Pam Davidson launches bid to unseat PSC Commissioner Stan Wise

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• PSC candidate Pam Davidson

Public Service Commissioner Chuck Eaton isn't the only member of the regulatory agency that decides how much you pay to turn on the lights and heat up your oven, among other things, to face opposition this election season.

Pam Davidson today announced her campaign to unseat longtime PSC Commissioner (and Golden Sleaze award winner) Stan Wise in the Republican primary. From her press release:

“Georgia needs new leadership on the PSC to effectively address rising energy costs for the ratepayers of our state,” said Davidson. “Over the past 18 years, the incumbent candidate has received about 95 percent of his campaign money from the utilities he is supposed to be regulating, fostering a cozy relationship with those utilities while Georgia consumers have paid the price.”

Pledging not to accept campaign contributions or gifts from the entities regulated by the PSC, Davidson said she would lead the effort for serious ethics reform to ensure that protecting the consumer is always a top objective in investor-owned utility rate case considerations.

Davidson’s experience as a renewable energy consultant and advocate has spanned more than a decade and has helped lead to substantial, positive changes in the state’s energy policy. She was appointed in 2001 to the Rural Development Council, an experience that gave her keen insight as to Georgia’s biomass energy potential. She traveled to the State Capitol to advocate for affordable, home-grown fuel sources that keep jobs and dollars in Georgia. She quickly became a sought-after energy policy consultant and project facilitator. Her government affairs efforts also included addressing rising energy costs, consumer protection and ethics reform. ...

Davidson previously worked as an administrator for Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children and as a patient advocate and long-term care ombudsman serving seniors on a volunteer basis for more than 10 years. She then managed a large family medical business before moving to Blue Ridge, Ga., in 1999.

Davidson's name might ring a bell from her 2008 PSC Republican primary race against Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, a contest which she narrowly lost. The former Blue Ridge, Ga., resident now lives in Paulding County, which sits in Wise's district, with her husband and their three children.