Fresh Loaf

Outgoing Dekalb County CEO Vernon Jones and his incoming replacement, county Commissioner Burrell Ellis, have each publicly accused the other of mishandling the transition process.

“I have nothing but love for Commissioner Ellis, but due to the complaints from employees and appointed citizens, I made it clear to him and Kevin Ross they could not harass or threaten people who they suspect didn’t vote for Commissioner Ellis; and the meeting ended.”

-Jones, in a November 14 AJC story, explaining why he kicked Ellis’s transition team out of his office. Ellis denies the accusation and says Jones has not produced a single example of alleged harassment or threats.

“It appears to me that he’s just throwing a tantrum because he’s a lame duck with nowhere to go.”

-Ellis, in the same story. He accuses Jones of trying to keep Ellis’s team from reviewing county budget and management records.

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When DeKalb County Commissioner Burrell Ellis drops his title next year and assumes his newly elected role of County CEO, he’ll take office without some of the powers enjoyed by his predecessors.

On Nov. 4, more than 64 percent of DeKalb County voters approved an amendment that reins in some powers of CEO — the only office of its kind in metro Atlanta in which a single person oversees the day-to-day functions of government and sets the agenda for county commission meetings.

Once Ellis takes office, that agenda-setting power will belong to the commission according to rules it adopts. (Commissioner Jeff Rader says staff is currently at work on the rules.) If the CEO wants to introduce legislation, he would have to do so through a commissioner who would then send it to the appropriate committee. Rader says legislation could be expedited if it’s an urgent matter.

The CEO would still submit the budget, make staff decisions, and appoint department heads, among other powers. If a tiebreaker vote is needed, the CEO would cast it if each member of the commission requested he or she do so.

Introduced by state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Ellenwood, the amendment has an understandable critic: Vernon Jones, the soon-to-be former CEO.

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Matt Towery of InsiderAdvantage is convinced that operatives with the Obama presidential campaign helped scuttle Vernon Jones’ Senate bid by sending out mailers that focused on Jones’ boasts that he voted twice for George W. Bush. The rumor has been picked up by Political Insider, Peach Pundit and other local blogs.

A certain Kenneth Walker, a Jones strategist, claims that he knows “for a fact…that there was a meeting in Sen. Harry Reid’s office with David Axelrod from Obama’s campaign, and there was an agreement Obama’s campaign would help Jim Martin with the direct mail linking Vernon and George Bush.”

That’s strange. We thought Vernon and Barrack were supposed to be tight.

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We haven’t seen turnout figures yet for yesterday’s runoffs, but the results in most cases seemed to confirm predictions.

The Democratic Senate nominee, of course, is former Atlanta lawmaker Jim Martin, having trounced DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones 60% to 40%.

Some folks might look at this result as the triumph of funding, since Martin entered the race late, spent little time stumping across the state and instead focused his efforts on collecting enough money from PACs and other sources to wage a TV campaign. That’s all true, but Martin did have high name recognition and none of the negatives that Jones brought to the table.

Martin’s victory opens the door for an aggressive, high-dollar assault on GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss this fall. It all but ensures that top Senate Democrats will attempt to turn Georgia into one of their key battleground states.

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“Forget it, Jake. It’s South DeKalb.”

With apologies to Chinatown, that’s what DeKalb voting patterns make me think of. Who imagined, back in 2004, that Cynthia McKinney would win back her Congressional seat without a runoff against such heavy hitters as Lianne Levitan and Cathy Woolard? Ditto for embattled CEO Vernon Jones, who easily won re-election that same year against six challengers, including a sitting commissioner, also without a runoff.

South DeKalb politics is like a sealed box; you can speculate all you like about what’s inside, but you never really know until you take the lid off on election day. (more…)

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Politicos know that a bulging campaign war chest doesn’t guarantee victory. (Paging Roy Barnes…) Next to incumbency, however, it’s usually the best indicator of which candidate has the edge.

And by all known rules of thumb, Commissioner Burrell Ellis looks to be running away with the runoff race to become the county’s next CEO. For starters, before the end of June, Ellis raised $421,000 – more than all four of his opponents put together.

We didn’t have a chance to compare his contributions with those of the runner-up, state Rep. Stan Watson – mainly because Watson was several days late in filing his report. But now that we have both sets, we see that Ellis has all the earmarks of a sure thing.
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U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is holding a sizable lead over the pit bulls scratching at his office door. According to Rasmussen polls, the incumbent Republican senator has a 59-29 margin over soon-to-be-former DeKalb County CEO Jones. When matched against former state representative Jim Martin, it’s 51-40 — a bit closer, but still in Saxby Warbucks‘ favor. What’s interesting to note is that Jone’s pull in the Rasmussen polls has dropped from its high of 33 percent of the vote in early June. The gents are smitten with Chambliss over Martin, 62-32, but the ladies love them some Jim. He Who Speaketh Quietly leads 45-43 among the fairer sex.

