Mayoral profile: Allen wants to be ‘hands-on mayor’ | Elections | Macon.com

Joe Allen has no harsh words for any of his opponents in the race for mayor of Macon-Bibb County.

He’s running a genial campaign, short on cash and relying on door-to-door contact. Allen, 63, won his recent elections with little money or advertising, and he hopes the same formula will make him the consolidated government’s first mayor.

He wants to be a “hands-on mayor,” he said, “even with our educational system.”

To that end, he said he would lobby state legislators to create another seat on the Bibb County school board for himself or another elected official designated by him.

Allen, a retired Macon-Bibb County firefighter who describes himself as a conservative Democrat, has spent 19 years in the District 4 seat on the Bibb County Commission, plus a year and a half on the Macon Water Authority board in between commission terms. He’s now the commission’s vice chairman.

First elected in 1989, he challenged Tommy Olmstead for the chairmanship in 2000 and lost. Two years later he won a seat on the Macon Water Authority board, then in 2004 recaptured his commission seat and has easily kept it since.

via Mayoral profile: Allen wants to be ‘hands-on mayor’ | Elections | Macon.com.