Politics & Government

Chuck Williams Is the Next 113th District State Representative

With nearly all precincts reporting, unofficial results show Williams, a Republican, with nearly twice as many votes as Democrat Dan Matthews.

(This story was compiled from reporting by Terry Jernigan and Keith Farner.)

Republican , who presided over the closed and runs a tree farm in southern Oconee County, was the apparent winner Tuesday of a runoff election to be the next state Representative from Oconee County and parts of Clarke, Oglethorpe and Morgan.

Unofficial returns showed Williams with a commanding lead over Democrat . With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Williams had about 64 percent of the vote to Matthews' 36 percent. (Update: With the rest of Clarke in, it's now Williams by about 62 to 38 percent.)

Find out what's happening in Oconeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Turnout was about 25 percent higher in Oconee County than it had been in the on June 21, and with all precincts in, Williams led the county with 2,371 votes to 1,015 for Matthews.

“Our campaign theme and how we really tried to conduct ourselves over the past couple of months was community-based values and common sense government," Williams said at his return-monitoring-turned-victory-party at in downtown Watkinsville. "I didn’t know if that would resonate, given the times we are in, but if you look at the turnout in the district, I think our message did resonate."
 
"We are so pleased to have prevailed," Williams continued. "I’m looking forward to getting to Atlanta. I’ve been in and out of the Capitol over the years working with people in the General Assembly, so I don’t want to say something like ‘This is a dream come true,’ because this isn’t about me.

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"This is about you and the district being, hopefully, to the best of my ability represented in a positive way. We will be up there doing the people’s business in about three weeks, and I’m looking forward to that and the challenges.”

Among the guests at Williams' party were state-level Republican dignitaries, including Republican Party Chair Sue P. Everhart and Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

As Matthews reviewed returns with his supporters at a stone's throw away, he maintained the blunt tone he'd applied to the campaign in characterizing his loss.

“The voters of the 113th want tolls on (Highway) 316,” Matthews said. “The voters of the 113th want to see their taxes raised. The voters of the 113th want to see burrito prices go up.”

(Oconee blogger Lee Becker compiled a good summary of the candidates' contrasting positions last week.)

Matthews again pointed to the campaign finance disparity where Williams’ war chest was some 14 times larger than Matthews'. According to campaign finance documents, Williams raised $61,334.77 compared to Matthews’ $4,411.02.

Matthews said he would hold Williams accountable for every one of his decisions in Atlanta.

“I wish Mr. Williams the best of luck. I hope he makes things great for this district," Matthews said. "I don’t think he will."

Matthews said he wasn't sure if he would run for public office again, although he said his son Lowell, 11, has encouraged him to run to be mayor of Watkinsville.

Election results with 99 percent of precincts reporting:


Dan Matthews Chuck Williams Oconee 1,015
2,371 Clarke 694
441
Morgan 66
170
Oglethorpe 122
167
Total 1,897
3,149


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