Decatur Attorney Kyle Williams to Run for Jason Carter’s Open Senate Seat
Decatur Metro | November 18, 2013With Georgia Senator Jason Carter announcing that he’ll challenge Gov. Nathan Deal for the Georgia governor’s seat next year, the Georgia 42nd district seat will be vacated.
DM has confirmed that Decatur attorney Kyle Williams has filed the paperwork to run for the open Senate seat and plans to make a formal announcement mid-week this week. With the announcement, Williams says he also plans to release a list of first round endorsements.
“Numbers support our run and we can win.” Williams tells DM.
Mr. Williams’ registration form lists Jesse A. Davis as his Campaign Manager and Christa Dell Sobon as his Treasurer.
Ditch the bowtie.
Seriously?!? He wouldn’t be Kyle without the bowtie. Keep it!
Agree with WM. In fact, I think this photo is quite artful—mostly shades of black and white except the brilliant tie and the reddish tone of the frames around his degrees. It will look good on flyers. And red, white, and blue are the tried and true colors that attract voters. Hard to win an election without using some variation of either blue or red.
For the record, Kyle long ago earned the Squirrel-Headed Bastard seal of approval. He has my support and my best wishes.
I’ll need to see his stance on the following before voting for him:
Walmart
Korean-fusion food
Preferred elementary school format
Cyclists: huge threat or mere menace?
Density: a good thing or a great thing?
Beer
Trees vs houses
Driveway on College Street at Trackside: entrance or exit?
Dequator or Tropic of College/Howard?
Decatur vs “Decatur”
I also whole-heartedly support Kyle’s candidacy to represent us in the State Senate. Kyle has worked tirelessly for those in the City of Decatur and beyond. He is the current chair of Decatur Education Foundation, and has supported DEF for over a decade with private fundraising efforts. In addition to our children, Kyle has shown concern for our Seniors, making sure they are able to be involved and are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer. He is also currently serving on the Decatur Board of Zoning Appeals.
Kyle is a business owner of his own law firm (which recently purchased the High House on Sycamore for their long-term offices), so will be in tune with business needs in the district and state. He also has experience working with a statewide constituency as past president of Georgia Equality.
Kyle is sharp, approachable, a good listener, can work with all types of people, puts in the work to make sure ideas turn into actions and is an all-around nice guy. I hope as many of you as possible are able to meet Kyle and see for yourself. We will be lucky to have him as our State Senator!
+1 and amen
Yay for Kyle! I’m so excited for him and proud to support him. He’s a wonderful guy and has done so much for Decatur!
He sounds great. Thank you all for your input. Looking forward to learning more. Wonder who the competition will be. Sad to see Jason Carter go, but hopefully he’s on to bigger and better things.
This is fantastic news for the City of Decatur. I can’t think of anyone who has worked harder for Decatur over the last few years than Kyle, and he will be a tremendous representative for us in the State Capital. He has my family’s support.
Like the bow tie. Reminds me of the 56 Georgia flag which unlike many in Decatur, I had nothing against BUT I NEED TO ADD, I like our current flag better. Back to the candidate.
Does Mr. Williams have a chance? Maybe. The Dems are all excited about Michelle and Jason but I can’t see these two riding a Blue tidal wave to victory in 2014 much less pulling Mr. Williams along for the ride. Maybe I’m wrong but this is still a pretty conservative state. Even without a Nunn/Carter victory, can Mr. Williams pull together a winning coalition in our senate district? He couldn’t even win a Decatur commission seat in liberal south Decatur. He might win a Decatur Metro straw vote but anything more than that, I doubt it. But I wish Mr. Williams the best of luck.
Who knows for sure, but this seems right. As Obamacare — the so-called progressive’s signature, party-line “achievement” of the last 20 years — continues to implode, it’s hard to see democrats making inroads in red states.
“Maybe I’m wrong but this is still a pretty conservative state. ”
Yeah, but he’ll be running in a State Senate district that has been Democratic for a long time.
It sounds like Mr B needs to brush up on his civics lessons.
Senate District 42 voted 74% in favor of President Obama last year.
Thanks Steve and Mary. No doubt that a Dem will win the seat but will it be a Decatur Dem? My guess is that this race will have quite a few local politicians considering throwing their hat into the ring. But my main question remains the same, can Mr. Williams put together a coalition of neighborhood supporters outside of south Decatur and win what will probably be a crowded Democratic primary?
I’m sure Mr Williams is very astute and has already considered that. Not sure why it matters to you; you wouldn’t be voting for him anyway.
“56 Georgia flag which unlike many in Decatur, I had nothing against”
Why would anyone have anything against a flag that was adopted as a protest against school integration?
Well, I think that there is good reason to have something against the 1956 Georgia flag: 2/3 of it is devoted to displaying prominently the Confederate Battle Flag, a symbol of treason in defense of slavery. Furthermore, it was adopted in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decisions, so adopting it was a statement of support for the program of “massive resistance” to federally imposed integration of public schools.
I love it when my sarcasm missing the mark leads to other people making the same case I would.
