Monday, August 4, 2008
News Fulton runoff fever! Hot sheriff and court clerk action!
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Yes, we're trying to get you pumped about voting tomorrow. It may seem a tall order to get titillated over runoffs for such down-ticket races as Fulton County Sheriff and Clerk of Fulton Superior Court (what, no dog catcher?), but you gotta try. That's because, this year, doing nothing is tantamount to supporting incompetence and graft.
Sheriff Myron Freeman's record of ineffectiveness is, of course, well known. After he'd been on the job scarcely two months, it became obvious to Fulton voters – and, embarrassingly enough, the rest of the country – that they'd elected the wrong guy. On the morning of March 11, 2005, Freeman proved himself incapable of stringing two coherent sentences together on-camera when asked how the courthouse shootings could have happened.
And it's been mainly downhill from there, as Freeman has failed to satisfy a federal consent order to clean up problems at the Fulton jail. The inarticulate sheriff has become a veritable recluse, rarely speaking to the press or fellow elected officials. He inspires such little public confidence that state lawmakers have discussed stripping the office of its responsibilities.
Your alternative is challenger Ted Jackson, a well-respected former FBI agent who has high-level management experience heading the bureau's Atlanta office. To say we could do worse is a given.
Less well-known, and with good reason, is the race for Clerk of Fulton Superior Court, who's responsible for maintaining the court's mountainous volume of documents and records. It's a mystery why this purely administrative job is elected, but that's a question for another day.
The incumbent, Cathelene Robinson, came to the position in one of the most naked acts of political sleaze we've seen in a while. Appointed to the job by her predecessor, longtime clerk Juanita Hicks, Robinson soon "hired" Hicks to write a history of the clerk's office, eventually paying her $74,000. Setting aside the question of why a history of the clerk's office would be worth even 74 cents, the AJC reported last fall that there was no evidence that Hicks ever did any work for her paycheck.
In this case, we again appear to have a decent alternative. His name is Lewis Pittman, 60, a judicial case manager, former deputy court clerk and Democratic party who ran for the office in 2004 against Hicks. Here's some trivia on Pittman: He happens to be both a grandfather and gay. In fact, we spotted him waving a campaign sign one day last week at the corner of Monroe and Piedmont. That's called turning out your base.
So remember: Runoff. Tuesday. Important.
You don't need to get excited, but you do need to vote.
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
like
dislike
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
'Ex-gays' gather outside Atlanta this weekend 6
Meanwhile human rights groups fight the notion that "ex-gay" is a thing
-
CNN cancels Atlanta debate 3
Everybody cry
-
ARC's new map of transportation-tax projects is suitable for framing 5
Voters will decide 1-cent sales tax measure in July
- More »
Author Archives
-
UPDATE!: Lines get fuzzier at AJC and elsewhere 13
New AJC blog blurs line between editorial and marketing
-
Historic building filled with a century's worth of files, furniture 1
The Atlanta Life Insurance building is filled with old furniture, tin ceilings and thousands of personal files
- More »
