House Watch: HD81 and HD 80

Parties Battle Over Two GOP-Held DeKalb Districts That Have Democratic Cores

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(10/20/08) Two neighboring House districts in DeKalb County have a strong Democratic tilt to them yet they are represented by Republicans, one of them elected as such and the other elected as a Democrat before switching jerseys. To say that Democrats are putting on a strong effort this year to gain control of House Districts 81 and 80 would be purely stating the obvious, and, naturally, there have been fireworks.

Rep. Jill Chambers, who holds the HD 81 seat, is seeking her fourth term in the General Assembly. She faces 28-year-old Chris Huttman, who is widely known on political blogs under his nom de plume, “Chris is Hardcore,” and who is a former worker for the state Democratic Party. He is employed by Bobby Kahn’s LUC Media company. Former Gov. Roy Barnes co-hosted a recent fundraiser for him.

Rep. Mike Jacobs, who was a Democrat before becoming a Republican midway through his current term, has two terms under his belt. Technically, he doesn’t have Democratic competition. (Keith Gross, who qualified as a Democrat to challenge him, was ruled ineligible for residency reasons by Secretary of State Karen Handel.) But he does face independent Michelle Conlon, who was aided by Democrats in securing signatures to get on the ballot and has said she will caucus with Democrats if she wins.

Chambers’ district includes Chamblee, Doraville, Peachtree-DeKalb Airport and most of the DeKalb County portion of the Buford highway corridor. It has the second-lowest number of active registered voters of any of Georgia’s 180 House districts – 12,940. Just 5,417 votes were cast in her 2006 race, which she won with 60 percent. The district is 15 percent black in voter registration.

In terms of recent voting history, the district backed Barnes over Sonny Perdue 55 percent to 39 percent in 2002. John Kerry narrowly led George Bush 51 percent to 48 percent in 2004. Also in 2004, the district split almost evenly in the U.S. Senate race, giving Johnny Isakson 48 percent of the vote to Democrat Denise Majette’s 47 percent and the rest voting Libertarian.

The district has a growing gay population and is known as a melting pot of liberal, Libertarian and conservative philosophies. Hence, Chambers was the only Republican in either the House or Senate to vote against a proposed 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Jacobs’ district runs along the DeKalb-Fulton line from I-285 in the north to LaVista Road in the south in Toco Hills. Al Gore narrowly carried this district in 2000 (49 percent to 48 percent), Barnes won it 56 percent to 41 percent in 2004 and Kerry just barely edged Bush by 49.7 percent to 49.5 percent. But Isakson won over Majette in the Senate race 51 percent to 46 percent.

And until Jacobs switched in 2007, the district was represented by a Democrat.

He wrote on his website: “… my strong belief in fiscal responsibility and restraint … is not a good fit within the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives.”

None of this sat well with his former colleagues in the Democratic Caucus, some of whom have now come forward as active workers behind the candidacy of his independent challenger.

In a recent telephone conference with reporters, House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter said there is a “values vacuum” in the district now.

“When Mike was a Democrat, he would not vote with the Democratic Caucus. Time and time again. There was a values vacuum even then,” Porter said.

Porter said Democrats not only helped Conlon gain the signatures necessary to win independent access to the ballot but now are raising money to help with her direct mail, yard signs and campaign expenses, among other things.

Conlon, meanwhile, says Jacobs’ votes on educational funding issues and health care are out of step with district values. “Voters in the district need someone in the Legislature who represents their wishes and values,” she said.

Conlon began gathering signatures to run as an independent after the Democrat was disqualified, and told reporters that she usually votes Democratic.

Nonetheless, Jacobs says she – or someone working on her behalf – conducted a push-poll in the district which conveyed the message that Conlon wasn’t associated with either party but was running to be an independent voice.

And as for whether he’s a good fit as a newly-minted Republican in the district, he said: “If Michelle Conlon spent any time communicating with constituents on a widespread basis she would find out I share the same fiscally conservative, socially moderate views as a majority of HD 80.”

Hard-fought as it may be, the race in HD 80 is downright civil compared to the one in Jill Chambers’ adjacent HD 81.

Those who are familiar with her past campaigns (she won in 2002 by 621 votes and in 2004 by 826 votes) view her as a tough campaigner and some have even labeled her a “vicious” campaigner. Huttman, her current opponent, is one who shares that view.

