5 qualify for special election in Georgia’s Senate District 30

Four Republican challengers, including former state House Speaker Glenn Richardson, and one independent have qualified to run for state Senate District 30.

Richardson will face longtime state Rep. Bill Hembree, R-Winston; Jim Naughton, a Carroll County businessman; and Mike Dugan, a Carrollton building contractor, on a special Republican primary ballot Nov. 6 — the same day as the general election.

The race is especially notable because it represents Richardson’s first public attempt to rehabilitate his image. He resigned from office in 2009 after a suicide attempt and news of an affair with a lobbyist.

Whoever wins the primary contest will face Libertarian candidate James Camp, a Temple-based information technology worker, in a special general election Jan. 8. There is no special Democratic primary because none qualified earlier this year against the seat’s incumbent, Sen. Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton.

District 30 includes portions of Carroll, Douglas and Paulding counties. The deadline to qualify was noon Friday. The seat came open after Gov. Nathan Deal named Hamrick a Superior Court judge on the Coweta Judicial Circuit.

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