The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office certified last week that Kalki Yalamanchili will be on the ballot this November as an independent candidate for district attorney.
Yalamanchili needed signatures from 5 percent of registered voters in Clarke and Oconee counties—about 5,000 total—to run as an independent. In early July, he submitted 14,000. The general rule of thumb for gathering signatures to get on the ballot is to submit twice as many as required; many will be thrown out because the signer isn’t registered to vote or doesn’t live within the jurisdiction.
At the time, Yalamanchili said he had paid a private company $120,000 to collect and verify signatures to free him up for campaigning. His July filing with the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission shows that he paid more than $100,000 to Austin, TX-based Vanguard Field Strategies for petition circulation and signature verification in May and June. He could afford the expense, because he had raised more than $381,000 as of June 30.
Yalamanchili’s donors include a number of prominent Republicans, such as Barbara Dooley, former state Reps. Doug McKillip and Hank Huckaby, Doc Eldridge, Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick, Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard (a Gov. Nathan Deal appointee) and Steve Middlebrooks, cofounder of the conservative group Athens Classic. They also include the two candidates who ran against Gonzales in 2020: Democrat Brian Patterson and independent James Chafin, both of whom worked with Yalamanchili in the DA’s office under Ken Mauldin. Defense attorneys from across the political spectrum also contributed to Yalamanchili’s campaign, including Bill Overend, former chair of the ACC Democratic Committee.
Yalamanchili has a $100,000 cash-on-hand advantage over incumbent Deborah Gonzalez, who reported raising $80,755 through June 30. That includes just $2,350 over the most recent two-month reporting period.
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