By Paul Bolster
After much legal wrangling, two (District 2 and District 3) of the five Georgia Public Service Commission seats will be filled by an election in November, preceded by a Primary Election on June 17.
Although candidates qualify for a district seat where they must live, they run state-wide because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to look at the voting-rights issues involved in this state law. All five current members are Republicans, so this election, set by the legislature, will not change the Republican control of the Commission.
District 2 Republican incumbent, Tim Echols, is being challenged in the Republican Primary by Lee Muns. For this seat, Dr. Alicia Johnson is running unopposed in the Democratic Primary. Johnson says the Commission should be leading the state into a solar future.
In District 3, Republican Fritz Johnson, appointed by Governor Kemp, is running unopposed for his party’s nomination. Four Democrats, running in the primary on June 17, seek the opportunity to challenge Johnson in November.
On May 24, State Representative Tanya Miller, a Grant Park resident, organized a forum for the four Democratic candidates. The candidates concede that while the election can’t change the majority party control, they see this statewide election as a warm-up for the partisan races for governor, U.S. Senate, and state legislature coming in 2026.
Dr. Alicia Johnson, from Savannah, who is running unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination for District 2, sees this race as “seeding the ground for 2026.”
The candidates all agreed that a Democrat commissioner could be an advocate for consumers, which they feel is lacking on the current commission.
Daniel Blackman, former Obama Regional EPA Director, is running for the PSC a second time. He took incumbent McDonald to a close runoff in 2020. His job with the EPA was to regulate and he feels that this is what the PSC needs: “Its job is to regulate a monopoly.” He says he has worked with elected officials in all corners of the state and thinks he can bring greater transparency to the PSC, which has tipped too heavily to the side of the utility. He thinks this election is also about keeping a U.S. Senator. He, and other candidates, condemned the campaign money incumbents have collected from persons who have business in front of the commission. Blackman is proud of his endorsements from the Sierra Club and the Working Families Party.
Keisha Sean Waites, former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and former member of the Atlanta City Council, resigned in the middle of her first term to run for Clerk of Fulton County. She openly admits she doesn’t have “experience regulating electricity,” but touts her engagement in tough political conversations in the past. She sees herself as a “watchdog for consumers” and is focused on the need to balance their interests against the interests of Georgia Power.
Peter Hubbard is an energy advocate with the Georgia Center for Energy Solutions. He says he has been an active advocate at the PSC for the past six years. He has done research on new approaches and believes the state could move to a zero-carbon future with a focus on the energy from the sun. He will use his expertise to advocate for a change in direction and fight for justice for consumers.
Robert Jones has experience in energy and telecom regulation from his time in California. He says he has followed closely the actions of the PSC and has been in the offices of the current members. Like other candidates, he supports the creation of a Consumer Utility Council because the commissioners have not given consumers a fair shake. He thinks he can talk to Republicans about the issues which are not partisan in nature. In regard to the current return on capital which sets the rates, he said it should be around 8 to 9% rather than the current 12%. “Georgia Power has little risk,” he stated. He says the current commission allows Georgia Power to hide too much under an umbrella of “trade secrets.”
In part, information for this article was adapted from the online news service The Current.
