Local & State Headlines

Four to vie for seat

• Four candidates qualify for the special primary to fill the late Art Searles’ vacant seat.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — At 11:58 a.m. Wednesday, there were five candidates who’d thrown their hat into the ring for the special Nov. 4 Democratic primary to fill the seat of late District 5 Commissioner Art Searles, and two more well-known local political figures were sitting in a conference room at the Government Center, ready to join the fray.

When the clock hit noon, though, the candidate count had been reduced to four, and that number will vie to move into the commission’s vacant seat.

Builder Harry James, who lost in the July 15 primary to Searles, was waiting for qualifying to open Monday at 9 a.m., and he was the first to join the race. Ex-military man and current Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany civil service manager Raymond Breaux threw his hat into the ring Tuesday, and real estate broker Hank Young, transport consultant Gloria Gaines and Holiness minister Henry Brown completed their paperwork Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, community activist and former NAACP President William Wright had his paperwork completed and a money order in hand, ready to make a third run for elected office minutes before the noon deadline. The odds were shortened at two minutes before the deadline when Young’s wife came to collect his paperwork and announced Young had decided not to run.

Former City Commissioner Arthur Williams entered the conference room with the seconds ticking down, looked over the list of candidates who had qualified, then went into a nearby anteroom to talk briefly with Wright. When they returned to the room, both said they had decided not to run for the seat.

“It’s like playing poker; you’ve got to know when to fold ’em,” Wright said as he left the room.

Williams, meanwhile, who had said of the qualified candidates “with these applicants, there will be a learning process,” hinted that he was considering other public service options.

So then there were four, and as Dougherty Democratic Party Chair Constance Burkes said, “The table is now set for them, but it’s up to the candidates to bring food to the table.”

Gaines, who worked with MARTA in Atlanta for 23 years and left the authority as assistant general manager, pointed to her Albany roots as her reason for seeking office.

“I’m a fourth-generation Albanian,” she said Wednesday. “I was born on land that my ex-slave great grandparents acquired in Dougherty County, and I knew that no matter what I did in my life, I would eventually come back home.

“I’ve been back in Albany for two years, long enough to know the ins and outs of the city. I kept up with what was going on the entire time I was gone.”

The Albany State College/Georgia State University graduate, who said she lost in a 2002 Atlanta general assembly race by 21 votes, said she has studied government systems and planning in such diverse places as Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, Africa, London and Paris. Her 40 years of private and public service, she said, have prepared her to work with the Dougherty County Commission.

Also, she wants to repay a debt to Searles.

“I had the greatest respect for Mr. Searles,” she said. “When I had an issue here before, he helped me, and I saw that that is what a commissioner is supposed to do for his constituents.”

Brown, who is pastor at the House of Prayer by Faith Church: God’s Hospital, said his 40 years in Albany have prepared him to address the issues that are important to the community.

“I sincerely want to help this community,” he said. “I’m concerned about the (ecology), and I’m concerned about consolidation, which, by the way, I’m against. Based on what I’ve heard from people in places like Columbus and Macon, consolidation is not a good idea. We stand to lose a lot of jobs.”

And while the field for the District 5 seat is rather crowded, Brown said he’s the best candidate.

“I’m real,” he said. “I have the community at heart, and the people in the district will know they can count on me.”

Breaux, who served tours in Vietnam and Iraq with the U.S. Army, said he was Searles’ protege and looked forward to continuing the work of the late commissioner.

“Art and I were good friends, and he really introduced me to this community,” the University of Maryland graduate said. “He had me appointed to the Southwest Georgia Regional Development Center (authority), and he spent a lot of time showing me the ropes around here.

“Art knew that I planned to eventually run for political office, and he was preparing me as his protege. What I plan to do is continue the work he was doing. He always tried to do what was right, and that’s what I want to do. I want to work for the people.”

If none of the four candidates receives 50 percent plus 1 of the vote during the special primary, an election runoff will be held at a date to be determined by elections officials.