Long-time incumbent Richard English and challenger Richard Kimbrough, both of LaGrange, appear equally confident of victory in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary for the District 5 seat on the Troup County Commission.

The winner will take office barring a successful write-in campaign since there is no Republican challenger. Voters in LaGrange, Hogansville and the unincorporated area also will decide whether to grant redevelopment powers to their local governments as an economic development incentive.

West Point voters approved the referendum last year.

“I feel like I’m going to win this race,” said Kimbrough, a stockman at Walmart.

“I’ve been working hard and going door to door,” as well as advertised in the media and distributed 2,000 flyers. “A lot of people are coming up to me and saying they voted for me already.”

Early voting ended at 5 p.m. Friday in the county registrar’s office at the Government Center.

The county’s 17 polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. After Kimbrough qualified to run, he was terminated as a custodian at the Head Start facility on McGregor Street where he had worked for 10 years.

The federally funded program is administered by Community Action for Improvement (CAFI), of which English is board chairman.

English, who had signed Kimbrough’s paycheck, said employees of a federally funded agency are barred under the Hatch Act from seeking office as a Democrat or Republican, although they can run in nonpartsian races.

“I don’t understand,” Kimbrough said. “I ran twice (for city council in 2001 and 2007) and nobody ain’t said nothing about the Hatch Act.”

English noted that city council races are nonpartisan, a practice that started more than 20 years ago.

English said the Hatch Act doesn’t apply to himself because he’s not a CAFI employee and doesn’t get paid.

“I feel like I’m going to win … handily,” said English, 73, who is seeking his eighth four-year term and has one of the longest tenures in Georgia. “I’ve been there all these years working for them and I know the county government, and I know I’m the best candidate for the job,” he said.

English said his platform has been the same for 32 years: a dollar’s worth of service for a dollar’s worth of taxes.

“Growth should be encouraged,” he said, “but the spirit of the community should be preserved.”

Kimbrough said English “has been getting a free ride all these years because most people don’t know you can live in the city and be on the County Commission.”

Commissioners should be limited to two terms because “eight years is long enough for the bad politicians we have in the city,” he said.

“We’re putting people in office that don’t tell us what they want to do so we can’t hold them accountable,” he said.

He favors increasing the board from five to seven members, with three districts being predominantly black.

Kimbrough, 43, said he would donate his first year’s $6,000 salary as a commissioner to bring in speakers to educate constituents on the law and other topics of community interest.

He said the large number of blacks in the county jail must be addressed.

“Most of them are just sitting in there, and they need to know they can ask for a speedy trial,” he said. “They take a plea because they’re tired of sitting there, and when they make an offer, they jump on it.”

He said he would visit the jail each month and make sure inmates are being treated fairly by the court system.

The predominately black District 5 includes all of the Griggs Recreation Center precinct, and parts of the Administration Building, Hammett Road, Gardner Newman, Lee’s Crossing, Highland and Northside precincts.