Fresh Loaf

The race for a DeKalb County Superior Court judgeship (also known as the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit) has all the markings of a political brawl — lots of fundraising, news coverage and harsh accusations flung against each other at a heated debate.

Hell, it’s even managed to divide law firms and bar associations. Someone make some popcorn.

Judge Linda Warren Hunter, who’s banged the gavel for 21 years, is trying to hold onto her seat. She’s backed by former DeKalb County district attorneys J. Tom Morgan and Jeffrey H. Brickman.

Hunter’s opponent, Tom Stubbs, is a family law attorney with 17 years experience arguing cases. He’s supported by former Gov. Roy Barnes and State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, both of whom are attorneys.

The race started with a bang back in July when Stubbs accused Hunter of unpredictable rulings and a testy temperament. The Daily Report, Georgia’s leading lawyers’ newspaper, delved into the race and found lawyers who said Hunter can be harsh at times, while others said she was fair-minded and reasonable.

Hunter fired back that her challenger isn’t experienced enough in the matters he’d hear were he to win the election. (A subscription is required to view the articles, but Stubbs has copies available on his website.) In what appears to have been a particularly raucous late-September debate, the two battled over Hunter’s decision to jail two would-be jurors — out of the nearly 17,000 she’s seen since taking the bench — for contempt.

Hunter was appointed to the bench in 1991 by former Gov. Zell Miller. Prior to the appointment, she served on the DeKalb State Court and as an assistant district attorney. She’s the first African-American woman to serve as chief judge of the DeKalb County Superior Court, the Daily Report says.

Before practicing law, Stubbs served in the U.S. Senate as an economist. He’s experienced in state and federal court and says the wide range of cases he’s tackled, from criminal to family law, make suited to become a Superior Court judge.

We’d love for anyone to share more feedback on this contest with us and our readers.

We’re also seeking more input on an open Superior Court judgeship in DeKalb, where three candidates vying to replace Judge Anne Workman, who’s retiring.

Before resigning this year to run for the seat, Tangela Barrie served as an assistant district attorney in DeKalb. She says she has more felony jury trial experience in the court than her opponents combined.

State Board of Workers’ Compensation Administrative Law Judge Johnny Mason has presided over workers’ comp since 2001 and has more than 20 years experience in arguing and hearing cases.

DeKalb County Recorders Court Judge R. Joy Walker — who won kudos from Internet progressives in 2006 after she dismissed a citation written to a DeKalb motorist for having a “lewd” anti-Bush bumper sticker — is a former senior public defender in Atlanta. She was appointed to the DeKalb County Recorders Court in 2001 as an associate judge and was promoted to chief judge the following year.

Check for updates on this race and posts on others at CL’s 2008 Voters’ Guide. Come back to the Voter’s Guide next week to download our Voter’s Cheat Sheet.

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DeKalb is one of the few counties in Georgia that actually feature a couple of competitive races this year for state legislative seats.

Most state House and state Senate contests in the county — like elsewhere in Georgia — aren’t competitive at all. State lawmakers did too good a job gerrymandering their own districts so that challengers would find it nearly impossible to unseat them.

But there are challengers who stand a chance in two North DeKalb House districts that fall along a jagged boundary of aging suburbs — inside or straddling the Perimeter — where demographics are changing quickly enough to give Democrats a chance to win Republican seats.

One of the vulnerable incumbents is Rep. Jill Chambers of District 81 (Chamblee and Doraville), the only Republican incumbent in a district that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Chambers faces additional hurdles this time: She’s been the focus of attacks by the Dunwoody Crier newspaper for her stance against Dunwoody cityhood; a DeKalb man told police earlier this month that she confronted him at his home after he filed an ethics complaint against her (the complaint accuses Chambers of violating campaign finance rules by accepting more money than allowed from a business on whose behalf she later introduced beneficial legislation); and her opponent, Chris Huttman, is an experienced Democratic activist.

We appreciate the fact that Chambers has been among the most independent Republican voices in the General Assembly. Her willingness to buck GOP orthodoxy on issues ranging from education to transportation to Dunwoody cityhood has been refreshingly practical.

