The efforts by state Sens. Frank Ginn and Bill Cowsert and state Reps. Marcus Wiedower and Houston Gaines to prevent their constituents from freely choosing their own elected officials continue unabated. In 2020, the voters in the Western Judicial Circuit elected Deborah Gonzalez district attorney. Wiedower and Gaines were not happy about the election of District Attorney Gonzalez and attempted to remove Oconee County from the Western Judicial Circuit. That effort failed.
In 2022, Wiedower, Gaines, Cowsert and Ginn changed the commission districts of 67% of the voters in Athens-Clarke County in order to prevent three commissioners from running for re-election in their own districts. That effort succeeded.
These same state legislators supported carving Athens into four state House districts in order to prevent the citizens of Athens from having an effective voice in the state legislature and to secure their own re-election. They succeeded in both.
This year, these same legislators supported House Bill 231, which can be used as a stepping stone to attempt to remove Gonzalez from office. Ginn, Cowsert, Wiedower and Gaines, who are supposed to protect the rights of their constituents to freely choose their elected officials, will undoubtedly continue to seek ways to undermine and render ineffective that very right.
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