John B. “Jack” Zibluk of Lookout Mountain announced Friday his campaign on the Democratic ticket for the 53rd District seat in the Georgia State Senate.
Zibluk, 65, is a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he served as the communication department head. He has a doctorate from Bowling Green University and is from Derby, Connecticut.
At an age where many opt for retirement, he said via phone it’s a privilege to try to do something that matters. He said he is radically practical in finding non-partisan solutions.
“That is radical these days, because people on all sides, from socialist to libertarian to Democrat to Republican, are so dug into their ideologies that they lose sight of the practical issues in front of them,” he said.
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CAMPAIGN POINTS
If elected, Zibluk said, he will focus on economic development, increased access to mental health care like local psychiatrists, and environmental and transportation safety. He said these are bipartisan issues, and he is not a political partisan. The political district includes Dade, Catoosa, Walker and Chattooga counties.
“I just want to do a good job,” he said in a press release.
He said Northwest Georgia counties like Walker and Dade don’t communicate despite sharing problems he’s looking to solve. He’d like to help legal authorities better coordinate in keeping residents safe and create a Chattanooga regional development authority.
His goals aren’t exciting or sexy, he said, but he’s working to put them in action and is open to ideas.
A journalist who has reported for The Associated Press and covered campaigns, he said his entrance to politics is unexpected.
In 2023, during UTC’s Constitution Day, he debated a conservative Republican scholar, whom Zilbluk said tried to put liberal professors in their place.
“Rather than producing a circus, we found common ground,” he said.
He said he was then urged to campaign for state representative, but he lost and learned from the experience.
His campaign slogan is, “Let’s build bridges, not burn them,” which he said references incumbent Republican Sen. Colton Moore.
He said Republicans and Democrats often dismiss each other in saying their counterpart is bad and not someone they’d work with. Building a bridge means working with people you may disagree with, or who may disagree with you, he said.
People have reasons to believe what they believe, he said, which he’s always going to respect.
Zibluk is of Russian and Irish lineage, with immigrant grandparents. Immigrants built the U.S., he said, and he’s an example of that.
“We are as American as anybody,” he said of his family.
Contact Leah Hunter at lhunter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.