Five Republicans, four Democrats qualify for PSC elections

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Three Democrats and three Republicans are vying for the Public Service Commission seat that Commissioner Tricia Pridemore plans to leave at the end of her term. Two Republicans are also competing to face incumbent Democratic Commissioner Peter Hubbard in the race for the other seat on this year’s ballot.

The commission oversees utilities in Georgia, including electricity, telecommunications and natural gas. It holds sway over Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric utility; the commission has final approval over the utility’s rates and plans. It has drawn substantial criticism in recent years due to a series of rate increases and the recent approval of a natural gas-fueled expansion.

Republicans Bobby Mehan, Carolyn Roddy and Joshua Tolbert qualified this week to run for the district five seat currently held by Pridemore, who’s also a Republican. She has announced she won’t seek reelection and is instead running for Congress. On the Democrats’ side, the candidates are Craig Cupid, Shelia Edwards and Angelia Pressley.

District Five covers a stretch of West Georgia from the Tennessee border to LaGrange, including Cobb County. The candidates are required to live in the district, but elected statewide.

In District Three, which includes Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton Counties, former Commissioner Fitz Johnson is running against fellow Republican Brandon Martin in the primary. The winner will face incumbent Commissioner Peter Hubbard, a Democrat.

Hubbard unseated Johnson in last year’s special election. He and fellow Democrat Alicia Johnson scored historic victories over the Republican incumbents to win their party representation on the commission for the first time since 2006, in an election that became a referendum on rising power bills.

The election last year was the first since 2020, after the 2022 commission elections were canceled due to a lawsuit challenging the PSC election system. That challenge ultimately ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the issue. The state legislature laid out a new schedule for resuming elections, beginning with last year’s races.

Because Fitz Johnson was originally appointed, in 2021, to the district three seat to serve out the remainder of the prior commissioner’s term, last year’s election for that position was only for a one-year term. Both of this year’s races are for full six-year terms.

The primary is May 19.