Tom Crawford: Dale Cardwell can lift a huge burden off the Democratic Party’s shoulders.

Tom Crawford of Capitol Impact writes:

DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones . . . so far has danced around reporters’ questions as to when he was ever going to “officially” announce his candidacy. Jones, to put it politely, is a major headache for Democratic Party officials.

As a prominent African-American politician, however, Jones could scare away better candidates who would run a more credible campaign. Democrats thus faced the real possibility of having a nominee at the top of the ticket next year who would draw even less than the 38 percent of the vote amassed by Mark Taylor in last year’s race for governor. Cardwell . . . can lift a huge burden off the Democratic Party’s shoulders by forcing Jones either to make a formal declaration of his Senate candidacy or do what many political observers have figured all along he will do: run against 4th District Congressman Hank Johnson of DeKalb County.