Taking nonpartisan elections a step further beyond judges. School board members doable now. Sheriffs? Maybe in the future.
Part I. Nonpartisan election of school board members:
Official Code of Georgia Annotated Section 21-2-139(a) provides in pertinent part that "the General Assembly may provide by local Act for the election in nonpartisan elections of candidates to fill county judicial offices [and] offices of local school boards . . . ."
This Code Section also provides for other nonpartisan elections, but only for "offices of consolidated governments . . . ."
I do hope we have had our last partisan school board elections in Coffee County. If you would find this change desirable in your county, contact your local House and Senate representatives to discuss a change.
Your local state representatives will want to check with your local board of education to make sure they concur, and assuming they do, your representatives will get legislative counsel in Atlanta to draft the local legislation, have the proposed legislation duly advertised in your county's legal organ, etc. Legislative counsel also will help determine if there is any local legislation creating your our board of education that will be affected by this change, etc., that needs to be noted in the legislation.
Local legislation is usually routinely passed by both legislative bodies if your local representatives introduce it in their respective chambers. Passage is not guaranteed, but as a rule, deference is usually given to your local legislators since they generally have the backing of the local government for whom a legislative change is sought.
It is of course possible that the unwritten rules about granting legislative courtesy to another legislator's local legislation will not be observed this year with the GOP's take over of both legislative bodies, the argument against making anything nonpartisan being sure they -- the Democrats -- want it nonpartisan. But this is not my prediction.
With the upcoming legislative session around the corner, if this change appeals to you or your local leaders and school board, you need to get the ball rolling in the couple of months (of course there is always the next legislative session in 2006 if you miss this one).
Part II. What about other county officers, e.g. clerk, sheriff, county commissioners, etc.?
This Part II assumes you do not live in a county with a consolidated government. If you do, you proceed under Part I as noted above with local legislation.
The applicable part of the Georgia Constitution pertaining to county officers is Article 9, Section 1, Section 3. It provides in pertinent part:
"(a). The clerk of the superior court, judge of the probate court, sheriff, . . . and tax commissioner . . . shall be elected by the qualified voters of their respective counties for terms of four years and shall have such qualifications, powers, and duties as provided by general law."
I would like to see Georgia law changed so that counties could, through local legislation, have the offices of county commissioners, clerk of the superior court, judge of the probate court, sheriff, probate judge, tax commissioner (some counties have a different office here), coroner, surveyor and whatever else I am overlooking, be added to the offices of judges and school board members that can be elected on a nonpartisan basis.
Do I think, given the GOP's takeover of state government on Nov. 2, that such legislation would have a chance in the upcoming legislative session?
A couple of years ago an attempt was made to get this change through with respect to sheriffs. It had some momentum, but got killed.
Despite have been told flat out by a state legislator this week that this would never happen given the Republican takeover on Nov. 2, don't bet against it. I expect to see legislation introduced and passed that will allow sheriffs to run on a nonpartisan basis.
If this passes, and your county opts for this procedure, as soon as the next election, sheriffs, just as are our State Court, Superior Court, Court of Appeals Judges and Supreme Court Justices (and other judges such as magistrates if this has been done through local legislation), would run on a nonpartisan basis on the primary date.
If this legislations is introduced and becomes law, perhaps it will help provide impetus for allowing other county offices to be on a nonpartisan basis.
Die-hard party members in general seem not to particularly like the idea of anything not be partisan, and I understand such thinking.
I am a strong Party person, but in the local setting, nonpartisan transcends one's party. We are talking about what is best for our whole county -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents. And this is true regardless of the adage that all politics is local.
Stay tuned with respect to the legislation, if any, on sheriffs.
Official Code of Georgia Annotated Section 21-2-139(a) provides in pertinent part that "the General Assembly may provide by local Act for the election in nonpartisan elections of candidates to fill county judicial offices [and] offices of local school boards . . . ."
This Code Section also provides for other nonpartisan elections, but only for "offices of consolidated governments . . . ."
I do hope we have had our last partisan school board elections in Coffee County. If you would find this change desirable in your county, contact your local House and Senate representatives to discuss a change.
Your local state representatives will want to check with your local board of education to make sure they concur, and assuming they do, your representatives will get legislative counsel in Atlanta to draft the local legislation, have the proposed legislation duly advertised in your county's legal organ, etc. Legislative counsel also will help determine if there is any local legislation creating your our board of education that will be affected by this change, etc., that needs to be noted in the legislation.
Local legislation is usually routinely passed by both legislative bodies if your local representatives introduce it in their respective chambers. Passage is not guaranteed, but as a rule, deference is usually given to your local legislators since they generally have the backing of the local government for whom a legislative change is sought.
It is of course possible that the unwritten rules about granting legislative courtesy to another legislator's local legislation will not be observed this year with the GOP's take over of both legislative bodies, the argument against making anything nonpartisan being sure they -- the Democrats -- want it nonpartisan. But this is not my prediction.
With the upcoming legislative session around the corner, if this change appeals to you or your local leaders and school board, you need to get the ball rolling in the couple of months (of course there is always the next legislative session in 2006 if you miss this one).
Part II. What about other county officers, e.g. clerk, sheriff, county commissioners, etc.?
This Part II assumes you do not live in a county with a consolidated government. If you do, you proceed under Part I as noted above with local legislation.
The applicable part of the Georgia Constitution pertaining to county officers is Article 9, Section 1, Section 3. It provides in pertinent part:
"(a). The clerk of the superior court, judge of the probate court, sheriff, . . . and tax commissioner . . . shall be elected by the qualified voters of their respective counties for terms of four years and shall have such qualifications, powers, and duties as provided by general law."
I would like to see Georgia law changed so that counties could, through local legislation, have the offices of county commissioners, clerk of the superior court, judge of the probate court, sheriff, probate judge, tax commissioner (some counties have a different office here), coroner, surveyor and whatever else I am overlooking, be added to the offices of judges and school board members that can be elected on a nonpartisan basis.
Do I think, given the GOP's takeover of state government on Nov. 2, that such legislation would have a chance in the upcoming legislative session?
A couple of years ago an attempt was made to get this change through with respect to sheriffs. It had some momentum, but got killed.
Despite have been told flat out by a state legislator this week that this would never happen given the Republican takeover on Nov. 2, don't bet against it. I expect to see legislation introduced and passed that will allow sheriffs to run on a nonpartisan basis.
If this passes, and your county opts for this procedure, as soon as the next election, sheriffs, just as are our State Court, Superior Court, Court of Appeals Judges and Supreme Court Justices (and other judges such as magistrates if this has been done through local legislation), would run on a nonpartisan basis on the primary date.
If this legislations is introduced and becomes law, perhaps it will help provide impetus for allowing other county offices to be on a nonpartisan basis.
Die-hard party members in general seem not to particularly like the idea of anything not be partisan, and I understand such thinking.
I am a strong Party person, but in the local setting, nonpartisan transcends one's party. We are talking about what is best for our whole county -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents. And this is true regardless of the adage that all politics is local.
Stay tuned with respect to the legislation, if any, on sheriffs.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:03 AM
1 Comments:
Good morning!
I have always thought it would be a wonderful idea to have local municipal races be non-partisan. I think that the most qualified candidate should be elected as Tax Commissioner, Clerk of Court or Sheriff, not the democrat or republican.
I believe it is not fair that as in our case here, we had 2 Clerk of Court candidates and 2 Tax Commissioner candidates, both republican. We democrats didn't even have the opportunity to vote for one them in the primary. We got the leftover in November~ That is just not right since these people collect and hold our money too! I will write my state reps even though they're both
(spit on the ground) republicans.
Joann
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