Federal Judge refuses to stop Catoosa Republican primary candidates
ROME, Ga. (WDEF) – It looks like the Republican Primary will go on next week in Catoosa County with four candidates listed as Republicans.
A federal judge has rejected a legal injunction to pull them off the ballot, because the local party did not qualify them as Republicans.
For weeks, the Catoosa County Republican Party has battled in court to withdraw the names of Larry Black, Steven Henry, Jeffrey Long and Vanita Hullander from the primary ballot, even though several had been elected as Republicans before.
The party had also asked election officials to add a pair of ballot questions for the election that Georgia election officials rejected.
The Secretary of State said those questions violated the rule of campaigning against candidates on the ballot.
The two questions were:
1. Do you think anti-Trump Democrats should be able to get a court order to force the elections board to qualify them as Republican candidates for office?
2. Did you know that Steven Henry, Vanita Hullander, Jeff Long, and Larry Black were not approved to run as Republicans by the Republican Party?
Judge William Ray, II ruled against the injunction and against putting the two questions on the ballot.
The legal battle isn’t over just yet.
The Catoosa Republicans still have challenges alive before the Georgia Supreme Court and the Catoosa County Superior Court, but those rulings will probably not happen before the actual election.
