What’s needed in Georgia’s next attorney general?
I don’t think partisan politics is candidly where the attorney general needs to be. He needs to be able to work with any governor, but he needs to be able to stand up to a governor when the governor’s wrong. Governors do things that are partisan, as do the legislatures; it’s a necessary component of their job, but the attorney general’s job is to serve the people, to serve the law, to do the right thing.
I’ve got a pretty clear record as district attorney in Albany. One of the reasons I ran is we had folks sitting in jail three, four, five, in one case seven-and-a-half years without going to trial. It wasn’t fair to them, it wasn’t fair to the victims, it wasn’t fair to the taxpayers.
Going from 1997, when I took office, to the time I left, we were in the top five in efficiency of the 49 judicial districts in the state.
The one change that I have said that I plan on doing is implementing a civil rights division. I think in instances when people, because of their gender, their age, their race, their ethnicity, are discriminated against within the state of Georgia, I think the attorney general’s office ought to stand up and say that’s wrong and take action when and where appropriate.
Water wars
The water issue’s a real problem and we’ve got to solve it. And we need to solve it sooner rather than later, because the more protracted it gets, the more costly it gets. And if we don’t solve it, then the result that Judge Magnuson has in his order is so draconian and it would be unlivable, untenable — we can’t do it.
[If elected] I will be sitting down with the governor, I will be sitting down with the Legislature and saying “why don’t we look at this” … I’m not going to say I’ll sit back and wait for the legal issue to come to me. I’ve always been in favor of proactive approaches.
Health care law
The great thing about our democracy is that we have a separation of powers and Congress doesn’t always pass — and neither does the Georgia General Assembly — the best laws in the world, but those laws can be changed. And I would argue that if changes need to be made in this particular law, then they need to be done through Congress, and not through the court system.
I believe that it will be upheld at the end of the day.
I don’t like all of the law; I don’t like the unfunded mandate on the state of Georgia. I think there are some changes that need to be made, and they will be made.
Immigration
The problem is we’re not enforcing the laws that are on the books and there are plenty of laws on the books. Do they need a path? Yes, they need a path so they’re not here illegally. They need to be documented and, when they’re earning money, they need to be paying taxes.
It can be done. They can get work visas, they can get student visas, they can get whatever the proper documentation in place to do it and we ought to enforce the laws. Those businesses who hire illegals ought to suffer the consequences of that and ought to be held accountable and responsible for what they’re doing, and when I’m the attorney general they will.
Whatever law passes constitutional muster … then it needs to be enforced evenly and across the board. We need legal immigration. But if you’re here illegally, I’ve got a problem with that.
Open government
I think that the [Sunshine Law] penalties now are meaningless and they need to have more impact in order to be a deterrent. It’s what I did as a prosecutor for 15 years — if you can’t deter people, they’re going to keep doing the crime. I certainly think that incarceration ought to be on the table for a judge to impose when appropriate. But I don’t think on a first-time offense that they ought to stick him in jail.
The Ken Hodges file
Home: Atlanta
College: Emory University
Law school: University of Georgia
Professional: After working for an Atlanta law firm, returned to his hometown of Albany and won election to become district attorney, defeating the incumbent, and was re-elected in 2000 and 2004. Currently, he is managing partner of a health care law firm.
