Two are now in the running to represent District 6 on the Richmond County Board of Education with the withdrawal of William H. Johnson, Jr.
Two are running for mayor and three for a council seat in the musical chairs that comprise the Blythe city government.
The special called election for the three posts will be held March 21. Advance voting will be held Feb. 27 through Mar. 17 and include Saturday voting on March 4 and 11 at Augusta Municipal Building. Absentee ballot applications are also available.
Johnson, who heads the Hephzibah High School Alumni Association, didn’t return a message seeking comment about why he decided not to run.
School system parent advocate Monique Braswell said Johnson told her the school board wasn’t for him.
“He’s a boots-on-the-ground person. He preferred working one-on-one with the teachers, students and parents,” she said.
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Braswell supports candidate Laura Green, the owner of Learning Tree Christian Academy, a daycare on Tobacco Road.
The most active candidate is Ed Lowery, a former government employee who works in the funeral business.
Lowery’s Feb. 2 fundraiser at Gracewood Community Center sold more than 100 tickets, said former commissioner Moses Todd, who is working on the campaign.
The special election is being held due to the death of trustee-elect Tyrique Robinson, who died shortly after the election.
District 6 sits near the geographic center of Richmond County, primarily south of Bobby Jones Expressway.
Blythe candidates line up
In Blythe, which has had three mayors in the last five years, voters will elect a mayor and one at-large council member in the special election.
For mayor, former Blythe mayor Tom Cobb, an Army retiree, and former councilman Ed LaJoie, a maintenance mechanic, are running.
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LaJoie resigned his council post a few days after Curt St. Germaine resigned as mayor Jan. 12. St. Germaine said he and LaJoie were constantly at odds with the three other members of the Blythe council.
In the race for city council, mechanic and former mayor Phillip Stewart is running. Stewart, who was mayor from 2018-2021, is an ally of sitting Blythe Councilman Daniel Martin, who has pending charges of buying votes for Stewart in the 2018 election.
Also running for the council seat are former candidate Rebecca Bartlett Newsome and solar energy specialist Michael Rineer.
The town of around 700 sits near the Richmond-Burke county line.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
