Fulton County Primary Run-Off Voter Guide 2020
Sheriff
Theodore “Ted” Jackson, Incumbent
• Former FBI and Homeland Security Exec,
worked with Obama admin,
• Trying to build up mental health programs in prisons.
• Has created more initiatives for literacy and vocational programs to inmates.
• You can judge him on his handling of COVID in prisons and these protests (not great).
Patrick “Pat” Labat
• 10 years as Chief of Corrections.
• Wants to prioritize: domestic violence warrants over minor offenses and investing in community education rather than only in prisons
• Advocating for more mental health and addiction recovery resources in prisons
• No language about being tough on crime on the website
District Attorney
Paul Howard (D), Incumbent
• Has been the DA since 1997.
• Under investigation for funneling $140K from the city into his salary.
• Sued by former aide over gender discrimination for being fired after announcing her pregnancy.
• Was MeToo’d by former administrator.
• 16 years in the DAs office, and 2 years running her own practice
• Called the DAs office broken for not properly investigating before charging, trying to invest in youth programs and lowering the turnover rate in the office
School Board, District 1
Franchesca Warren
• Educator for 18 years
• Supports policies to help decrease the amount of testing our students experience in school, collaboratively working on literacy and mathematics strategic partnerships to help our students to be able to communicate in the 21st century
• For partnering with existing mentorship programs to help curb youth crime
• Supports wraparound services (i.e. mental health, food insecurities, homelessness, etc.) for our most vulnerable students and their families
Sandra C. Wright
• Professor of educators
• Pushing for open and transparent communication about what the school district is doing
• Wants to get Fulton county schools up to speed technologically and increase opportunities for teacher advancement
Superior Court Judge, Atlanta Judicial Circuit
Tamika Hrobowski-Houston
• Served as an appointed judicial officer in the Fulton Superior Court’s Family Division since 2016 hearing cases involving child custody, visitation and domestic violence.
• Also served as a deputy prosecuting attorney, special assistant U.S. attorney, federal government counsel, judicial officer in the Fulton Superior Court’s family division and ran her own solo office as a civil and criminal law.
• Biggest Issues: Efficiency, Accessibility to court resources like lawyers and fee help, under utilization of specialty courts.
• Biggest Issue facing the court system: Efficiency. Increased efficiency requires upgrades to existing technology. Advocates for upgrading, or finding an alternative to, the current case management system.
• Need for definitive disaster planning for alternate operating procedures in the event the courthouse is unavailable to staff and the public.
serves as a judge in temporary protective order and domestic violence matters in the Fulton Superior Court’s family division.
• Served as campaign manager for Geronda V. Carter, Clayton County’s first elected African-American Superior Court judge.
• Supports mental health interventions.
Melynee Leftridge Harris
• Fulton magistrate judge since 2010
• Prior, she was a part-time magistrate and civil litigator and worked as an assistant prosecutor for the Fulton County district attorney.
• “As a judge, I have presided, by designation, over cases in the Superior and State Courts, as well as, Magistrate Court. During the 17 years before becoming a full-time judge, I served as a prosecutor in the Fulton County district attorney’s office and as a civil trial lawyer. Earlier in my career, I served as a judicial staff attorney on the Fulton County Superior Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals.”
• Plans on implementing several processes to ensure cases that were stalled due to the pandemic are efficiently worked through.
• “I will stay in the office as late as it takes to ensure we remain on schedule.”
• Supports the early release of non-violent detainees from custody and case backlog due to Covid
• International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623 contributed to her campaign.
• Also endorsed by Georgia Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
