When Hall County Commissioner Craig Lutz decided not to seek re-election to his District 1 seat representing South Hall, he reached out to a few potential candidates and urged them to enter the race. “Even had I decided to run, I wanted somebody to run against me because that was the only way new ideas would be able to come out in a race,” said Lutz, who decided instead to seek the Republican nomination for the District 4 seat on the state Public Service Commission. Two of the people Lutz said he reached out to were Kathy Cooper and Ken Cochran, though both insist they made decisions to run on their own.