One candidate puts people to sleep before operations. The other prepares tax forms.
But on Friday night, the debate was anything but sleepy when Alison Couch attacked incumbent Columbia County Commissioner Dewey Galeas, calling him pompous and said he was out of touch with residents in District 4.
“His pompous attitude lends himself to be unapproachable and unrelatable to our everyday citizens,” Couch said. “He uses intimidation, bullying and gaslighting tactics to ensure he gets his way.”
For his part, Galeas said he would not run a dirty campaign, though he did talk about how he helped block a proposed hotel in Appling and that Couch and her father had emailed him asking for his assistance help prevent the hotel from getting approved.
“That’s your job,” Couch retorted.
Couch and Galeas are seeking to win the May 24th Republican primary election. No other candidates, Democrats or other party, filed to run in District 4, so whoever wins the primary will win the election.
The last time the two candidates debated, the entire affair was cordial. This time, the event was still somewhat subdued, with Couch reading from a prepared script when she criticized Galeas.
She also accused him of refusing to speak with the elected officials of Harlem. Galeas said that wasn’t true and that when he has gone to Harlem City Council meetings the mayor and council members refuse to recognize him as an elected official and said if he wanted to speak at the meeting he would have to fill out a form and wait for the public portion of the meeting.
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Galeas, who is an anesthetist, did take one shot at Couch, who is a tax accountant. He said she had declined an invitation for a debate on April 18, which was the deadline to file federal income taxes. He asked if she would be able to handle her job and the demands of a county commission seat.
Couch said her employees could do the job without her.
Both candidates talked about their core values, with Galeas talking about the values he learned in the Army and Couch referencing how she said she was called upon by God to run.
More earthly and local issues were also discussed, such as “traffic Hell” in Grovetown, as Couch described it, and mismanagement of the water system in the small Columbia County town of Harlem, as Galeas described it.
After the debate, Couch said she decided to be more critical of Galeas because “I felt a different approach for this debate was necessary…so I have no regrets, win or lose, in this election.”
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.comÂ
