81st District Coverage
The 81st district of the Georgia House of Representatives is having an election in a few weeks. And, as one of the candidates notes, it is the silly season.
The race is between Republican Incumbent Jill Chambers and Democratic Challenger Chris Huttman. To look at the “issues” website that both maintain, it is tough to tell much difference. Both offer the usual promises to help education and transportation. Mrs. Chambers touts her experience, and connections with the party leadership. Until I read the postcards, I was ready to support Mrs. Chambers. I met her at a campaign party at the old park and shop, and she seemed like a nice lady. While I ordinarily don’t care for Republicans ( on the national level this distaste is stronger than ever), I felt like the connections Mrs. Chambers has with the State party leadership could help her represent our district.
The only problem is the postcards. In the spirit of fairness, it should be noted that both sides have sent mailers out, with both parties attacking the other. In the pile that I have now, there are nine from Mrs. Chambers and two from Mr. Huttman. Also, Mr. Huttman has the “bug”…the little stamp that lets you know this was printed in a Union shop. Mrs. Chambers does not display the “bug”.
In the battle for tackiest mailout, Mrs. Chambers wins in a knockout. She makes a lot of personal charges against Mr. Huttman, based on drinking habits, having a lewd website, and being a supporter of Vernon Jones, DeKalb County CEO. One mailout features a prominent picture of Vernon Jones, and a picture of Mr. Huttman with Al Sharpton. Can we say race baiting? The fact that a state legislator would not be directly involved in county government is ignored. Mrs. Chambers, btw, is pushing a referendum to limit the powers of the DeKalb County CEO. This measure will have little impact on Mr. Jones, who is going to be spending more time with his family.
Mr. Huttman has a site devoted to debunking the mud from Mrs. Chambers. Curiously, Mrs. Chambers uses the URL name of this site…”Trust is the Issue“…prominently in her own mailouts. In addition, there is a picture of Mr. Huttman in a “party” pose in several of these postcards. When I browsed the URL listed as a source (http://www.spock.com/Chris-Huttman-QAvt1GI?highlight=true), the site said it had never heard of the picture.
As for having a drunkard in the state legislature, I am SHOCKED. If this is true, then it only means Mr. Huttman will be better able to get along with the rest of the lawmakers. He denies that he was drunk in the picture, which was taken when he was 20 years old. I wonder if Mrs. Chambers has any embarrassing photos from her youth? To her credit, they are not on the internet.
I am disappointed in Mrs. Chambers. The 81st would seem to be a solid Republican District, and she has a good record of representing us. It is discouraging that she would stoop to this kind of mudslinging. But then, you know she is a Republican when you vote for her. The frog knew it was a scorpion when he gave him a ride.
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Chamblee54 
The 81st District leans Democratic. It was the only Georgia House District carried by Kerry in ’04 that elected a GOP State Rep. Your perception of the district is solidly GOP is understandable though—the Ashford Park and Chamblee precincts were the only ones (of about a dozen total precincts in the District) carried by Bush, and carried handily at that.
Consider that the 81st District typically has among the very lowest total number of votes cast for State Rep in Georgia (because of the high immigrant population). I recollect the 81st being among the half dozen or so Districts with the lowest number of votes cast for State Rep in ’06, about half as many as in most Districts. (Also, none of the others of that group of a half dozen Districts was competitive, i.e. there was either no opposition or token opposition—opposition mustering a third of less of the total vote.)
The circumstances require Jill turn out the GOP base and win a firm majority of independents. Negative campaining may have previously been an effective tactic with respect to independents (and pragmatic Democrats as you seem to be).
Jill’s been a good rep, but initiating negative campaigning using the same type of negative remarks perhaps effective in past campaigns (carpet bagger, instability) has backfired in the worst way because in this instance independent evidence are deliberately deceptive. The repercussions of “Trust is the issue” as it concerns Jill’s publicizing negative information about opponents may well go beyond this campaign — can an informed voter ever believe anything negative heard from her campaign about an opponent without independent verification?
insert “indicates the accusations” between ‘evidence” and “are” in the last paragraph.