Oconee County, GA Politics

Lee Becker’s Blog . Monday, July 07, 2008 Oconee Campaign Spending Figures Released Publisher Waves Advertising Fee for Favored Candidate . http://www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com/   7-10-08 Who is Melissa Bourbeau?   Melvin Davis's Campaign Disclosure Form listed her as a $2,300.00 donor.  Her address was listed as XX94 Highway 81, Loganville GA 30052   Is she a relative?   Is she connected to some Metro-Area Developers?   Is she connected to the Walton Hard Labor Creek Project?   The contribution amount is unusually high for someone living outside Oconee County!!  

Oconee County Board of Commissioners SARAH V. BELL over incumbent G. Melvin Davis for chair. JOHNNY PRITCHETT over incumbent Jim Luke for Post 1. JOHN E. DANIELL over incumbent Donald "Don" Norris in Post 2. MARGARET S. HALE over challenger Esther Porter in Post 3. CHUCK HORTON over challenger Michael W. Maxey in Post 4. Oconee County Board of Education MACK H. GUEST III over Ryan C. House for Post 2. ASHLEY C. HOOD over Kim Argo for Post 3. CHARLES G. "CHUCK" TONEY over Michael S. "Mike" Hunter for Post 4. KYLE L. MARTIN over Tom Breedlove for Post 5. Oconee County Coroner CATHLEEN QUILLIAN-CARR over Bill Mayberry and Ed Carson Georgia State Senate, District 45 TOMMY MALCOM over incumbent Bill Cowsert United States House of Representatives, District 10 PAUL BROUN over Barry Fleming

Ashley Hood will be very good for our schools and children. I fully endorse her candidacy for Post 3 of the Oconee County Board of Education. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Citizens Ashley Hood, candidate for Post 3, Board of Education asked that I forward her message to you.  We need a good balance of backgrounds and interests on the BOE and Ashley will represent us from the perspective of a mother with 5 children who knows how to get the most for our money. Charles Baugh Hi, my name is Ashley Hood and I am running for the BOE, Post 3.  I would appreciate your consideration in voting for me. Why should you vote for me? ADVOCATE FOR CHILDREN: I have five children, three are in PUBLIC schools in Oconee County.  Madison is a 10th grade student at NOHS, McKinley is a 5th grade student at OCES and Maitland is a 3rd grade student at OCES.  In the next few years,  Austin and Addie Grace will be attending H...

Signs of life from the Sherry Jackson campaign - who will be facing the winner of the Tommy Malcom - Bill Cowsert primary in November. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:42:32 -0400 From: oliverjennypenney@gmail.com SHERRY JACKSON  FOR STATE SENATE I hope this finds everyone in good spirits and that everyone has enjoyed our nation's Independence Day weekend . As we celebrate this country's legacy of freedom, liberty and justice for all, please remember the sacrifices made by those in our armed services, our public school teachers, our activists, our pastors, our fathers, our mothers and all of the men and women who have given so much to not only ensure this legacy, but constantly revisit it. As a candidate for State Senate for the 46th District, it is my pledge to confront the challenges facing our state and work to find solutions in the Georgia Assembly. Please visit my campaign web site – www.sherryjackson4senate.com – and find out how y...

Charlie Baugh lets you know what he thinks about the developer gang: Porter, Maxey, Luke, Norris and Davis. I would not recommend voting for any of this ethically challenged candidates. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Citizens Following this message is a message from Lee Becker with a link to his blog .  He has just posted 3 articles with information that every voter should have before making a decision in the Board of Commission races. Mike Maxey a grading contractor running against Chuck Horton for post 4 talks a lot about his ethics but I think  Maxey hasn't a clue what the word means for public officials.  Sitting on the Planning Commission, he voted to rezone property for a hotel being developed by Chairman Melvin Davis's campaign manager.   Later he took the contract to do the grading on the hotel project.  Not only that,  Maxey plans to vote on rezone applications and then seek the grading work on the projects.  At least he...

Dear Friends, I've written a short about Commission Candidate Mike Maxey's statement on June 2 explaining when he feels it would be appropriate for him to bid on projects before the Board of Commissioners. This is a story that has been around for a bit, but I thought it worth examining because it illustrates the ethical challenges that face commissioners who also are linked tightly to development. Details are at www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com . Lee

I voted this morning and strongly urge you to do so as well, taking full advantage of the early voting period here in Oconee County. This is the location next to the courthouse in downtown Watkinsville, and there is a new location to vote early at the Oconee County Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road/State Route 53. The early voting period ends Friday afternoon with no early voting Monday followed by the traditional Tuesday election day at the various polling places scattered across the county.

