Five candidates are running for an open state Senate seat in North Georgia next month:
- Conda Lowery Goodson, an active community volunteer
- Chuck Payne, a retired juvenile court probation officer
- Debby Peppers, an attorney and former county commissioner
- Shell Underwood, an insurance counselor and former teacher
- William Vinyard, a contractor
The five are running for Georgia Sen. Charlie Bethel's seat. Bethel, R-Dalton, was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to the Georgia Court of Appeals on Nov. 9. He had been in the Senate for five years, representing Whitfield and Murray counties and parts of Gordon and Pickens counties.
The election to replace Bethel will be Dec. 13. Even though five candidates are running, nobody can take the position without earning more than 50 percent of the vote. So if two candidates need to compete in a runoff, that will take place on Jan. 10 - one day after the legislative session begins.
Of the five candidates, Payne and Peppers are the most experienced.
Payne has been a member of the Whitfield County Republican Party since 1991, serving as chairman of the group from 1998-2005 and again from 2013-15. He resigned his post last November to be the North Georgia district coordinator for Ben Carson's presidential campaign, trying to mount support for Carson in nearby counties.
Payne also spent 28 years as a probation officer for children who went through the juvenile court system in Murray County, until he retired Oct. 31. Criminal justice reform has been a linchpin of Deal's run as governor, and Payne believes his hands-on experience can help policymakers.
"There is still some work that needs to be done there," he said. "I will be a very sound voice to that discussion, bringing a real-life understanding of what works and what doesn't work."
Peppers is on the Whitfield County Zoning Board and served on the county commission from 1993-96. An attorney, she represented a group of citizens who brought a civil lawsuit against the Dalton Regional Youth Detention Center in 1999, charging that the center provided inadequate education, psychological therapy and medical care. Sometimes, five children slept in a room designed for just one.
The defendants, the state of Georgia, settled the case at a federal judge's urging and reformed the detention center. The American Bar Association gave Peppers a juvenile justice award, and the case received national attention, appearing in the New York Times and People magazine.
Peppers said she wants to attract more business to the region so Dalton is not overly reliant on the carpet industry.
"Our area has battled for years about how to diversity," she said. "We need to be making strides."
Peppers is running as an independent candidate, while the other four are Republicans.
Underwood enters the race as an outsider. She ran for the Whitfield County Commission in the May 24 primary, losing to five-term incumbent Harold Brooker, 58 percent to 42 percent. Underwood was a middle and high school teacher in the county before joining Modern Woodmen.
She believes her classroom experience can help with the state's future education policies. In particular, she decried testing companies being able to shape content taught in classrooms. She also criticized Common Core practices, believing they are too fixated on how a child comes to an answer, as opposed to whether that answer is correct.
"I see the frustration in my children's eyes," Underwood said. "I see the frustration in the teachers' eyes. I see teachers that are the best teachers we've ever had. They're throwing their hands up and quitting."
Goodson ran unsuccessfully against Bethel in the May primary, earning 25 percent of the vote. She said she is running as the small-government candidate and wants to repeal fees for gun carry permits, as well as some taxes and regulations on small businesses. She declined to say what specific taxes and regulations need to be eliminated.
"We're in the middle of a campaign," she said. "I don't want to put all my cards on the table."
Vinyard did not return calls seeking comment.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.