In Hall County, the Magistrate Judge and the Probate Judge must declare their party affiliation–Republican or something else–before they can run for office. Superior Court and State Court Judges are exempt from that declaration. The Hall GOP feels that ALL elected officials should have to declare their party affiliation. If it is good enough for Magistrate and Probate Judges, then it is good enough for Superior and State Court judges too. Contact your state house representative and state senator today to let them know that you agree so that they can change the law Georgia Constitution. Thanks to Harris Blackwood from The Times for pointing out to me that the nonpartisan judicial elections were put into the Georgia Constitution. It will be extremely hard to change. See Ga. Const. Art. VI, Sec. VII. Para. I. Section VII makes it almost impossible to remove a sitting judge as well. The board consists of 2 judges appointed by the Supreme Court, 3 lawyers appointed by the State Bar Association, and 2 citizens appointed by the Governor. Bet the vote is 5 to 2 all the time! We won’t know because they keep the records secret and anything they find can’t be used anywhere else!
Senator Lee Hawkins
Representative Carl Rogers
Representative James Mills
Representative Doug Collins
Representative Tommy Benton
We are very lucky to have so many good representatives for our area! Let them know what a good job they are doing for us!
While we are at it, the city officials should have to declare party affiliation too!
Nath Morris(School Board Post 4) just called to verify procedures for qualifying to run for re-election at 11:35 this morning. He said he plans to pick up the forms sometime today. I expect he will qualify before the deadline. Nath is current member of the Hall County Republican Party.
Update: Nath dropped by the office and picked up the form for qualifying this afternoon around the same time Tom Oliver was qualifying.
Update: Nath brought the fee and the form to the office this afternoon at 4PM and qualified.
Charles Baker (Chief Deputy Clerk of Court) just picked up two qualifying forms for Hall County Clerk of Court at 11:00 AM–one for him and one for Dwight Wood. Dwight Wood, the incumbent, is under fire for recent revelations that he personally pocketed over $88,000 in passport fees in addition to his salary. The County Commission was concerned about the fees, and an old Georgia Attorney General Unofficial Opinion number U78-20 seems to provide ammo for Commissioner Bobby Banks’ desire for all the money to be returned to the County treasury. Rumor was that Dwight was not going to qualify, but he had contacted my office several times to inquire about the process in recent weeks. Neither has yet qualified for the election, but J.C. Smith has already qualified in the first hour. J.C. Smith and Dwight Wood are current members of the Hall County Republican Party, but Charles Baker is not.
Update: I have also heard from Greg Whitmire (a clerk who works for Dwight) about qualification details, but he might have been calling on Dwight’s behalf. (more…)