He’s back. Former DeKalb County CEO and Democratic Senate candidate Vernon Jones has qualified to run in House District 91, currently occupied by Dee Dawkins Haigler, who in turn is running for Senate District 43, which JaNice Van Ness won in a special election last year. At this point, Jones is the only candidate qualified in the district. Qualifying continues through noon on Friday.
In other qualifying news, there are now three Democratic candidates who have qualified for the Senate seat held by Johnny Isakson, none of whom are named Jim Barksdale, allegedly the self funding candidate the Democrats hope can win in a year with Donald Trump quite likely to be at the top of the ticket. In House District 2, held by Sanford Bishop, Dianne Vann has joined two other Republicans, Bobby Scott and Greg Duke in going up against the long time rep. If Vann’s name sounds familiar, she ran in the 12th district GOP race against John Barrow which was eventually won by Rick Allen.
Two more candidates have qualified to primary the 11th district’s Barry Loudermilk. Daniel Cowan and William Llop qualified today, joining radio Hayden Collins. Cowan is from north Cobb with connections in Bartow County, and allegedly could be partially self funding his race. Also of interest, the open 3rd district, Tom Price in the 6th, Rob Woodall in the 7th, Austin Scott in the 8th, Loudermilk in the 11th and Rick Allen in the 12th all have Democratic opponents in November.
State races in brief:
- Jaha Howard is running in the 6th Senate district against Hunter Hill. The Cobb district is becoming more diverse and continues to lean more Democratic.
- 13th District Senator Greg Kirk, he of the First Amendment Defense Act, has picked up Democratic opposition in Ruenett Melton of Tifton.
- Senate District 17 will have competition in November, as Rick Jeffares will face Democrat Bill Blackmon.
- In Senate District 23, Jesse Stone has gotten primary opposition in Stephen Hammond. Both are Republicans.
- 38th Senate incumbent Horacena Tate has Republican opposition. J.W. Morrow, Jr. of Austell will run against her in November.
- As expected, 40th district Senator Fran Millar has Republican opposition in Paul Maner, who has the support of Joe Newton, the Norcross rabble rouser. The winner will face Democrat Tamara Johnson-Shealey of Tucker.
- In the 50th Senate District, John Wilkinson has GOP opposition in Roy Benefield.
- 51st District Senator Steve Gooch will be challenged in the primary by John Williamson of Ellijay.
- Senate Rules Committee Chair Jeff Mullis has primary competition from Lanny Thomas of Trion.
- Two Joneses are running to replace Mike Dudgeon in southern Forsyth county. Stuart Jones and Todd Jones are running as Republicans.
- Speaking of the Joneses, Michelle Jones has decided to challenge Emory Dunahoo in November,
- You may remember radio talker Michael Graham soliciting a challenger to Tommy Benton of Jefferson. He got one in Wes Lewis of Commerce.
- Rich Golick will have Democratic opposition in November. Democrat Erick Allen will challenge the chairman of Judiciary – Non Civil.
- Republican Matt Vaughan will challenge Rep. Stacey Evans in the 42nd district.
- In the race for the open seat occupied by Margaret Kaiser, three Democrats have qualified. David Dreyer, Janine Brown and Josh Noblitt qualified for the Atlanta seat.
- LeDawn Jones’s House District 62 has four Democrats lined up for the primary. Joshua Butler, Rafer Johnson, Valerie Vie and William Boddie are vying to replace the retiring Jones.
- HD 72, occupied by Matt Ramsey has two running for the to be open seat. James Clifton and Josh Bonner will run as Republicans.
- The last veteran of World War II serving in the legislature faces two more battles this year. In May, he will face challenger Karen Mathiak in the primary, then in November, he goes up against Democrat Rahim Talley
- Three Republicans have qualified for House District 81, the seat currently occupied by Scott Holcomb. In addition to Jim Duffie, who ran in 2014, Lane Flynn and Alexa Rourke have qualified. So far, Holcomb has not.
- Mary Margaret Oliver, she of the proposed assault weapon confiscation bill has drawn a challenger in Democrat Brian Westlake.
- The House District 99 seat held by the retiring Hugh Floyd has two Democrats qualify. Jay Trevari and Brenda Lopez will each run for the South Gwinnett seat.
- In other Gwinnett races, Valerie Clark has Democratic competition in Samuel Park in House District 101, and Karen Ridgeway will run against Buzz Brockway in House District 102 Clark’s seat is more competitive than Brockway’s.
- In House District 105, Joyce Chandler barely won against Democratic competition i 2014. This year she has GOP opposition in David Crocker, and Democratic opposition in November from Donna McLeod.
- House District 108 will be open after the retirement of BJay Pak. In addition to Clay Cox, who held the seat in the late aughts, Patty Gabilondo has also qualified as a Republican. T,R. Radjabov qualifed as a Democrat.
- Chairman of Information and Audits Mike Cheokas has drawn a Democrat challenger in the 138th House District. Jay Pilcher will face him in November.
One name we didn’t see today was Paul Broun, who has hinted he will run in the 9th District. And so far, only Sam “Coach” Snyder has qualified to run against Speaker David Ralston in the 7th District. Snider’s website shows his real interest in winning the race against the Speaker. You can view all the qualified candidates here.