Anti-airport commercialization candidates win races in Paulding

An anti-airport commercialization effort among residents in Paulding County got a political boost when two anti-airport commercialization candidates won races for key seats on the county commission in the primary elections Tuesday.

Tony Crowe and Vernon Collett each won their races in the Republican primaries for seats on the Paulding County Board of Commissioners, according to unofficial election results. Crowe got nearly 59 percent of the vote, while Collett got nearly 62 percent of the vote.

A third anti-airport commercialization commission candidate, Democrat Patti Smith, also won with 71.3 percent of the vote against fellow Democrat Patton Hughes, a pro-airport candidate. In the November election, Smith will face incumbent Todd Pownall, a Republican who is also against the airport commercialization, and independent candidate Mike Pope.

That could give anti-airport commercialization commissioners a majority on the five-person Paulding county commission.

It remains to be seen what that would mean for efforts to commercialize Paulding’s airport.

Voter turnout in Paulding County was about 14.4 percent.