Brown wins big, elected new tax commissioner

Darla Brown was able to take a 386-vote lead from early voting and expand it on runoff election day to become Laurens County’s tax commissioner.

Brown gathered 1,910 votes. while Tim Aldridge compiled 1,081 during the Republican runoff held Tuesday. Brown received 636 in advance voting and 93 in absentee by mail, while Aldridge picked up 277 from advance voting and 66 in absentees.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge, getting to know the employees in the office and helping them do their jobs better,” Brown said. “If there are areas that can be helped, I want to be helpful.” 

Brown will take over for Lee Dixon, who is stepping down at the end of the year. Brown has been a small business consultant the past few years. She looks forward to gaining as much information from Dixon, along with other materials she has received from various people around Georgia.

“If (Dixon) will allow me to tag along, I’ll take it as it comes,” Brown said. “I’ll read a lot of materials. I just want to learn as much as I can about the tax commissioner’s office before January.” 

Brown, Aldridge, Sharon Arata and Raj Saxena were all candidates for tax commissioner in the May 21 primary election. That night ended with Brown leading everyone with 2,408 votes, while Aldridge followed with 1,819, Arata with 1,641 and Saxena with 825. Since Brown did not get more than 50 percent of the votes, she and Aldridge both advanced to the June runoff.

“We have this election process and we have ways for voters to become informed about the candidates they have to choose between,” Brown said. “I’m just glad the voters thought that my background was what they wanted to see in the tax commissioner’s office and that my financial experience could be helpful to Laurens County.” 

In a social media post, Aldridge expressed his thanks to everyone who voted for him and supported him.

Brown has helped her husband, Bill, who is a Dublin city councilman, with his past campaigns. The difference in this election was that her race covered the entire county.

“It’s been a challenge, but I’ve had amazing people come along and help me,” Brown said. “I’m so thankful for them, my family and my husband who has worked really hard on this. It has been pretty much four months of nearly complete mental focus. It has been a lot of phone calls, texts and visits in people’s homes along with a lot of people cheering me on.

“I am very, very grateful for all of the voters who came out and voted,” she added. “There is usually not a lot of attention given to small local elections, much less runoff elections. Personally, I think that our government starts locally, and that’s important because we’re talking about our own community and the direction that we want to see our community grow. I would like to encourage voters to always vote, especially in local elections.”