MILTON: Defeated gay councilman cries foul over fake robo calls.

Coutesy 11alive.com

MILTON, Ga. -- Defeated in his first attempt at re-election this week, Milton City Councilman Alan Tart is crying foul.

"It is politics at its worst," he told 11Alive News on Friday.

Tart is talking about two robo calls that went out to many Milton voters the night before Tuesday's election.

He shared one with 11Alive, which said, in part, "As the only openly gay Democrat in North Fulton, Alan needs every vote to ensure that a progressive voice is heard on the council."
Tart said the calls are fakes, designed to help him lose the election, which he did.

First elected in 2007, he has never hidden the fact that he is gay.

He even has a photo with his partner on his campaign website.

But he never made an issue of it and neither did anyone else until the fake robo calls.

"It has nothing to do with my ability to do my job as shown by my track record the last four years," he insisted.

The fake calls came out not long after the Atlanta Progressive News website wrote articles on how unusual it was for Tart to hold office in a largely conservative, Republican suburb of metro Atlanta.

Tart also says he's an independent and not necessarily a Democrat.

Like those in other Georgia cities and counties, local elections are non-partisan.

It's even against election rules for anyone to campaign on behalf of a political party.

Fake campaign calls on behalf of a candidate who did not authorize them are also illegal under state law.

Tart's opponent, winner Lance Large, sent 11Alive News an email saying he had nothing to do with the fake calls which also pointed out he was the conservative Republican in the race.

"I did not launch, authorize or have any knowledge of who launched the robo calls," Large wrote.

Tart isn't blaming his opponent directly and he accepts the 57 percent to 43 percent loss.

But he has filed a formal complaint with Georgia's Secretary of State asking the office to investigate.

"It's incumbent upon me as a citizen who's still a resident of the city and as a citizen of this country just to shed light on this dirty politics," he added.