National guardsman to run for statehouse – from Iraq
Former cop seeks to unseat troubled lawmaker
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
Douglas
|
A former DeKalb County police officer who is deploying to Iraq for a year as part of the Army National Guard announced he is running for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Malik Douglas, 36, who will serve as a platoon leader for the Military Police beginning Jan. 10, is seeking the District 93 seat now occupied by Ron Sailor [D-Decatur].
Except Douglas will have to campaign and be elected all while more than 8,000 miles away serving his country.
“It’s a difficult situation on a lot of levels,” Douglas said. “My wife and my two amazing children, I worry about them every day. But on a different level it’s also exciting and challenging to be part of our country’s military, and be running for office at the same time.”
Douglas isn’t the first active soldier to seek office this fall – the son of Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, Duncan Duane Hunter, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, announced in 2007 that he was running for his father’s vacated seat while he was in the Middle East.
Longtime political pundit Bill Shipp said that he knows of no other Georgian to make such a run.
“I would think Sailor would be tough to take on even by an Iraq war vet,” said Shipp.
Douglas has other ideas.
“My military service shows I’m dedicated to making things better,” said Douglas. The district is made up of southeast DeKalb and swaths of central Rockdale County.
While Douglas touts his military and law enforcement background, the incumbent Sailor has been making waves of his own of late.
This summer, the legislator was arrested in Gwinnett County and charged with passing more than $1,100 in bad checks and allegedly driving on a suspended license. According to the State Ethics Commission, Sailor has been late or didn’t file more than 30 mandated reports since 2000.
Because Sailor owes more than $5,000 in fines, the commission is conducting an investigation.
Meanwhile, Douglas is no stranger to controversy himself.
In 2006, he sued DeKalb over his dismissal that he said was discrimination and retribution for being in a union. He secretly recorded then chief Louis Graham in an embarrassing, profanity-laced tape that made references to denying promotions due to race. On the tape, Graham was recorded saying the union had a “White agenda.”
Graham and his assistant chief later resigned after the incident.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. dismissed Douglas’ suit against the county last month, saying Douglas was fired for the clandestine tape that was “in violation of DeKalb County policy” not for being in a union.
But Douglas, who spent nine years in the Navy as an enlisted man, said that’s all behind him and he’s focused on Iraq and earning a seat under the Gold Dome.
In his absence, an eight-member committee, led by his wife Linda Douglas, will serve as his core campaign.
“I’ll be using e-mail and my cell phone to call constituents while I’m serving in Iraq,” said Douglas, who touts transportation and infrastructure as his district’s greatest needs. “And I’ll be video conferencing on my Web site MalikDouglas.com. I’ll be back from Iraq in time to take my seat in January ’09.”
|
