Don Balfour’s back from the political graveyard — and… | Political Insider | www.ajc.com

A Fulton County jury has just acquitted you of 18 felony counts that might have put you behind bars for 10 years. What do you do next?

If you’re state Sen. Don Balfour, you embrace the cliché. You spend the next four days in Disneyworld with your wife and son, his fiancée, and your future in-laws. And you exhale.

Then you start work on your re-election campaign.

Two weeks after a jury rebuffed accusations that he had purposely stolen state dollars by fudging his legislative expense account, the Snellville Republican said he intends to remain in the Senate – and will ask GOP voters in a May primary to disregard those who suggest his exoneration is less than complete.

“I’m not a lawyer, but one of the foundations of our country is that you’re innocent until proven guilty. And if you’re found not guilty, you are innocent,” Balfour said his first extended interview since a Dec. 20 acquittal. (Lawrenceville City Councilman P.K. Martin has announced his Republican candidacy for Balfour’s District 9 seat.)

More immediately, Balfour hinted darkly – without naming names — of forces in the Senate whom he holds responsible for his 14-month ordeal. “When was the last time you saw a felony indictment for $11? A felony indictment for $22?” he said.

And Balfour is still pondering the content of his first speech on the Senate floor, once the Legislature returns to Atlanta next week. At times, he thinks of “going to the well and saying what sometimes I really believe.

“The other side is I ought to turn the other cheek. But how many times do you turn the other cheek, when people – year after year after year – continue this stuff?” the lawmaker asked.

(Balfour specifically exempted Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, president of the Senate, from the scope of his ire. “Casey has been very welcoming and positive. I think he and I will get along just fine,” he said.)

via Don Balfour’s back from the political graveyard — and… | Political Insider | www.ajc.com.