The Oconee Enterprise newspaper put their status as Legal Organ for Oconee County, Georgia in jeopardy by supplying free political advertising to Esther Porter , who is running against Margaret Hale. I would think that Miss Vinnie Williams would have avoided the appearance of impropriety by writing a check to her daughter Maridee to cover the expense. I am also rather shocked that Maridee let this obvious lack of ethical control go past her watch. It will be interesting to see how aggressively Oconee News Leader owner/publisher Rob Peecher, Senior pursues the legal ads now that he had this scandal thrown upon a silver platter for him. I do not know who the attorneys for these newspapers are, but one can only imagine the legal fees will be immense for this possible battle. Esther is going to lose by a large margin to Margaret Hale. Hale has been campaigning hard all throughout the county and has many more volunteers putting up signs and knocking on doors. This latest scandal only reinf...

Dear Friends, I've just posted two reports on my blog, one covering the recently filed Campaign Contribution Disclosure Reports for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners races and the other listing sources of information about the campaigns. The first report shows the dominance of incumbents in raising and and spending money. The exception is challenger Mike Maxey, who has loaned his campaign a significant sum and spent heavily on advertising. Incumbent BOC Chairman Melvin Davis has raised the most money, spent the most money, and has the most available to spend. The second report gives links to printed reports and audio and video files relating to the campaign. Go to http://www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com/ for the two blogs filed today. Lee

Dear Daniel, Why wait until Tuesday, July 15 to vote in the Democratic Primary?  You can vote all this week, and skip the Election Day lines with early voting. If you have voted early before, you know that it's easy and quick.  If you haven't voted early before, here's what you need to know: Most counties have one or two early voting locations, usually the county Board of Elections office.  You will have to go to one of these locations to vote early, not your usual polling location.   To find out where you can vote early in your county, call your local Board of Elections.  ( Click here for a list of county Boards of Elections .) Once you know where you can vote early, you can stop in and vote during normal business hours (in most counties, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm) anytime this week.  We will have a number of contested Democratic races on the primary ballot, including statewide races for the nominations for U.S. Senate and Georgia's Public Service Commiss...

But evidently Mr. Maxey heeded unsubstantiated advice from someone giving him some faulty political intelligence to have (contemplated) switched races at least twice since then. Based upon the overwhelmingly enthusiastic and positive feedback received upon floating a trial balloon campaign against Norris Board of Commissioners' slot for Post with the powers-that-be-and-don't-be around here, Maxey then explored the idea of running against Melvin Davis for Board of Commissioners chair. By then Sarah Bell had been lining up her supporters and much of the non-aligned political players in the county, thus negating any perceived or imagined groundswell of support for a Maxey candidacy. He has run a very high profile campaign, pouring lots of money in multiple billboards and various sized yard signs. I am voting for and actively supporting Chuck Horton for many more reasons than I can list here. Primarily (and this goes across all campaigns and races) there are those who think gover...

These are pictures of campaign yard signs snapped around Butler's Crossing and Watkinsville areas in Oconee County. The Bolin sign is left over or reused from eight years ago and reflects a certain degree of lingering animosity toward two-term incumbent Board of Commissioners chairman G. Melvin Davis

Pat Priest does an amazing job organizing a wide array of events in both Athens and Watkinsville. If there is a volunteer of the year award, she deserves it. Please try to attend as many events as you can on our nation's birthday and be thankful we live in such a great country and county.  The big news here is actual voter registration at Eagle Tavern and Bell's going on, which is the only way to perpetuate real change and coalition building beyond the forthcoming primary. The next PS My current grammatical pet peeve of the moment are the people who insist on needlessly adding an apostrophe in the word veterans as far as the new park name is concerned. If the park belonged to one Veteran and we wanted to talk about his park, we could reference a "Veteran's Park" but anything short of that should never have an apostrophe in this circumstance.  Veterans are Veterans and I am glad some candidates took the political opportunity to further expoit them in a conven...

