Utility donors, court case figure in PSC race

Early this year, the race for the District 4 state Public Service Commission seat looked like a shoo-in.

But then the incumbent, Republican Angela Speir, announced she wouldn’t run.

The District 4 race became one of the state’s feistier downticket campaigns.

While Republican candidate Lauren McDonald defends himself from accusations that he’s too tied to the state’s utilities, Democrat Jim Powell doesn’t even know if he’s on the ballot.

More than a month after voting started in Georgia and five days before it ends, Powell’s candidacy is in the hands of the state Supreme Court.

The state PSC regulates rates and spending at Georgia Power, Atlanta Gas Light and smaller utilities, and oversees the state’s deregulated gas and telephone markets.

District 4 is one of two PSC races on the ballot. The other is District 1.

PSC members run statewide, but out of one of five geographic districts.

District 4 stretches northeast from Gwinnett County.

District 1 is in South Georgia.

Three candidates are vying for the District 4 seat now held by Speir.

Republican McDonald, 69, of Clarkesville, is a former Democratic commissioner who lost to Speir six years ago, when Democrats lost all over the state.

He is running on his experience as a commissioner and a state legislator and on his strong backing for nuclear expansion in Georgia.

Democrat Powell, 59, of Hiawassee retired from the Department of Energy.

He says he’ll be a consumer advocate and bashes McDonald for accepting campaign money from people tied to utilities. Powell has not received utility-related contributions and says he won’t accept them.

McDonald says his utility-tied donations are legal, properly reported and, given his long public service career, unsurprising.

Powell, meanwhile, is still fighting a residency challenge filed by a Democratic primary opponent. Powell won his case twice, only to have Secretary of State Karen Handel fight the rulings.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments on Handel’s latest appeal last week.

Handel says he’s disqualified because he didn’t move his homestead exemption to his district in time.

The District 4 Libertarian candidate is Brandon Givens, of Gainesville, a school teacher and former social worker.

Like Powell, he opposes accepting contributions from the utilities the PSC regulates. He supports removing barriers to smaller energy producers who want to compete in Georgia.

In the other PSC race, Republican Doug Everett, 70, of Albany faces Libertarian John Monds, 43, of Cairo.

Everett has been a PSC member since 2002 and is an advocate for rural Georgia and South Georgia.

He often votes with utilities. But he has opposed them on key votes such as those on limits on private communication between utilities and commissioners.

Monds is a full-time father, home school teacher and active community volunteer.

Monds favors more competition in energy markets and stricter limits on private communications with commissioners.

Monds also filed a residency complaint against his opponent, based on the fact that Everett owns property only in North Georgia —- outside his district, where he rents an apartment from his son.

Handel’s office is not pursuing it.