I was composing my comment before seeing yours–reply to Mr. B, not you.
Nothing personal, but I will never vote for another lawyer.
That eliminates most candidates, doesn’t it?
This is wisdom. I mean that. We need far fewer lawyers in government across the board.
Equally pressing is the need to stop more political dynasties. Jason Carter seems like a fine gentleman in many ways, but we can do better than to pick our governors from the ranks of those born into a world of political connections. To the Bushes, Carters, Clintons, Kennedys, etc., I say: please, get a private sector job and stay there.
Speaking as someone who was defeated in a political race by a member of that dynasty, and someone whose graduate work and first career was as an economist before I became an attorney, I could not disagree more. The number of attorneys in our legislature is at an all-time low. It has created enormous problems as folks concoct legislation without the slimmest notion of the interaction of our laws and constitutions. The State Bar and other attorneys who are involved with the legislature get emergency calls during the legislative session to try to fix legislative proposals that would often be incredibly problematic, if not unconstitutional, if the proposals passed as drafted by the non-attorney author. While we benefit from contributions from many backgrounds, anyone who believes that “We need far fewer lawyers in government across the board” needs to spend more time under the Gold Dome. If we ever had a excess of attorneys in our legislature, today there is a shortage. We need more, not fewer, attorneys. NOTE: I am not pulling for any candidate. I know of at least two or three other folks looking at the race. (NOT ME!!!) Best of luck to all of them!
The general assembly is about 18% lawyers. Even if that is a historic low, they are still over-represented as measured against the general population. Just how many do you thing we need?
That depends on how deep the hole in the ground is that you are trying to fill
You think we need less lawyers in the state legislature? I’m sure a lot of people would agree with you either on principle or without really thinking about it. In practice, Georgia has seen first-hand,and with much greater effect than in most states, what happens when too many non-lawyers make laws – really bad laws! And I don’t even mean laws I disagree with, though there are many of those, but rather simply poorly worded, internally and externally inconsistent code sections and other generally messy codifications.
Everybody hates lawyers until they need one…
The percentage of lawyers in the general population is completely irrlevant. Are you saying the state legislature should be 0.7% fry cooks, 0.4% mechanics, 0.0003 pilots, 1.2% retail sales, etc. etc. etc. (all of those numbers are completely made up)? The general population (unfortunately) elects someone to represent it. Hopefully, the person they elect is qualified to read, write and/or understand the statues they enact. Your logic here just makes no sense.
And one again I agree with J_T. You would be amazed at the number of cases where the courts knowingly make a bad, strange, unfair, etc. ruling while stating that the legislature’s intent is unclear, and they can only rule with the confines of the laws, as written.
No, it’s clear that I am not saying that. Tom S. said we need more lawyers, and I said we already have about 18%, and the comparison to the general population was simply to put that 18% in perspective.
I would not be “amazed” by the type of decisions you mention because, believe it or not, I am a lawyer. I am further unamazed that many such decisions come from federal courts addressing federal statutes and regulations, which are drafted by lawyers at multiple levels. (Speaking of which, I don’t know how you guys claim to know that the vague or inconsistent laws were drafted by non-lawyers. Do you really know that?)
Lawyers often make things more complicated, not less. Less efficient, not more. Not to mention that laws are not always drafted to be clear. Often, they’re the product of lobbying efforts, poliitcal favors, and last-second additions to omnibus bills. Lawyers aren’t going to put a stop to that, which is inherent in politics. And in any event, being a lawyer is no guarantee of expertise in drafting statutes. Most lawyers have never done so. And many lawyers have no special training or expertise in the subject matters on which they are legislating.
Anyway, I guess this is kind of a silly discussion. I am not saying we should have no lawyers in the legislature, but I would like to see more people drawn from other professions and fewer drawn from the law. In the end, each jurisdiction elects who they elect.
One thing is clear – there are too many lawyers on DM.
*blows Dawgfan a raspberry*
So there!
I have to say that it’s been very helpful when lawyers have served on School Leadership Teams–they understand the laws, regulations, and policy relating to educational law, disabilities, and our system charter better than many parents and school staff do, especially that the law has a lot more flexibility than implementers give it and that intent of the law is criticial. Plus they tend to be articulate and persuasive, rather than confrontational which never goes over well even if you’re 100% correct. I like the fact that our two new School Board members have those legal and communication skills.
I agree. I am an engineer turned lawyer and yes, you need more lawyers not less. Look at our code. It’s a mess. They are going to spend this session cleaning up boo-boos in the Juvenile code passed during the last session. Plus, I think the largest representation in the General Assembly are insurance agents who do not know/do not understand/maybe (wince) do not care about the interactions between the laws.
I’ve heard the “we need less lawyers” line asserted many times, but I’ve yet to hear a coherent argument to support it. Why, exactly?
excited, hopeful for the new energy in the democratic party offerings, bring it!
I am proud to support and vote for Kyle, I have seen his work first hand and have no doubts he would represent the WHOLE district in exemplary fashion.