GAINESVILLE - When Day Two of qualifying ended Thursday, there was still no Democratic candidate for any of the local posts to be voted on in Hall County this year but a former Democrat had switched to the Republican Party and jumped into a school board race.
Paul Wayne Godfrey qualified to run in the July 31 GOP Primary against Hall County school board member Craig Herrington, who qualified earlier to seek re-election.
Godfrey ran unsuccessful races in 2010 for a seat on the county commission and again last fall in a special election for a spot in the state House of Representatives. He told AccessNorthGa.com when he qualified to run last year he didn't believe in changing parties for convenience and had been a Democrat ever since high school when he served on Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders' Governor's Youth Council.
Godfrey says his decision to switch parties was based on some things he heard while attending an event in Los Angeles a few weeks ago while on vacation where former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Maxine Waters, both Democrats, were in attendance.
"Ms Pelosi's remarks, in thanking a lawyer group that had donated $250,000 to the California (Democrats), about Democratic party efforts to block tort reform were really the finally straw," Godfrey wrote in a email Thursday night. "In addition, recent news announcements about the President's positions and the actions that could compromise national secrets, and indeed, the lives of people like those I worked with during my military career, were also clinchers in the undercurrent of my party change."
Friday noon is the deadline for candidates statewide to qualify for the July primaries.
Friday
July 4th, 2025
10:20AM
