A public relations consultant and former journalist says he will challenge incumbent Rusty Paul for the Sandy Springs mayor’s office this fall.
Dontaye Carter filed paperwork this week declaring his intent to raise campaign funds.
“I think it’s time just for some different experiences and different perspectives,” said Carter. He added that, as a candidate who is Black, “I want to be a part of bringing not just a diversity in pigmentation to the table, but an actual diversity of thought.”
Paul on March 15 announced his intent to run for a third term as mayor in the November election. The official candidate qualifying period will be Aug. 16-20.
Carter has worked as an executive producer, news anchor and reporter at TV stations, including CBS46 and 11Alive in Atlanta. He worked for former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard handling public relations before setting out to start his own firm, Carter Media Group of Sandy Springs.
He and Karen, his wife, live in Sandy Springs with their 3-year-old daughter Kyleigh.
Carter said he’s still putting together his platform, but that his background shows he’s a servant at heart. He said as a journalist he told people’s stories and did the same thing working with the DA’s office and with his own firm.
His said team worked with him on public relations with the last year’s shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Georgia, and with some of the people accusing musician R. Kelly of sexual abuse in a major criminal case.
“We’ve always just been about bettering the lives of others, of the least of us, so that we can take care of all of us,” said Carter. “That’s been our biggest thing and so that’s what I really want to be able to focus on when it comes to really, again, moving Sandy Springs forward in a way that brings people along.”
He serves as a board member with the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation.
“She was one of the first White people to stand up against injustice, and stand for the Civil Rights movement,” Carter said.