But her behavior at times has been erratic and high-handed. Earlier this month, Huttman — a bright young blogger who’s articulate on the issues — was the subject of a shamefully misleading flier from her campaign. It’s the kind of nasty politicking that all voters should be wary of, regardless of their ideology.

It also makes sense for the middle-class, aging suburbs that make up the 81st District to elect a candidate from a party that will represent middle-class interests. Huttman fits the bill.

In the neighboring District 80 (which runs from Druid Hills to Brookhaven), formerly Democratic Rep. Mike Jacobs has an unfair advantage in his first re-election campaign as a Republican.

Challenger Michelle Conlon, a solar energy consultant, has been forced to run as an independent instead of as a Democrat. That happened because Republican Secretary of State Karen Handel refused to reopen campaign qualifying for Democrats after another Democratic candidate was disqualified for residency reasons. Appearing on the ballot as an independent is almost certain to harm Conlon’s chances, even though she has Democratic Party support and promises to caucus with the Democrats in the House.

Jacobs has been a diligent representative. He knows the district, stays in touch with civic groups and works hard on constituent service. But his switch to the GOP, after winning re-election under the Democratic banner, was troublingly opportunistic — particularly because it was accompanied by craven support for such harmful ideas as House Speaker Bill Glenn Richardson’s irresponsible tax plan.

Residents of this highly educated district deserve a more thoughtful voice on the big issues that confront the Legislature. We side with Conlon in her uphill battle.

For more posts from CL’s 2008 Voters’ Guide click here. Come back next week to download our Voter’s Cheat Sheet.

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It’s ironic that a ballot question to limit the authority of the county CEO is being posed to voters just as the power-hungry Vernon Jones prepares to leave office. Still, it’s a sensible measure that can help prevent future friction between the county’s board of commissioners and its chief executive.

For the past five years, incoming CEO Burrell Ellis had been the commission’s presiding officer, but that was largely an empty title because Jones has presided at board meetings. The referendum would correct this backwards situation by authorizing the commission to, in essence, run its own meetings. Likewise, the measure would allow the commission to draw up its own meeting agenda, taking that power away from the CEO. (more…)

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DeKalb County, like Fulton, is represented in Congress by one Republican and two Democrats. Also like Fulton, it’s gerrymandered to protect the incumbents.

And in DeKalb County, just like in Fulton County, all three incumbent congressman are set to win re-election.

Hank Johnson, who defeated firebrand (and current Green Party presidential candidate) Cynthia McKinney) in the 2006 Democratic primary, may have the easiest road, even though he’s the state  congressional delegation’s sole freshman. His only known foes in the Fourth District are write-in candidates: “conservative-libertarian” Loren Collins, who has proposed replacing Andrew Jackson with James Madison on the $20 bill; and retired police Sgt. Faye Coffield, whose slogan is: “She is different.”

While we have doubts whether Johnson has the political skills to develop into a leader in Congress, he’s done well at representing the interests of those in his district, which includes most of DeKalb County, well. And he’s fairly consistently voted to support important values like equity, justice and the environment.

Each of DeKalb’s two other congressmen — Republican Tom Price and Democrat David Scott — faces an opponent from the opposite party.

Price — who’s proven a stridently partisan voice in Congress more often concerned with showmanship than responsible legislation — is opposed by Air-Force-and-Delta-pilot-turned-businessman Bill Jones. While he doesn’t stand much of a chance in the conservative Sixth district (which pokes into DeKalb in the Dunwoody area), a vote for Jones might at least send a message that we’d prefer our elected officials to put more effort into solving problems than into scoring political points.

Scott’s 13th district creeps into extreme South DeKalb near the Clayton County line. He’s disappointed us at times, most recently with relevations that his campaign has paid more than half a million dollars to his own firm and his campaign. Still, his hapless opponent, Deborah Honeycutt, is a fellow traveler in today’s radical Republican ideology and questions surround fundraising and spending at her own campaign. We’d back Scott despite his flaws.

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