When it comes to favorable ratings, Chambliss holds out at 61 percent. Martin is viewed favorably by 47 percent of those surveyed by the polling organization. Jones is way down the line at 30 percent.

But those are just numbers.

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Senate hopeful Vernon Jones isn’t the only local candidate trying to give voters the impression that he’s got a connection with Presidential nominee-to-be Barrack Obama.

In DeKalb, County Commission candidate Sharon Barnes-Sutton of Stone Mountain features a photo of herself and Obama – taken, it appears, at one of his campaign stops – under the slogan, “Together we can!” Peach Pundit has the post here.

And intown Atlantans have received a subtle flier that juxtaposes photos of eight candidates, with the slogan, “A ticket for change.” From left to right, a picture of Obama sits atop GOP nominee John McCain; Vernon Jones is over Sen. Saxby Chambliss; and two local candidates, Andre Jerry and Chris Vaughn, are above the incumbents they hope to unseat, state Sen. Nan Orrock and Rep. Margaret Kaiser, respectively.

The message is certainly more subtle than Jones’ effort; instead of using clumsy Photoshopping to imply a direct connection to Obama, it seeks to create an association in the viewer’s mind between four youthful African American Democrats. (Never mind that any comparison between right-winger Chambliss and uber-lefty Orrock is ridiculous on its face.)

Does Vaughn’s name sound familiar? It should. Only 30, Vaughn is already something of a perennial candidate, having run for the state House – as a Republican – in 2000; Cynthia McKinney’s Congressional seat in 2004; Atlanta school board; and state House District 59, which includes Grant Park and the Old Fourth Ward. This is his second race against Kaiser, who ousted longtime incumbent Doug Dean in 2006.

Vaughn says his campaign isn’t responsible for the flier, but notes: “The last time I checked, there was nothing wrong with putting your opponents’ photo on your flier.”

He adds that he agrees with the flier’s message.

The other young man on the flier, Andre Jerry, 28, is running for Senate District 36, which overlaps with the House District Vaughn is seeking. The two appear to be BFFs, since they are both highly placed “friends” on each other’s MySpace pages. But then, Vaughn also lists Obama as a “friend,” so the designation may be dubious.

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Ouch. It was painful yesterday watching Barrack Obama’s rather public straight-arming of a too clingy Vernon Jones, who had circulated a campaign flier with a photoshopped image making it appear – if you overlook lighting, shadows and the sheer absurdity of the premise – as if the presidential front-runner and the DeKalb CEO were standing side-by-side, speaking to a large audience.

But Obama conceded, at an appearance Tuesday at a Cherokee County high school, that the two might have met:

“The reason I think I may have met him is I know somebody told me as I was shaking his hand that he had taken pride in voting for George Bush twice.”

Oh, snap! But the most excruciating thing about the whole episode is that Vernon’s dissing went on the AP wire and was picked up by media outlets as far away as New York.

Here was BET.com’s merciless headline: “Obama Says, ‘No He Can’t!’ The Democratic presidential candidate slams a Black lawmaker for latching on.”

(For the record, the CEO’s job is administrative, not legislative, so he’s not a lawmaker.)

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The DeKalb Commission is dealing this morning with a resolution to use legal action to block the proposed city of Dunwoody. I pointed out in a blog yesterday that, because of recent legal precedents, such an effort would be doomed to failure. But that depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

Reader John Heneghan has pointed out that the legislation, put forward by Commissioner Lee May, is likely not intended to affect the Dunwoody referendum, but rather the primary election for CEO, which takes place the same day, July 15.
As he explains on the Dunwoody North Civic Association blog:

This matter is politically charged and was probably placed on the agenda not because (Vernon) Jones wants to take expensive legal action against the State of Georgia for the City of Dunwoody’s creation, but because it could be used as a wedge issue dividing the County in half. If that is the case, it will probably be played as North DeKalb vs. South DeKalb, and sadly probably also along racial lines too.

Although Heneghan doesn’t say it explicitly, I’ll extrapolate that the measure was perhaps intended to force Commissioner Burrell Ellis, a CEO candidate who’s been no friend to Jones, to take a public stand on the controversial issue of Dunwoody cityhood. If he votes for the resolution, he loses Dunwoody votes. If he votes against it – the more likely scenario – he may lose South DeKalb votes. Or so the thinking goes.

Anyway, TotH to Heneghan for sharing his analysis. (That’s blogspeak for Tip of the Hat – I just learned that!)

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It’s arguably the most powerful local elected position in metro Atlanta, perhaps all of Georgia. And yet, by most accounts, the race for DeKalb CEO really hasn’t caught fire yet. Frankly, with only two weeks to go before the July 15 primary, there’s a good chance it won’t.

Even state Rep. Stan Watson, one of five hopefuls in the all-Democratic contest, concedes that he’s seen more excitement in the community over the November presidential election (You say, “Obamania!” I say, “Obamamania!”) than the CEO’s race.

