(Covington, GA | Tuesday 5/7/24)
Welcome back, Dear Readers, and hope all is well out there.
So we're exactly two weeks from voting day & now on our 9th day of early voting (we had both Saturday & Sunday early voting this past weekend; we will also have this upcoming Saturday for a total of 18 days of early voting including two Saturdays & a Sunday. Such a shame that Georgia has enacted such egregious voter suppression laws, ammaright?)
As many have commented, there definitely seems to be two camps on the Team Blue side this election cycle. You can really tell by sign locations. Typically you'll see the same signs of the same candidates together, then you'll see the names of the other side together at another location. This is occurring all over the home county.
Let's look at the dynamics of these races & try to break it down.
For the purposes of this analysis, we'll go w/ the following names for the two camps/coalitions/sides:
#OneNewton (Marcello Banes/Stephanie Lindsey crew) vs The Craig Camp (Tommy Craig/JC Machine/Reservoir People/Old Guard)
Now, for some of these races, we don't have direct evidence for all candidates that their allegiance is necessarily to one side or the other. On some, we definitely do. For others, it is inferred based on conversations w/ sources & other political watchers & - again - based on those sign placements.
At the top of ticket we'll draw our attention to the BOC Chair race between incumbent Marcello Banes & current Tax Commish - Marcus Jordan, and this one is very clear. We know Jordan has been utilizing Craig for legal counsel, so we know he's on that side.
And, I know for a fact, that Banes is diametrically opposed to both Craig as well as BOC 4 Rep JC Henderson.
The next two are county constitutional offices & again this is simply my opinion & analysis based on the aforementioned criteria.
Clerk of Superior Court
John Bryant: either #OneNewton (Marcello/Stephanie) or unaffiliated w/ either faction. Definitely NOT Team Craig.
Stephanie Finnie: possibly Team Tommy, per word on the street.
Tax Commissioner
Brent Bennett: either #OneNewton (Marcello/Stephanie) or unaffiliated w/ either faction. Definitely NOT Team Craig.
Avis Williams: I know a good number of folks who are friendly w/ & like Avis. I believe she is Jordan's pick & based on what I'm hearing she would continue utilizing Tommy Craig for legal counsel for that office if she won.
By the way, I believe this is the one Democratic primary that I will give an endorsement for. By all accounts, Brent Bennett is very impressive. Definitely qualified. And just seems like a really great guy. If you're pulling a blue ballot (which is what is being recommended for anyone regardless of political affiliation residing in BOC districts 1,2,3 & 4, I'd recommend giving this guy a look.
BOC 3
Similar to Chair, we 100% know about this one. Obviously Stephanie Lindsey is a part of her own coalition. Further, we also know that incumbent Alana Sanders is in league w/ JC & a part of the other side.
We're not covering Sheriff since Ezell is running uncontested in the primary. We've recently discussed Ezell's knack for paying Tommy Craig lots of money & we'll definitely be covering his general election race vs Justin Hipps moving forward.
Conversations about BOC 1 & Coroner will also come later after we get into the general.
And I recently wrote about one of the candidates for BOC 5 & will cover that one again before May 21st.
Okay for now,
- MBM
