District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez and her challenger, former prosecutor Kalki Yalamanchili, will appear at a forum Tuesday night at Hill Chapel Baptist Church from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
The forum is sponsored by the Western Circuit Bar Association. Tharon Johnson, an Athens native and prominent political consultant in Atlanta, will moderate.
A second forum is scheduled for next week, at 6 p.m. Oct. 22 in the third-floor auditorium of Piedmont Athens Regional’s medical services building on Talmadge Drive. This forum will be moderated by Tim Bryant and broadcast live on WGAU 1340 AM.
For those who can’t make it, Flagpole contributor Chris Dowd, aka Athens Politics Nerd, interviewed both candidates and posted this video (also available in podcast form. In addition, look for coverage of each forum in Flagpole and at flagpole.com.
The Associated Press also recently published an article about the headwinds facing progressive DAs like Gonzalez and Savannah’s Shalena Cook Jones, even in liberal-leaning areas. Yalamanchil is running as an independent and has the backing of local Republicans, in addition to some Democrats like Mayor Kelly Girtz.
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