Council District 4: Turner Pugh defeats Averett

In the race for Columbus Council District 4, incumbent Evelyn Turner Pugh has defeated her young challenger Marquese “Skinny” Averett.

Turner Pugh, 65, who has served the city and its council for 28 years, has 1,556 votes, or 59.8 percent, to 1,046 votes, or 40.2 percent, for Averett with all five District 4 precincts reporting, according to the website of the Georgia Secretary of State Division of Elections. That includes 1,411 votes from early voting in the election. Results are to be declared official on Friday.

“It’s good that people have faith in you. It’s a blessing from God,” Turner Pugh said after learning of her victory. She said getting Forrest Road widened, along with other road projects in the city, including her district in south Columbus, are priorities. She also looks forward to working with other council members for four more years.

“No one councilor can do anything without five other votes,” Turner Pugh, also mayor pro tem, said Tuesday night before departing a gathering at the F&W Control Tower club off St. Marys Road. Earlier in the day, she had spent more than eight hours taking part in a Columbus Council meeting and budget session — activities she has been a part of for nearly three decades.

Averett, 26, was attempting to become one of the youngest city councilors in Columbus history. After pausing a moment to catch his breath and process the fact that he had lost a race he had put so much energy into, he simply said the citizens had spoken.

“I think we talked about the issues. We talked about what matters, and I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish,” Averett said from his south Columbus home where a party was taking place win or lose. “We had a lot of first-time voters out, a lot of young people that were not part of the process that decided to join in because they believed in someone like me, who could speak loudly and speak boldly for them. So I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish and I just look forward to the next chapter of my life.”

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the community organizer who works with nonprofit organizations expressed confidence that he had run a strong race against a tough opponent, calling it a “David versus Goliath fight.” He felt his social media campaign, particularly via Facebook, had given him an edge.

“I feel we’re going to win. I really do,” Averett said. “We’ve built one of the best social media campaigns in Columbus. We actually have just as many likes as the mayor of Columbus. We just created this Facebook page five months ago. We’ve been getting hundreds and hundreds of shares. We’ve been knocking on doors and being in the streets, and my opponent, she has done neither ... I just believe that those efforts are going to pay off in the long run.”

Competition aside, both Turner Pugh and Averett are Columbus natives wanting the best for their city and its future.

She is a Carver High School and Columbus State University graduate who worked nearly two decades at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia and 15 years with SunTrust Bank before retiring recently. He graduated from Kendrick High School, but ventured to Fort Valley State University to study political science.

Turner Pugh’s campaign to serve four more years on Columbus Council also had focused on improving parks and recreation programs to give youths in the city productive activities that will help mold their lives and character and keep them out of trouble long term. There also are a number of projects across the city that she would like to see come to fruition.

“I’m running because there’s still a lot to be done in Columbus,” Turner Pugh said in an April Ledger-Enquirer interview. “We have a new (Benning) Technology Park, and we don’t need just a park out there. We need to go out and actively recruit industry to come here.”

Averett’s campaign also included attracting more “livable-wage jobs” to the city to help families thrive in the Columbus area rather than having to drive farther to other cities for competitive wages. He also sought more investment in south Columbus recreational facilities, as well as private investment by businesses to get residents on the south side of the city more places to shop and eat out.

The boundaries of District 4 run from the northern section of Macon Road south to St. Marys Road. In between those two major arteries is Buena Vista Road.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 10:07 PM with the headline "Council District 4: Turner Pugh defeats Averett."