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Election 2009: Several incumbents qualify
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Coming Saturday

In Saturday’s edition, The Times will have a complete wrap up of who qualified for municipal seats across Northeast Georgia, including Hall, Banks, Habersham, Dawson, Jackson, Lumpkin and White counties.

Monday drew mostly incumbents seeking re-election as qualifying got started for this November’s municipal races.

Incumbents holding seats in Oakwood, Jefferson and commerce qualified on Monday. Qualifying continues through Wednesday for most areas, but goes on through Friday in some cities.

Election Day is Nov. 3 and the last day to register to vote in the election is Oct. 5.

By municipality and county, those who qualified for election on Monday include:

  • Lula Mayor Milton Turner, District 3 Councilman Mordecai Wilson and District 2 Councilwoman Vicki Chambers will be seeking re-election.
  • All three Oakwood City Council incumbents qualified for re-election Monday. They are Mayor Lamar Scroggs and Post 2 Councilman Ron McFarland and Post 1 Councilman Sam Evans.
  • Flowery Branch qualifying begins Wednesday and ends Friday.
  • Three people, including two incumbents, turned in paperwork to qualify for the Gainesville Board of Education election. Ward 4 incumbent Kelvin Simmons and Ward 1 incumbent David Syfan will be seeking re-election, but Syfan faces a challenge from Kellie Weeks, who also qualified Monday.
  • In Banks County, qualifying for two county commission seats drew a total of six people. Qualifying for county commission Post 2 were Ray Holcomb of Baldwin, Neal Pulliam of Alto, Ernest Rogers of Baldwin and Fred Wendt of Alto. Qualifying for county commission Post 4 were Jerry Coach Loftice of Commerce and Charles Turk of Maysville.
  • In Jefferson, only incumbents qualified on Monday, with school board chairman Ronald Hopkins of Jefferson, District 4 Councilman Randall Griffith of Jefferson and District 4 school board member Derrell Crowe of Jefferson all running for re-election. Mayor Jim Joiner of Jefferson also qualified.
  • Commerce’s two city council posts and two school board posts also drew interest only from the incumbents on Monday. Archie Chaney qualified for council Ward 1, Donald Wilson qualified for council Ward 2, Arthur Pattman qualified for school board District 1 and Mary Seabolt qualified for school board District 2.
  • In Hoschton, Jim Jester, currently the Post 2 city councilman, qualified for the mayoral race.
  • In Braselton, two of three seats will feature challengers. William (Bill) Orr of Braselton and Ralph Richardson Jr. of Braselton both qualified in the mayoral race. Town Council District 2 seat: William (Bill) Greene of Braselton and Peggy B. Slappey of Braselton plan to run for the District 2 town council seat, which is currently held by Richardson. Dudley Ray of Braselton qualified to run for re-election for his District 4 town council seat.

Several area towns drew no qualifiers on Monday, including Gainesville, Homer and Clermont. Seats up for grabs in those towns include:

  • Gainesville: City council Ward 1, held by George Wangemann, and Ward 4, held by Danny Dunagan; board of education Ward 1, held by David Syfan, and Ward 4, held by Kelvin Simmons; and referendums on elected mayor and school board chair.
  • Clermont: Mayor, held by James Nix; and two council seats, held by Brad Weaver and Sonny Helton.
  • Homer: Mayor, held by Douglas Cheek; and entire city council, held by Sandra Garrison, Betty Borders, Jerry Payne, Chris Tucker, Kevin Cate.