Don McKee
There are other high-profile races, but a contest that's often below the radar is that for state insurance commissioner. Among the nine Republicans vying for the office are two Cobb Republicans. They are Stephen Dale Northington and Maria Sheffield.
Northington, who lives in west Cobb, runs an insurance agency in Kennesaw. His wife, Tracey, is a Cobb school teacher. Sheffield is an insurance regulatory lawyer with the firm of Burr and Forman. She is the only candidate among all 10 (including one Democrat) with actual experience in the insurance department, where she worked as a regulator for six years.
Voters need to be informed about the job of state insurance commissioner, for it is not an insignificant one. The commissioner is charged with monitoring about 1,600 insurance companies operating in the state, the licensing of 105,000 insurance agents and regulating more than 1,000 industrial loan offices. In addition, this office is responsible for enforcement of state and federal fire codes.
Two key Cobb races, both in the Republican primary, should be of strong interest to voters: the District 37 state Senate contest and the Post 4 school board race.
In the Senate race, businessman Lindsey Tippins, a former school board member, is challenging incumbent John Wiles, a lawyer who has collected a couple of big-name-politico endorsements and a $144,000 pot full of campaign money, much of it from fellow legislators. It appears the good ol' boy system is very much alive and well under the Gold Dome when it comes to campaign financing.
The legislature is sort of a fundraising club for and by members. Many of the legislators get their bucks from the same sources - big corporations, special interest groups, payday lenders, etc. So how it's spent or given away is not likely of any great concern. The main thing is to fill the campaign coffers of members so they'll "vote right." Thus, Wiles has a huge war chest to spend in saturating the airwaves and mailboxes with campaign ads.
The Post 4 school board race has turned into a bizarre scenario involving candidate Bill Borden, who claims residency in Cobb but dries vehicles with Alaska tags. Borden, who is running against Kathleen Angelucci, longtime activist for improving schools, last week got a notice from the tax commissioner to register his vehicles in Cobb by July 26 or face a tax lien in Superior Court. On top of that, Borden failed to obtain a county license for a business of his for about 15 years.
Question: If a person does not tend to his own obligations any better than that, how is he qualified to take care of the Cobb school system's business?
Answer: He isn't.
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If a person doesn't pay his taxes, evades questions about where he actually lives, and runs businesses without licenses, does that qualify him to run our school system?
No, it doesn't. But it's 5:35 on voting day so these final comments probably won't have much of an effect.
This election certainly has been a wild ride.
And now that we know what kind of people Mark Mathews and Tommy Allegood are, for supporting such a law breaking liar, they will be the next ones to be voted out of office (I hope).
Answer: She isn't
We all know the ethical questions surrounding the current Insurance Commissioner's office. Based on the State Ethics website they share $70,000 in contributors. That doesnt show the backbone and the guts to run the office differently.