Who’s running in Muscogee County School District board elections? Here are the candidates
Four seats are up for election this year on the nine-member Muscogee County School District board, but just one of them will be a contest.
By the time last week’s qualifying period ended Friday at noon, only one challenger had emerged to run against the MCSD board incumbents for the next four-year terms, starting in January. And it’s a rematch.
The race for the board’s District 7 seat is between incumbent Patricia “Pat” Frey and challenger Laketha Ashe.
Frey is vice president for United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley.
Ashe is self-employed, running fashion design company Justmyne and printing company As He Leads.
The other three MCSD board seats on the May 21 nonpartisan ballot have incumbents without opposition. They are:
Pat Hugley Green of District 1. Green, the board’s chairwoman, is a licensed insurance agent at the Carolyn Hugley State Farm Insurance Agency. Hugley, a representative in the Georgia Legislature, is Green’s sister-in-law, married to Green’s brother, city manager Isaiah Hugley.
Vanessa Jackson of District 3. Jackson is a director at the Childcare Network center on Hamilton Road.
Laurie McRae of District 5. McRae, the board’s vice chairwoman, is an attorney and family office adviser at financial services company Blue Trust.
District 7 rematch
It was less than a year ago when Frey and Ashe competed for District 7 votes. That’s because they ran against each other in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Cathy Williams, who resigned, effective April 1, to join the 14-member Georgia Department of Transportation Board. Williams received the most votes for the appointment among the 24 state legislators whose districts are in or contiguous to the 2nd Congressional District.
Frey defeated Ashe by only two votes, 147-145. The margin was so close, both candidates requested a recount, and the final tally remained the same.
