Though they are counties in two separate regional commissions and judicial circuits, Coweta and Fayette voters did have a couple of primary races on common. Those included the race for the District 3 Congressional seat and the race for the District 71 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. Beyond those races there were plenty of others for voters’ consideration, especially in Fayette County.
For Dist. 3 incumbent Congressman Lynn Westmoreland in a field of three candidates the race was essentially no contest. Westmoreland across the 13-county district took 71.63 percent of the 90,389 votes cast. Republican challenger Kent Kingsley received 12,510 votes, 13.84 percent, and “Chip” Flanegan received 13,134, 14.53 percent.
Specific to Coweta and Fayette, Westmoreland received 71.52 percent of the vote in Coweta, with Flanegan receiving 16.29 percent and Kingsley taking 12.18 percent. And in Fayette, Westmoreland took 66.51 percent of the Fayette vote followed by Kingsley at 19.23 percent and Flanegan at 14.26 percent.
The Dist. 71 seat in the Georgia House featured Darryl Marmon and Robert Stokely. The district covers much of east Coweta County along with the area in Peachtree City situated north of Ga. Highway 54 and west of Ga. Highway 74. The race had Robert Stokely winning handily by taking 72 percent, or 5,497 votes, in the two-county race compared to the 28 percent, or 2,099 votes, that went to Marmon. A breakdown of the results showed Stokely taking 73.77 percent of the votes in Fayette and 72.30 percent in Coweta while Marmon received 26.23 percent of the votes in Fayette and 27.7 percent in Coweta.
The only other contested race in Coweta was for Superior Court Judge in the Coweta Judicial Circuit, where Emory Palmer narrowly defeated Kevin McMurry. Palmer received 50.77 percent of the 48,158 votes cast across the 5-county circuit compared to the 49.11 percent garnered by McMurry.
Across Line Creek in Fayette County, contested races were the order of the day in the July 31 primary.
Fayette County Sheriff Wayne Hannah will serve only one term, having been defeated by former Fayette deputy Barry Babb. The upset saw Babb ending the night with 13,108 votes compared to 7,362 for Hannah.
There will be a runoff for the Post 3 seat on the Fayette County Commission between Randy Ognio and incumbent Lee Hearn. After the votes were tallied Hearn had received 7,428 votes and Ognio received 8,471. Taking third place was Susan Stopford with 3,589 votes.
A runoff for the Post 2 county commission seat will also be needed since David Barlow garnered 7,619 votes compared to the 7,355 votes received by Sheila Huddleston. Jack Smith in the July 31 primary received 3,898 votes.
The evening’s third county commission race, Post 1, was won by Charles W. Oddo who took 13,660 votes compared to the 6,084 votes for incumbent Robert Horgan.
Fayette County Board of Education candidates Barry Marchman and Mary Kay Bacallao won election for their seats. Marchman in the Post 1 race defeated Scott Hollowell 10,641 votes to 7,875. And in the Post 2 race, Bacallao defeated Gary Griffin 12,308 votes to 5,732. Bacallao will face a challenge in the general election from incumbent Democrat Terri Smith.
Incumbent Fayette County State Court Judge Carla McMillian won by nearly a 2 to 1 margin and Jason Thompson won the Post 1 seat on the Fayette County Magistrate Court. McMillian received 16,553 votes while Stephen Ott took 8,385 votes. And in the race for magistrate judge, Thompson received 13,133 votes compared to the 10,723 received by Catherine Sanderson.
The final items on the July 31 ballot in both counties dealt with Sunday alcohol sales in the unincorporated areas.
Fayette voters approved Sunday package sales in the unincorporated areas by a margin of 65.10 percent to 34.90 percent.
Coweta voters gave the nod to Sunday alcohol by the drink in the unincorporated areas by a margin of 62.61 percent to 37.39 percent. And in a similar move, Sunday package sales in the unincorporated areas passed 62.67 percent to 37.33 percent.
