Anita Howard upsets incumbent David Cooke in Macon district attorney’s race

The Macon Judicial Circuit will have a new district attorney after Anita Reynolds Howard defeated incumbent David Cooke.

Howard, a Middle Georgia native with 15 years’ experience as a prosecutor, leads Cooke 17,005 votes to 6,545 in the Macon DA’s race, according to the most recent numbers released by local election boards. The Macon Judicial Circuit represents Bibb, Crawford and Peach counties. All ballots have been reported in Crawford and Peach, and all precincts have reported in Bibb County. Some 8,000 Bibb County absentee ballots till need to be counted.

Howard said that she is grateful for all the support she has received and is ready to get to work, once the results are official.

“I am here at the headquarters surrounded by family and friends and we worked hard. We have been working for about a year and we are just going to wait for the final results,” Howard said. “I did my best to listen to their concerns and I did my best to take their concerns along with my experience and develop initiatives to help us reach our goals in public safety.”

Howard believes there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the DA’s office, something she expects to change. She wants to make sure that prosecutors and district attorneys are held accountable by the communities they serve.

“What everyone wants and what everyone deserves is to feel safe,” Howard said. “And with the continuing violent crime that Macon has, especially with the murders... I just believe that people want to see priority placed on public safety.”

Howard said that a key to her campaign was listening to community members. Some of those conversations happened at hair salons, grocery stores and in other places around the community where she said she tried to engage and learn the stories of those individuals. Howard hopes to hold town hall meetings and continue to engage in the community to figure out ways to best serve Middle Georgia.

“The district attorney has to be intentionally involved in the community that they serve and that is what I am going to do,” Howard said. “You cannot adequately run the district attorney’s office from the courthouse. People have stories, I want to hear those stories.”

Cooke took over the office in 2012 after knocking off then-incumbent Greg Winters. Howard will take office in January. She wants to bring stability to the district attorney’s office where she believes there has been too much turnover during Cooke’s tenure.

“I would say number one is just building the morale of that office,” Howard said. “I have been a prosecutor for 15 years and I am in the same office not because I couldn’t go to another office… but you are part of that community and you begin to buy in to trying to make that community better.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 1:33 AM.