Cardwell Enters Race With Jabs At Jones, Martin

(4/30/08) Dale Cardwell became the third Democrat Wednesday to enter the race to challenge Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in November, and he did so with hard jabs at his two current rivals.

He called Vernon Jones “a Republican in Democratic clothing” and said Jim Martin only got in the race after national party officials promised to help fund the campaign. Martin, he said, is a “convenient-crat.”

Cardwell has said he will accept no money from PACs and his campaign is struggling financially, but he has the advantage of being a familiar face in the metro Atlanta area through his years as a WSB-TV reporter. Jones has run DeKalb County for the last eight years and voters there will have a lot to say about who wins the Democratic money. Martin also is from metro Atlanta and has been raising substantial sums of money.

Cardwell told reporters: "It's time that somebody runs as an independent voice for Georgians, somebody that's not owned by the special interests."

Then he went on to say: "There are three Democrats in this race. You have a candidate, Dale Cardwell; you have a convenient-crat, Jim Martin, and you have a crook, Vernon Jones."

He continued: "Jim Martin didn't have the courage to take on anyone until the special interests from New York got behind him and said we will fund your election. Vernon Jones is a Republican in Democratic clothing. He voted for George W. Bush twice. He's in the pocket of Republican developers. Look at his campaign disclosure."

To prove the assertions that Jones is "a crook," Caldwell pointed to a pair of 20-year-old arrests of Jones for pointing a gun at a woman and writing a bad check for $7. Both charges were eventually abandoned -- the gun allegation after Jones agreed to attend a "Men Stopping Violence" course and the check charge after Jones paid.

Jones, who qualified Tuesday, said the controversies he faced as CEO were media inventions.

"We can also say every one of those so-called controversies that you guys have reported have been proven to be baseless and reckless and erroneous and just false. ... If that other foolishness was important to me, I wouldn't be running," he said.

Morris News Service contributed to this report.