The congressman from the 13th District is David Scott, a Democrat first elected in 2002. Born in rural South Carolina, Scott is the son of a minister and grandson of a deacon. During his middle-school years, his family moved to tony Scarsdale, N.Y., where his parents took jobs as a chauffeur and housekeeper for a wealthy family. Scott was the only African-American in his otherwise all-white school. He later graduated from Florida A&M University, and then did an internship at the U.S. Labor Department in Washington. There he met George Taylor, an authority in labor-management relations who encouraged the bright young man to apply to the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which Scott did, eventually earning his M.B.A. He moved to Atlanta in the early 1970s, and in 1974, he was elected to the Georgia House. In 1982, he won election to the state Senate, where he chaired the Rules Committee. From 1979 to 2002, he owned Dayn-Mark Advertising, which creates and places radio, television, and print ads. The firm is now operated by his wife and two daughters. Read More

The congressman from the 13th District is David Scott, a Democrat first elected in 2002. Born in rural South Carolina, Scott is the son of a minister and grandson of a deacon. During his middle-school years, his family moved to tony Scarsdale, N.Y., where his parents took jobs as a chauffeur and housekeeper for a wealthy family. Scott was the only African-American in his otherwise all-white school. He later graduated from Florida A&M University, and then did an internship at the U.S. Labor Department in Washington. There he met George Taylor, an authority in labor-management relations who encouraged the bright young man to apply to the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which Scott did, eventually earning his M.B.A. He moved to Atlanta in the early 1970s, and in 1974, he was elected to the Georgia House. In 1982, he won election to the state Senate, where he chaired the Rules Committee. From 1979 to 2002, he owned Dayn-Mark Advertising, which creates and places radio, television, and print ads. The firm is now operated by his wife and two daughters.

In 2002, Scott made a bid for the newly created 13th District seat. It was obvious that the primary would be decisive in this heavily Democratic district. Four other Democrats ran, the best known of whom was former state party Chairman David Worley, who had nearly defeated Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich in 1990. Scott, however, was familiar to many voters after more than a quarter-century in the state legislature. And if they didn’t know Scott, they certainly knew of his campaign co-chairman: Hank Aaron, the Hall of Fame slugger and Atlanta-area icon, who is Scott’s brother-in-law. Scott brought his advertising expertise to the campaign, plastering the interstate highways with eye-catching billboards. His chief competitors, Worley and state Sen. Greg Hecht of Clayton County, both white, ran ads attacking each other. Scott won the primary with 54% of the vote. He won the general election 60%-40%.

In the House, Scott’s voting record is centrist for a Democrat, especially on foreign policy. He joined both the liberal Congressional Black Caucus and the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, and has had no reluctance about going his own way. In 2003, he was one of seven House Democrats to vote for final passage of President Bush’s tax cut and one of 16 to vote for the new Republican prescription drug benefit under Medicare. He split with most of his party by voting for the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. But after Democrats took control of the House in 2007, he was a more faithful party vote. Though usually reserved, he drew national attention in 2009 when he engaged in a heated give-and-take with town hall audience members over health care reform. He ended up receiving threatening phone calls and hate mail, and a swastika was painted outside his Smyrna office. “There are people out there that … don’t want to see the president succeed,” he told CNN.

On the Financial Services Committee, Scott criticized predatory lenders that exploit would-be homeowners in poor communities, but he was reluctant to pass measures to eliminate favorable interest deals. He spoke out strongly for extension of the Voting Rights Act and against claims by Georgia Republicans that the law was no longer necessary. He initially opposed the bailout of the financial markets, but after Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., promised to address the Black Caucus’s call for additional protections for homeowners facing foreclosure, Scott switched his vote in support of a revised version. He also served on the Agriculture Committee, and chaired the livestock, dairy and poultry subcommittee before Democrats lost the majority. He accused Agriculture Department officials in 2010 of an “end-run around Congress” in writing a rule on the marketing of livestock and poultry that did not have enough support to make it into the 2008 farm bill.

In 2006, Scott faced a primary challenge from Donzella James, who served 10 years in the state Senate and criticized Scott for living outside the district. Scott won 67%-33%. In the general election, he was opposed by first-time candidate Deborah Honeycutt, a family physician who surprisingly raised $1.3 million. But she had little name recognition and lost 69%-31%.

Before the 2008 election, Scott was the subject of several unflattering stories about back taxes he owed on his home and business, and about payments out of his campaign fund to family members and Dayn-Mark Advertising. Since his first congressional race in 2002, Scott’s campaign had paid a total of $643,000 to his family and to Dayn-Mark and its employees. An attorney for Scott said that the transactions were legal under campaign finance law.

Nonetheless, Scott attracted both primary and general election challenges in 2008 and 2010. In the 2008 Democratic primary, James again challenged Scott and attacked him for backing President Bush on the war in Iraq, for favoring the GOP prescription drug benefit, and for opposing increases in education funding. Scott won 64%-36%. In a November rematch, Honeycutt upped the stakes considerably by spending $5.2 million to try to defeat Scott, who spent far less, $1.4 million. Despite the negative news stories about his finances, Scott swamped Honeycutt, 69%-31%. Two years later, he easily fended off two Republicans-turned-Democrats in the primary, then trounced Republican Mike Crane, who had edged out Honeycutt in the GOP primary. He was re-elected easily with 69% of the vote.