Catoosa County Democratic Party

10/22/2026

The Dalton Daily Citizen invited candidates in locally-significant federal, state and local races on the Nov. 3 ballot to answer questions about the issues facing voters, as well as questions […]

10/22/2026

I know it's spooky season, but I'm not about scare tactics. I'm here to tell you what I want to do for Catoosa County. So let's keep going... “Issues” vs Plans, round three.

His issue: Fiscal Oversight and Government Transparency. “Government should be accountable to the people it serves.”
My plan: Transparency that starts with the ballot.
Agreed. Government should be accountable to the people it serves. So let’s talk about the last time Catoosa voters got handed a ballot question.

In 2025 we voted on a property tax exemption for seniors. It passed big, and I understand why. Nobody wants their grandmother choosing between groceries and a tax bill! But here’s what the ballot didn’t say: when that exemption left a hole in the school district budget, the only way for the school board to cover it was to raise the millage on everybody else. Which it did, in July.

That’s the other half of the story, and voters deserved it before they voted, not after. Accountability is not a thing you ask other people for. It’s a thing you put on the ballot.

So here’s a radical idea: ballot questions that say what they actually do.

Who gets the money, who picks up the tab, and what happens to everyone else affected. If a measure moves money out of our district, the ballot says so. If it shifts the burden from one group of taxpayers to another, the ballot says that too. And no bill that touches Catoosa County gets dropped in Atlanta before the county and city folks who have to live with it hear about it first.

Voters should have options, but they should also be able to understand them.

See all my plans at spearforga.com/platform.

10/21/2026

10/21/2026

ALL AGES ARE WELCOME! Join us next Tuesday on Zoom for our FIRST meeting. Local candidates will have the floor first, starting with Shawn Harris.

After the candidates are done introducing themselves and answering questions, we will elect our executive board. If you are interested, reach out to us at [email protected] or let us know at the meeting.

We encourage anyone aged 14-40 interested in learning about volunteering with the campaigns, getting into politics, or just wanting to have a community of like-minded people to join us as a member.

*Membership dues will be waived until January.

10/21/2026

“Issues” vs Plans, round two. Here’s another one I fixed.

His issue: Strong Education and Parental Choice. “Committed to ensuring the next generation receives an excellent education.”
My plan: Fix the formula. All of it.

Georgia’s school funding formula (QBE) was written in 1985. You know what else happened in 1985? The first Blockbuster opened. America had the good sense to open 9,094 Blockbusters and then close 9,093 of them, all while the formula that decides how we pay for our kids’ education sat there untouched. I think we’ve got the good sense to know QBE needs to change too.

Despite what you may have heard, our schools don’t have a spending problem. There are no private jets at CCPS. They have a funding problem, and it was made in Atlanta.

Here’s how it works. The state stopped paying its share of health insurance for bus drivers, cafeteria workers and paraprofessionals in 2012 and handed the county the bill, about $11 million a year. Then starting in FY2024 the state roughly doubled what that insurance costs per employee. Then every year the legislature comes home and tells CCPS that everything costs more now, and also here are some new things you’re required to buy, which you didn’t get a vote on, and no, the state isn’t paying for all of it.

And then, before the state sends the money the 1985 QBE formula says our schools earned, it pulls out its Local Fair Share coupon: five mills of our property values, subtracted off the top. That number grows every year property values rise, and nobody votes on it.

By the way... that’s what they mean when they say they “fully funded schools.” Fully funded, you know, as long as you don’t count the cost increases or the new expenses or the fact that QBE is older than New Coke. And New Coke got fixed in 79 days. So yeah, tell me they're fully funded again. Seriously.

And since the only tax the school board can levy for day-to-day operations is property tax, P**F! That’s where your school tax bill comes from.

Here’s what I’d do about it:
1. Make the state pay its share of school employee health insurance again, and lower the Local Fair Share floor so the state stops clawing back more every year.
2. Fund the nurse we already put in every school. Raise the state’s share from 50 to 75 percent, and let schools bill Medicaid for counseling the same way they already do for nursing.
3. Keep the promise we made to teachers. No vote to close the pension to new teachers or cut it for anyone already in it, pay that keeps climbing past year 21, and a seat in TRS for the bus driver and the cafeteria worker.

See all my plans at spearforga.com/platform. And please, for the love of glitter, elect me to go fix this so I can stop yelling about it.

10/20/2026

See where Margaret Spear stands on schools, taxes, and healthcare for Georgia House District 3.

10/20/2026

My family couldn't cast a vote today, but they were right there with me in spirit. I got to vote for myself, for my friends, and for people I admire who truly care about all Georgians. 💙
I can't fully express what this election means to my family...the stakes are high and these votes carry real human weight for the people I love most.
So please, go vote your Bottoms and Ossoff! 🗳️🍑

10/19/2026

Early Voting continues this week, Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm daily. Make your voice heard and vote!

10/18/2026

One of us is funded by neighbors and invests it in reaching out to you. The other is funded by big money and spends it paying consultants to sell you.

Mitchell Horner raised $96,500. 70 of his 92 donors are other politicians’ campaign accounts, PACs and corporations: sports betting, to***co, b**r wholesalers, trial lawyers, lobbying firms. Of the 22 actual people who gave to him, not one lives within 30 miles of Ringgold. Not one.

What did he do with it? $17,606 to a political consultant. 95 fast food charges. A $310 liquor store run on primary day. $9,500 handed to other politicians’ campaigns. And another $63,500 spent for him by groups in Virginia and Alabama, so the total spent to keep him in this seat is $125,733.

45 people gave to my campaign. 17 of them are neighbors. My biggest expense was printing, and my second biggest was food and a room so people in Ringgold could come sit down and talk to me. Zero consultants. Zero outside groups. Zero fast food.

He has two complaints pending at the state ethics commission, six separate allegations, as the vice chair of the committee that oversees Georgia’s budget. I have none.

Two candidates. Two sets of books. Who would you trust with your checkbook?

Early voting runs through October 30. Election Day is November 3. Bring a neighbor.