CARLTON FLETCHER: Southwest Georgia voters should maintain rare political integrity

“Vote for me and I’ll set you free …”

— The Temptations

I wish to make it clear that the following is MY column. It has nothing to do with The Herald’s parent company or anyone else associated with the newspaper.

See, I’m going to offer some of my own thoughts about Tuesday’s Primary Elections. And these are my own thoughts, some observations I’m bringing to the table. The opinions expressed, then, are my own and have nothing to do with anybody else or any organization.

Right off the bat, I’m going to encourage voters in this region to cast their ballots for Edward Brown in the state Senate District 12 race. I could just say “He’s the most qualified candidate” and leave it at that, but that would be a cop-out.

I honestly like Tracy Taylor and salute him for his undying love for this community. And I predict he one day will be elected to political office. But not this time. This is too critical a race for a political novice, and Brown is simply the best-qualified candidate to move into the seat being vacated by Freddie Powell Sims.

Freddie has served this region well, and she was one of those rare politicians who had the actual capability to “work across the aisle.” As a Democrat, she knew that there was no way she could get stuff done for southwest Georgia without help from Republican leaders like Gerald Greene, her buddy from Cuthbert. Her willingness to look beyond party politics to what’s best for the region is a legacy that all politicians should aspire to, but, sadly, few do.

And one of the biggest reasons I say voters should back Brown? Sims has given him her wholehearted support, as have other area leaders like Dougherty Sheriff Terron Hayes.

I know, frankly, very little about the other candidate in the race, Corey Morgan, other than the furor surrounding his illegitimate service as a City Commissioner in Camilla. Courts ruled that he did not live in the city, as required, and had served on that board illegally. Even when told by court officials that he had no right to be a part of that body, he refused to step down.

That might seem like “bravery” to some, but the reality is that someone who eschews the rules of the government he serves under is not someone who is going to represent the will of the people who elected him. He’s in it for one person and one person only: Himself.

(NOTE: I would have liked to hear Morgan’s take on the Camilla mess from the man himself, but he chose not to do an interview with this newspaper for a feature like the ones the Herald’s staff completed on all other candidates running for local office. Herald Reporter Alan Mauldin, who had interviewed Morgan in the heat of the controversy surrounding his tenure in Camilla, reached out to the candidate on a number of occasions over the last several weeks, but Morgan refused to respond to those calls. This newspaper – and especially, I can truthfully add, this editor – believes in giving every candidate running for office equal opportunity to express their views in print.)

In talking to the man, and reading about Brown’s campaign, it dawned on me that, in this time of partisan political fervor, the young man is about as qualified a candidate as I’ve ever seen. And his refusal to make promises that he knows neither he nor any other single candidate could keep is a needed breath of fresh air that makes him a unique choice for the District 12 Senate seat.

So, yes, I do encourage voters in this area to vote for Brown, who I believe will continue Sims’ legacy of working for the betterment of southwest Georgia, and not himself.

Just like I encourage voters to ignore those two a$$ clowns Jackson and Jones spending multi-millions of dollars in the gubernatorial race to sling as much BS at each other as is humanly possible. They are the kind of people who have no interest whatsoever in the needs of the voters of Georgia; they are of that group of people who will do whatever it takes to control as much power as possible, even if they spend mega-fortunes doing it.

Chris Carr is a much better choice, and I’d venture a comment that Brad Raffensperger has much more guts than the millionaires who are trying to out-Trump each other. Carr has risen above the idiocy and presented clear goals for the office, and I’d much rather see him in that seat than two jerks who want to be “Georgia’s Trump.” Just writing that makes me ill.

I also believe Anthony Jones deserves another term in Dougherty County’s District 6. With the (lack of) leadership shown by several of his fellow commissioners, it’s important to have as many people with integrity as is possible.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].