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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Cardwell endorses Martin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former WSB-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, who finished third in Tuesday’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, has endorsed Jim Martin in the runoff.
Martin, a former state lawmaker, finished second in the primary to DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones.
Cardwell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Martin “is an honorable man who has a lengthy record of serving Georgians” and encourages his supporters to back Martin in the Aug. 5 runoff.
“He represents our best opportunity to defeat Saxby Chambliss in November,” Cardwell said of the Republican incumbent.
Cardwell’s 78,000 votes are more than two-and-a-half times the 29,000-vote difference between Jones’ first place finish and Martin’s second.
The challenge for Martin, and for Jones, will be to persuade their voters to return to the polls for the runoff. Messages left with Atlanta businessman Rand Knight, who finished fourth on Tuesday, and with retired businessman Josh Lanier, who finished fifth, were not immediately returned Wednesday.
In an interview, Cardwell also challenged the media “to do its job” and “compare the backgrounds, the criminal backgrounds and the public-record background of these two men and do their job, because t hey didn’t do their job before today.”
Jones and Cardwell have been adversaries for years, dating to Cardwell’s time as a reporter. Cardwell often aired stories that were highly critical of Jones and his administration.
When Cardwell qualified for the Senate race in April, he accused Jones of having been to jail “a couple of times,” of pointing a gun at a woman and for being accused of passing a bad check.
There is no official record that suggest Jones was ever behind bars in DeKalb County. He has had a warrant taken out for bouncing a $7 check. He was also the subject of an arrest warrant, later dismissed, for allegedly pointing a gun at a Doraville woman.
Cardwell also recounted the circumstances of a 2005 rape accusation against Jones — which was withdrawn, though the woman never recanted.
Jones on Wednesday dismissed Cardwell’s complaints, and Cardwell himself.
“Dale Cardwell is irrelevant, and is the type of reporter that would stain the good name of all of the Duke Lacrosse players,” Jones said.
Jones more directly refuted Cardwell’s complaints in the past.
“Every one of those so-called controversies that you guys have reported have turned out to be baseless and reckless and erroneous and just false, ” Jones said when he qualified for the campaign in April.
Cardwell’s choice of Martin, however, is also sure to raise questions. During the primary campaign, Cardwell was often critical of Martin’s tenure as director of the state Department of Human Affairs and slammed Martin’s willingness to accept campaign contributions from special-interest groups.
On his campaign Web site, Cardwell calls Martin a “‘convenient-crat,’ who found the courage to enter the race only after a handful of political ‘insiders’ promised they’d deliver him bucketfuls of special interest ‘PAC’ contributions; contributions Dale Cardwell and Barack Obama have refused because special interests have paralyzed Washington and control most of our elected officials.”
—Aaron Gould Sheinin
Jim Galloway is out of town, but will return soon. If you’ve got news, pop an e-mail to our political team: editor Susan Abramson at sabramson@ajc.com; staffers Aaron Sheinin at asheinin@ajc.com; James Salzer at jsalzer@ajc.com; and Ben Smith at bsmith@ajc.com.
