If Clayton County's election results are any indication, voters appear to be satisfied with the direction their county is headed. Incumbents in the county's top three jobs easily won re-election, including Sheriff Victor Hill who heads to trial later this month in Gwinnett County for accidentally shooting a friend last year.
Once maligned and held up as a regional cautionary tale for real and perceived problems with crime, its school system, and economic development, Clayton officials pointed to improvements in those areas en route to re-election. Winning last month’s primary is a definitive victory for the incumbents in the heavily democratic county since there are no face-offs with Republican candidates in the fall.
• District attorney Tracy Graham Lawson and Commission Chairman Jeff Turner repeatedly noted during their re-election bid that Clayton has the lowest crime index per capita of metro Atlanta’s five core counties.
• Not too long ago, Clayton's school system held the distinction of being the only school district in the country to be stripped of its accreditation. Its accreditation has since been restored. It recently was the only school district to see its schools removed from a list of at-risk schools headed for state takeover.
• County leaders are overhauling zoning codes to improve the county’s look and image. SPLOST projects that sat dormant for nearly a decade are underway. As a result, neighborhoods are finally getting sidewalks and roads are being repaved. And next month, county officials are expected to unveil an updated Economic Strategic Plan that will serve as a roadmap for the county over the next five years.
“It’s a positive outlook for our county,” Turner said Friday. “Our public safety officials are doing a great job in keeping crime down and serving our community. The school system’s doing a good job. We’re working collaboratively with them. I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing and looking forward to the next term.”
No incumbents were running in any of the three races facing runoffs in July.
“If you’re doing good and citizens are satisfied with you, they’re going to vote you back in. If they’re not satisfied, they’ll vote you out,” said Lance Robertson, head of Robertson Media Group, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in marketing, economic and political consulting.
While incumbents ruled, they did so with a backdrop of low voter turnout. Clayton has about 117,691 registered voters. A little more than 20,000 of those voters participated in the May 24 primary.
The election results in Clayton show that “Incumbents have a built-in advantage, high name recognition,”said Robert A. “Bob” Holmes, former Georgia legislator and retired Clark Atlanta University professor who headed the university’s Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy.
Wade Starr, a longtime Clayton resident who came in second in the three-person race for commission chairman, said the results show that people are happy with their current government.
“I don’t have any animus. I accepted what (the voters) basically said and that is they’re satisfied with the status quo,” Starr said. “I wasn’t. That’s why I ran but I accept the will of the people.”
Meanwhile, the popularity of Clayton's controversial sheriff held firm against four primary opponents. Although exonerated on previous charges involving racketeering, theft by taking and violation of his oath office, Hill now faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct for shooting former real estate broker Gwenevere McCord in the stomach. McCord and her family as well as Hill have said the shooting was an accident. McCord is recovering from her injuries her father said recently.
School board member Jessie Goree, who ran unopposed in the primary, illustrated Hill’s popularity by recalling a case where a woman was planning a birthday party for her mother who was turning 86. The woman ran into Hill and asked him on the off-chance if he’d stop by her mother’s party. Hill showed up and “deputized” the birthday celebrant by giving her one of his sheriff’s deputy pins.
“She’s a deputy now. She goes around telling people ‘you better cut your grass’.” Goree chuckled.
“He’s just more personable and interested in the well-being of the constituents and the county. How else do you get re-elected and you’ve got five people in the race?”
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