The race for a yearlong stint on the Augusta Commission is drawing interest, with area officials including the Richmond County sheriff lining up behind their preferred candidates.
Sheriff Gino Brantley appeared in a brief video that dropped Monday endorsing Tanya Barnhill-Turnley in the District 4 special election. “I’m standing with Mrs. Tanya Barnhill-Turnley for District 4 commissioner,” Brantley says in the clip,
Barnhill-Turnley, who owns a consulting business, faces Lonnie Wimberly, a retired Army command sergeant major. The two candidates are vying to fill the seat vacated by Commissioner Alvin Mason, who resigned in June for health reasons.
The Nov. 4 winner will serve out Mason’s term, which ends next December, and would continue 2026 budget discussions that include grappling with a projected $21 million deficit. A regular election for the next full term will follow in May 2026.
Barnhill-Turnley, who owns a consulting business, and Wimberly crossed paths earlier this year as both served on Augusta’s Charter Review Committee until the commission named her interim commissioner in July, with Mason’s strong endorsement.
Some of her other vocal support came from the commission itself, or from charter review members appointed by each commissioner and the mayor.
Mason’s longtime campaign manager, Barnhill-Turnley “knows the type of leadership that District 4 is used to,” Mason said in a campaign video.
Her supporters include three members of the Charter Review Committee — Charlie Coleman, Lee Powell and Roderick Pearson, Mayor Garnett Johnson’s appointee — as well as Commissioner Don Clark.
“I’m telling you out of my mouth, this is who I want in my foxhole,” Clark said.
Coleman, appointed to the charter committee by Commissioner Brandon Garrett, called Barnhill-Turnley “the future of this government.”
Barnhill-Turnley was endorsed by Venus Cain, the Super District 9 school board trustee since 2006. “Tanya will make a very good commissioner for District 4,” Cain said on a video.
Wimberly’s supporters haven’t been as active on social media, but include several from the local Democratic establishment who serve in Atlanta: Sen. Harold Jones, Rep. Karlton Howard and Rep. LC Myles, as well as former Rep. Gloria Frazier and her husband, former schools trustee Wayne Frazier.
The former president of the Richmond County Neighborhood Association Alliance, Wimberly’s endorsements come from Super District 9 Commissioner Francine Scott, who appointed him to the charter committee, schools trustee Monique Braswell, former schools trustee Patsy Scott and the Rev. Anthony Booker.
