Another candidate wants to represent the citizens of Fayette County.

Wendy Felton, 44, qualified early Tuesday morning for the County Commission special election.

Felton joins Robert Horgan and Emory Wilkerson as candidates for the race to replace former Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham. Felton is the first black Democrat to qualify for the race, but doesn’t believe labels should be used in the race.

“I think we should all be able to work together,” she said.

This is Felton’s first foray into local politics and she just decided it was time to get involved.

“It’s just very disheartening to see all of the controversy. I just think we should be sending a better message,’ she said.

Felton works part-time as an accounting clerk for the city of Fayetteville and said she wants to be the people’s voice on the commission. She’s not totally sold on the idea of district voting and said she believes more information needs to be provided to the residents before any final decision is made.

She graduated from Tuskegee University in 1985 and has a son at the university now. Her biggest accomplishment has been being a good mother to her son and daughter and said a higher power controls her actions.

“This is a big leap of faith for me, but God is leading me. I’m ready for my blessings.”

Over the past 18 months, the issue of converting the county commission and school board posts to district voting has been raised by some residents of north Fayette. The district voting has drawn support from Fayette’s Democrat representatives to the Georgia General Assembly, but was opposed by Fayette’s two Republican House members and Sen. Ronnie Chance.

Rep. Virgil Fludd led an effort to get local legislation approved last year to implement in-district voting for the county posts. The proposed legislation was shuttled to a Republican-controlled House committee, where it languishes as the legislature gets under way this month in Atlanta.

Fludd and others have promised to attempt again to get the district voting concept approved.

Under current law governing elections for the county commission, the particular open post on the commission requires that any candidate for that post live within the north Fayette area, but voters all over the county get to vote on the candidates.

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