Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili qualifies to run for Athens district attorney, to face Gonzalez

Local attorney Kalki Yalamanchili, a former assistant district attorney in the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office serving Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties, has qualified as an independent candidate in the Nov. 5 general election for district attorney.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Yalamanchili has collected enough verified voter signatures on his petition to run as an independent candidate. He will face incumbent Democratic District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez in November.

In early July, Yalamanchili announced he had collected 14,000 signatures across the Western Judicial Circuit, far more than the about 5,000 signatures he said at the time were needed to get on the November ballot.

To get on the ballot, Yalamanchili was required to collect verified signatures from 5% of the voters who were registered to vote in the 2020 contest that put Gonzalez in office. Those signatures need not have come from people who cast ballots in that election.

A notification appearing in recent days on the website of the Georgia Secretary of State, which supervises elections statewide, noted Yalamanchili’s status as “Qualified – Signatures Accepted” as the November contest approaches.

According to figures from the Oconee County Elections and Registration Office, Yalamanchili needed a total of 4,944 verified signatures from voters in the two counties comprising the Western Judicial Circuit to get on the November ballot. He collected 16,021 signatures, of which 9,967 were accepted as valid. Regarding the rest of the collected signatures, 3,672 were rejected for a variety of reasons, such as not matching signatures on file with the elections offices in Athens-Clarke or Oconee counties. Finally, 2,382 signatures were rejected because they did not belong to registered voters.

The news has brought a welcome pivot to Yalamanchili’s efforts, as he moves away from what he said Monday was “essentially … collecting signatures and trying to campaign at the same time.”

Previously: Athens area DA candidate nearly triples signatures needed to run against incumbent Gonzalez

Moving forward, Yalamanchili said, he’ll be knocking on doors, setting up speaking engagements, and working toward a possible debate, perhaps more than one, with Gonzalez.

He’s already been doing some of that work, participating in candidate forums even though he wasn’t officially a candidate until the recent signature verification.

The Secretary of State’s website did not include specific numbers of signatures verified through the election offices in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties. Oconee County’s elections supervisor was not available for comment Monday, and the Athens-Clarke County elections office referred questions to the Secretary of State’s office, which had not returned a telephone call as of Monday afternoon.

Gonzalez was elected in a December 2020 runoff against James Chafin, a Republican and veteran Western Judicial Circuit prosecutor who ran as an independent candidate.

With her 2020 electoral victory, Gonzalez became the first Latino district attorney in Georgia history. Her tenure has featured significant and controversial reforms, including a decision not to seek the death penalty and the screening and review of criminal cases before they are accepted for prosecution.

Gonzalez’s tenure has prompted departures from the office’s prosecutorial staff. Yalamanchili himself left the office after Gonzalez’s election, closing out six years as a prosecutor, to start his own practice.

In an October announcement of his intent to seek the office, Yalamanchili said, “There is nothing partisan about protecting our community, keeping our family and friends safe and seeking justice for victims by holding violent offenders accountable.”

He reiterated that position Monday, saying the district attorney’s office is “not a place for partisan politics, it’s a place for public service.” Yalamanchili has reached out simultaneously to local Democrats and Republicans for support.

According to the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission, Yalamanchili had received more than $380,000 in contributions as of July 9 and had spent more than $236,000 in his effort to get on the ballot to challenge Gonzalez. His contributors include an array of local business and professional people, including some lawyers.

More than $110,000 of Yalamanchili’s campaign expenditures have gone to Classic City Campaigns, a limited liability corporation with an Athens address. Those expenditures have covered legal, accounting, consulting, data and event management services, according to the candidate’s filings with the state.

Yalamanchili also has spent more than $60,000 with Austin, Texas-based Vanguard Field Strategies, an electoral services firm.

Gonzalez reported slightly less than $81,000 in contributions to her campaign as of July 9, balanced against a little more than $38,000 in expenditures. Her contributors include many retirees and educators, along with lawyers and other professionals.

On the expense side of the ledger, Gonzalez’s latest campaign finance report shows a series of relatively small payments for consulting and campaign management services.

As far as his vision for the district attorney’s office, Yalamanchili said he would have a particular focus on young non-violent offenders, working to get them in touch with resources to help them with their lives even as they move through the justice system.

“It’s not about my opponent,” Yalamanchili said. “It’s about the kind of district attorney’s office that this community can have.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili qualifies to run for Athens district attorney