Have a good and safe Fourth of July! Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Hello Everyone-   This Saturday, the market will have sungold and brown berry cherry tomatoes, Better Boy and other varieties of slicing tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, long Asian cucumbers, beans, okra, plums, squash, potatoes, watermelon, fresh-cut flowers, Homemade pies: Lemon, coconut, apple, peach, sweet potato, banana-nut bread, snickerdoodle cookies, strawberry-pecan muffins, a variety of pound cakes, jams and preserves, handmade greeting cards, and homemade soaps, baskets, blankets, and scarves, boiled and fried peanuts and pork skins. Please join us for the July 4th celebration in downtown Watkinsville beginning at 10 a.m. when several market vendors will also be selling fresh produce, baked goods, and other items as usual, along with live music, free watermelon, popcorn, ice cream, old-fashioned cokes and root beer, and lots of activities for kids. ...and on Saturday, July 5th at...

 See you there Friday? July 4th (Friday) : Rack of Spam [Rhythm & Blues] Rack of Lamb is no imitation lunch meat-- they're the real soul, and they've got all the standards and 70's grooves to prove it. When Rack of Spam takes the stage with their punchy saxophones, white-hot vocals, sparkling trumpet stings, and fist-pumping drums, you'll be awash in your favorite soul tunes before you know it. Borrowing the gospel flare of Aretha and the unmatched heat of Little Richard, Rack of Spam then adds their own funky flavor to create a brand new, yet still classic, soul experience. Since 1981, these skilled musicians have shared their style of jazzy, exhuberant, energetic soul with their faithful fans. Come and hear these awesome bandmates-- a full dozen of them-- fill the Ashford Manor lawn with the inescapable sounds of soul. Ima...

Johnny Pritchett deserves your support for many reasons listed here in this article and in the fact that he is a fine leader ready to build consensus and I greatly urge you to vote for him over incumbent Jim Luke.

 We are almost at a fever pitch of political news as we approach our nation's birthday. I will come out with official endorsements very soon but anyone with a little knowledge and looking out for our best interests will have come to the same conclusions I have. The following was sent in by former Board of Commissioners chair Wendell Dawson and contains segments sent in to him by Lee Becker See Today's Athens Banner-Herald - Oconee County Living - for discussion of all BOC candidates.   7-2-08 Athens B-H (Oconee Living) reports on Oconee Chair and BOC races   The Athens Banner-Herald http://onlineathens.com/stories/070208/oconee_20080702001.shtml . July 2, 2008 . Davis, Bell vie for leadership of Oconee commission . By Adam Thompson . Oconee County residents, if they elected Sarah Bell chairwoman, would get lower taxes and an ethical leader who wouldn't hesitate to slash government spending, according to the first-time candid...

Great piece of reporting from Lee Becker once again about the lack of ethics in our day-to-day governmental operations Dear Friends, Landscape Architect and Land Planner Ken Beall and Oconee County Commission Don Norris have some common interests. They both serve on the Board of Directors of North Georgia Bank, where they and their five colleagues represent the interests of bank shareholders by overseeing loans and other aspects of bank operation. Both also are involved in rezoning property for development in the County. Beall represents landowners and developers who want to rezone. Don Norris votes on those requests as a Commissioner, most of the time approving them. For some, this close relationship might be seen as a conflict of interest. Not so for Don Norris. Beall has been before the Board five times since January alone. Don Norris has recused himself not once. For more detail on this story, go to my blog at www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com . Lee

WSB Television led off their 5:00 pm newscast this evening with news of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation digging up the yard of a home in Walton County near the Gratis community. Apparently a home was searched, a bomb was found and detonated, and forensic recovery teams set up tents to sift through potential evidence. I heartily commend the GBI for their efforts in trying to solve the Moore's Ford Bridge lynchings of two African-American couples 62 years ago. This is just the most recent in a string of racially divisive news events in the past week in Northeast Georgia including a noose displayed from a business in Oglethorpe. I do not equate the SCV or most people bearing a St. Andrews cross with terrorist groups but instead like the DAR a semi-historic heritage group.

It is no secret that I am a staunch supporter of Ashley Hood and her candidacy for the Post 3 seat of the Oconee County Board of Education. I first met her writing for the Athens Banner-Herald's Oconee Living section some years ago and asked her the questions about what she loved about Oconee County. I met her again when she was pregnant and taking on subdivisions and the Board of Commissioners. I handed her my card and told her if she ever ran for office that I would support her. Few people have made as favorable and continued positive impression on me for their leadership skills and community consensus building ability as Ashley Hood. She has a firm grasp of what needs to be done to protect and serve our children, including four of her own in the Oconee County School system. In the crass and corrupt world of politics, it is refreshing to find someone with a fresh perspective and not beholden to special interests or the powers that be. Ashley Hood is that person we need for our c...