Why a candidate with a home in Newnan can run for mayor in Columbus

The county elections board voted Thursday to keep Columbus mayoral candidate Zephaniah Baker in the race, rejecting a residency challenge from rival Beth Harris.

The five-member board voted 3-1 in Baker’s favor on a motion from Linda Parker, the local Democratic Party’s representative. “I say let the people decide,” said Parker, who was not present in person but participated via speaker phone.

U.D. Roberts, who represents the local Republican Party, was the only “no” vote. Roberts said he felt too many questions remained unanswered.

Others voting to reject the challenge were Eleanor White and Diane Scrimpshire. The board chair, Margaret Jenkins, votes only in the event of a tie.

City law requires the mayor to live in Columbus. Harris challenged Baker’s residency based on his having filed for a homestead exemption on a house in Newnan, Ga., which Baker said is his wife’s primary residence, and more convenient for her traveling to Stone Mountain, where she works.

He maintained his primary residence remains 1091 Bolton Court, off Rigdon Road south of the Columbus Public Library. That’s the address listed on his March 9 notice of candidacy.

State law requires the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registrations to consider up to 15 factors in determining a candidate’s residency. Where the candidate has a homestead exemption is among them, but the Georgia Supreme Court in its 2008 decision Handel v. Powell ruled a homestead exemption cannot be the sole deciding factor, as all the measures listed in the law must be given equal weight.

“Had the General Assembly intended such a preeminent role for the homestead exemption in determining the residence of a person desiring to qualify to run for elective office, it would have so stated,” the justices wrote.

Harris filed her challenge March 22, stating Baker “is not a current resident of Columbus” and appending documents showing he and wife Sharon Cosby have a homestead exemption on a house at 40 Lantana Way in Coweta County.

Baker told the board he has a “nontraditional family,” having been a single father for 13 years after his children’s mother died. He felt fortunate to have fallen in love with Cosby, whom he met in Atlanta, and they had to make accommodations to avoid disrupting her life and the lives of their children, he said.

He noted the state law specifically says a candidate’s home needn’t be the same as a spouse’s.

“I was happy that I found a wife,” he said. “We did what we could because we have a blended family. She has two kids and I have three. Together we have five. We did what we could to be able to make sure that the kids did not become so disrupted, because we were in love with each other.”

Baker said he has never filed for a homestead exemption on the Bolton Court house, but that doesn’t mean it’s not his residence. Renters don’t file homestead exemptions, but that doesn’t mean they don’t live here, he said.

He showed the board bills for electricity and water service on Bolton Court, and a city check mailed there for his service on the city’s Board of Equalization.

Having checked financial disclosures all candidates have to file, Roberts quizzed Baker about his businesses, which specialize in home health care. One business had the Newnan address; another had an address of 1124 13th St. in Columbus, Roberts said.

Baker said a candidate’s business could have any address, even out of state, and it wouldn’t prove the person’s home wasn’t in Columbus.

He asked why Harris wasn’t at the board meeting. The board told him she was not required to be there.

Contacted later by phone, Harris said she was told she would not be allowed to address the board, if she went to the meeting. Her presence likely would not have helped, she added: “It would have been more of a circus had I been there.”

Baker in a news conference after the meeting alleged Harris had a racial motivation to keep black candidates out of the race.

Harris denied that, noting she worked on Baker’s campaign in 2008 when he ran against state Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus. “He and I go way back,” she said of Baker.

This year she kept a list of people she had hoped would run for mayor so she wouldn’t have to, she said. Several were black, including attorney LaRae Dixon Moore, Judge Ben Richardson and former council candidate Teddy Reese, she said.

“It’s not a black or white thing with me,” she said. “Anybody who knows me knows I’m not racist.”

The election will be May 22. The other mayoral candidates are Danny Arencibia, Charles Roberts, Winfred Shipman, and Berry “Skip” Henderson.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Why a candidate with a home in Newnan can run for mayor in Columbus."