Voters will decide on Dougherty County Commision District 4 in Nov. 3 election

ALBANY – After the May primaries settled two Dougherty County Commission contests, that left one to be decided on Nov. 3.

Commission Chairman Lorenzo Heard and District 6 Commissioner Anthony Jones both won their Democratic primary contests and will face no opposition in the fall.

The District 4 race will decide whether voters return District 4 Republican incumbent Russell Gray, who pointed to his experience in office, for another four years or elect political newcomer Anthony Patterson, who pledged to use technology to keep voters informed on what county government is doing.

“I think one of the things I can say is that I have got a robust resume,” Gray said. “I’ve got eight years of experience on the board.”

That experience includes his service on the Association County Commissions of Georgia’s Health and Human Services Policy Committee, which works to prioritize legislative needs, for which he is vice chairman.

In that capacity, he worked to successfully lobby for the first 10 miles of emergency medical services transport to be covered by Medicaid. 

“That doesn’t sound so significant, but they didn’t cover those first 10 miles and our average EMS transport is four miles,” he said. “That’s projected to be $250,000 of additional collections for EMS in Medicaid.”

The body also lobbied to include EMS services under the state’s “surprise billing” legislation. And as chairman of the Dougherty County Board of Health, Gray said he worked to improve the county’s health department through the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“That’s one of the core services of county government, to provide primary health services,” the incumbent said.

Through course work, Gray also is a certified county commissioner with a specialty in revenue and finance and economic development. His business experience is largely in healthcare.

A main priority for Gray is providing core services, which include the courts and jail that are mandated county functions, and ensuring that money is being spent efficiently. 

“My whole platform really is getting back to the fundamentals of county government and doing them well, accountability for the taxpayers’ dollars and a conservative approach toward budgeting,” he said. “By focusing on basics by default, I’m saying we need to move away from the distractions and shiny prizes and the need to be credited for success for local development.

“I believe if the county does its job, we’ll create a healthy environment for city and downtown development to happen on its own.”

In some instances the county has put funding into projects that are already the responsibility of the city, Downtown Development Authority and Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority (ADICA), Gray said. It also participated in funding a feasibility study for a conference center in which the consultant was hamstrung by only considering a downtown location. The county receives no hotel/motel tax proceeds generated within the city, so it will not benefit directly from downtown projects.

“For the county to feel like they have to be in front of the downtown development efforts and fund them is double-taxation,” he said. “After we committed to the study, the consultant was told ‘Tell us where it should go, as long as it’s downtown.’ That defeats the purpose of hiring a consultant to tell you if it’s feasible. Maybe it’s feasible in another part of town. We paid for that study with a foregone conclusion.”

With another four years, Gray said he would keep a focus on lower taxes, transparency and overreach of county government.

“We need someone there that can fight for transparency and the appropriateness of actions and to prevent the government from being turned into a ‘give-ernment,’” he said. 

Patterson is an Albany native who was home-schooled during his high school years, and being age 30 means that he has a different take on the use of social media and its role  in informing the public.

“I like to say people born before ‘96 use the internet,” he said. “I live inside the internet.”

An Eagle Scout, Patterson has worked in pest control and wildlife for 10 years and serves on the Chehaw Park Authority board. 

His experience as a candidate has been a pleasant one as he has made his way through the district talking to residents, he said.

“I knocked on about 2,000 doors in the primary,” Patterson said. “It’s kind of cool because people don’t knock on doors. I got a lot of positive reactions. I just want the feedback from them. I want people to be energized.”

Although Patterson has not made a run for office before, he said he has been inspired in the past, particularly when his parents had an inauguration event when Barack Obama was elected president.

“I was maybe 10 when Obama became president,” he said. “I liked seeing it. I like somebody who lost their first election, then he was senator, then president.”

Since early in 2026, the candidate has been attending commission meetings and has posted information online to keep residents informed. He plans to continue sharing that information.

“I post information,” he said. “Win or lose, I expect to keep doing that. A lot of people don’t like politics. I like to attend the meetings and see what people are doing with our money. When I try to break it down in those terms, people are, like, ‘Oh, OK.’”

For the campaign, Patterson has chosen three main issues as those on which he would focus attention: homelessness, expanding the recent Summer Collective program initiated by the United Way of Southwest Georgia and poverty.

Addressing the issue of unhoused people who congregate downtown is one that is important for economic development, the candidate said. 

“We have hotel projects,” Patterson said, “Who’s going to stay downtown when at night you have 50 people walking around? Nobody’s going to live downtown if we have homeless people hanging around. 

“The county ordinance says we will take care, strive to take care, of the homeless. What can we do as a board to help homeless people in Dougherty County?”

While the summer program that assisted thousands of youngsters was a success, Patterson said he believes students need activities year around. Albany’s Recreation and Parks Department and other organizations could be part of making that a reality.

“We see children shooting children,” he said. “I want to address the issue of people not having something to do and definitely offer something for our youth to do here.”

If elected, Patterson said he would have a policy of “radical transparency” by holding a meeting with residents each month and continuing to reach out to residents by showing up in neighborhoods.

“I want to go over the budget with you,” he said. “As your local official, I want to tell you what I could get and what I could not get. There’s a lot of little things you will see, especially in the budget. If you follow that, you know what’s going on.

“I also want walk the streets afterwards. … Pick a street a month and just walk and talk to people.”

Due to his age, Patterson said he would bring energy to a board whose members are for the most part considerably older.

“I’m definitely a fresh new face that has the energy to bring the county back,” he said. “I like to demand better. People say ‘Are we not doing good now?’ I say, ‘Do you want to do better?’”