Harold Brooker

DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield County voters gave the nod to three familiar faces in Tuesday’s Republican Party primary races for the Board of Commissioners.

In the race for board chair, Lynn Laughter, who currently holds the District 4 seat, received 4,524 votes (52.26 percent) to Chris Shiflett’s 4,132 votes (47.74 percent). Current Chairman Mike Babb did not seek re-election.

In the race for District 2, incumbent Harold Brooker received 5,064 votes (57.97 percent) to Shell Underwood’s 3,672 votes (42.03 percent).

And in the race for District 4, Greg Jones, who previously held that seat, received 4,530 votes (54.43 percent) to Jevin Jensen’s 3,792 votes (45.57 percent).

No Democrat qualified in any of those races.

Laughter said she wanted to thank all of those who supported her.

“I made a promise four years ago when I first ran for the board that I would never make a vote just to help me get re-elected, and I can honestly say I have never done that,” she said. “I will continue to pray for God to give me wisdom in the decisions we have to make for the county. We’ve got a lot of hard decisions to make in the next few years.”

Laughter said she will continue to work on economic development and work towards reducing the county’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating, which is currently a 5.

The lower the rating, the better, since insurance companies base fire insurance rates on the ISO rating. Officials said last year cutting the ISO rating to 4 from 5 could drop the fire insurance rates on a $150,000 house by 20 to 25 percent.

Shiflett said he wished Laughter and the other commissioners well.

“I wish the best for all of the candidates who won. I hope they can provide the leadership that the county needs,” he said. “I also want to thank all of those who supported me for their time and their effort.”

Brooker said he was thankful to voters.

“This will give me four more years, a total of 24 on the board,” he said. “We got some issues coming up, with the budget and other matters. But we are going to have an experienced board.”

Underwood congratulated Brooker on his victory and thanked voters for their support.

“I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to meet the community. I haven’t felt alone for a minute. It has been a wonderful experience,” she said.

Jones thanked those who voted for him as well as his opponent.

“I spoke to him earlier. There wasn’t anything negative in our race. We focused on the issues,” Jones said.

Jones said the board has many challenges ahead of it and he is eager to start helping out.

“I do plan to attend (this year’s) budget meetings. I won’t have a vote, but I plan to listen and get informed and make suggestions where I can,” he said.

Jensen said that when he and Jones spoke they agreed they were glad their race was so positive.

“I wished Greg the best and offered to help him in any way that I could to better Whitfield County,” he said. “I would like to thank my family, friends and supporters for all their help during this campaign. I feel we ran a great idea-based race that we can all be proud of.”