Three opportunities for voters to meet with candidates whose names will be on the May 19 General Primary and Nonpartisan Ballot are scheduled for the week before or just as early voting begins on April 27.
Candidates for the contested Democratic and Republican primaries for Senate District 46 and the contested Republican primary for House District 120 have been invited to participate in the April 21 Candidate Forum at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park.
The Forum, at which citizens will be able to directly pose their questions to the candidates, gets underway at 5:30 p.m. and will continue until 8 p.m.
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 April 25 at the Oconee County Civic Center.
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 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: Mack “Dutch” Guest IV, for House District 121; Kathleen “Kate” Patterson, for Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Education; and Chuck Horton, for Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
Early voting starts at 8 a.m. on April 27 at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
April 21 Candidate Forum
Katie Vickery and I have organized the candidate forum for April 21 to give citizens the chance to pose their questions directly to the candidates in the contested primaries for Senate District 46 and House District 120.
Patrick Graham, the new proprietor and publisher of The Oconee Enterprise, has joined as a sponsor.
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Oconee County falls entirely in the 46th Senate District, which also consists of parts of Clarke, Barrow, Gwinnett, and Walton counties.
The Northeast Precinct of Oconee County is in the 120th House District, which also includes parts of Barrow, Clarke, and Jackson counties.
Incumbent 46th District Sen. Bill Cowsert and incumbent House District 120 Rep. Houston Gaines, both Republicans, are not seeking re-election to their current posts. Cowsert is seeking his party’s nomination for Attorney General, while Gaines is seeking the Republican Party nomination for Congressional District 10.
Michael Broun and Doug McKillip, both of whom live in Oconee County, have committed to attend the Republican Party panel for Senate District 46.
Marc McMain, from Walton County, said his wife’s family is visiting that evening from out of the country and he cannot attend. He has been invited to send a representative.
William Gaulden, from Clarke County, and Ray Smith, from Oconee County, have agreed to attend the Democratic Party panel for Senate District 46.
Chad Paton, from Clarke County, has committed to attend the Republican Party Panel for House District 120.
Ward Black has said he is “unavailable” for the candidate forum. He has been invited to send a representative.
Suzanna Karatassos is running unopposed in the Democratic Party Primary for House District 120.
In House District 121, which includes the remaining three precincts from Oconee County as well as parts of Clarke County, incumbent Eric Gisler is running unopposed in the Democratic Party Primary. Republican Guest is running unopposed in the Republican Party Primary.
Format Of Forum
The April 21 Forum is the only time that the candidates will appear on the same “stage” during the primary campaign.
The first panel will be for the Republican candidates for Senate District 46, followed by the Democratic panel, and then the Republican panel for House District 120.
Each candidate will have three minutes for an introduction before the session is thrown open for questions from the audience.
Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each question.
Closing statements will be allowed if time permits.
Vickery will serve as moderator and time keeper
David Clementson, a professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, will take a microphone to the questioner.
Penny Mills, retired executive dean of the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia, will join me in video recording the session.
The video will be uploaded to the Oconee County Observations Vimeo channel.
Early Voting
Advance In Person voting will run from April 27 to May 15, with Saturday voting on May 2 and May 9. No voting will be held on Sundays.
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.
Since Georgia does not have registration by party, voters are free to select a Democratic Ballot, a Republican Ballot, or a Nonpartisan Ballot.
The Nonpartisan Ballot contains only Judicial races, including for Oconee County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott and Superior Court Judge Eric Wayne Norris, both of whom are unopposed.
The Nonpartisan ballot, only a single page in length, ends with a lengthy statement of the referendum for renewal of the county’s 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
The Democratic Party Ballot is two pages long and includes the U.S. Senate, U.S. Congressional District 10, state House, and judicial nonpartisan races, as well as the SPLOST Referendum.
The Democratic Party ballot does not include races for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners or Oconee County Board of Education, since the party did not put up candidates from those positions.
The Democratic Party Ballot does include seven nonbinding questions, two from the state Democratic Party and five from the Oconee County Democratic Party.
That ballot is two pages in length.
The two-page Republican Party Ballot includes the federal, state, and local races, the nonpartisan judicial races, and the SPLOST referendum.
The Republican Party ballot also includes eight questions from the state Republican Party.
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