Ken Hodges

Kenneth B. Hodges
Former Dougherty County District Attorney
Former Candidate for Georgia Attorney General
Assumed office 1996
Current term ends 2004
Political party	Democratic
Profession	Attorney
Website	Ken Hodges for Georgia Attorney General Campaign website

Kenneth B. Hodges (born in Albany, Georgia) is the former district attorney for Dougherty County. On April 22, 2009, he announced his candidacy for the statewide office of attorney general, the seat that is being vacated by Democrat Thurbert E. Baker, who is running for governor. A little over a year later, he easily defeated Democratic primary opponent Rob Teilhet on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 with little over sixty-five percent of the vote. Hodges went on to lose in the general election on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 to Republican Samuel S. Olens after receiving slightly under forty-four percent of the vote.

Education

• Bachelor's degree, Emory University (1988) in political science and sociology
• Juris Doctorate degree, University of Georgia School of Law (1991)

Political career

Hodges served as District Attorney for Dougherty County, a district in the southwestern area of Georgia, for twelve years. He was first elected to the position in 1996 and subsequently won re-election in both 2000 and 2004. It also during his tenure that Hodges was named President of the Georgia District Attorney’s Association.

Controversies

Endorsement accusations

Rob Teilhet, Hodges' opponent in the Democratic primary for State Attorney General, has accused the former Dougherty County District Attorney of twice claiming endorsements for his campaign that he had not earned. Jerry Modena, Sheriff of Bibb County, was shocked to find his name on a list of endorsements issued by Hodges's campaign on Wednesday, July 7, 2010, as "he and his wife have contributed to the Teilhet campaign." The next day, Hodges's campaign issued an apology, blaming the error on a "clerical mistake."

Earlier in 2010, Hodges reportedly asserted that Ambassador Andrew Young was backing his campaign as the state's top law enforcer when in fact he hadn't. Jim Galloway, columnist and reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discovered Young had written a check for Teilhet's campaign and called the ambassador about the endorsement assertion. Young contended that he simply "took a picture with him [Ken Hodges]. But the picture that I took with him really was at Joe Lowery’s retirement. It didn’t constitute a formal endorsement.” After months of finagling, the former mayor of Atlanta announced that he supported both candidates.

Phoebe Factoids

In 2003, Charles Rehberg, a certified public accountant, and Dr. John Bagnato, a surgeon, stumbled across financial documents showing that the Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital located in Albany, Georgia, one of the poorer areas of the state, had "$2.6 billion in cash and transferred millions to offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands." These documents, which became know as the "Phoebe Factoids", were then faxed anonymously, under the headline "Top 10 Most Highly Guarded Secrets at Pheobe", to businesses all across Albany. In addition to revealing that the "non-profit" hospital over-charged uninsured patients and harassed them to make payments, it showed that top executives had "run up lavish travel expenses for trips related to a for-profit subsidy."

Infuriated executives at Phoebe Putney demanded that Ken Hodges, then-District Attorney of Albany, to investigate who was behind these faxes. Hodges later admitted that "he used a grand jury subpoena in 2003 to trace the source of the Phoebe Factoids, and then turned that information over to Phoebe Putney Hospital officials." Rehberg was then charged with six counts of harassing phone calls, one count of aggravated assault, and one count of burglary; all those charges were eventually dropped.

Investigative journalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered that not only had Hodges "received political contributions from Pheobe [sic] executives and others connected to Phoebe[,] ... his wife had been hired by Pheobe [sic] Putney Memorial Hospital." Despite assurances from Hodges that he simply "investigated an allegation of a criminal offense" and did not do a favor for anyone, statements picked up by the Journal-Constitution said he had conducted the investigation as a "favor" for the hospital system and that Phoebe later picked up the tab for the phone trace.

Despite complaints from Rehberg, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia ruled in March 2010 that he could not sue Hodges for wrongful prosecution, though he could pursue litigative measures against Hodges’ chief investigator, James Paulk.

Other roles

• Board of Directors, Albany Civil Rights Museum
• Board of Directors, Darton College Foundation
• Board of Directors, State Botanical Garden of Georgia
• Chairman, Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia
• Former President, Georgia District Attorney’s Association

Campaign contributions

2010

According to Follow the Money, Hodges has raised $515,730 in 2010 for his state attorney general campaign as of September 21, 2010.

Listed below are the top five contributors:

Donor	Amount
Jim Butler	$6,100
Neal Howard	$6,100
Donald M. Leebern, III	$6,100
Clair W. Frazier	$6,100
Appeal Trading Co. LLC	$6,022

Elections

1996

1996 Race for District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit - Democratic Primary
Candidates		Percentage
Ken Hodges (D)		48.7%
Britt Priddy (D)		35.2%
Jim Finkelstein (D)		16.0%
Total votes		17,656

Ken Hodges for Georgia Attorney General Campaign logo

• 1996 Race for District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit - General Election
  • Ken Hodges ran unopposed

2000

• 2000 Race for District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit - Democratic Primary and General Election
  • Ken Hodges ran unopposed in both contests

2004

2004 Race for District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit - Democratic Primary
Candidates		Percentage
Ken Hodges (D)		64.1%
Ingrid Polite (D)		35.9%
Total votes		18,114

• 2004 Race for District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit - General Election
  • Ken Hodges ran unopposed

2010

See also: Georgia Attorney General election, 2010

2010 Race for Attorney General - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Ken Hodges	65.5%
	Democratic Party	Rob Teilhet	34.5%
Total Votes			338,312

2010 Race for Attorney General - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Republican Party	a Samuel S. Olens	52.9%
	Democratic Party	Ken Hodges	43.6%
	Libertarian Party	Don Smart	3.5%
Total Votes			2,551,722

Personal

Hodges currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Melissa, and their daughter.

Awards

• Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service from the State Bar of Georgia
• Eagle Award for Outstanding Support of Crime Victims from the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council

Contact information

Campaign Address:
Georgians for Hodges, Inc.
P.O. Box 79164
Atlanta, GA 30357

Phone: (404) 380-1313

External links

• Ken Hodges for Georgia Attorney General Campaign website
• Ken Hodges's Facebook profile
• Ken Hodges's Twitter account
• Project Vote Smart - Ken Hodges biography