Minister unseats Superior Court clerk, judge wins over prosecutor

Unofficial results late Tuesday showed minister Ann Hardman had unseated incumbent Superior Court Clerk Linda Pierce by 60 to 40 percent.

“I’m excited that the people believed enough in me to put me in office,” Hardman said Tuesday night.

Over the next six months, she would examine office procedures “to see how we’re doing” and look for improvements, she said.

She was unsure how she would deal with a lawsuit Pierce has filed against city leaders over her office budget.

Pierce could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Hardman, 59, has never sought political office. She is the chief executive officer of three ministries based here and in her hometown of Asheville, N.C.

Her administrative work in the ministry and a decade of prior banking experience make her best suited for the Superior Court clerk’s seat, she said in an earlier interview.

Pierce is among four elected officials — Sheriff John Darr, Marshal Greg Countryman and Municipal Clerk Vivian Creighton Bishop — suing the city over budgets.

Pierce earlier said she expected the ongoing litigation to be an election issue, but did not know what impact it would have.

Hardman said the lawsuit was not the reason she ran, but she would work to smooth out the relationship between the clerk’s office and the city.

Pierce, who is eligible to retire, said her motivation to remain in office for four more years was to oversee the electronic modernization of court documents.

Pierce was seeking her eighth term as Superior Court clerk.

Superior Court judge

Superior Court Judge Ron Mullins fought off a challenge from Chief Assistant District Attorney Alonza Whitaker on Tuesday, with the incumbent judge of the six-county Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit taking 13,978 votes to Whitaker’s 10,491, according to unofficial returns from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.

County-by-county results showed Mullins winning 376 votes to Whitaker’s 299 in Chattahoochee County; 3,100 to 602 in Harris; 917 to 357 in Marion; and 1,038 to 384 in Taylor.

Whitaker won only two counties, taking 8,262 to Mullins’ 7,987 in Muscogee, and 587 to 569 in Talbot.

“I’m deeply thankful for the hundreds of people throughout the circuit who worked with us on this campaign,” Mullins said late Tuesday, adding, “I would like to commend Mr. Whitaker on running a campaign on such a high level.”

Whitaker could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mullins, 65, graduated from Harris County High School in 1969 and got his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Georgia in 1973. He earned his law degree there in 1976.

He started in private practice in Augusta, Ga., and became a partner in a law firm there, but having married a Columbus native, he and his wife were eager to move home. They came to Columbus in 1980.

He first practiced civil law here with Kelly, Denney, Pease and Allison, and he later joined an office with attorneys Ron Self, Pete Robinson and Allan Kamensky.

He moved to Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford in 2003. He left as a partner there when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him to the bench in 2013. He began serving the next year.

Whitaker, 60, has served 18 years as a prosecutor and also worked as a defense attorney and as an environmental and Columbus Recorder’s Court judge.

A Columbus native, he graduated from Jordan High School in 1974 and got his undergraduate degree from Alabama State University in Montgomery before gaining his law degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., where he then worked seven years as a public defender.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Minister unseats Superior Court clerk, judge wins over prosecutor."