About the candidates
Nancy Jester
Hometown: Dunwoody
Occupation: Actuarial consultant
Political experience: Former DeKalb County Board of Education member; previously ran for Georgia superintendent
Agenda: Create financial transparency with government website, providing one-click access to county spending records
Website: http://nancyjester.com/
Holmes Pyles
Hometown: Unincorporated DeKalb County near Stone Mountain
Occupation: Retired state government employee
Political experience: This will be Pyles’ first campaign for elected office.
Agenda: Bring honesty and life experience to the DeKalb Commission
Website: None
North DeKalb voters will pick their next county commissioner in a runoff election Tuesday between a Republican former school board member and an independent state government retiree with no political experience.
The candidates for DeKalb County Commission, Nancy Jester and Holmes Pyles, both said they would restore integrity to a county tarnished by corruption allegations. The winner will replace disgraced Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who resigned in August and pleaded guilty to defrauding taxpayers of more than $93,000.
The district is made up of more than 140,000 residents in Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville, Dunwoody and Tucker.
Pyles unexpectedly received the most votes in this month’s general election as support was split among his four Republican opponents.
The 86-year-old Pyles hasn’t campaigned much, and he doesn’t have a campaign website. He promised honest representation with “no shenanigans” if he’s elected.
“I just think government can be operating much more efficiently,” Pyles said. “We could lower the budget possibly, or at least make the people spending the money accountable for what they spent it for.”
Jester said she has more concrete proposals than Pyles for how to fix the county’s woes.
She said she would crack down on wasteful spending, create easy online access to county financial records and be readily accessible to talk with constituents about their concerns.
“This election is about restoring dignity and credibility, as well as helping guide DeKalb County as a whole in the right direction,” Jester said. “Voters should expect that I will seek out corruption, waste and abuse where I see it.”
Though Pyles doesn’t use email and acknowledges he’s not familiar with the county budget, he said his experience qualifies him for the job.
He worked as a toxicologist in the Georgia crime lab, a chemist for the Georgia agriculture lab and an industrial hygienist for an insurance company before retiring.
He said he’d look out for small businesses and cut red tape.
“We’ve let bureaucrats take over and start making all the rules,” Pyles said. “The county has gone into making fees for everything you get out of the county, and your tax dollars go to the bureaucracy.”
Jester, who previously ran for the Republican nomination for state schools superintendent earlier this year, said her experience on the DeKalb Board of Education and as an actuarial consultant gave her deep financial knowledge that would inform her decisions on how to spend the public’s money.
“I’ll have an eagle eye on the budget,” Jester said. “If you don’t know how government finance works, that’s how you get the scandals.”
Jester reported raising $7,322 for her campaign as of Oct. 21, and Pyles didn’t file a financial disclosure. He said he hasn’t raised money, and his biggest expense was to print campaign business cards.
No other race will be on Tuesday’s ballot, and turnout likely will be “microscopic,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University.
In a low-turnout election, the winner is often the candidate with the most name recognition, money and ability to get friends to the polls, Swint said.
“Pyles might be considered a fringe figure. He might be considered a novelty-type candidate, and he might not have much depth of support,” Swint said. “Jester, on the other hand, is a more known quality, and she has higher name identification.”
About 55 percent of district’s 76,000 registered votes cast ballots in this month’s general election.
Through late Monday afternoon, a total of about 450 people had cast absentee or early ballots for the runoff, according to DeKalb’s elections office. The runoff will cost about $75,000.
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