GOP dominates commission races
The only challengers Columbia County commissioners will face for their seats in this election year are coming from their own party.
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Though the county's Democratic Party has grown in numbers since President Obama took control of the White House last year, no area Democrats qualified last week to challenge Republicans in local races.
A phone message left Friday, the deadline to qualify, for Democratic Party Chairman Robert Gray was not immediately returned.
Of the five Republicans who qualified last week for the commission races, three were incumbents and two were challengers.
Commission Chairman Ron Cross and challenger Brett McGuire qualified on Monday.
A retired businessman from Appling, McGuire previously ran for state Senate and House seats, but lost both races. This is his first attempt at campaigning for a county office.
Also qualifying were District 4 Commissioner Scott Dean and his challenger David Payne.
Both men are Harlem residents and contested against each other in 2008 in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Lee Anderson when he ran for the state House.
Also qualifying was District 1 Commissioner Ron Thigpen. He has no challengers.
For the state House, Republican incumbents Anderson, Ben Harbin and Barbara Sims all qualified with no challenges, according to the Georgia Secretary of State's Web site.
Also, Republican incumbent Bill Jackson qualified to keep his state Senate seat with no one else qualifying.
Former state senator and representative Joey Brush, of Grovetown, qualified to run for the Public Service Commission. He'll face Republican competition from John Douglas of Social Circle, Tim Echols of Athens and Jeff May of Monroe. The only Democrat running for the office is Keith Moffett of Macon.
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun qualified in Atlanta to retain his 10th District congressional seat with no Republican challengers. However, he will face competition in November from Athens Democrat Russell Edwards.
The primary election will be held July 20.