These candidates qualified for Macon-Bibb mayor and county commissioner elections

Macon-Bibb County voters now have the final list of candidates who will be on the ballot for the May 19 election for mayor and county commissioners.

Qualifying for the election ended at noon Friday after a week of candidates qualifying for a race.

The mayoral race has five candidates and the county commissioner races has 22 candidates for nine seats. The qualifying fee for the mayoral race was $3,000.

Early voting kicks off April 27, and the deadline to register to vote is April 19.

Here is the list of candidates for mayor and county commissioner alphabetically listed by last name.

Mayoral candidates

Lester Miller

Lester Miller qualified to run in the Macon-Bibb County mayoral election Wednesday. Miller has served as president of the Bibb County Board of Education and is an attorney and small business owner, according to a news release.

“I’m running for mayor of Macon because I want to make it a safer place to live for my children and everyone else’s children,” Miller said. “I’ve been campaigning for about two years and taking that last step on signing on the dotted line made it very real for me but also made me realize the time has come to step up my game and do what needs to be done for Macon.”

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was one of the first candidates to qualify Monday for the mayor race. Schlesinger has served as a Macon-Bibb County Commissioner since 2013 and Macon City Council since 2007, he said.

“It’s really just amazing the progress we’ve made over that time. There’s been so much development particularly in the downtown area which I represented on both the city council and the commission,” Schlesinger said. “What I really want to do is maintain the momentum. We really can’t afford to lose anything moving forward because we’ve come so far, and we just can’t turn around at this point.”

Blake Sullivan

Blake Sullivan, who qualified for the race Tuesday, is a Macon businessman who serves on the board of the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia and helped raise $2 million for the “Leader in Me” program in Bibb County Schools, according to his website.

“My father always instilled on me was that no matter where you live it’s your job, your responsibility to give back to your community, so ever since I became an adult, I‘ve tried to do that in everywhere I’ve lived,” Sullivan said. “I just feel like now’s the time to step up and try to help our city become what it can be, which is my vision for our city is for us to be the second best city in the state of Georgia.”

Cliffard Whitby

Cliffard Whitby, who served as chairman of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority and is CEO of Whitby, Inc., qualified for mayor Wednesday, according to a news release.

Whitby qualified under the name Clifford Whitby instead of the name on his campaign materials, which is Cliffard Whitby. Macon-Bibb County Board of Election officials said he was qualified under the spelling Clifford because that is the spelling on his birth certificate and driver’s license.

“I am running because it is time for residents from every corner of this community to come together and chart a new plan for the future,” Whitby said, in the release. “I refuse to remain silent on the issues of crime and violence in our beloved community. We cannot tolerate senseless crimes in Macon-Bibb. Enough is enough!”

Marc B. Whitfield

Marc B. Whitfield qualified for the race Friday morning and is a retired banker, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website. He could not be immediately reached for comment.

County commissioner

District 1

John M. Adams

Valerie Funck Wynn (Incumbent)

District 2

Paul William Bronson

Weston H. Stroud

District 3

Elaine H. Lucas (Incumbent)

District 4

Mallory C. Jones III (Incumbent)

George Elton Thomas Jr.

District 5

Seth Cansler Clark

Louie Lamar Hargrove

Carlton Kitchens

Erion Smith

District 6

Robert Lavoid Abbot

Donald Lee Druitt Sr.

Raymond Eugene Wilder

District 7

Bill Howell

Timothy Rivers

Bonnie H. Thompson

District 8

Stacy Renee Jenkins

Michele Yvonne Parks

Virgil Watkins Jr. (Incumbent)

District 9

Brendalyn C. Bailey

Al Tillman (Incumbent)

This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 3:47 PM.