Challenger takes nomination from incumbent Catoosa County chairman
By Randall Franks
Tuesday August 5, 2008 8:58:59pm


Voters returned to the polls Aug. 5 to get a chance to choose candidates in two races.
In unofficial results, Catoosa County Republicans, picked Keith Greene to go up against Democrat Lynn Long, 64, a former Catoosa County Chairman from Fort Oglethorpe, on Nov. 4.
“I want to thank all those who supported me by coming out and voting,” Greene said. “I appreciate the opportunity to lead Catoosa County into the future after winning in November. I look forward to working with the mayors of Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe in uniting the county in order to prepare for the future.”

Challenger Keith Greene, received 1,876 votes or 64.4 percent, beating one-term Catoosa County Board of Commissioner Chairman Bill Clark who received 1,037 votes or 35.6 percent.

“I appreciate those that helped me with my campaign,” Clark said. “I congratulate Mr. Greene on running a good race and wish him the best of luck in November.”

Greene lives near Ringgold. He works for Roper Corporation as an engineering team leader supporting new product.
His wife is Kat. He has three children Meghan, Brendan, and Sean.

This is his first run for office.
He retired in 2008 as a captain from the U.S. Army after 25 years.

Democrats in Catoosa County chose between U.S. Senate candidates Jim Martin, who received 204 votes or 73.12 percent over Vernon Jones, who received 75 votes or 26.88 percent. The statewide winner will go up against Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in November.

Catoosa County has 34,174 registered voters with 3,210 casting ballots in the runoff election. Advance voters cast 857 ballots, and 137 absentee ballots were returned.
Catoosa Elections Officer Donna Bomar enthusiastically said she was pleased with the work of the elections staff completing closure and tally of all the precincts by 8:15 p.m.

She said she was still disappointed in a turnout of less than 10 percent, but that it was larger than officials originally anticipated.

UPDATED at 8:40 p.m. This is an up-to-the minute tally of votes for today’s county commission chairman runoff in Catoosa County. Polls closed at 7 p.m. with numbers coming in around 8:00 p.m.


Numbers posted are from 12 of the 12 voting areas, advance voting and paper absentee ballots.



The running total for each candidate is as follows:

Keith Greene:1876

Bill Clark:1037







Untitled Document























































Absentee ballots

Advance voting


 Fort Oglethorpe Westside Woodstation Duncan Park Blackstock Graysville Poplar Springs Chambers Lakeview Boynton Ringgold Catoosa Keith
Keith Greene 24 530 196 64 98 49 28 119 105 106 72 212 205 68
Bill Clark 56 265 56 71 53 20 36 59 55 54 48 96 110 58





Upcoming Catoosa County Elections

* SPLOST, special-purpose local-option sales tax, vote

Advance Voting: Sept. 8 -12

Election Day: September 16

Voter registration deadline: August 8

* General Election

Advance Voting: Oct. 27-31

Election Day: Nov. 4

Voter registration deadline: Nov. 4

* General Election run-off

Advance Voting: Nov. 24- Nov. 28

Election Day: Dec. 2

For more information, call the Catoosa County Elections Office at (706) 935-3990 or visit
catoosa.com/depts/elections



For more information on today's race, go to the following articles:

  • Catoosa Chairman will see runoff: Weldon wins for state representative

    or
  • Runoff to cost Catoosa $7,000



    CLICK ON THESE LINKS





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    • Post a comment: You must be logged in order to comment.

     
    fofire8
    Comments: 13
    Joined: 07/02/2007
    08/07/2008 09:51:23 PM
    What was the purpose of Mr. Clarks' comment on "Night Talk"? Sounds like anger at losing the election and retribution for those "evil special interest" people in the County who supported Mr. Greene? Does that reflect poorly of the Colonel and his ability as a superior ranking officer? I'm surprised he didn't wait to proclaim his intentions until later. Can't wait to see his hellraising.
     
    toolate
    Comments: 37
    Joined: 06/27/2008
    08/07/2008 07:01:30 PM
    Finally TOOLATE for that dictator Col. Billy & his small regime!

