Deal endorses Brantley

GAINESVILLE - Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jason Deal is one of 30 DAs in the state who have reportedly endorsed Grant Brantley in his race for a spot on the Georgia Supreme Court.

Brantley is attempting to knock off incumbent Justice Leah Ward Sears, who would become the court's first female black chief justice if re-elected.

Earlier this week, Sears was endorsed by the Georgia Association of Educators.

Brantley and many other state Republicans have called Sears too liberal. Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, during a Christian Coalition rally earlier this year, urged voters not to re-elect Sears.

The Sears-Brantley race, which will be decided July 20 in a nonpartisan contest, is thought to be the most expensive and high-profile court race in state history.

Brantley's campaign said Thursday that 30 of 49 state district attorneys have endorsed Brantley. Most of the DAs behind Brantley come from rural or suburban Atlanta areas.

The DAs fell short of directly criticizing Sears, following the historical decorum of justicial races.

But one of the them, the Southern Judicial Circuit's David Miller, said in a statement that Brantley would ``better reflect the values of the majority of the people of Georgia.''

Sears has been targeted by conservatives in part for being part of the majority that threw out Georgia's anti-sodomy law in 1998. Sears and other justices ruled that the sodomy ban was an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

In addition to Deal, six other DAs in northeast Georgia have endorsed Brantley, according to the Brantley campaign.

They are Mike Crawford, Mountain Circuit;
Stan Gunter, Enotah Circuit; Tim Madison, Piedmont Circuit; Garry Moss, Blue Ridge Circuit; and, Penny Penn, Bell-Forsyth Circuit.

The complete list is as follows:

Steve Askew, Middle Circuit
Paul Bowden, Tifton Circuit
Fred Bright, Ocmulgee Circuit
Kelly Burke, Houston Circuit
Joseph Campbell, Cherokee Circuit
Michael Crawford, Mountain Circuit
Richard Currie, Waycross Circuit
Jason Deal, Northeastern Circuit
Denise Fachini, Cordele Circuit
Charles Ferguson, Pataula Circuit
Tommy Floyd, Flint Circuit
Herbert Franklin, Lookout Mountain Circuit
Stan Gunter, Enotah Circuit
Pat Head, Cobb Circuit
Stephen Kelley, Brunswick Circuit
Timothy Madison, Piedmont Circuit
Richard Mallard, Ogeechee Circuit
David McDade, Douglas Circuit
Kermit McManus, Conasauga Circuit
Richard Milam, Towaliga Circuit
David Miller, Southern Circuit
Brown Moseley, South GA Circuit
Garry Moss, Blue Ridge Circuit
James Osborne, Paulding Circuit
Leigh Patterson, Rome Circuit
Penny Penn, Bell-Forsyth Circuit
Richard Read, Rockdale Circuit
Darrell Wilson, Appalachian Circuit
Donald Wilson, Tallapoosa Circuit
Ken Wynne, Alcovy Circuit

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)