Races for Bowling Green mayor, commission set
Published 10:30 am Wednesday, June 5, 2024
The races for both mayor of Bowling Green and the City Commission are now set after the deadline to file for the non-partisan seats passed Tuesday.
Incumbent Todd Alcott will face former state Rep. Patti Minter for mayor.
Alcott worked at Warren East High School as an Air Force JROTC teacher before retiring at the end of the 2023-24 school year and has served as mayor since 2021.
Minter was first elected to the General Assembly in 2018 and was reelected in 2020. Minter lost a second reelection bid in 2022 to current State Rep. Kevin Jackson, R-Bowling Green, after the General Assembly split the historically Democratic Bowling Green district.
On the City Commission side, incumbents Carlos Bailey, Dana Beasley-Brown, Melinda Hill and Sue Parrigin all filed for reelection, along with two challengers.
Commission races have historically drawn candidates in the double digits, making the six running this year an outlier. The top four candidates receiving the most votes in November will earn commission seats.
Bailey, who works as an attorney in Bowling Green, was first elected to the commission in 2020. Bailey told the Daily News in March his biggest priority is access to affordable housing for Bowling Green residents.
Beasley-Brown, a family resource coordinator at Bowling Green Junior High, was first elected to the commission in 2018. Previously, she said her priorities for this election are public safety, managing city growth and enhancing residents’ quality of life.
Hill first joined the commission after a special election in 2011. She served through 2016 and returned in 2020. She said keeping Bowling Green safe is her main priority.
Parrigin won a seat on the commission in 2014 and was the first candidate to file for this year’s election. She said in March her top priorities were continuing work on a regional mental health center as well as the Riverfront Park project.
The incumbent commissioners are facing two challengers.
One is Johnalma Barnett, who currently serves as the coordinator for Feeding America Bowling Green. Barnett previously ran in 2022 and told the Daily News in March she is prioritizing affordable housing for this campaign.
Also running is John Williams, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and the husband of Bonnie Williams, the grand jury coordinator who ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary election for Warren Circuit Court Clerk.
Another candidate, DeShawna Maxey, filed to run for a commission seat but she died at age 47 in April.
Warren County Deputy Clerk Kari Kunkel said the clerk’s office will work with the state to remove the candidate’s name from the ballot.