    Oh... yes never TOOLATE for all of the citzens,... guess you can call us "the Voters" "Special Interests"!!

    We the Special Interset Voters have had IT and before it is TOOLATE Bobby & Dwaynie BETTER start looking, liking, doing and seeing Greene.........that is MR. GREENE to you!!!

    Someone post the rest of the B/C meetings...Day, Date & Times, so all of us "Special Intrests" will not be TOOLATE to pack the Dome here in Catoosa!!!!
     
    sundevil1
    Comments: 13
    Joined: 08/10/2007
    08/07/2008 05:17:26 PM
    Re : Special interests

    Whenever an entrenched, arrogant incumbent is summarily dismissed, it's always by "special interests", never because some principled voters finally have enough of that incumbent. This dovetails nicely with the whole political process of fooling ourselves that we can have an overbearing government that gives us stuff while making our neighbors pay for it. The Clark regime is gone. Yay. But I will repeat what was said in an earlier post - Let this be a lesson to any other budding petty dictators out there that no one is indispensible.

    As a brief aside, it would have been nice if BC (and some other local politicos) would take a few minutes out of their busy day to actually shake hands,and discuss things with the citizens that pay the freight for their delusions of grandeur. Would be nice if they didn't look at everyone with a principled opinion as their blood enemies. In fact,this whole "special interests " nonsense that other posters are parroting without any critical thought came straight from the (now former ) king himself.

     
    fofire8
    Comments: 13
    Joined: 07/02/2007
    08/07/2008 01:22:30 PM
    Can someone tell me what "special interest groups" elected Mr. Greene? Didn't the majority of voters (all 3000ish of them) choose him?
     
    maggie
    Comments: 1542
    Joined: 01/08/2006
    08/06/2008 05:21:18 PM
    Thank you whoitis, I couldn't remember the exact address.
     
    whoitis
    Comments: 4
    Joined: 12/21/2007
    08/06/2008 04:21:40 PM
    @maggie

    http://www.electkeithgreene.com/
     
    maggie
    Comments: 1542
    Joined: 01/08/2006
    08/06/2008 03:45:10 PM
    What is Keith Greene's website address??
     
    thunderscot
    Comments: 9
    Joined: 07/28/2008
    08/06/2008 03:10:59 PM
    perhaps

    Bill Clark's leadership was principled, and it was good for the citizens of Catoosa. But, you're right, he did not govern by consulting the whim of prevailing special interests.

    I prefer government by elected officials, not special interests seeking taxpayer handouts. Special interests made clear their disdain for Clark's failure to do what they wanted him to, and they turned out their constituencies very well.

    I will be surprised--pleasantly surprised--if the county stays solvent and out of federal court and accountable to its citizens under Greene, but I do hope he is able to govern as well as Clark.

    perhaps
     
    aquaholic
    Comments: 45
    Joined: 11/02/2007
    08/06/2008 12:07:40 PM
    perhaps indeed.. perhaps Thunderscot will quit saying perhaps.. Congrats to Mr. Greene. Single controlling leadership isn't for Catoosa county.
     
    whoitis
    Comments: 4
    Joined: 12/21/2007
    08/06/2008 08:39:46 AM
    Congrats to Mr. Greene! Now that Clark is out, I'm hoping to see progress made with the YMCA.
     
    sundevil1
    Comments: 13
    Joined: 08/10/2007
    08/06/2008 07:23:11 AM
    "Principled leadership is not dictatorship. "

    You are so right. But the problem with the outgoing incumbent was UN principled leadership.His philosophy was basically to keep the county small and controllable (by people like , uh , him) . It should have been obvious (even to people like you) that he was in trouble when he couldn't even get a majority of the vote in HIS OWN PARTY. In politics,'ole buddy, friends come and go,but enemies accumulate.
    Ding ,Dong , the (really ) old witch is dead!

    Okay,enough political grave dancing. Time to move on and get behind whomever wins in November.
     
    thunderscot
    Comments: 9
    Joined: 07/28/2008
    08/05/2008 10:22:43 PM
    devil (fitting) said: "I am hopeful that we can now emerge from a small town/small minds mentality and actually join the rest of the world in the 21st century."

