This could be one of the most interesting elections on the docket for next year: DeKalb Solicitor-General Sherry Boston will announce Wednesday that she'll challenge District Attorney Robert James.
And she'll do so by pitching herself as a reformer who can root out government wrongdoing in DeKalb from within.
"Because our current District Attorney has not stopped the corruption, I’m announcing today my campaign for that office," Boston said in prepared remarks. "He has not aggressively pursued corruption in DeKalb government. I will."
James is a lifelong prosecutor who was elected county solicitor in 2007 and was sworn in as the county's top prosecutor three years later. He was a fast-rising star considered a contender for DeKalb CEO and the face of some of the county's highest-profile prosecutions.
But he's been dogged by ethics complaints and criticized for balking at cooperating with the unprecedented investigation into alleged corruption now underway in his county. The DA has responded by beefing up his own anti-corruption squad.
You can expect Boston, a 2011 appointee of Sonny Perdue, to try to tie James to the ethics questions swirling around the county. She said in a statement announcing her candidacy that DeKalb's issues "didn't just suddenly appear like some bolt from the blue."
Boston added:
"They're the product of years of failure, by this District Attorney, to safeguard public integrity through his own incompetence or his complicity with a broken system. The District Attorney must stop hiding his own documents, comply with open records requests and hold himself to the same standard as any other elected official. His recent efforts are too little and too late. It's time for honest leadership from the District Attorney's office, and I'll bring that."
Our AJC colleague Mark Niesse caught up with James. He reports that James pointed to public corruption-related convictions of suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis, former DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis and others.
In all, James said his office’s short-staffed Public Integrity Unit has earned 25 convictions since he took office.
“We’re trying to make DeKalb County a better place,” James said. “The work we’ve done … is nothing short of remarkable when it comes to their accomplishments.”
James said there are some cases where his office decided not to bring charges after reviewing the evidence.
“We’ll never be able to prosecute everybody that people want us to prosecute,” James said. “I’m just going to do my job and hopefully the citizens of DeKalb can make their decision based on facts and not unfounded assertions.”
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