Milton resident Lance Large has launched a city council campaign to knock off one-term incumbent Alan Tart [pictured below]. Allied with no-growth-no sewer Milton City Councilwoman Julie Zahner-Bailey (JZB), Tart is a registered Democrat, an anomaly in North Fulton. Tart is also gay.

Neither classification hurt Tart in his 2007 city election, where he clobbered his opponent, also an incumbent, by nearly two to one. So that dog may not hunt. Tart, who lives with his partner of five plus years in Avensong, has joint custody of his daughter from an earlier marriage. 

JZB is also up for re-election in 2011, for a third-term. No candidate is yet to announce against the venerable local electoral powerhouse, who will be very tough to defeat in November, regardless of her opposition. 

Both Tart and JZB have a very motivated base of support in Milton. They go in the 2011 race as favorites to win re-election, albeit JZB is the far stronger candidate of the two. But it is likely JZB will run with Tart as a ticket -- whether it be covert or tepid -- as the two now represent the minority in the new city's council make-up. 

Large is hoping to put together a business / sub-division coalition similar to Joe Longoria, who annihilated incumbent Tina D'Aversa amidst a cloud of ethics charges and campaign faux pas in 2009. 

Large is hosting a campaign kick-off Tuesday night at The Olde Blind Dog, a restaurant in Milton owned by businessman and Alpharetta cop Ron Wallace, a former CFO of UPS. The location of the campaign event likely means that Large will have the support of Wallace, one of the most powerful entrepreneurs in Georgia. 

But neither JZB nor Tart is to be underestimated. Fighting for political survival, they are likely to pull out all the stops to win. 

As is typical of past Milton local council campaigns, we'll probably be in store for an unfortunate barrage of nasty and vile midnight E-mails, blogs and scurrilous charges and counter-charges spewing through cyber-space for the next four months.

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