Judge Downs: I do intend to run for the office of district attorney of Fulton County.

According to the Daily Report, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs confirmed yesterday that she will run for District Attorney in 2012.
Downs said, “Next year, I will have been on the bench for 16 years, with six years serving as chief judge, working to improve the justice system in Fulton County. I think I can continue to do that in the office of district attorney.”

Current D.A. Paul Howard — who’s held the post since 1997 — has said he plans to run for re-election. The Daily Report piece details Downs and Howard’s occasionally “tempestuous” relationship:
In 2008, as the Superior Court worked to implement a pilot program of separate civil and criminal divisions, Downs circulated an email to other Fulton judges complaining that Howard had refused to assign sufficient prosecutors to the fledging criminal division, spurring the DA to decry a “circle of insanity” as his office and the bench exchanged barbs.
“Once the cycle is in full swing,” he wrote in an email to Downs, “there are long periods of bad feelings and mutual distrust between the judges and the District Attorney’s Office with my employees accepting the brunt of the disagreement in the form of demeaning and humiliating court experiences.”

Basically, this should be interesting.