Candidates qualify for primaries
The ballots are now set for local and state primary elections, with the Board of Elections kept busy up to the last minute of the weeklong candidate qualifying period.
Two of the three of the Polk County Commission seats will be contested, either in May primaries or the November general election, and two of the four school board seats will also have two candidates on the ballot for local elections in 2018.
Voters will go to the polls on May 22 to choose Republicans or Democrats on primary ballots, and in just one commission and two Polk County school board races the seats will be decided this spring.
In the District 1 race, Jose Iglesias and Gary Martin will f ace off against each other on the Republican ballot. Both turned in their paperwork on March 5.
Iglesias is running as the incumbent after he was appointed in late September to serve out the rest of the term of former commissioner Jason Ward. He is the owner of Taxes de America in Cedartown, and was a 2017 Lead Polk graduate among other areas he serves in locally.
He seeks to continue serving to ensure the work he’s begun to help solve problems in county government is completed, and hopes voters will give him a chance to finish what he started.
“Our county has many needs, but it urgently needs leaders,” he said. “I believe this is the right time because I’ve learned and worked on issues that are important to our people for the past five months, and I intend to continue that work.”
Iglesias’ competition in the primary is former city commissioner and Board of Education member and owner of Martin’s Styling Center in Cedartown. Martin previously interviewed for the commission seat in September along with other candidates.
He’s running on the Republican ticket for the May 22 primary. He said he is running for several reasons, chief among them to provide for “the better quality of life for citizens of Polk County.”
Martin also wants to address several issues ranging from local concerns over the landfill and its operations, to potential solutions for improving the service of the Polk County Volunteer Fire Department.
“I’m looking forward to working with the commission on a variety of items should I be elected,” he said.
The District 3 race for the seat currently held by Commissioner Marshelle Thaxton will also be decided on Georgia’s primary day, as Tim Yarbrough and Hal Floyd both qualified on Friday, March 9 before the end of the weeklong period. They both are running as Republicans as well.
At midweek, that race looked completely different as former Commissioner Larry Reynolds had turned in his paperwork to try again for a District 3 seat. He withdrew his name from consideration on Friday after Yarbrough qualified, but before Hal Floyd submitted his name before the noon deadline.
Over the weekend, Yarbrough chose to withdraw his name from consideration in the upcoming primary, leaving Thaxton to run unopposed.
Thaxton chose not to run in the upcoming primary for personal health reasons, but may consider a run for the special election to serve out the rest of the term Floyd was appointed to serve out last year in late October.
“I do have the option, and I thought if I was going to put forth the effort and keep working to help the county, I should just go ahead and run for the four year term,” Floyd said.
The former school board member and retired Tip Top executive said that he will run later in the year when his seat comes up for qualifying in August should he not win the May primary. He’s been vocal in past months about providing additional financial support to local law enforcement and working to improve personnel issues from having person- nel issued be drive more by a human resources-centered process, to providing clear and concise job descriptions for employees.
Additionally, Floyd in past months has been heavily involved in conversations around the county’s finances and budget.
The District 2 race won’t be competitive until November, when Commission chair and incumbent Jennifer Hulsey and Ricky Clark face each other in the general election.
Hulsey, an English teacher at Cedartown Middle School who is in her final year of her first term in office, qualified on March 5 on the Republican ticket. Clark, who served as a Polk County Police Detective for 30 years and is now a retiree, is running as a Democrat on the ballot. He added his name to the race on March 9 before qualifying ended.
Clark has previously run for the District 2 seat as a Republican in three elections as a Republican. He lost in 2012 to Ray Barber, 2014 to Hulsey and in 2016 was one of four candidates who ran in the primary, ultimately to lose in the initial round of voting before a run-off was held between Barber and Commissioner Chuck Thaxton.
School board races
Two races for the Polk County Board of Education are also contested during this year’s primary.
In District 1, the Republican ticket includes former educator Robert Furr and business consultant Britt Madden Jr.
The seat is currently held by incumbent Jane Hamlett, who will not seek re- election to the seat this year.
Furr, a veteran educator at Cedartown and Rockmart high schools, will be running for the first time for a local seat.
He taught all grades at the high school level for 30 years between Cedartown and Rockmart, and also served for 21 years in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. He retired from service in the military in 2002.
Furr’s hopes are to end the “abuses that have been taking place in the school board. I want to work to make the school board run more like a business.”
“I want more fiscal responsibility, merit-based employment practices, and make sure that we do things legally, honestly, fairly and above all morally correct,” he said.
He’ll be running against Madden, who along with service on the Development Authority of Polk County board, the Polk County Chamber of Commerce board and a number of local initiatives and volunteer organizations, also is senior pastor of Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Bremen and also runs Madden Consulting.
Madden said he decided to run after prayerful consideration in an effort to continue to serve the community.
“I think the most important thing is to get in and learn more about the team that we have in place to effectively educate our children and provide them with the best learning environment to possibly succeed,” he said.
Additional information will be forthcoming about District 4 candidates Vicki Mays and incumbent Grady McCrickard and their Republican primary race for the seat.
Mays qualified on March 7, while McCrickard submitted his paperwork on March 9.
Two school board members will be able to keep their offices without having to face any oppo- nents. Chair and District 7 school board member Tommy Sanders will not face any opposition in his race as a Republican in May or November. Neither will vice chair and District 2 school board member Bernard Morgan, who is on the Democratic ballot.
Statewide races
Several candidates for Polk County’s state races will be running unopposed this year to retain their offices.
Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court Judge Meng Lim of Haralson County will not face any opposition to keep his seat on the bench locally.
Additionally 16th District State Rep. Trey Kelley, and 31st District State Senator Bill Heath are also running as Republicans unopposed for state offices. Without any can- didates running against them, Kelley will start a fourth term in office in January 2019, while Heath will begin his seventh term in office since he won the seat in 2005.
The trio qualified on Monday for their seats with the Secretary of State.
Meanwhile, the congressional race in Northwest Georgia will be competitive on the November ballot
Congressman Tom Graves also will seek to retain his 14th District seat representing Northwest Georgia in the House of Representatives, but faces a challenger during the midterms.
Steven Foster of Dalton submitted his name as a Democrat. He listed his occupation as a physician entrepreneur in his filing according to information from the Secretary of State’s website.