See the winners of Georgia’s municipal elections
Former Dalton mayor Pennington defeats incumbent Mock
RINGGOLD, Ga. — In a mayoral race that was messy with small-town politics at times, Ringgold Mayor Nick Millwood came out on top Tuesday night to win his second term.
Millwood got 63.8% of the vote, beating Tony Hullender with 27% and Paul Lee with 8.7%.
After he heard the results, Millwood said he was shocked that he got that high a share of votes.
“When I heard the … number, it took time for it to really sink in because I was surprised,” he said. “Then I felt a sense of relief. Then a sense of honor and accomplishment that the people wanted me to continue to serve.”
Lee, long a vocal critic of Millwood, refused to shake Millwood’s hand after the results.
“I wanted to make a change, but clearly the citizens didn’t want that change,” Lee said. “It was a good race. Tomorrow I’ll wake up, and I’ll still be Paul Lee.”
Millwood was first elected mayor in 2015 after a complicated, and at times controversial, election.
In the 2015 race, Lee was disqualified from running after it was determined his house was outside city limits, but not before he called the Catoosa County court a “kangaroo court” and Millwood a “clown competitor.”
Then, on the Nov. 3 election date, none of the three candidates — Hullender, Millwood and Jerry Payne — received more than 50% of the vote. Under the city’s charter, if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election. Hullender finished with 38.3% of the vote, Millwood had 37.5% and Payne had 24%.
Millwood would end up winning in the runoff election, taking over for former
Ringgold mayor Joe Barger, who was mayor for 40 years before stepping down in 2015 at age 85.
In Dalton, Georgia, former mayor David Pennington beat incumbent Dennis Mock by a mere 11 votes, 1,400 to 1,389.
Whitfield County Election Supervisor Mary Hammontree said there won’t be a runoff for the mayoral race, but “a recount can be made at the request of the losing candidate.”
Mock and Pennington could not be reached late Tuesday.
Pennington previously was elected mayor of Dalton in 2008. In 2011, voters gave him a strong victory over political newcomer Joel Goldberg in the mayoral race with 61 percent of the vote.
During his first term, Pennington cut city taxes more than 20% and cut the city budget significantly. He also has pushed to refurbish the city’s historical areas and build green spaces in an attempt to attract young professionals.
In 2014, Pennington took his anti-tax message statewide when he championed an end to Georgia’s income tax as part of a campaign to unseat Nathan Deal in the Republican primary for the governor’s race.
Deal went on to win the primary with more than 72% of the vote.
When Pennington stepped down as mayor in 2014 to run for governor, Dalton was without a mayor for months.
Mock defeated Miller Jones in November 2014 by 2,517 votes to 1,533 votes in the special election to fill the final 14 months of Pennington’s unexpired term. Mock ran unopposed in 2015 for a full term.
Before that, Mock ran in 2010 for the District 4 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, losing by 177 votes — less than 5% — to Roger Williams. He ran again in 2012 but lost to Rep. Bruce Broadrick.
Elsewhere in North Georgia, incumbent Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Earl Gray beat Louis Hamm with 71% of the vote.