Two commissioners on Georgia’s all-Republican utility regulatory board are up for reelection after five years without elections because of a redistricting court battle.
The Public Service Commission, which oversees electricity and utility rates for much of the state, last had a seat up for election in 2020. Elections were delayed as the courts weighed a lawsuit that was ultimately unsuccessful, claiming the board’s at-large elections illegally diluted the votes of Black Georgians.
The legal battle delayed elections for commissioners representing Districts 2 and 3. The six-year terms for those districts were supposed to expire in 2022.
Last year, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring elections for those two commission seats in 2025. It also temporarily extended the terms for every commissioner on the board to reorder the staggered elections for members.
Under Georgia law, commissioners must live in their districts to be eligible to run, but elections for each seat on the board are conducted statewide. It’s why the entire five-person board has remained Republican even for commission seats in districts with Democratic majorities.
This year voters will cast ballots for District 2, which spans from the east Atlanta suburbs to Athens, Augusta and Savannah; and District 3, which represents Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties. Qualifying for the Public Service Commission races ended last week.
Tim Echols, the District 2 incumbent running for a third term on the board, will face Lee Muns, a former member of the Columbia County Board of Education, in a June 17 Republican primary. The winner of that primary will face Democrat Alicia Johnson of Savannah, in November.
In District 3, Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson, whom Gov. Brian Kemp appointed in 2021, will be challenged for the first time in November by one of the four Democrats vying for the party nomination in June.
Those include Keisha Sean Waites, former state representative and former Atlanta City Council member; Peter Hubbard, chief executive of Georgia Center for Energy Solutions; Robert Jones, who has worked in energy and tech for the government and private companies; and Daniel Blackman, who served as the southern region administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.
This isn’t Blackman’s first time campaigning for a seat on the commission. In 2020, he narrowly lost to Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in a runoff.
Alicia Johnson, running for District 2, and many of the Democrats vying for the party nomination in District 3, have framed their campaigns around investments in renewable energy and advocating for consumers who’ve experienced a series of utility rate hikes in recent years.
Echols told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the consumer rate hikes are necessary to improve Georgia’s utility infrastructure.
Early in-person voting for the June primaries will begin May 27. Elections for the two commission districts and municipal elections will be held on Nov. 4.
Meanwhile, a legal battle over the commissioners extended terms continues.
A federal district court judge dismissed a complaint about the 2024 bill passed by state lawmakers in January, saying that the plaintiffs lack standing and that the case belonged in state court. The plaintiffs have appealed that ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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