Qualifying starts for House race
♦ Floyd County’s new elections chief is also preparing for the Dec. 4 runoffs and trying to sell his hurricaneravaged home in Americus.
Candidates for the state House District 14 special election begin qualifying today in Atlanta. The election is scheduled for Dec. 18.
Meanwhile, Floyd County’s chief elections clerk — who’s starting his first full week on the job — is focusing on preparations for the Dec. 4 runoff for two seats left undecided in the general election.
“The secretary of state’s office will handle the qualifying,” Robert Brady said about the special election. “They’ll tell us and build the ballot.”
Brady, the former elections supervisor for Sumter County in South Georgia, said he accepted the job last week knowing there were runoffs scheduled.
Republican Brad Raffensperger and Democrat John Barrow are vying for the secretary of state seat being vacated by governor-elect Brian Kemp. Raffensperger got 49.09 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 election and Barrow pulled in 48.67 percent. Libertarian candidate Smythe Duval prevented either from getting the more than 50 percent needed to win outright.
The three-person Public Service Commission District 3 race also remains undecided. The runoff is between incumbent Republican Chuck Eaton, who got 48.7 percent, and Democrat Lindy Miller, who got 47.63 percent of the vote.
Early voting is expected to be next week. State law calls for it to start “as soon as possible.” Voters must have been registered by the general election deadline of Oct. 9 to vote in the runoffs.
Brady said he was a bit surprised to see the special election following so closely on the heels of the runoff but the office will be ready.
The balloting will replace Christian Coomer, who was unopposed for re-election but withdrew Oct. 31 to take a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals. The Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to convene Jan. 14.
“I can understand they don’t want to start the session without a person in that seat,” Brady said.
The deadline to register for the special election is 5 p.m. today, although not all Floyd County voters are eligible. The district covers just the southeast corner of the county and spreads over the western half of Bartow.
Brady — who was offered the job, accepted and came to Rome in the space of a few days last week — is also juggling a second household. His wife, Judy, is remaining in Americus for the time being, until she can sell their home. The eye of Hurricane Michael passed directly over the city, he said, and there’s still some clean-up to do.
“My backyard looks like an artillery barrage. We’ve got 23 trees down,” he said.
Six trees also landed on their house, but he said all the structural damage has been repaired. Still, the offer in Floyd County was too good to pass up, Brady said. His 83-year-old mother in Gainesville has been asking them to move closer, and his wife grew up in Buckhead.
And the elections office he spent six years revamping in Sumter County is capable of handling the runoff without him, he said.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of positive thinking,” Brady said with a smile. “There are still some things that need to be dealt with, but they’re mostly cosmetic at this point.”