North DeKalb elects Jester to county commission
Nancy Jester, a Republican who pledged to keep a sharp watch over taxpayer money, won a runoff election Tuesday to represent more than 140,000 North DeKalb County residents as their commissioner.
Jester replaces former DeKalb Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who resigned in disgrace in August and pleaded guilty to federal charges that she defrauded taxpayers of more than $93,000.
Jester, an actuarial consultant who previously served on the DeKalb school board, soundly defeated Holmes Pyles, an 86-year-old retired state government employee who had never before run for office.
She campaigned on promises to clean up DeKalb’s government and provide public access to county finances.
“We’re going to be very transparent,” Jester said. “It’s a new day for District 1. They’re going to get a new level of service and accessibility.”
Jester plans to remove Boyer’s staff members from the county’s payroll, create a website that shows her office’s spending and make herself available to constituents.
She’ll represent Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville, Dunwoody, Tucker and surrounding areas as the only Republican on the seven-member DeKalb Commission.
With no other races on the ballot, 7 percent of registered voters showed up at the polls. About 56 percent of North DeKalb’s more than 74,000 registered voters participated in last month’s election.
One of the rare voters to cast a ballot, Jerry Bigelow, said he supported Jester in hopes of continuing Republican electoral victories in Georgia and across the nation.
“I liked the way the general election went, and I want to continue that trend,” said Bigelow after voting at Huntley Hills Elementary in Chamblee. “We need good representation, and I think Nancy will give it to us.”
The runoff election was needed because none of the five candidates in the Nov. 4 election received more than 50 percent of the vote.
In that race, Pyles was the sole independent candidate on the ballot, and he received the most votes as support was split among his four Republican opponents.
Jester will serve the remaining two years of Boyer’s four-year term before facing re-election.
She previously sought the Republican nomination for state schools superintendent earlier this year, finishing fifth in a nine-way race.
Before that, she was one of six DeKalb school board members removed by Gov. Nathan Deal in February 2013 after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting agency put the school district on probation over alleged mismanagement.
Her husband, Stan Jester, ran unopposed this year for the school board seat she previously held, meaning their family will hold sway over both county government and education.
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.
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