ATLANTA – This year’s long-delayed elections for two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) have drawn eight candidates, including the two incumbents.
The three-day qualifying period ended Thursday with District 2 Commissioner Tim Echols and District 3 Commissioner Fitz Johnson, both Republicans, signing up to run for reelection.
Echols will be opposed in a June 17 GOP primary by Lee Muns, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Columbia County Commission in 2018. The winner will face Democrat Alicia Johnson of Augusta in November.
In District 3, Johnson is unopposed on the Republican side. Four Democrats will square off in the June primary for their party’s nomination to challenge the incumbent.
The list includes Daniel Blackman, who was defeated in a bid for the PSC in 2020 and went on to join the Biden administration as Southeast regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, former state Rep. Keisha Waites, clean energy advocate Peter Hubbard, and Robert Jones, who has worked in the energy and telecommunications fields.
Echols and Johnson are currently serving terms that were extended because of a 2022 lawsuit challenging the way members of the PSC are elected in Georgia.
Four Black Fulton County residents argued that electing members of the PSC statewide rather than by district dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.
A lower federal court agreed and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The appellate court ruling was allowed to stand when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up the case.
The General Assembly passed legislation last year scheduling the elections for PSC districts 2 and 3 this year.
PSC District 2 stretches from Rockdale and Henry counties in Atlanta’s southern and eastern suburbs southeast all the way through Chatham County. District 3 – the Atlanta district – includes Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties.