Terron Hayes, Reggie Rachals claim Dougherty, Lee sheriffs races

ALBANY — There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Terron Hayes. Ten miles up the road, though, the name of the top law enforcement officer remains the same: Reggie Rachals.

The Dougherty County Sheriff's Office's current chief deputy mounted a spirited — and friendly — battle with Albany State University Police Officer Keithen Hall in Tuesday's Dougherty County Democratic primary election to claim the office. Hayes outpolled Hall 4,594 votes to 3,349 to win the primary race.

Since there is no Republican candidate running for the office, held for the last four decades-plus by Kevin Sproul, Hayes becomes the county's sheriff-elect.

In Lee County, meanwhile, Rachals claimed his fifth term in office, outpolling Dougherty District Attorney Investigator Dean Gore, 2,204-1,062 in that county's Republican primary. Rachals does not have Democratic opposition in the general election.

"I appreciate the support of the citizens of Albany and Dougherty County; I'm humbled," Hayes said Wednesday morning after claiming victory in his first political campaign. "We have a ways to go before I take office (on Jan. 1), but I'm going to look at ways we can make our community safer. I think it's important to build relationships across the community.

"Any time there is new leadership in an organization, change is expected. We're going to look at administrative functions, access the duties of each position within the department. We'll make a few tweaks, but the primary thing is we'll look at how we can make things better for this community."

Rachals said Wednesday he and his department will look to bring on new applicants for vacant positions and to implement new technology.

"I feel good about the election results; I look forward to serving Lee County four more years and even four years beyond that," the Lee sheriff said. "I'm fortunate that overall I have a pretty loyal crew, and we're all working together to make the community better. If they have ideas, I listen to them.

"We're always looking for the newest technology that will help us do our job. We got funding from the Board of Commissioners to install some of the new Flock technology that will help us solve crimes. Sometimes it's difficult to deal with new technology, but this is something I think we need. After studying it, we made a request to the Board to get this technology, and they approved it."

In other contested races in Tuesday's primary and nonpartisan elections:

— Wayne Johnson and Chuck Hand are headed for an apparent runoff in the U.S. House District 2 Republican primary after Johnson claimed 593 votes to Hand's 405 in the four-candidate race.

— Democratic incumbent David Sampson easily reclaimed his party's nomination in the House District 153 race, outpolling a pair of challengers — Joshua Anthony with 981 votes and Tracy Taylor with 942. Sampson will face Republican challenger Brenda Battle in the General Election in November.

— Incumbent District Attorney Gregory Edwards easily outdistanced challenger Elizabeth Gibson, 5,490-2,545, to retain his seat.

— Gloria Gaines edged newcomer Thomia Thomas 894 votes 773 to retain her District 5 Dougherty Commission seat.

— James Bush outpolled Wanda Mallard 1,102-571 to reclaim his District 5 School Board seat.

— Victoria Johnson claimed the top spot in the three-person Dougherty Superior Court judgeship race, claiming 4,770 votes, but that was not enough to claim outright victory. Runner-up Valerie Brown-Williams collected 3,133 votes, and Michael Tabarrok's 1,774 was enough to keep Johnson from claiming outright victory.

— In Lee County, Fran Walls retained her District V School Board seat by outpolling Mary Egler 696 votes to 260.

In something of an election oddity, suspended candidate Othellius Cato received the overwhelming majority of the Dougherty County votes in the state House District 154 race — 1,518 to Republican incumbent Gerald Greene's 92 — but a judge's ruling on residency requirements disqualified Cato from the race. The Dougherty County portion of District 153, one of the state's largest, is a small number of total votes cast.

The Secretary of State's website does not even list Cato as a candidate, and signs in voting precincts throughout the district advised voters that while Cato was on the ballot, votes for him would not be considered. The SOS website shows Greene winning with 3,183 votes.

Greene was asked Wednesday morning how he has kept his seat for a 43rd years despite being the only Republican legislator in a majority-minority district.

"The big thing is being able to do something for people; that makes a big difference," Greene, the so-called dean of the legislature with the longest tenure, said. "Our district is one that, to be blunt, the government has pretty much forgotten. And I can tell you with confidence, I guarantee you I know my constituents better than any legislator in the state government.

"That's because I go out and meet them, talk to them about their needs. Like today, I'm headed to an event in Americus with other legislators. I could have said, 'I won, I don't need to go.' But some of my constituents may be there with questions for me. Same thing tomorrow, when I go to Seminole County. We just have so much more to do. That's why I stay at this; there's so much more to do."

In the races that drew the most attention, roughly 14% of Dougherty County's 57,886 registered voters cast ballots.