a bitterly contested primary run-off. Skandalakis's campaign drew criticism for running "advertisements portraying one rival in racial stereotypes and another as a drug addict". The spots from the campaign were cited years later as examples of the "dirty tactics" of Ralph Reed:In the autumn of 1998, Georgians were jolted from their armchairs by television ads run by a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor with the nicely onomatopoeic name of Mitch Skandalakis. One commercial played what political writer Josh Marshall later described as "the DW Griffith card," charging gross incompetence on the part of Atlanta's predominantly black political leadership. Another featured an actor who resembled Skandalakis's opponent, state senator Mark Taylor, shuffling down a hallway at a well-known psychiatric and drug treatment facility near Atlanta. The ads were arresting, but they backfired. Skandalakis got stomped by Taylor, while a surprisingly high turnout among African Americans helped produce a victory for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes and other Democrats running statewide. Although successful with Reed's help in winning the Republican primary, Skandalakis's strategy of negative campaigning backfired in the general election. The ad that suggested that his opponent, Democratic candidate and State Senator Mark Taylor, had ongoing drug problems and was being treated in a rehabilitation center, solicited a legal response from Taylor—a $1 million lawsuit for libel. In the end, Skandalakis lost in a landslide in part because he had alienated the Atlanta vote and had made a habit out of insulting Atlanta's (African American) mayor Bill Campbell and other African American officials, "a classic example of racebaiting." These attacks "also offended many whites, who perceived them to be race baiting." He agreed to pay $50,000 to a charity to settle the lawsuit: "in hindsight, Skandalakis said, he regrets airing the ad." Later, Skandalakis's negative advertising was blamed for Republican losses, and he was viewed as "a drag on the [Republican] ticket." Corruption investigation Skandalakis, who had returned to county government after his 1998 defeat, became part of a wide-ranging federal investigation into corruption in Fulton County government in April 2000, when the FBI was in investigating payments made to another commissioner. A local businessman, George Greene, confessed to having made payments to other officials as well, including Skandalakis and his chief of staff. Apparently, from September 1997, Skandalakis was paid $5000 a month in legal fees, $75,000 in total. News of the investigation broke in the spring of 2000; by