Qualifying week leaves Bulloch County with one two-candidate race – between a Democrat and a Republican – to the Nov. 3 general election for a county commission seat, a race among three Republicans to the May 19 party primary or its June 16 runoff for another commission seat, and a third commission seat already set to change at year-end.
Additionally, one Bulloch County Board of Education seat, District 5, is positioned to have a race to May 19, which is also the nonpartisan general election. Both longtime incumbent BOE member Glennera Martin and a challenger, Jessica L. Jones, signed up and paid their qualifying fees Friday morning, the last half-day of the 4½-day qualifying period.
Friday morning is also when the only local contest emerged that is set run all the way to the general election. Spencer Johnson signed up and paid the candidate fee Friday with the Bulloch County Republican Party to run for Board of Commissioners Seat 1-B.
But the Seat 1-B incumbent, Commissioner Anthony D. Simmons, had qualified Monday as a Democrat, as he always has.
Straight to November
So Simmons’ name will appear as an uncontested candidate on the Democratic primary ballot, and meanwhile Johnson’s name will appear alone for this post on the Republican primary ballot, both on May 19. But the election that will count in this race is the Nov. 3 general election, when all voters in Commission District 1 – which includes about one-third of the county’s population – can choose between Johnson and Simmons.
Johnson, 30, is a professional firefighter with a company that provides contracted service to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America. He also owns and operates Johnson Land Management, which he founded in 2020, using heavy equipment to do land clearing and demolition. He previously served as a firefighter with the Statesboro Fire Department for more than six years and also did some farming.
He and his wife, Erin, live near Portal and have a daughter who will soon be 4. Johnson grew up in Jenkins and Candler counties and is a graduate of Metter High School, but has resided in Bulloch County for seven years.
This is his first time seeking an elected office.
“Change,” Johnson said when asked why he’s running now. “I just want change, I think the community deserves change, and what better way to help it than by jumping in there and being a part of it myself. I can’t ask others to do stuff if I’m not willing to do it myself.”
Anthony Simmons, now 69 and in his 34th year on the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners, previously retired from a career as a social worker that included service with the school system, with Pineland Mental Health, with another agency that provided services to seniors through the hospital and for a home health agency. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Fort Valley State University.
He and his wife Joyce Simmons, married 43 years, have a son and a daughter plus four grandchildren. Anthony Simmons serves as a deacon at Thomas Grove Baptist Church. He also serves on the boards of the Bulloch County Health Department and of the nonprofit agency Action Pact and the Coastal Regional Commission.
“I’m a social worker by heart and I enjoy serving the county and enjoy seeing the county grow, enjoy helping the people of Bulloch County wherever I can,” Simmons said Friday. “And I’ve got my health, and while I’ve got my health, that’s what I want to do.”
He became a commissioner, he recalls, during the county’s first major growth spurt of recent decades, when Erk Russell was leading the Georgia Southern Eagles football program and the original Gateway Industrial Park was welcoming industries.
“Now we’re in our second growth spurt, and I … want to work on our fire stations and trying to help folks out in the county to get their insurance down low and get some affordable housing put in,” Simmons said.
3-man GOP race
As previously reported, first-time candidates Frank Bedell III and Dr. Theodore “Ted” Redman had qualified as Republican candidates for Seat 2-B on the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners on Monday, the first day of qualifying. Then Seat 2-B District incumbent Commissioner Toby Conner, also a Republican, signed up and paid his qualifying fee Tuesday.
No other candidates qualified for this race the rest of the week. So, it stands to be decided by Commission District 2 voters who choose the Republican ballot for the May 19 primaries or in a June 16 runoff between the two top vote-getters in in the primary.
Toby Conner, first elected in 2022, is a lifelong Bulloch County farmer and former Georgia Ports Authority stevedore. He hails from the Stilson-Leefield area, and identified managed growth as a leading concern during his first campaign.
Frank Bedell, born in Savannah, moved to Bulloch County in 2019. He has operated a small business, B&B Trailers, in the Savannah area since 1995. He said he wants “to protect our shared values and … help to create a solid plan for growth and infrastructure.”
Ted Redman, a self-described “semi–retired ER doctor,” is also a former career Army veteran. Having gone to medical school while in the Army, Redman retired from the service after 25 years at the rank of lieutenant colonel. His career, he stated, included 13 combat deployments.
He and his family moved to Bulloch County, where he and his wife are homeowners, in June 2020. His two current part-time jobs are with F3EA Inc. in Savannah and at Ogeechee Technical College as Emergency Medical Services medical director. He also serves as a volunteer firefighter.
Roesel set to succeed Rushing
Meanwhile, Paul Roesel signed up as a Republican candidate for Seat 2-D. The seat’s incumbent, Commissioner Timmy Rushing, also a Republican, is not seeking re-election, and no other candidates qualified.
So, unless there is some unforeseen circumstance, Roesel will succeed Rushing on the Board of Commissioners in January.
A lifelong Bulloch resident, Roesel retired last year as president of The Sack Company, a commercial and industrial contractor firm that was a family-owned business launched by his uncle H.A. Sack in 1945. Roesel had worked there for more than 45 years, since 1979.
2-woman BOE race
Meanwhile, the week’s qualifying produced one contest and one uncontested change for the Bulloch County Board of Education, whose seats are nonpartisan.
Incumbent District 5 BOE member Glennera Martin waited until Friday morning to qualify for re-election, but a challenger, Jessica L. Jones, also qualified for the seat Friday. As a nonpartisan race, it will most likely be decided in the election concluding May 19, when voters, regardless of their choice of party primary ballot, will also receive the nonpartisan ballot.
Jones, 41, is a lifelong resident of Georgia, a 10-year resident of Bulloch County, and a five-year resident of BOE District 5. She is a social worker, currently working for Pruitt Health, and she has one son, currently in fourth grade at Julia P. Bryant Elementary School. Born in Tattnall County, Jones grew up in Evans County and attained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work at Albany State University.
Martin, 82, is a lifelong resident of Bulloch County and District 5. After retiring from a 44-year career as an educator, educational program director and consultant, she has continued in various community and mentorship roles as a volunteer and is now in her 12th year on the board.
Martin attained her bachelor’s degree at Savannah State, her master’s degree from the University of Georgia, and her Education Specialist in administration and instructional support also from UGA, after taking some of the classes at Georgia Southern.
BOE newcomer
Sharon Draeger, who qualified earlier in the week, emerged as an unopposed candidate for the Board of Education seat from District 6 after incumbent board member Jimmy “Jay” Cook Jr. decided not to seek re-election.
Having retired after 31 years as an educator, from paraprofessional to principal, primarily in Chatham County, Draeger now works part-time as program manager for the nonprofit Behavioral Pediatric Resource Center, based in Statesboro.
The two other incumbent BOE members up for election this year, Elizabeth Williams in District 2 and Donna Clifton in District 4, emerged unopposed for new four-year terms beginning in January.