Elections Kind to Most Local Incumbents

All but two incumbents who represent Paulding County were handed new terms by voters taking part in Tuesday’s primary election.

Leading the county races in the Republican primary was the vote for the chairmanship of Paulding County’s Board of Commissioners. Incumbent David Austin edged out Tony Crowe by earning 52.8 percent of the vote.

Joining Austin on the Board of Commissioners will be David Carmichael, who won his election to the Post 1 seat against Heidi Leggett after taking 1,998 votes to Leggett’s 1,564. Carmichael will succeed current Post 1 Commissioner Larry Ragsdale, who initially qualified for reelection .

Other incumbents in the county who survived challenges include At Large School Board Member Joe Watson, Coroner Sam Clark and Surveyor Carlton Rakestraw.

At the state level, State Rep. Paulette Braddock will retain her seat in the Georgia General Assembly. Braddock took 63.2 percent of votes in her District 19 race; opponents Michael Ray James and Melissa Morrison nearly split evenly the remaining votes.

All of the aforementioned races were decided by the primary as no Democrats or independents qualified to run.

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In other races, two incumbents will be heading to runoffs; another race will see its top two vote-getters continue to vie to become the representative of a newly formed House District. .

In another election of interest, county voters overwhelmingly voted against paying an extra penny on the dollar to fund transportation projects. Paulding saw 76.5 percent of its participating voters say no to the TSPLOST, .

In all, 17,854 of Paulding’s 74,865 registered voters took part in the primary—a turnout of 23.9 percent.

No opponent? No problem

Candidates who won their respective races after being unopposed were:

Republicans

• Sheriff — Gary Gulledge (Incumbent).
• Judge, Probate Court — Deborah Andersen (I).
• Clerk, Superior Court — Treva Shelton (I).
• Tax Commissioner — Bill Watson (I).
• School Board District 1 — Theresa Lyons (I).
• School Board District 3 — Kim Cobb (I).
• School Board District 4 — Richard Manous.
• State Senate, District 30 — Bill Hamrick (I).
• State Representative, District 17 — Howard Maxwell (I).
• State Representative, District 67 — Bill Hembree (I).
• U.S. Representative, District 14 — Tom Graves (I).

Democrats

• State Representative, District 66 — Kimberly Alexander.
• State Representative, District 67 — Leigh Mcmutry.
• U.S. Representative, District 14 — Daniel “Danny” Grant.

Nonpartisan

• Superior Court Judge, Paulding Circuit (Beavers) — Tonny S. Beavers (I).
• Superior Court Judge, Paulding Circuit (Vinson) — Kenneth G. Vinson (I).

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