Qualifying took place last week for municipal elections in all four of Henry County’s cities. Two of those cities will have a new mayor in January, and a number of city council seats are assured of seeing some shifting.
Hampton Mayor Steve Hutchison is stepping away after two terms, having chosen not to qualify for the November 2 election. Vying for his seat are current council member Stephanie Bodie and former council member Ann Tarpley.
The at-large council seats on the fall ballot are currently held by Bodie, Errol Mitchell and Willie Turner. Mitchell and Turner are running for re-election, and the challengers include Pamela Duchesne, Devlin Cleveland, Shawn Black, Sheila L. Barlow and Yaunte Dvine. The top three finishers in the entire field will win those three seats.
Locust Grove voters have the simplest task of all. It is the only city in the county without a mayoral are this year. Keith Boone, Willie Taylor and Vincent Williams are the incumbents whose council seats are on the ballot, and they are the only three candidates who qualified.
McDonough Mayor Billy Copeland is also choosing not to run again, having been either in that office or on the council for more years than a large number of his constituents have been alive. Craig Elrod and Sandra Vincent, both current council members, are running along with Tony Brown in the race to be Copeland’s successor.
Because Elrod’s term as District 3 council member has two years remaining while Vincent’s term in District 2 expires at the end of this year, state law dictates that Elrod must resign his council seat (which he did August 20) and Vincent can remain in office.
The McDonough charter does not allow the City Council to appoint anyone to fill Elrod’s seat, although a special election could be called to coincide with the November 2 election. That actually happened the first time Elrod was elected to the council in 2013 after his predecessor resigned before completing his term. Qualifying took place only a couple of weeks after that announcement, and the special election was on the same ballot as the regular one, saving the city a great deal of money in election costs. It will be up to the remainder of the council to decide how to proceed.
Meanwhile, two other council seats are about to expire. One is Vincent’s, and Jamal Burt is the only candidate who qualified for that race. As for Roger Pruitt’s at-large seat, the incumbent is facing Arlene Persaud, Vanessa Thomas and Darryl Payton.
Stockbridge Mayor Anthony Ford is running for a second full term. He was a council member when Tim Thompson abruptly resigned before completing his term as mayor, and after serving the final year of that cycle Ford was elected to the office in 2017. The lone challenger in the mayoral race is Bruce Smith Sr.
LaKeisha Gantt and Alphonso Thomas have served multiple terms on the City Council and are looking to keep their seats. Both are at-large posts, meaning the top two vote getters out of the entire field of candidates will be elected. Challengers include Antonio Harris, Ezekiel Pettway, Derek Mouzon and Shirley Wallace.
The deadline for voter registration is October 4. Early voting begins October 11. In addition to the city elections, all of Henry County is considering a referendum for a transportation SPLOST.