One of the flyers which Chambers has circulated in the campaign accuses Huttman of “lurking around the Internet under the name ‘Chris is Hardcore’” and says his commentary “is peppered with vulgarity and crude references to body parts.” The flyer ends with the slogan: “Trust is the Issue.”

Huttman says: “I had a political blog for a long time … It may be a silly name but there was nothing of ill repute on that site. She knows that.”

There have also been a couple of confrontations in this race that have set the political blogs abuzz.

Here’s one: after a man named Jeremy Tanner filed an ethics complaint against Chambers alleging she accepted contributions in excess of the limit from affiliated organizations in early 2007 just before introducing a CON bill that stood to benefit the groups, she took pictures of the man’s home showing Huttman signs in his yard and then sought to confront Tanner in his home.

The story was first reported by a newspaper in her district that was a strong supporter of the Dunwoody cityhood movement, which Chambers opposed.

Chambers said she was campaigning in the neighborhood and did try to engage Tanner but says she left when he asked her to leave. “Two or three hours after I left, the kid decided to file an incident report, which says no laws were broken and that Jill left when asked.”

Huttman sees it differently: “She went to his house clearly to intimidate him. That’s not how you conduct yourself.”

Asked if he knew Tanner, Huttman said, “I’ve talked to him in the course of the campaign. We chatted about the race. He told me he was thinking about filing an ethics complaint.”

Huttman said he thinks the issue raised in the complaints needs to be investigated. “She took this money from affiliated corporations and sponsored a bill that would benefit those corporations … (yet) she holds herself out as the queen of ethics.”

Chambers says she’d been interested in CON for several years and introduced the bill as a vehicle to provide more options in the debate. “I never thought my bill would pass because it took it further than anything else.”

She says she thinks the complaint was a put-up job. “The young man just moved into the district and registered to vote in late August 2008. He is not on my current data list of registered voters - I had to verify his recent registration with DeKalb election officials. For a 21-year-old from Rhode Island to have that kind of intimate knowledge about the issue – that’s an insider job.”

Here’s what she says about the affiliated corporations charge: "One of the listed contributions was from a Georgia political action committee registered with the State Ethics Commission, the other was from a corporation headquartered in Texas. My opponent, however, has accepted contributions from businesses owned and represented by his boss, Bobby Kahn, and these contributions are clearly affiliated. Perhaps young Mr. Tanner was confused as to which candidate he should accuse of unethical actions.”

And finally, there were the calls which her husband made back in June to Rep. Fran Millar and Sen. Dan Weber, two lawmakers who supported the City of Dunwoody initiative.

Albert Chambers left lengthy voice mails complaining of slanders aimed at his wife and said, “I am not responsible for what happens. But it will all be legal. Everything will be legal.”

Rep. Chambers says it all occurred after a neighbor repeated talk of an affair between her and a high-ranking county official. “I’d gone to bed early and he (Albert Chambers) made one call to Fran Millar’s Capitol office and Dan Weber’s business office and asked them to stop the rumor mongering or he’d tell the media. The police refused to take Dan and Fran’s complaint of terroristic threats.”

If there’s nothing civil in this race, there is, at least, a predictable element to it. Huttman is running on the theme of change and Chambers is running on her record.

Huttman: “It’s time for a change from business as usual. It’s time to have a state representative that puts the focus on things that are important – fully funding education, increasing access to healthcare and taking more of a common-sense approach to governing, as opposed to the partisan way in which the General Assembly has been run.”

Chambers: “The referendum on SB 52, I was one of the House cosponsors on that. It restructures DeKalb, takes power away from the CEO and gives it to the county commissioners … I have been a strong advocate for open records and transparent government. I sponsored the bill that requires all state spending to be disclosed through an online database by 2009 and brings in the state authorities and the Board of Regents to the list of state agencies the Legislature can ask the state auditor to examine.”

Previous Articles In This Series:

Eye On The Senate: SD 46
An Up-And-Comer Battles For Re-Election; 10/13/08

House Watch: HD38
Political Thunder In Cobb; 10/6/08

House Watch: HD140
Battle For A Middle Georgia House Seat; 9/29/07

House Watch: HD153
An Independent Streak Below The Gnat Line; 9/22/08

House Watch: HD13
A Replay Of The Closest Legislative Race Of Two Years Ago; 9/15/08