Every four years you can count on an extra day in February and (usually) the Summer Olympics.
In Henry County, you can also bank on the fact that a new Board of Commissioners chair will be elected.
Since the countywide position was created in 1990 and Bill Gardner won the first election in 1992, no one has ever won a second term. That trend continued this month when incumbent June Wood lost to Carlotta Harrell, who will become the first Democrat to sit in that seat.
Harrell was the candidate for that party twice before, losing to Tommy Smith in 2012 and to Wood in 2016. This time she got 59 percent of the vote in an election that saw every countywide and statewide race favor a Democrat.
How much has changed? When Bruce Holmes first won his seat as District 5 commissioners exactly 10 years ago, the entire six-member board was Republican. Now there will be two: Gary Barham and Johnny Wilson, who won a second term last week after being unopposed in both the primary and general election.
Dee Clemmons will be back for a second term in District 2 after fending off primary opposition and most recently defeating Steve Richardson with nearly 63 percent of the vote.
The blue wave was felt at the courthouse, where three-term Superior Court clerk Barbara Harrison lost to Democrat challenger Sabriya Hill. Harrison defeated Hill narrowly in 2016 after running unopposed in 2008 and 2012. This time Hill got nearly 60 percent of the vote. Harrison has spent more than 25 years serving at the courthouse.
The race to succeed retiring sheriff Keith McBrayer saw Reginald Scandrett prevail against Jack Redlinger by a 60-40 margin in another Democrat win.
District Attorney Darius Pattillo faced no opposition this year and has won a second term. Tax Commissioner Michael Harris, who moved up from his assistant’s role when David Curry was appointed to a state post, also was unopposed in 2020. Harris and Pattillo both ran as Democrats.
Coroner Donald Cleveland won a third full term in unusual fashion, perhaps seeing the voting trends in the county that began to show themselves in 2016 and 2018. Cleveland ran in 2012 and 2016 as a Republican, winning without opposition the first time and prevailing in a close race the second. For the 2020 campaign he switched to the Democrat side.
The trends were also evident in this year’s legislative races.
State Sen. incumbent Brian Strickland drew fewer Henry voters than Democrat challenger Kelly Rose, although Strickland won the overall district that includes portions of adjoining counties. The same thing happened in two State House races, with Karen Mathiak and David Knight winning re-election while their Democratic challengers got far more votes in Henry County.
State Rep. Dale Rutledge failed in his bid for a fifth term as Regina Lewis-Ward, a former Stockbridge City Council member, won that race by two-tenths of one percent.
Clint Crowe, who won a vacant State House seat vacated by retiring Andy Welch, is the only Republican legislative candidate to garner more votes in Henry County than a Democratic challenger.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones ran unopposed, as did state representatives Sandra Givens Scott, Demetrius Douglas, Pam Stephenson and El-Mahdi Holly. All five are incumbent Democrats.
