A Democratic candidate for Georgia’s Public Service Commission changed his official address to a Midtown Atlanta apartment last fall, leaving him just enough time to qualify to run for the District 3 seat.
But Daniel Blackman said changing his residency from his home in Forsyth County was “not solely a political move.”
Seats on the state’s utility regulatory body are elected statewide, but they are assigned to geographic districts. And state election laws say candidates must live in a district for 12 months before they are eligible to run in that jurisdiction.
Blackman said he became a full-time Fulton County resident in October of last year, but records suggest his move was not complete until some time later.
He voted in Forsyth County after that on Nov. 5, according to voter history data from the secretary of state’s office. Records also show he paid property taxes for a home in Forsyth County as recently as November.
And on April 3, the final day candidates for the upcoming Public Service Commission race could qualify, Blackman, a husband and father of four children, changed his voter registration address to an apartment in Fulton County in a complex that lists one- and two-bedroom options.
This isn’t Blackman’s first time running for office. He narrowly lost a 2020 race for the District 4 PSC seat in a runoff with incumbent Lauren “Bubba” McDonald. That district includes Cherokee, Gwinnett, Forsyth and parts of North Georgia. He ran and lost for the same District 4 seat in 2014 and, in between, lost a bid for a Forsyth County state Senate seat in 2016.
Blackman served as the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator for the Southeast under the Biden administration and is now an environmental consultant. While his main residence has been in Forsyth, Blackman said he kept a place in Atlanta since the COVID-19 pandemic to be close to the EPA office and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Blackman said he moved for professional and personal reasons, saying that two of his sons are enrolled in Atlanta colleges.
He is one of four Democrats facing off in the June 17 primary.
Two of those Democratic opponents — former state Rep. Keisha Sean Waites and Robert Jones — declined to comment.
Fitz Johnson, the District 3 Republican incumbent, and Democratic candidate Peter Hubbard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s not uncommon for political candidates to live outside the district they’re running for. The Public Service Commission has a history of contentious debate around district maps.
Johnson lived in Cobb County, which is outside of District 3, before he was appointed to the board by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021. But Georgia law exempted him from the residency requirement because he was filling a vacancy. He’s now registered to vote in Atlanta.
The five-member Public Service Commission decides what rates utilities can charge consumers and businesses. Each commissioner is supposed to serve a six-year term, but elections for seats on the board have been paused for five years while redistricting challenges made their way through the courts.
The current all-Republican commission has voted to allow for six Georgia Power rate hikes within the last two years.
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