Above: “I love Georgians. The grit. The energy. The determination to make the best even better. That’s why I’m running for PSC; to give a voice to those determined to make it better.”–John Noel (Website)
Tweets of the day
John Noel ain’t having it with Georgia Power’s heartlessness
Georgia Power wants to resume disconnections?? You made $1.7 billion last year. A hundred year monopoly and ya can’t help out when the going gets tough? I got it. I got it. Folks, elect me and I’ll tell ‘em WE THE PEOPLE are their boss. https://t.co/Nx1Xi5OB4h pic.twitter.com/0uenZ6Ne34
— John Noel (@NewEnergyGuy) June 4, 2020
New day in deep-red Georgia? Hundreds protest in Peachtree City, Democrat Jill Prouty calls out MAGA candidates who “fail on social justice” #gapol #gahd71 https://t.co/djtuBPHxAW
— Jonathan Grant (@Brambleman) June 3, 2020
Democratic Senate Primary
“THE DRIVE TO DO BETTER”: TERESA TOMLINSON’S SAVE-A-PET PROGRAM IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF GOVERNING WELL
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” —
Passionate about policy, the Emory Law graduate talks about using government as a tool “to help people lead their most prosperous lives.” But not just people. Her Save-a-Pet program was remarkably successful and received a “Bright Ideas” award from Harvard’s Kennedy Business School. The Columbus animal shelter had an 80 percent euthanasia rate when she took office. In 2017, the year of the award, the city was declared a “no-kill community.”Georgia Public Service Commission
John Noel gets a boost from Jay Bookman, former AJC columnist now writing for the Georgia Recorder.
John Noel is a smart, knowledgeable guy on energy issues. He'd do a great job at the PSC. https://t.co/LOqIKHx9Sg
— Jay Bookman (@jaysbookman) May 23, 2020
In addition to the Presidential election and two senatorial campaigns, Georgia has two Public Service Commission seats on statewide ballots this year. Here are a few of the issues we face: Plant Vogtle’s skyrocketing costs, green energy, coal ash, and energy equity. Not to mention the price we pay for utilities. So let’s not forget about them.As I mentioned, there are two PSC seats at stake this year. Environmentalist John Noel is running against Daniel Blackman in the Democratic Primary for the North Georgia seat. The winner will face GOP incumbent Bubba–that’s right, Bubba–McDonald in November.
Unfortunately, Public Service Commission races are receiving absolutely no coverage in the media. Nevertheless, voters are receiving absentee ballots and researching races. Here’s some background: I wrote a profile about Noel back in 2017. He ran in 2018, coming in second in the Democratic primary. He’s still the same guy, still pushing for change at the PSC.
John now lives in Augusta to run for the District 4 seat. The districts, with their residence requirements, were created a generation ago as an homage and throwback to the old county-unit days. Anyway, it’s a statewide race and a contested primary. And I still haven’t seen one word about it in the AJC or any specific coverage of the race in any media. So please spread the word: John is a walk-the-walk environmentalist and consumer’s best friend. Did you know the PSC set Georgia Power’s allowed rate of return above the industry average? John would move to lower that. Want to know more? Visit his website or Facebook Page.
Sign the Petition
Upcoming
Dr. Norton is a career expert in education in the Southeast and someone I am proud to call friend. Join us on Tuesday for “Georgia On My Mind”, a town hall focused on the important issues facing GA & what the PSC SHOULD BE doing to help fix them! https://t.co/YH2YiHfqN6 pic.twitter.com/D3KlEIzD3W
— John Noel (@NewEnergyGuy) May 16, 2020
Watch most recent town hall
Check out John Noel’s most recent town hall with former PSC candidate Dawn Randolph and State School Superintendent candidate Dr. Otha Thornton. Click here to view:
Video: Sticking it to the man!
And check out this Youtube some indy journalists produce about Noel’s environmentalism.
Voting Rights
In March, Noel attended an “Emergency” Georgia State Election Board meeting, prepared to give a statement backing the Athens-Clarke County Board of Election’s decision to scrap the state’s Jumbotron ballot-marking screens and go with hand-marked paper ballots. He was not allowed to give it. The Board didn’t want to hear from voters. I wrote about the debacle. You can view my post here.
Democratic nominee Robert Bryant
Robert Bryant of Savannah is the lone Democrat to qualify for the South Georgia seat. He will face Jason Shaw, who was appointed to the PSC by Nathan Deal. Shaw quickly showed his loyalties by voting to raise Georgians’ electric rates and allow Georgia Power a higher than average rate of return. Bryant, like Noel, is pro-consumer, so the choice is pretty clear, especially since all PSC members are Republicans. They quit doing their jobs years ago, with some help from the GOP-dominated General Assembly.
You can follow Robert Bryant on Twitter.
Press Release: Noel and Bryant Announce Campaign for PSC – https://t.co/Lm1VbSmfwg
— John Noel (@NewEnergyGuy) March 6, 2020
Liked this post? Follow this blog to get more.
I looked at Noel’s website, and I like his positions. However, given that he ran for PSC 2 years ago in another district, I’m worried about an 11th hour challenge to his residency. Something similar happened to Bubba’s 2008 opponent, Jim Powell. Do you think there’s any chance of Noel facing such a challenge?
John Noel moved to Augusta and established residency in late October 2019. He has receipts: the lease, drivers license, voter registration. So he actually lives there. By the way, the districts are a terrible concept, a form of gerrymandering. There could always be a challenge, but I’m confident John can prove Augusta residency many different ways. As far as Powell is concerned, if there was a challenge, it was unsuccessful, since he was on the ballot in the fall and ultimately lost a runoff to Bubba. BTW, Powell was the last Democrat to win more votes than his GOP opponent in a Georgia statewide general election. Unfortunately for Dems, they do poorly in runoffs, however.
That helps. If I remember correctly, Powell initially lost his challenge, but then won on an appeal. As you’ve mentioned, he went on to win a plurality in the general but then lost in the runoff. My hope is that there is no challenge and that Noel can go full speed ahead to win the primary and then beat Bubba.
If there’s a challenge, it would come from Republicans after the primary. I not only am confident that Noel would beat any residency challenge (unlike Vernon Jones), I believe the publicity would help him, because Georgia’s PSC districts are a form of gerrymandering, patently unfair to candidates who must live in a district but run statewide. Voters will see the absurdity in that, and hopefully we could move back to having truly statewide races with a full talent pool, or have district races that would not be so discouraging to candidates who now must raise money for a statewide campaign.