Democrat envisions a coroner’s candidate in ’24

Jody Gaulin, chairwoman of Oconee Democrats, announced yesterday she has spoken with Dr. Billy Campbell about running for the office of county coroner in 2024, the year that veteran Coroner Karl Addis says he will retire from office. At her party’s South Cove Park picnic, Gaulin said of Campbell, “He might do it.  I’ve already talked to him.”  The lack of city and county officeholders who are Democrats is a sore point with Gaulin.  She urged her audience to find and recruit individuals of the Democratic persuasion to mount candidacies for offices in a county which went solid Republican in the 1990s and remains so today.  Seneca City Councilwoman Lakesha Benson said her city government is an example of one that functions well with a council of eight non-partisan members who, she said, are evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans. Benson gave individual praise to Ronnie O’Kelley, Seneca’s long-time mayor pro-tem, for taking her under his wing during her first term on council. Gaulin paid special tribute yesterday to the late Lowell Ross of Seneca, an attorney who served two separate terms in the state legislature.  And was, as Gaulin noted, the last Democrat to hold office from Oconee as a member of the State House of Representatives.