Georgia on Wednesday morning looks a lot like Georgia did on Monday before the election. The state’s major constitutional races remain in the hands of the incumbent Republicans. There were no congressional upsets.
But more locally, there will be a revolutionary change in January regarding alcohol sales. In Camden County, voters backed a measure to allow the sale of liquor in St. Mary’s on Sunday. Bryan County voted to allow Sunday sales of alcohol where the drinks are sold. And in Bulloch County, residents voted to allow for package stores to be licensed in the county’s unincorporated areas.
St. Mary’s City Council also got a new member — Danny Riggins — and incumbent Steven Conner kept his seat in a three-way race.
In Glynn County, two competitive races for the county commission went to Republicans. Thomas “Bo” Clark won his bid for a county commission at-large post, beating Democrat Richard Ingalls. David Sweat, a retired banker and a native of Brunswick, beat former Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey in the County Commission District 4 race 52%-48%.
Sweat, dressed from head to toe in his own campaign swag, spent Tuesday morning on Altama Road outside the College of Coastal Georgia urging drivers to vote for him. He said his background in finance would make him a useful member of the commission. “People care about the economy right now. My background is an asset,” he said.
Chatham County voted down a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) measure by 50.7% to 49.3%, amid an organized public campaign against what detractors called a wasteful new tax. However the county voted to allow the local government to repurpose SPLOST funds for new uses, including drainage.
In Liberty County, Democrat Justin Frasier beat his opponent for the District 2 County Commissioner race, the only contested seat this year. County residents also approved a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.