Demorest attorney Bruce Harkness this week announced he’s running for the Habersham County Commission. Harkness is running against District 4 commissioner Natalie Crawford who is seeking a third term.
In his announcement, Harkness focused on his background and experience and vowed not to run a negative campaign.
The self-described Conservative Christian Republican is a lifelong resident of Habersham County. He’s been an attorney for 23 years and cattle farmer for 35 years. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Harkness was a history teacher at Habersham Central High School and an insurance salesman. He’s twice been elected to the Demorest City Council and has served on the Demorest Downtown Development Authority.
Harkness says his experience will help him if he’s elected to the commission, especially with long-range planning.
“I believe that with my knowledge and training, I can bring our county together to form and plan how we can provide water and sewer to the growth that is coming to our county,” he says.
Harkness also cites the need for more high paying jobs for younger workers. He says “we need to be out there trying to bring in good jobs and industries that will keep people here so they don’t have to drive far away everyday.” He says he wants to “help bring in some new restaurants and businesses into our area and work to get more movies made here in our beautiful county.”
In addition to those issues, Harkness says “we need to ‘pump the brakes on the taxes.’ I think our citizens are overburdened now with taxes and it is hard on the elderly and people on fixed incomes to have their property taxes increase every year. I want to talk about how to cut spending and then cut taxes.”
READ Harkness’ full announcement here
Harkness is a gradute of graduated from Habersham Central High School and earned an Associates Degree in Business at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland. He then earned his Bachelor’s in Education at Piedmont College in Demorest. and a Master’s degree in Psychology and History at North Georgia College. He graduated
Qualifying for elections begins March 2 and ends on March 6.