In the northern end of the county, all attention seems to be focused on the Dunwoody cityhood referendum. And DeKalb Republicans, historically an important swing vote in Democratic primaries, will mostly cast GOP ballots instead because District 1 Commissioner Elaine Boyer has drawn opposition. (Her challenger, by the way, is Terri Burdine Fischer, owner of Clarkston strip club Strokers. Make that a schwing! vote.)

Another reason for the apparent disinterest in the race is the possibility that, apart from recreational candidate “Joe from Decatur” Bembry, most voters are fairly confident that any of the four serious contestants would be, well, perfectly adequate.

Along with Watson, who serves as chairman of the DeKalb state House delegation, the candidates include two-term Commissioner Burrell Ellis; former state Sen. Steen “Newslady” Miles; and Ann Kimbrough, chief of staff to outgoing CEO Vernon Jones.

With no formal polls done, the consensus among local political mavens seems to be that the primary will result in a runoff election between Ellis and either Watson or Kimbrough.

Ellis, a real estate attorney, is running a well-organized campaign and recently nabbed the endorsement of the AJC. Watson was the earliest to get into the race and is well-known in South DeKalb, but has – at last count – trailed far behind Ellis in terms of fund-raising.

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Three of DeKalb’s seven commissioners have requested a criminal investigation into squirrelly purchasing practices that allowed two high-tech companies to be paid nearly a half-million dollars for county work without the required commission approval.

Late last year, it was discovered that the county’s Information Services Department had overspent its budget by a cool $1.4 million – partly a result of skirting purchasing rules. A grand jury subsequently found that employees had been pressured to do things they knew to be wrong, such as splitting contracts so as to avoid triggering competitive bidding requirements.

So far, though, no one has been able to explain who orchestrated the impropriety. Is the purchasing scandal another instance of questionable micro-management by CEO Vernon Jones? The letter to DeKalb Chief Superior Court Judge Anne Workman and DA Gwen Keyes-Fleming asking for a formal investigation doesn’t mention Mr. CEO by name. Says the letter:

We submit that a criminal investigation is necessary to clear the air and to reestablish public confidence in the county government’s capacity to faithfully administer public resources.

But the three co-signers are white, Northside Commissioners Elaine Boyer, Kathie Gannon and Jeff Rader – none of whom are political allies of Jones. Coincidence?

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Watch your back, Saxby.

According to a new poll by a D.C.-based polling firm, Jim Martin, a late entry into the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, has taken a decent lead among likely primary voters.

Martin is formerly a longtime state legislator and chairman of the Department of Human Resources, but he’s probably best known outside Atlanta for running for lieutenant governor, a job he lost to Republican Casey Cagle.

The poll, by the Mellman Group, shows Martin leading DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones by 21 percent to 16 percent. The three other Democrats – ex-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, former Congressional staffer Josh Lanier and businessman Rand Knight – were all in the single digits.

Martin can’t get too comfy, though – 51 percent of those polled were undecided, meaning the July 15 primary is up in the air.

Still, the poll shows upward movement for Martin’s young campaign, which only began March 19. By the end of that month, he’d reported having raised nearly $350,000, so it’s a safe guess that he’ll soon be over the $1 million mark. Only Jones reported raising more – $488,000 – but much of that money had already been spent.

Martin is Chambliss’ worst nightmare because he’s everything Jones is not: a viable general-election candidate whose nomination would open the floodgates on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s coffers. The Senate Dems hate the incumbent’s guts – not least for smearing Max Cleland and for impersonating Bush’s suppository – and, by most insider accounts, would spend freely to run “Saxby’s a scumbag” TV ads around the clock all fall.

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Dekalb CEO and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Vernon “there’s nothing illegal about a ménage à trois” Jones has campaign placards displayed in at least one comically appropriate location.

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One of the most interesting smaller bits of local legislation in the flurry of the General Assembly were several competing bills aimed at reducing the power of the DeKalb CEO. The irony here is that the impetus for the bills has been the sometimes authoritarian tenure of Vernon Jones, and yet he’ll be gone by the time the bills would take effect.

As you might know, DeKalb government has a rather unique structure among metro counties, in which a full-time CEO runs the day-to-day affairs of the county, sets the commission agenda, presides at commission meetings and holds veto power over commission actions.

In the waning hours of the session, Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, succeeded in passing his bill to take away the CEO’s power to set the commission agenda and preside at meetings. It was similar to a House bill by DeKalb Rep. Kevin Levitas, a Democrat. A third bill by Rep. Mike Jacobs, a newly-minted Republican, would also have stripped the CEO of his veto power. Both House bills failed.

Jones says his effort was supported, perhaps surprisingly, by DeKalb Commissioner Burrell Ellis and DeKalb House delegation Chairman Stan Watson, both of whom are running for the CEO’