Parham wins seat on State Transportation Board

State Representative Bobby Eugene Parham, D-Milledgeville, was just elected to the State Transportation Board today.
Parham called the Union-Recorder earlier this afternoon to say that he was going into the day's 12th U.S. Congressional District Caucus with enough votes to get the seat vacated by Raybon Anderson.
"I have the 15 votes committed verbally--I didn't ask them to sign their names to a piece of paper in their own blood--but when a man looks you straight in the face and tells you they'll vote for you, you can usually believe them," he said.
Parham called back about five hours later like he said he would to tell us that he beat out the competition 18 to 10. And the final competition was part of the Tarbutton clan out of Sandersville.
Parham said he'll stay in the House until the end of the session so that he can be sure that his new chair will actually be worth something when he takes it this summer.
"The Democrats have got to hold together on this [opposing the governor's plan to create a State Transportation Authority to take over planning of the state's transportation system]," he said. "They had their chance when Talmadge was governor and he tried to fire the entire Board of Regents and the legislature had to pass a constitutional amendment to take the Board of Regents and the Department of Transportation out of the direct control of the governor."
Parham will be leaving behind a seat he's held in the state House for 34 years--though strangely enough he told me he's been there for 36.
"I've watched it change a lot in the last 36 years," he said. "But I'm not going to write a book about it (like some people we know)."
So we at One Capital Removed wish him the best. Now bring us that darn Fall Line Freeway they've been talking about for three decades!

Update: I had the good people at the Probate Court pull the records on when Parham was first elected and the Union-Recorder with the aid of the General Assembly's Web site is correct. Parham was elected in 1974 and sworn into office in January 1975.