In a series of tweets on Sunday, the former finance chair for Georgia Senate candidate Teresa Tomlinson (D.) ripped Tomlinson's "thoughtless and cruel" way of firing her.
Edana Walker said Tomlinson told her to find her own replacement and didn't even offer a handshake in their final meeting, according to Walker's tweets first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"She's a politician so she talked about 'valuing' & 'honoring' me while telling me she wanted me out & asking me if I could recommend someone new," Walker wrote. "Which. Ya'll. Don't do that. If you ever fire someone, do not ask them to find their replacement. It's thoughtless and cruel."
She added that she should not be expected to recruit a successor if Tomlinson truly "value[d]" her service.
I was intentional with folks about saying "fired" so that I wouldn't stew in silence while tryna smile like nothing weird was going on in my life. I also didn't want anyone else saying it for me.
And, I needed to say for myself, in plain words, what my former boss could not.
— Edana (@RedSaid) November 3, 2019
She's a politician so she talked about "valuing" & "honoring" me while telling me she wanted me out & asking me if I could recommend someone new.
Which.
Y'all.
Don't do that. If you ever fire someone, do not ask them to find their replacement. It's thoughtless and cruel.
— Edana (@RedSaid) November 3, 2019
Do them the kindness of not requesting additional labor from them to recruit someone new for the position you had them move to a new town to occupy.
And if you did value this person, don't let them leave your office without even offering a handshake as a show of mutual respect.
— Edana (@RedSaid) November 3, 2019
After Tomlinson raised just $520,000 in the second quarter, three other Democrats entered the race for the right to challenge Perdue, an ally of President Donald Trump. Tomlinson, the former mayor of Columbus, Ga., did even more poorly in the third quarter, raising only $380,000 and reporting less than $290,000 in cash on hand.
John Burke of the pro-Perdue Georgia Action Fund said in a press release that the turmoil showed Tomlinson's candidacy was in "total disarray."
"Tomlinson's inability to competently conduct her own campaign further shows that she isn't qualified to represent Georgia in the United States Senate," Burke said.
A Tomlinson spokeswoman told the Free Beacon it did not comment on personnel issues.
Tomlinson replaced Walker with Steve Leeds, who has extensive experience in Georgia politics but was fired as senior counsel to the General Services Administration during the agency's 2012 spending scandal. Walker also previously served as deputy campaign manager in charge of finance for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who attracted national attention during her narrow 2018 loss to Republican Brian Kemp.
Tomlinson entered the Senate race in May after Abrams decided not to run despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) lobbying.
Perdue is in a strong position for reelection, besting his possible challengers in fundraising and sporting a 49-to-27 approval-disapproval rating in the latest Morning Consult poll. With Abrams out of the race, Democrats have not found any big-name candidates to challenge him or to seek the seat of retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.).
Kemp will appoint Isakson's successor, presumably a Republican, by the end of the year, and in 2020 Georgia will be in the rare position of having simultaneous Senate races.