WR Candidate to remain on November ballot

Houston County Superior Court Judge Katherine Lumsden ruled Wednesday that Kevin Lashley could run for the Post 4 Warner Robins City Council seat in the November election.

Lashley qualified back in August to run against incumbent Tim Thomas and later that week, Thomas’s wife Carol challenged Lashley’s residency in the City of Warner Robins, claiming he didn’t actually live in the district.

Thursday, Sept. 5, Warner Robins election supervisor Michelle Riley ruled that Lashley remained qualified to run. Carol filed an appeal again, but through the Houston County Superior Court on Friday, Sept. 13 against Riley’s ruling of Lashley being qualified to run for council; Lumsden backed Riley’s ruling Wednesday.

The Houston Home Journal filed an open records request for the hearing documents of Carol vs. Riley.

The documents show that Judge Lumsden wrote, “Upon review of the petition, transcript of the hearing held by election superintendent, exhibits and applicable Georgia law the court finds that the decision of the election superintendent was not: in violation of the Constitution or laws of this state; in excess of the statutory authority of the superintendent; made upon unlawful procedures; affected by other error of law, clearly erroneous in view of the reliable, probative and substantial evidence on the whole record nor arbitrary or capricious or characterized by an abuse of discretion or a clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion. The court finds no reason to overturn the decision of the election superintendent.”

Judge Lumsden signed the document on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Lashley wrote the following statement on his social media campaign page late Wednesday afternoon: “Superior Court of Houston County has decided that Michelle Riley acted appropriately in carrying out her duties and showed no bias as the duly appointed election official of Warner Robins. That means that the evidence provided by my opponent’s wife, independently of him, was inadequate, inaccurate and therefore unfounded. What does all this mean? No more hiding behind trying to have me deemed ineligible! I look forward to the rest of this race and I am confident that I am going to win and help set this city on the road to prosperity and growth!”