Politicians, the well seasoned and a few new to the game.

Congratulations to Burrell Ellis the new CEO of DeKalb County!! Burrell is a decent and honorable man whom I have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions and believe he will be a unifying figure for the County rather than the divisive administration currently in place.

As far as the City of Dunwoody goes, Burrell knows that the Citizens of Dunwoody are still Citizens of DeKalb and that we are not succeeding from the county, neither is the business community, the mall or the PCID; therefore I trust that his administration will negotiate fairly with the new city in order to have a smooth transition without extended costly lawsuits. Congratulations Burrell.

Now stepping away from the seasoned political professional of Mr. Ellis to those like myself who are just feeling their political oats for the very first time, this experience is both surreal and a blast. Today I picked up my first set political business cards to hand out to the people that I have the pleasure of meeting along the way. I attended a small group meeting for one of the now 14 candidates running for Dunwoody City Council and shook quite a few hands. From there, I attended a Dunwoody candidate fundraiser and schmoozed with the almost 100 guests in attendance for three hours straight. I had the pleasure of discussing political strategy with several of the new candidates who just announced today, including Mary Jo Chambless a friend and neighbor who is now running against me. I discussed the voting process, the new school, traffic on Womack Rd, Brook Run, taxes, roads, police, zoning, development, my blog and much, much more to anyone who would listen. The drinks and desserts were flowing at Café Intermezzo but it was about 11 pm before I even had the chance to take a quick break (and that was OK).

As a newly minted candidate, who has never done this before in a newly minted City where there has never been a City Council Candidate; the reception whether it was over my personal candidacy or rather just the fact that Dunwoody citizens now have the ability to actually have a City Council, meant little to me. The first official day on the campaign and the reaction from most of the people I met was just fabulous. Truly a wonderful reaction, so much so that I will be out the door at 7:30 a.m. shaking the hands of parents registering their children into school.

I have offered to all candidates, including my opponent, my blog to post their official announcement along with a photo and contact information. Several of them mentioned that they will be taking me up on the offer in the coming days. Today is the final day of candidate registration and I will post the final list tomorrow. The candidates registered as of Tuesday are as follows:

Mayor
Ken Wright, 39, CEO

District 1, at large
Robert Wittenstein, 50, Director
Mallard Holliday, 39, a public relations executive

District 1, local seat
Denis Shortal, 66, retired Brig. General, U.S.M.C.
Alfred Alberghini, 75, retired engineer
Nancy Kaylor, 48, a library associate

District 2, at large
Danny Ross, 68, Managing Director
Janet Webb, 63, a business administrator

District 2, local seat
Adrian Bonser, 50, a dentist
Larry Pankey, 42, an attorney

District 3, at large
John Heneghan, 41, Fed Employee – Manager
Mary Jo Chambless, 59, a realtor

District 3, local seat
Tom Taylor, 46, consultant & businessman
Doug Thompson, 46, an attorney
Ellen Fix, 52, a copywriter