A recount of votes from the Aug. 21 primary runoff election has confirmed that Mike Beaudreau’s days as a Gwinnett County commissioner are numbered.
The recount conducted late Tuesday showed Beaudreau lost to fellow Republican Tommy Hunter by 57 votes in the race for commission District 3. Hunter faces no Democratic opposition in November and will take office in January.
The incumbent’s loss means a complete turnover on the five-member County Commission in just two years.
“It’s sweet to win twice in the same month,” Hunter said after the recount.
Beaudreau was seeking his third term on the commission. But a host of controversies — including the resignation of fellow commissioners Shirley Lasseter and Kevin Kenerly amid bribery allegations — fueled voter discontent that seemed to work against the incumbent.
Beaudreau was not implicated in any wrongdoing. But he drew three Republican opponents this year, and some claim he could have done more to prevent what they see as a culture of corruption in Gwinnett.
Beaudreau isn’t the only incumbent voted out of office in the Aug. 21 runoff. Eleven of 13 Metro Atlanta incumbents lost in the election.
Beaudreau said the various controversies, a general anti-incumbent sentiment and low voter turnout in the runoff cost him the election.
“We still nearly won in spite of all that,” he said.
Hunter won’t be the only new commissioner. Jace Brooks, who won the Republican primary election to fill Lasseter’s seat, faces no opposition in the November general election. Unlike Hunter, he’ll likely take office before the end of the year.
Brooks is the only candidate in a special election — to be held the day of the November general election — to fill Lasseter’s unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31. He could attend his first commission meeting in November.
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