2024 Columbus District 10 City Council race: Meet the potential candidates
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — With the local elections three months away, WRBL caught up with Dr. Patrick Leonard and John Anker, two people who have announced their intention to run for District 10 at large city council seat.
Dr. Patrick Leonard was born and raised in Columbus. He received his Doctorate at Concordia Theological Seminary and later became the Pastor of Faith Ministries.
One of the issues Dr. Leonard is passionate about is getting to the root causes of poverty by reengaging specific communities through environmental changes and education. He believes this will help prevent children from environmental determination due to the conditions they grew up in.
“The way you change the environment, you rebuild it, you revitalize it, you get in there and you deal with the issue. It’s an infestation in certain areas. You have to deal with an infestation. The way you deal with it is by putting resources in the community to rebuild and reshape the mind,” Dr. Leonard said.
More information can be found here if you want to keep up with Dr. Leonard’s campaign.
His potential competitor, John Anker, is an entrepreneur and local business owner who ran unsuccessfully for the mayor’s seat in the 2022 elections. He is currently the owner of Ankerpak a local packaging, manufacturing and supply company.
Anker grew up in Albany, Georgia, and attended Darton College for two years before transferring to Georgia Southern, where he received his degree in marketing. He tells WRBL that his background in marketing allows him to look at things from a sustainability point of view.
“Government is to serve the people; it’s our money. So I think when I talk about a sustainable government, I expect that we do the things that the citizens expect at a minimum, and we put that money into making a better future for tomorrow, growing the economy, being able to have more tax base in order to spend more money on programs,” Anker shared.
His campaign slogan is John Anker for City Council ten, run as the candidate for change.
Change is an acronym that stands for challenging the status quo, honesty in city government, accountability, new perspectives, growing the economy, and energy to engage our citizens.
Travis Chambers and Rocky Marsh have also announced their intention to run for District 10. Official qualifying candidates will be announced in March. The polls will be open for early voting from April 29th to May 17th and general voting will begin May 21st.
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