Catoosa County Republican ballot battle continues
RINGGOLD, Ga. (WDEF) – A political and legal battle continued Friday morning in Catoosa County.
A judge continued his order that the Catoosa County Republican Party had to allow four candidates on their primary ballot for May at a packed hearing.
The four candidates are former County Chairman Steven Henry, and County Commissioners Larry Black, Jeff Long and Vanita Hullander.
This did not come close to settling the dispute over ballot access.
Both the candidates and attorneys for the county GOP say they expect bodycam footage to be shown at a hearing later this month
Henry said, “Don’t think today is the end of it, today is not done, it’s just the start of more litigation to take your rights away from you and don’t let it happen.”
Nathaniel Darnell, President of the Georgia Republican Assembly, argues that the county GOP should have the right to determine who runs on their ballots, saying these candidates weren’t following the party’s platform.
He referenced a case in Chattooga County where a sitting Democratic official was not allowed to run on the Democratic ticket because they had supported a Republican candidate.
Darnell said, ” You can still run, that’s one of the big things that is very misleading about the talking points from the other side, is that they’re saying, “Oh you’re denying us the opportunity to run” No you can run, but you can’t run as a Republican!.. Our Republicans in the (Catoosa County) Commission say, no, we’re going to force you to get vaccinated in order for you to have freedom to go out into the community and engage in business or we’re going to operate like Democrats and raise taxes instead of cutting wasteful spending.”
Sitting commissioner Chuck Harris disputes Darnell’s claims about the Commission, and says the whole situation is a power play.
Harris said, “A small party of 16 people said we’re going to take away the election from the 70,000 people, so yes it’s dividing the Republican Party.”
An attorney for the Catoosa County GOP, Catherine Benard, says it’s unprecedented for a judge to force candidates on a primary ballot.
The judge allowed them to register at the county’s election commission, which for primaries is normally done at the party’s headquarters.
Candidates attempted to qualify on Thursday at the GOP headquarters but were denied, with dissenting views on what happened.
Benard said, “I don’t think anything that happened on the bodycam will make the Catoosa County Republican Party look bad.”
She added they were glad that threats of arrest against GOP officials for not complying was dropped but disagrees with the thousand dollar per candidate fined imposed against the party.
Both Benard and Darnell said they believed there was bias against them, as they were not allowed to argue their case in court.
Henry says the public needs to pay attention to this case as she says, “It should be the American people’s choice and not a small group of people and we can’t let this happen in this country, in this county, in this town, because if it happens here, it’s coming to your town next.”
