Former Fulton prosecutor to seek AG seat

Democrat Charles Bailey to challenge GOP incumbent Chris Carr.

An anti-gang prosecutor with plans to significantly increase law enforcement pay and create a state unit to attack organized crime announced a challenge Thursday to Republican Attorney General Chris Carr.

Democrat Charles Bailey said he would also immediately sue large pharmaceutical companies on grounds that they intentionally marketed drugs that fostered the opioid epidemic and that he would join litigation seeking to block the Trump administration’s plan to open Georgia’s coast to offshore drilling.

But he said he would make the crux of his case for public office about his legal background. Bailey, 34, was a Fulton County assistant district attorney before he recently stepped down to run. Carr had no courtroom experience before Gov. Nathan Deal tapped him in October 2016 to fill the post.

“Chris is a nice guy. And just about everyone I know says he’s a nice guy. That’s not a qualification to be an attorney general,” Bailey said. “If you’ve never done it before, then you don’t even know where to start.”

Bailey is the first known chal-

lenger to Carr, who is seeking a full four-year term in November. He’s lined up support from dozens of prominent Democrats, including Jason Carter, the party’s 2014 nominee for governor, Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and state House Minority Leader Bob Trammell.

Bailey said he would become the state’s top advocate for pay raises of 10 percent to 20 percent for law enforcement officers, leaving it up to lawmakers to figure out how to finance it. Deal’s push last year to give state law enforcement a pay hike has triggered a wider debate about raising the salaries of sheriff ’s deputies and police.

Carr, 46, was U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s top aide and Deal’s economic development commissioner before the governor appointed him as the state’s top law enforcement official. He replaced Sam Olens, who resigned to become president of Kennesaw State University.

Although Carr has never run for public office before, he scared off better-known challengers from both parties. Republican state Sen. Josh McKoon and former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a Democrat, both flirted with challenging him before running instead for an open secretary of state seat.

Carr has aggressively hit the fundraising trail, amassing more than $1 million in contributions, and he has about $700,000 in cash on hand. His campaign strategist, Heath Garrett, said Carr is focused on a fight “to protect Georgia from gangs, federal overreach, the opioid crisis, human trafficking and elder abuse.”

Bailey, a first-time candidate, worked for ex-Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and the law firm of former Gov. Roy Barnes before he joined the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. He said he has brought about 20 criminal cases to trial and that the struggles to fight organized crime have shaped his priorities.

He would create a unit in the Attorney General’s Office that would help local prosecutors more proactively prosecute gang members, and he would press for a cash infusion to hire more assistant district attorneys. He said those new positions would be funded partly by settlements from more aggressive litigation against drug manufacturers.

“We’re going to sue the pharmaceutical companies that have pumped millions of pills into the state knowing that it’s ripping families apart,” Bailey said. “And the only entity that could do that for the people of Georgia is the attorney general.”