Photo of Charles Walker after he was reelected to his Senate Seat following his indictment on 142 counts

Charles W. Walker (born November 8, 1947) was once a powerful Georgia State Senator. He was first elected to the State Senate in 1990, and in 1996 he became the first African-American State Senate Majority leader in Georgia history. Walker is a Democrat and is from Augusta, Georgia. November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... It has been suggested that Democratic presidents be merged into this article or section. ... Augusta skyline with The Lamar Building featured in the center Augusta riverfront marina and downtown skyline Broad Street, downtown Augusta during the 1950s Augusta is a city located in the state of Georgia. ...

Walker started a newspaper called The Augusta Focus, that targeted Augusta's black community, that often expressed opposite viewpoints of Augusta's only daily newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle. Walker was a shrewd businessman, owning a myriad of small enterprises under the name The Walker Group. Critics often accused Walker of using his influence as a state legislator to gain lucrative state contracts for his businesses. The Augusta Chronicle, founded in 1785, is one of the oldest newspapers in the United States and serves Augusta, Georgia. ...

Scandal

For much of his term as a State Senator, controversy surrounded Walker. In 1999, Walker sent a notorious letter to lobbyists, insinuating that a condition for getting preferential treatment in the legislature relied on doing business with his son's security company. In 2002, the Georgia State Ethics Commission levied a $8,500 fine against Walker, the largest fine in state history of a sitting state legislator, for failing to disclose that one of his companies, Georgia Personnel Services, was contracting with state run hospitals while he was in office. Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individuals or organizations point of view is represented in the government. ...

While on The Reapportionment Committee, Walker had a US Congressional district drawn specifically for his son, Champ Walker. However, because of running an extremely lackluster campaign, the younger Walker lost the election to a white Republican, Max Burns, even though the district had a majority of registered African-American voters and was considered a district safe for electing a Democrat. In 2002, the elder Walker lost his seat on the State Senate to a Republican. Max Burns (born November 8, 1948), American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2005, representing the 12th District of Georgia. ...

Charles Walker had a gambling addiction. To pay off gambling debts, he siphoned money from a Charity Football Event that he had founded to provide college scholarships for underpriviledged minority youth. In 2004 a federal grand jury indicted Walker on 142 counts from embezzeling funds from the scholarship charity to intentionally inflating circulation numbers of his newspaper, The Augusta Focus, to defraud advertisers such as K-Mart.

Surprisingly, even after the indictments, the voters returned Walker back to the State Senate in November 2004. Walker kept his seat until he was convicted in Federal court in 2005, later being sentenced to over 10 years in prison. Governor Sonny Perdue called for a special election to fill Walker's seat. Augusta attorney Ed Tarver, an African-American Democrat, won that election. George Ervin Sonny Perdue III (born December 20, 1946) is the current governor of the U.S. state of Georgia. ...