PSC candidate visits Columbus as early voting kicks off. What issues matter to Columbus voters?
Early voting began Tuesday in Georgia, with a statewide election for Public Service Commission on the ballot.
Two Republicans, Tim Echols (District 2) and Fitz Johnson (District 3), are vying to keep their posts against challenging Democratic candidates Alicia Johnson (District 2) and Peter Hubbard (District 3).
The Public Service Commission is a five-member body of elected officials, who regulate utility companies, such as Georgia Power. Most electric consumers in Muscogee County are Georgia Power customers. The power company serves 2.7 million residents, businesses and big industries, including data centers.
The PSC balances Georgia Power requests to meet energy demands with rates that are fair and reasonable to the public. The commission has been stacked with Republicans for 22 years.
Columbusites flocked to the city’s early voting polling location, 3111 Citizens Way, and shared concerns with the Ledger-Enquirer about rate increases, climate policy and what they felt were needed changes in the system as they cast their votes.
“My (Georgia Power) bill has been going up tremendously within the last four to five years,” resident Beverly Davis said. “I’ve paid $300 a month (recently). I’m looking for someone who is not about the 1% but about the 99% of us who go out and work for each and every day.”
Davis’ bills are a reflection of many Georgia Power customer bills, which have risen due to six rate increase requests by Georgia Power, each approved by the Public Service Commission over the past six years.
“In Georgia, utility bills have increased 33% over the last two years,” Charles Hua, executive director of Powerlines, told the Ledger-Enquirer. Powerlines is a nonpartisan organization aimed at modernizing utility regulation for consumers to lower utility bills and grow the economy.
“A lot of people and consumers and voters don’t understand that it’s not just their utility company that sets and determines their bills. It’s actually a state government body called the Public Service Commission, which, in Georgia’s case, is elected and sets people’s utility bills.”
Georgia is 1 of 10 states where PSC members are elected; the other 40 states are appointed.
“I have been voting since I’ve been able to vote,” Wesley Lee said after he voted. “I voted Democrat because we just need change.”
Lee was concerned that it was difficult to find out this election was coming up and said it wasn’t well-advertised. He saw it on local TV news.
Robert Dow wasn’t aware of the election either, but was at the service center for other business and went back in and voted Democrat after learning the PSC’s role, citing energy sources and climate change as two big concerns for him.
“Democrats preserve forests, they would rather have energy produced by wind farms, solar, not coal, not gas, not oil,” Dow said.
Just over 20,000 people in Georgia cast ballots on the first day of early voting, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
Democratic candidate Peter Hubbard stopped by Columbus on the same day early voting started, during the unveiling of the new Muscogee County Democratic office at 1501 13th St.
“I’m here because the PSC serves the entire state, not just Atlanta, so it’s important to meet voters where they are,” Hubbard told the L-E. “I was in Macon earlier, I’ll be in Albany tomorrow. I want folks to know there’s an important election and that I care enough to come all the way down to far reaches of the state.”
Republican candidates also have been out campaigning in the lead-up to early voting. Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, both Republicans, showed support for Fitz Johnson and Echols at an event last week.
In remarks given last week, Carr called the two Democratic candidates “socialists who will make energy costs go up and reliability go down.”
Fitz Johnson emailed the L-E to say he in Valdosta and is doing a “southern state sweep” this week, but didn’t comment further.
The other Republican incumbent, Echols, plans to soon visit Albany, Americus and UGA Republicans in Athens.
Echols’ democratic challenger, Alicia Johnson, is campaigning in Savannah, Hubbard relayed, and said because they both have full-time jobs they are doing what they can to “tag team the state.”
Alicia Johnson’s campaign manager, Andrew Heaton spoke at the new Democratic office opening in on behalf of Johnson.
He said he had a simple message for those wanting more information on the PSC.
“The bills are too high, the bills are too high, the bills are too high,” Heaton exclaimed to the crowd.
Heaton also said Democratic candidates want to talk about the issues in the race and have a vision, but said their opponents want to call Alicia Johnson a “DEI” candidate and Hubbard a socialist.
“How many of you have power bills that look like a car payment or even a mortgage? That’s what you get when you have five members of the Public Service Commission who are not listening to the public.” Hubbard said while giving remarks Tuesday. “ (The current PSC) are putting corporate interest before business of the people, and that’s why we’re having skyrocketed power (bills), six rate hikes in the last two years.
“Half of them were just to keep the profits for Georgia Power sky high so they can keep taking money from us and shifting it over to their shareholders.”
Hubbard voted first thing this morning, excited to have “locked in his vote,” but said he has “a long way to go” and “wants to keep the momentum going the next three weeks.”
He called this a turnout election and an education effort, because not many people know what the PSC does or that the members are elected.
“I’m here to tell you that on November 4, we are going to flip two seats on this Public Service Commission to the Democrats,” Hubbard told the crowd. “And if we could just get 5% more Democrats (than) Republicans to show up, we will flip these two seats. This is our chance. This is the moment for Democrats here in the state. We’ve been waiting a long time, and I’m ready to deliver.”
Early voting will remain open until Oct. 31 at 3111 Citizens Way. On Election Day, Nov. 4, voters will cast their ballots at their assigned precinct, which can be found on the Georgia Secretary of State’s office website.
This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
