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Girls Inc. question officials

• An informed group of young Albany women question seven female office holders.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — Female officeholders — some opposed in elections this year, some not — fielded tough questions Monday about their backgrounds and experience from an audience of girls aged 10-14.

Participants in Girls Incorporated’s summer leadership council, who knew the names of both candidates for Dougherty County coroner, popped a judge candidate with a question about facing a friend in the courtroom. Another asked a House candidate about her term on the Albany City Commission by the session’s end.

“I’d probably end up recusing myself,” answered Magistrate Judge Denise Marshall, who is seeking election as a Dougherty Superior Court Judge Nov. 4. “To avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

Marshall detailed her experience as a judge, from her first appointment by the Albany Commission to city judge, then by Dougherty State Court Judge John Salter to her post as magistrate.

“I’ve just about gotten all the appointments I can get,” she said.

This fall, Marshall is running for the judgeship held by Loring Gray, who announced his retirement.

“I am a politician. I guess I might as well be proud of that,” she said.

One of seven to participate in the forum, Marshall was one of three opposed this year for elected office. Albany Municipal Judge Willie Weaver, who serves on the Dougherty School Board, is seeking the same judgeship as Marshall.

Emily Jean McAfee said she’d sought her third and final term on the Dougherty School Board in 2006 and was not up for reelection this year.

“This summer is an at-large vacancy,” said McAfee, of ongoing school board races.

“I don’t really think of myself as a politician,” said McAfee, also a Girls Inc. trustee. “I think of myself as a public servant.”

Probate Judge Nancy Stephenson, who is unopposed for reelection to the nonpartisan post, noted that 68 percent of voters in the last Dougherty election were female, while 52 percent were black females.

Stephenson described campaigning as “an up and down thing, emotionally,” but a necessity to winning reelection.

Freddie Powell Sims, D-Albany, detailed her career in the state House, representing District 151 in eastern Dougherty County, when she served on the state education, transportation and economic development committees.

“Right now, I’m running for a new position,” Sims said.

In April, she and former Albany Representative John White announced they’d seek the Senate seat held by Michael Meyer von Bremen, D-Albany, for five terms. Soon after, former Albany Commissioner Carol Fullerton, who also attended the forum, announced she’d seek Sims’ House seat.

Albany Commissioner Dorothy Hubbard, who is not up for reelection this year, described the unusual turns her political career had taken — after seeking, and losing, a school board race, Hubbard gained an appointment to the city commission, then won the seat outright in a November 2005 election.

Her retirement plans to visit every mall in America had been interrupted.

“If anyone ever writes my life story,” said Hubbard, “I want them to understand that government is the people’s business, and I take the people’s business seriously.”

Fullerton, who has represented Albany’s wards 6 and 2 on the City Commission, described her work with non-profit organizations, including her first paid job with the Albany Girls Club, the precursor of Girls Inc.

“I do not have any opposition in the July 15 primary,” Fullerton said, though “a gentleman is trying to get enough signatures.”

The Rev. Rance Pettibone qualified as an Independent in June to run against Fullerton in November, if he obtains enough signatures on a petition due today.

Girls Inc. member Dana Watson asked the candidates what they would differently than incumbents in the position they’re seeking.

Dougherty Commissioner Muarlean Edwards said she was unopposed for reelection, but noted on the day before her 67th birthday the importance of PMS — “prayer, meditation and study.

“Learning never stops,” said Edwards, who had everyone write the name of an influential woman in their lives on a card.

Girls Inc. member Alexia Dixon asked Fullerton whether her involvement in the Albany City Commission’s decision on renaming North Jefferson Street would impact the political race.

“That was a very tough issue,” Fullerton said. “The streets that are already named for a person like the presidents, I don’t agree with changing the name of a street like that.”

McAfee added that voters ought to be concerned with “the platform going forward” and not a candidate’s history.

“I do think the gentleman who’s running against me in November will bring this up,” Fullerton said.

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