The four Catoosa County Board of Commissioners candidates denied a spot on the Republican primary ballot were allowed to qualify directly with the county’s Elections & Voter Registration office Friday morning, based on an order from a Superior Court judge.
Speaking in front of the county courthouse in Ringgold, Steven Henry, a candidate for chair of the commission, said he was thankful to be able to qualify — but expressed frustration with the county’s GOP.
“It’s just the beginning,” Henry said. “Because they’re going to file to get us taken off the ballot now. We’re fighting to get on the ballot, but they’re about to spend 30 days to get us off the ballot.”
He said the party’s case has no merit and that the county’s GOP wants to control the process to get certain candidates elected.
Staff photo by Andrew Wilkins / Steven Henry, a candidate for chair of the Catoosa County Board of Commissioners, qualifies for the Republican primary ballot Friday morning with Tonya Moore, director of elections for the county.The other three candidates allowed to qualify were Chair Larry Black; Vanita Hullander, the District 3 commissioner representing a north central portion of the county; and Jeff Long, who represents District 1, the western portion of the county.
(READ MORE: 2 Catoosa County incumbents kept off Republican ballot)
Outside the Catoosa County courthouse, Joanna Hildreth, chair of the county’s Republican Party, declined to comment about the case. In a recent statement, the party said it imposed the new approval process for Republican candidates because people often don’t adhere to Republican principles once they are elected.
Catherine Bernard, an attorney based in DeKalb County, represented the county Republican Party in court Friday morning.
“Today was a much different temperature than yesterday when there was a lot of talk and threats of incarceration and other things,” Bernard said by phone after the hearing. “They totally backed off that today, and the judge ordered that the plaintiffs qualify directly through the Board of Elections rather than through the Republican Party.”
She said later Friday the county party planned to appeal.
Based on the judge’s order, Bernard said the director of elections had to qualify the candidates as if the county party had not conducted a qualifying process and as if the required three-day notice for qualification had been met.
“We have to pretend this one thing didn’t happen and pretend this other thing did happen and now we’re following state law,” Bernard said.
The Catoosa County GOP officials are filing paperwork for the candidates they did qualify at the county’s Elections & Voter Registration office, she said, as well as an affidavit saying those candidates are the only candidates that are qualified.
Speaking to a mostly full courtroom, Superior Court Judge Don W. Thompson said it would be inappropriate to send Republican Party officials to jail because they were acting on the advice of the county party’s attorneys. He advised them to seek independent counsel and said fines for denying the candidates to qualify would still accrue until noon Friday.
On Thursday, Thompson’s order said county party leaders would be fined $1,000 per hour for each of the four candidates denied qualification.
The deadline for candidates to qualify for the May 21 primary was noon Friday.
Also in his order Thursday, Thompson said the county party has adequate remedies in the law to challenge candidates after qualification but said there is irreparable harm for the petitioners if they are not qualified.
During the hearing Friday, Bernard argued it was impossible for the county party to qualify the candidates because there was nothing in Thompson’s order that directed officials how to change the county party’s rules.
(READ MORE: Catoosa County board passes backyard chicken regulation)
After qualifying at the Elections & Voter Registration office in Ringgold, Hullander spoke about the efforts of the county party to keep the four candidates off the primary ballot.
“The actions of the Catoosa County GOP have actually strengthened and brought the Republican citizens together,” she said. “They are outraged because they feel like their First Amendment rights have been violated, as I do.”
Hullander said she is exploring all options on how to respond to the actions of the county’s GOP.
At the Elections & Voter Registration office preparing to qualify, Black said he expected the qualifying process to go smoothly. Long, also there to qualify, said he had no comment.
The county party is using what it calls an accountability rule in an attempt to ensure candidates adhere to planks in the Georgia Republican Party platform, which can be found at bit.ly/GOP-GA. Provisions include:
— “We believe in the right of all Americans to enjoy their God-given liberties and to have equal access to the law and the courts for redress when those rights are violated.
— “We believe in the right to life from conception, beginning at fertilization, to natural death.
— “We believe in the importance of both mothers and fathers and that the traditional family is the cornerstone of civil society and must be strengthened.
— “We believe political freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. When political freedom and economic freedom are separated — both are in peril; when united, they are invincible.”
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.