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Meet Macon-Bibb County mayoral candidate Marc Whitfield

His top priorities include working to bring jobs and end poverty

MACON, Ga. — Five candidates are competing to fill Mayor Robert Reichert's seat. Now, we introduce you to the last candidate, Marc Whitfield.

Marc Whitfield was born and raised in Macon. He pursued careers in insurance and banking and also worked on some campaigns like former Macon Mayor C. Jack Ellis, Chuck Shaheen of Warner Robins, and District Attorney David Cooke, but this year, he worked on his own campaign.

"I'm the candidate with solutions -- solutions that create revenue to support local businesses and keep their doors open To help stabilize the economy of Macon-Bibb," Whitfield said in a campaign advertisement posted on Facebook. 

Whitfield was the last to jump into the race, but he says he didn't see the right person running. 

"I just did not see the compassion, the words that were written with respect to poverty, and to have ideas, real plans of how to create jobs," Whitfield said. 

Whitfield says the county must address poverty and jobs to decrease gang violence and crime. 

"Until you address the poverty, the hopelessness and the despair of that group of people and bring in or create jobs for them to have a decent wage, a living wage, we're going to have a repetitive issue with crime," Whitfield said. 

He says one way to create jobs is expanding Macon's airport.

Whitfield says bringing more jobs to Macon will also boost home ownership and eventually could fix the city's blight problem. 

"So if we can get them a living wage where they qualify to purchase a home, then we can find subsidies there to help them buy those homes that are considered blight, have them renovated to make them up to standard and those homeowners will go in, and I think that will transform those neighborhoods," Whitfield said. 

Whitfield says it's not just about people buying homes, it's also about them keeping it, so he wants to work with nonprofits and churches to teach financial literacy. 

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