Oconee County, GA Politics

Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr.    Early voting has begun!!    You can vote early today through Friday for next Tuesday's primary runoff.  Early voting is at the ACC Board of Elections office downtown (map here:  http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=155+E.+Washington+Street,+Athens+Ga& > sll=33.96059,-83.376296&sspn=0.008027,0.013797&ie=UTF8&ll=33.960447,-83.3763  81&spn=0.008027,0.013797&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1).        Jenny Penney Oliver  Chair Elect  Clarke County Democratic Committee  C

Oconee County is way small sometimes, but that does not excuse our lack of participation in elections, be it one race or 12 on the screen. I whole heartedly join Sheriff Scott Berry in endorsing Dr. Cathleen Quillian-Carr for election as Coroner in the run-off election against recently fired Assistant Coroner Ed Carson. Athens Banner-Herald reporter Adam Thompson writes an even-handed story about the race for coroner. Recently while shopping at Publix, it was one of those times up and down the aisles when I saw someone who kept giving me odd looks and I could not place them. We even followed them out into the parking lot with the groceries. Evidently it was Mr. Carson's wife and daughter I was parked next to, at least as far as their huge magnetic sign on their door.

So the Republican primary coroner's race sure got even more interesting all of the sudden considering they are running to check out a bunch of dead bodies. Deputy Coroner Ed Carson, who is running for the office of chief Coroner, has been fired from his current duties by outgoing Coroner John Simpson. Needless to say, this will not exactly instill a whole lot of confidence in Carson in the minds of Oconee County voters for who will be selecting between Carson, Dr. Cathleen Quillian-Carr and Bill Mayberry. Carson has generated his fair share of chatter, controversy and flack already, much of it as of yet unsubstantiated, but supposedly circulating about huge amounts of child support never paid to an ex-wife and even a call to her to ask her to hush up about it. His behavior at the courthouse has not won him many fans or votes either Simpson hired another deputy coroner in Cathleen Quillian-Carr, who is a doctor. Mayberry has a long road of recovery and as the treasurer of the radi...

Candidate Forum for Oconee County Coroner from Lee Becker on Vimeo .

I do not enjoy impugning the integrity of individuals running for office, but I have been told that one of the candidates for coroner in Oconee County supposedly owes some $200,000 in child support for children that are nearly adult. I have also been told that this candidate called up his ex-wife and asked her not to tell anybody about it. Too late for that one I'm afraid. It is one thing to work on dead bodies, but if you are a deadbeat dad, I do not think you deserve the selection or election to public office. Once I receive independent corroboration I will name names, although it should not be that difficult to discern who I am talking about, either by process of elimination or chatter on the streets.