Powers taking a grassroots approach to court district voters

Joe Powers knows how to hold a conversation. 

With myriad experience in media and sales, talking is how the Dublin resident has earned a living for the better part of two decades. This year he has been making a different kind of sales pitch – courting himself to voters he hopes will propel him to the Georgia House District 155 seat. 

“The thing I hear most often is, ‘Nobody has ever done this before,'” Powers said about his practice of canvassing neighborhoods and knocking on doors. He said full days have been spent walking the streets of Dublin, sitting and talking with residents in their homes and yards. 

His campaign against Republican incumbent Matt Hatchett has centered around social media posts and showing up at community events and public meetings. Powers caused quite the stir this summer when he publicized a rumored data center coming to Laurens County.  

After discovering a grant application from the Altamaha Regional Commission highlighting the old Mohawk plant on Nathaniel Drive as a prime location for a large-scale data center, Powers encouraged residents to show up to county commission meetings to voice their opinion. And show up they did. A standing room-only crowd attended the July 21 commission meeting, mostly demanding the county take action to prevent such a facility from coming. 

The grant application, which was denied, was for Environmental Protection Agency funds to check for brownfields, or contaminated industrial land. It listed the Mohawk plant site as a possible use for the funds. Its owner, a Pakistani textile entrepreneur, has the property for sale, marketed for use as a manufacturing facility or a data center. 

Commissioners told the audience that there were no plans to build a data center in Laurens County, and have so far, to the ire of residents who still appear at meetings to voice their opposition, have taken no action to limit or regulate the construction of one. 

In hindsight, Powers admits he didn’t intend to cause a sensation, however, he achieved his goal of getting people in the community talking. 

“I really could have been proactive in my communication to [commissioners] on what I identified,” Powers said. “It was a misstep of a young man trying to do something right, in the honest effort to try to make people aware of these things.”

Powers said he wasn’t necessarily against data centers, but a priority, if elected, would be seeking ways to better plan for and regulate the construction of such centers. 

“We are one of the most unregulated states when it comes to data centers,” he said. “How do we protect ourselves from being steamrolled like what’s happened in other places across the state and the country? A data center, unregulated with no community guidelines, do we need that? No. We need to put plans and guardrails in place to protect ourselves.”

Creating public conversation is the center of Powers’ campaign. He says his opponent, a veteran lawmaker who chairs the powerful house appropriations committee, has lost focus on local issues, and is galvanizing action across the district. 

Powers said that he sees the house seat as a local leader, helping funnel state resources to the district while mobilizing and encouraging residents to be engaged in public affairs. 

“The focus has been on Atlanta and it has been for too long,” Powers said. “It should be my job to care about other people’s well being and concerns. Let people know they are being heard. If you let people know they have a voice and it’s being heard, things line up and happen.” 

Powers lists the Dublin City School System’s financial crisis as the “catalyst” encouraging his house run. He points to years of mismanagement and lack of state intervention as evidence of current leadership being out of touch with local needs. 

“The business people in our community had been aware of potential lack of direction with spending and resources, and the community at large was aware that we seemed to be out of balance with other school systems in our area and similar sized systems,” he said. “It goes back to the whole things of ‘where’s the attention and where’s the focus?'”

Powers has been a visible presence at local school board meetings as well as both state hearings regarding the school system’s finances. 

While state lawmakers have implemented stricter controls and oversight of school system finances, Powers said enough isn’t being done to support families and promote parental and civic group engagement in schools. 

Another priority for Powers, if elected, is the expansion of Medicaid. Georgia remains one of only 10 states that have not fully expanded the federal program under the Affordable Care Act. 

Powers has also criticized Hatchett’s campaign funders. According to financial records filed with the state ethics commission, Hatchett’s campaign has spent more than $490,000 and raised more than $600,000. While Hatchett’s war chest has been fueled by dozens of local residents and businesses, Powers questions the dollars coming from out-of-state entities, particularly super PACs with ties to data centers. 

“When there are a lot of people spending a lot of money you have to ask why,” he said. “The people of house district 155 come in all different classes and varieties. My job is to listen to them and help them, not listen to whoever sent four mailers on my behalf in a primary.” 

His own campaign pocketbook is much thinner, with only $1,325 raised. He has yet to file the latest financial disclosures, and State Ethics Commission records lists his campaign with delinquent fees. Powers said he is aware of the charges noting a change in how campaign records are filed this year, and is working to submit the appropriate paperwork and payment to the state.   

While not claiming any party affiliation, Powers is running under the democratic ticket, giving him until Nov. 3 to convince voters to send him to Atlanta. 

And he plans to keep the conversation going. 

“I got into this race because I wanted the conversation to be heard and questions to be asked all the way until November,” he said. “I want people to see somebody that cares for them, that loves them regardless of party, socioeconomic background, regardless of any of those typical categorizing things.”