunity for voters to meet and talk with Democratic candidates for statewide and Congressional offices.
The Oconee County Republican Party will host five candidates at its regular monthly meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday (April 27) at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus, 1305 Jennings Mill Road.
Scheduled speakers are Blake Tillery, seeking the party nomination for Lieutenant Governor, and incumbent School Superintendent Richard Woods, seeking the nomination for that office.
Three candidates without opposition in the primary also are scheduled to speak: Guest, for House District 121; Kathleen “Kate” Patterson, for Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Education; and Horton, for Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
Early Voting
Early, or Advance In Person, voting for the May 19 primaries and nonpartisan judicial ballots begins on April 27 and runs to May 15, with Saturday voting on May 2 and May 9. No voting will be held on Sundays.
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| SPLOST Item At Bottom Of Ballot |
Voting will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the two Saturdays at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
Since Georgia does not have registration by party, voters are free to select a Democratic Ballot, a Republican Ballot, or a Nonpartisan Ballot.
The Democratic and Republican ballots include nonbinding questions submitted by each party.
All ballots include the nonpartisan judicial races.
Two incumbent Supreme Court justices, Charles “Charlie” Bethel and Sarah Hawkins Warren, are being challenged by Miracle Rankin and Jen Auer Jordan.
The incumbents were appointed to the Court by former Republican Governor Nathan Deal in 2018 and are being backed in this race by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, while Rankin and Jordan are being backed by Democratic Party leadership.
The ballot also includes Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judges Lisa Lott and Eric W. Norris, neither of whom has opposition. Oconee and Clarke counties make up the Western Judicial Circuit.
The final item on the ballot is the referendum for renewal of the county’s 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Video
The summary of the Candidate Forum I have presented above is just that. I shortened all of the answers, and I left out a few of the questions entirely.
I also did not include the opening and closing comments, focusing instead on the answers to questions posed by the audience.
The second session had more questions and ran nearly 10 minutes longer than the first. The last session, with only one candidate, ran half as long as the first.
Penny Mills and I video recorded the session with separate cameras, and both of these videos are presented below unedited. I only trimmed materials from the front and back to eliminate the small amount of recording before and after the session ended.
Penny kept her camera on the speakers throughout.
I rotated to pick up the citizens who asked the questions, sometimes returning to the speakers after they had begun to answer.
My video is the first below.
The first session with McKillip and Broun begins at 6:04 in the first video below.
The second session with Gauden and Smith begins at 45:46 in the video.
The third session with Paton begins at 1:23:22.
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