Athens District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez gets an election challenger

Caption

Kalki Yalamanchili announced his candidacy for district attorney in Georgia's Western Judicial Circuit, based in Athens, on Oct. 3, 2023.

Credit: Kalki Yalamanchili for District Attorney via Facebook

The election for Athens-Clarke County District Attorney is more than a year away.

But the embattled incumbent, Deborah Gonzalez, already has opposition.

Earlier this month, a former county prosecutor, Kalki Yalamanchili, announced that he was running to replace Gonzalez, whose office has been plagued by reports of staffing shortages.

“We are facing a crisis,” Yalamanchili said. “The inability to maintain a fully staffed office of well-trained prosecutors is leading to cases being lost at trial — meaning that violent criminals are not being held accountable and are being released to victimize others again.”

Yalamanchili said that his experience as an assistant district attorney and his time in private practice make him the right person to ensure that the district attorney's office is adequately staffed.

“I look forward to rebuilding the reputation of the district attorney's office by ensuring that once again victims in this circuit have an office that will seek justice for them with competency and compassion,” Yalamanchili said.

But his candidacy isn’t the only challenge facing Gonzalez.

A lawsuit filed earlier this year by an Athens business owner alleges that she is unable and unwilling to perform her duties.

She also is the target of Republican state lawmakers who passed a law earlier this year that created an oversight commission that could remove her and other elected prosecutors from office.

Democrats have criticized the law as a tool for Republicans to remove district attorneys elected as Democrats, especially women of color, from office.

Yalamanchili, who is running as a non-partisan candidate, would not elaborate on his opinion of that law.

“I understand, given the circumstances that my community is facing, why the legislature and the governor felt it necessary to take action in the method that they are able to,” he said. “But for me, my focus is not on the oversight law.  My focus is on what I can do to give my community a district attorney that does the right thing, in the right way, regardless of whether anybody’s watching.”

In response to GPB’s request for comment on this story, Gonzalez wrote:

“My focus remains with the people of Clarke and Oconee counties who I will continue to fight for every day to achieve the Justice all people deserve.  I am proud of the programs we have developed like the Juvenile Restorative Justice Program, offering a real chance for rehabilitation.  Working through the COVID backlog and continuing to train and develop attorneys and staff to protect the people of Clark and Oconee counties.  There have been and will continue to be critics of my work.  I will not be distracted by the detractors who would jeopardize the safety of this community for their political benefit.  This community elected me, and that is where my attention will always be, with the community.”