The Rochester Sentinel – 2/9/19
Two contested May election races
BY WESLEY DEHNE
Staff Writer, The Sentinel
Two contested races in the May 7 primary have emerged as filing came to a close Friday.
Republicans Ted Denton and Mark Smiley will face off and voters also will elect a clerk-treasurer and all seven city council members.
Denton is seeking his second term in office and Smiley served two terms as Rochester mayor, Jan. 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2015. Denton defeated Smiley by 66 votes in the May 2015 Republican primary and went on to beat Democratic candidate Dick Roe in the general election that year.
On the ballot
This year’s primary election will also pit three Republicans against one another for two at-large seats on the Rochester City Council.
Those candidates include two-term incumbents Chayse Thompson and Brian Goodman and political newcomer Amy Roe, who announced her candidacy Wednesday during a party hosted by her campaign team at Uncorked.
She filed her candidacy the following day in the county clerk’s office.
Thompson and Goodman filed their candidacies Jan. 18 and Jan. 24, respectively.
These incumbent candidates have no primary election opposition: Democratic Clerk-Treasurer Shoda Beehler; Democratic District 1 Councilman Gary Clevenger Jr.; Republican District 2 Councilman Mason Heyde; Republican District 3 Councilman Brian Fitzwater; Republican District 4 Councilman Mart Smith; Republican District 5 Councilman John Garrett.
Fitzwater will be challenged in the Nov. 5 general election by Democratic candidate Bryan Holcomb.
It will be the second time the two have faced one another for the District 3 council seat. Fitzwater was able to edge out Holcomb by a mere eight votes in the 2015 municipal general election. Prior to that, he was able to unseat Rochester’s longest serving councilman, Burns Becht, by 18 votes in that year’s Republican primary election.
Polling places
There are two polling places for this year’s primary and general election. In a change this year, residents of Rochester precincts 1, 2 and 3 will vote at Rochester City Hall, 320 Main St., instead of the Fulton County 4-H Fairgrounds. Residents of precincts 4 and 5 will still vote at the Fulton County Office Building, 125 E. Ninth St.
Dates to note
Voter registration ends April 8, and the first day for early voting by absentee ballot is April 9. Other notable dates and deadlines on the 2019 election calendar are as follows:
- May 6 – Early voting ends;
- May 7 – Primary election, with polls open 6 a.m.-6 p.m.;
- May 21 – Voter registration begins for the general election;
- June 30 – Deadline for the Democratic and Republican parties to select candidates to fill ballot vacancies;
- July 1 – Deadline for independent and minor-party candidates to file petitions of nomination;
- July 3 – Deadline for write-in candidates to file candidacy declarations;
- Oct. 7 – Voter registration ends;
- Oct. 8 – First day for early voting in the general election;
- Nov.4 – Early voting ends;
- Nov. 5 – General election, with polls open 6 a.m.-6 p.m.
