Cook County Attorney Will Seek Judgeship In Troubled Alapaha Circuit

(4/15/08) A Cook County attorney stepped forward Monday as a candidate for judge in the troubled Alapaha Judicial Circuit, where incumbent Judge Brooks Blitch is the target of two separate corruption investigations.

Howard McClain pledged, if elected. to conduct business “with integrity, impartiality, according to law and in an atmosphere that is respectful to all of the participants.”

McClain has served as city attorney, county attorney and municipal court judge in several jurisdictions within the Alapaha Circuit for more than 25 years. The circuit includes Atkinson, Berrien, Clinch, Cook and Lanier Counties.

Helping guide McClain’s campaign will be Chase Daughtrey, who has worked in the past with Sen. Johnny Isakson, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Gary Black and the House Republican Caucus.

Blitch has not yet said whether he intends to seek re-election.

Blitch is under investigation by the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, which has accused him of 13 instances of judicial misconduct, and by the U.S. Attorney’s office as part of a four-year long corruption investigation of the circuit.

The 73-year-old judge has been on the bench since 1980 and is the husband of former state Sen. Peg Blitch and the son of former U.S. Rep. Iris Blitch, who represented Georgia from 1955 to 1963.