Changes are coming. The only question is how many.
Whoever wins Tuesday’s elections will face issues that determine Macon’s path for years to come. And while some of those faces will be new, some familiar candidates could find themselves winning new jobs.
The Democratic primary for mayor offers four choices, and seven Macon City Council incumbents face challengers. One new council member is guaranteed: Jaime Kaplan, who filled the Ward 5, Post 3 seat vacated successively by Erick Erickson and Beverly Blake, is not running for a full term. Beverly Knight Olson, a Republican, qualified unopposed for that election.
Like the other unopposed council members, however, her name won’t appear on the ballot until the fall. Adding hers to the seven contested seats, it’s unlikely but possible that a majority of council could turn over at the ballot box this year.
The District 139 State House seat, which lies entirely in Bibb County, and the District 26 State Senate seat which covers much of Bibb, all of Twiggs and parts of Houston and Wilkinson counties, are guaranteed to have new occupants. Longtime Sen. Robert Brown resigned to run for mayor, and Rep. David Lucas then quit to run for the Senate job Brown vacated. Lucas faces fellow Democrat Miriam Paris, who resigned as City Council president to get into the Senate race, and Irwinton Republican Bobby Gale in the nonpartisan special election scheduled in conjunction with the city primary. Likewise, Democrats James Beverly and Anissa Jones are after Lucas’ former House seat.
Whoever emerges victorious from those state contests likely will find their initial influence differs from that of their durable predecessors. City officials will face a different range of problems: empty buildings and aging infrastructure, but with fewer people and a poorer base to support them. Intermittent lunges toward consolidating Macon and Bibb County are expected to continue, even as the city and county combine and restructure some departments under a recently approved service delivery strategy. That restructuring will only happen, however, if voters pass a special purpose local option sales tax this fall.
Much of that weight will fall on the mayor, according to Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce.
“I think the mayor’s race is particularly important in our community because of the fact that that person serves as the chief administrative officer,” he said. “They hire a CAO, but at the end of the day (the mayor is) responsible for the operational side of the city.”
In choosing between Brown, political newcomer Paul Bronson, former Mayor C. Jack Ellis and incumbent Mayor Robert Reichert, voters ought to consider carefully which of those can handle that responsibility, and who can hire competent staff, because that’s critical for the city’s long-term viability, Cherry said.
Council members have to be willing to work together, especially because there are 15 of them involved in tough decision-making, he said.
“Obviously we’re in very challenging times, and City Council seats are always important,” Cherry said.
The new House and Senate members may see the state emerging from very hard budgetary times, he said. That will leave them to set new priorities for the state while serving as advocates for their districts, Cherry said.
“All of these elections are important, just for different reasons,” he said.
Early voting ended Friday, and numbers climbed throughout the week, said Elaine Carr, Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections supervisor.
Even so, Carr didn’t predict an overall turnout much above the 2007 mayoral election despite the upsurge in voter registrations for the 2008 presidential election.
“Being registered is one thing. Turning out to vote’s an entirely different thing,” she said.
In late 2007, there were 39,462 registered voters in Macon. Since then the number of registered voters has grown by nearly 20 percent, to about 48,000.
Three voting precincts cover only unincorporated Bibb County, and those voters will have just one voter certificate to fill out: a white one for the nonpartisan House and Senate elections, Carr said.
All other precincts will have both that white form and a tan one, which asks for party affiliation. But only Democratic races are contested.
“There’s no Republican primary,” Carr said. “It’s not that we won’t let them vote Republican, (but) there’s not one.”
The tan certificates include both state and city races, but white ones will be available for diehard Republicans who refuse to vote in a Democratic primary, she said.
No political endorsements -- hats, buttons, signs or shirts -- are allowed inside voting locations, Carr said.
She suggests that voters looking to finish quickly try casting their ballots in the middle of the day, rather than first thing in the morning or when many people are getting off work. Those are the busiest times.
The elderly and disabled can skip the line, even if they arrive at a busy time, Carr said.
She reminds voters to make sure their candidates’ names are on the final review screen before they cast their votes.
Voters are expected to have valid identification. If someone is registered but still lacks an ID, or fails to bring it, they can still cast a provisional paper ballot, Carr said. The vote will count -- if the person brings proof of identity and residence to the board of elections office by the following Friday, she said.
That proof could be a Social Security card, birth certificate, utility bill or bank statement bearing a local address, Carr said. Election clerks can match that with the person’s voter registration and issue a picture ID valid for future elections, she said.
To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489.