    Classic liberal code for "I am hopeful that we can start using the government to steal other people's money and use it for ourselves."

    But communism and socialism is so 19th and 20th century.

    Liberty and freedom and truth will prevail, minor setbacks along the way notwithstanding. Bill Clark represented those, and when the Republicrats and bottom-feeders have screwed the County for another four years, true conservatives will be there ready to knock them back into last century.

    Principled leadership is not dictatorship. Saying "no" to public purse porkers is not dictatorship. That is called stewardship of hard-earned taxpayer money.

    Pandering to whiny mobs is the forte of the Trotsky's and Lenins of the world. They get to office by pandering, and then rape them once they're there.

    I don't think Greene is of that caliber, but those behind his unlikely rise certainly are.

    Onward!
     
    thunderscot
    Comments: 9
    Joined: 07/28/2008
    08/05/2008 10:12:36 PM
    Congratulations to Keith Greene on his election. I wish him well.

    I think Catoosa will soon realize its mistake, though.

    I know little about Mr. Greene or how he will handle this new responsibility. But then, that’s the point.

    Thank you, Bill Clark for your dedication and service.

    Deciding an election based on a few whiny fire department administrators is the height of stupidity, in my opinion. The vote was not so much for Greene as it was against Clark. So what did Bill Clark do so wrong? Say “no” to too many people’s pet projects?

    Perhaps Mr. Greene will be able to prevent a return to the hog-slopping of every public purse porker in the County. Bill Clark did.

    Perhaps Mr. Greene will be able to keep the County out of federal court. Perhaps Mr. Greene will be able to keep County funds out of the hands of one very insatiable local bank. Perhaps Mr. Greene will be able to keep the County solvent and even with a little money put away for a rainy day. Perhaps Mr. Greene will not raise taxes. Perhaps Mr. Greene will keep County “services” accountable to the taxpayer. Bill Clark did all these things.

    I’m sure the County’s Democrats are very happy to have rid themselves of the restraints of a true proven conservative. Time to feast on the back of the taxpayer again. Yippee! (High fives all around)

    This letter is certainly something of a lament, but it’s more of a public thank you to Col. Clark, whose superior rank in the Army seems to correspond to his superior quality of leadership.

    My family has had the privilege of getting to know him a little personally, and I could not be prouder of his record of self-less service, in the face of hateful personal attacks by special interests. My hope is that it won’t take us longer than four and a half years to find someone who can walk in his footsteps and carry on his legacy.

    As our spiritual forebears in the Reformation cried while burning on stakes all across Europe, “Soli Deo gloria!”–“All glory is God’s alone!”

    The issues are of considerably less moment, but Bill’s steady course of applying conservative principles, and restraining those who think government is our saviour rather than Christ in the face of never-ending vitriolic blasts from his tyranny-tending foes reminds me of the Reformers. Despite the setbacks, they eventually won.

    Perhaps Mr. Greene, like those Reformers of long ago, will labor with all his might in prayer and action to throw off the chains of tyranny. I hope so.

    Thank you, Col. Clark, for your service to Catoosa County and to the cause of truth and justice.
     
    sundevil1
    Comments: 13
    Joined: 08/10/2007
    08/05/2008 09:48:10 PM
    One and done... No mixed messages from voters here. Don't know about the rest of you,but this voter couldn't WAIT to pull the lever ABC (Anybody but Clark). Another lesson for you budding petty dictators out there : Sometimes even the voters wake up and muck you out of office. This makes TWO good decisions in less than a season for Catoosa County voters. The first was when Judd Burkhart was sent back under the rock that he emerged from in the primary, and now this. (Burkhart could have bought each of his voters a dinner at O'Charleys and had money left over for the $$$ he spent). I am hopeful that we can now emerge from a small town/small minds mentality and actually join the rest of the world in the 21st century.No matter what happens in the general election,it's a great feeling to send an arrogant incumbent packing. Don't let the door hit you, Bill...
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