The Georgia Republican Assembly published an article about the Chattooga County Republican Party’s bylaw that establishes a committee to vet local candidates before qualifying for the upcoming Republican Primary.  The announcement about the new committee has been met with criticism from local voters who are curious as to how a five-person committee can determine what names will show up on the ballot.

Chattooga GOP Chair and Georgia Republican Assembly Member Jennifer Tudor announced the new bylaw amendment last week.  The bylaw was adopted by the county party in early November.  The notice was posted in the county courthouse on Monday December 4th.  Tudor says that the announcement being posted on the same day that a challenger made his announcement to run against incumbent County Commissioner Blake Elsberry in the Republican Primary was just a coincidence.

The article from the Georgia Republican Assembly says the announcement from the local party last week, “ruffled quite a few feathers and made front page news in the rural community despite the fact that the Democrat(ic) Party of Chattooga County had previously exercised this same power to prevent a candidate from running on the Democrat ballot”.

But that statement is not entirely correct.

The article is referring to an incident in November of 2014 when outgoing Democratic Party Chairman Tim Shiflett told Commissioner Jason Winters that he would not be able to qualify in the 2016 Democratic Primary because of Winters’ public support of Republican candidates in the 2014 General Election.  However, a motion to remove Winters name from the rolls of the local Democratic Party failed at a party meeting held on Monday, December 8, 2014 at the Chattooga County Senior Center in Summerville.  In fact, several prominent Democrats in the county spoke out against having Winters name removed from the local party rolls at that meeting and the motion did not receive enough support to pass and was never brought up again.

Several media outlets reported that Winters was kicked out the local party, but by the time the next qualifying took place, Commissioner Winters had voluntarily quit the local Democratic Party. In April of 2015, then Commissioner Winters sent the following email to the local Democratic Party Chair:

Last week, the local newspaper quoted a local Republican office holder that said he had been required to sign or swear to an oath to uphold the local Democratic Party before he was able to qualify.  However, this has never been the practice of the local Democratic Party.  WZQZ News spoke with all of the Democrats who have served as local party chair since the local party was formed in 1997, and never has it been the policy of the local party to “vet” candidates or ask them to swear to an oath in order to run – or even join the local party.  The only oaths taken by local Democrats is if they serve as local party officers.

Current Chattooga County Democratic Party Chair Cynthia Hubler posted on the Chattooga County Democrats social media page last week: