Crowded field will compete in DeKalb Commission election
Ten candidates are running in a quick campaign to restore representation to southeast DeKalb County, which has lacked a county commissioner for almost two years.
Candidate qualifying for the race ended today, four weeks before a June 16 special election to settle the long impasse over who should occupy the District 5 seat. With so many candidates, a runoff on July 14 appears likely.
The special election will be held because Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May recently resigned the county commission seat. He has instead been serving as the county's chief executive since July 2013, when Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him to replace suspended CEO Burrell Ellis.
The candidates are:
- Gregory Adams, an Emory University police officer and pastor.
- Harmel Deanne Codi, a former DeKalb County employee and government watchdog.
- Jerome Edmondson, who owns calls centers in DeKalb and abroad.
- Gwen Russell Green, a school librarian, poet and essayist.
- Vaughn Irons, the CEO of APD Solutions, a property development company, and the chairman of the board for the DeKalb Development Authority.
- Mereda Davis Johnson, the wife of U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson and a former DeKalb magistrate judge.
- Gina Mangham, an attorney and mediator who worked to prevent a biomass facility from being built.
- Kathryn Rice, the leader of a movement to form a city of Greenhaven in South DeKalb.
- Kenneth Saunders III, a technology consultant and vice president of the Hidden Hills Civic Association.
- George Turner, a retired MARTA executive and the president of the District 5 Community Council.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
