With partisan control of the Cobb Board of Education at stake in the November elections, leaders of the Republican Party that holds on to a slim majority are taking aim at the candidate who’s vowing to change all that.
Democrat Michael Garza is challenging three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain in the Post 4 race in Northeast Cobb, which includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry attendance zones.
The GOP holds a 4-3 majority on the school board in Cobb, which once was heavily Republican. But Democrats control the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation and occupy all countywide offices.
The Post 4 race is the only contested campaign for the Cobb school board in the general election, as Smyrna-area Democratic incumbents Becky Sayler and Nichelle Davis have no Republican opponents.
On Monday, the current and several former Cobb Republican Party chairs, as well as state GOP leaders, issued a press release demanding that Garza return several thousand dollars in campaign contributions from his biggest individual donor.
That donor is Michael Tafelski, an East Cobb resident who is a supervising attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who’s contributed $6,000 to Garza’s campaign.
The SPLC, which has filed several suits against the Cobb County School District on a variety of matters, recently was indicted by a federal grand jury for wire fraud and other charges.
The SPLC is alleged to have donated more than $3 million to informants within violent and extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations, while raising money to to dismantle them. A former SPLC employee has been arrested in connection with allegations in the indictment.
In Monday’s release (you can read it here) the Georgia and Cobb GOP leaders said that “Cobb County voters deserve to know whether [Garza] supports the Southern Poverty Law Center’s agenda or whether he will return the money and publicly distance himself from the conduct alleged in the federal indictment.”
Among the signatories is Georgia Republican Party chairman Josh McKoon, Cobb Republican Party chairwoman Mary Clarice Hathaway and her predecessors, including Salleigh Grubbs, Jason Shepherd, Scott Johnson and Rose Wing.
Garza told East Cobb News Tuesday he has no intention of returning Tafelski’s donations and stressed the local nature of what he calls his “grassroots” campaign.
“Mr. Tafelski is a parent of a child in Cobb County schools and a well respected volunteer within the community,” Garza said.
“He’s not been accused of a crime, and his employer has no bearing on the donation he made in a personal capacity. It does not disqualify him from being able to have a say in the direction of his child’s educational experience.”
East Cobb News also has left a message with Tafelski seeking comment.
Tafelski has been an attorney with the SPLC as it has challenged the Cobb school district on school board redistricting and its decision to fire a grade-school teacher for reading a book to her class about gender fluidity.
Garza, who’s active in the Keheley Elementary School PTA and the East Cobb County Council of PTAs, said his campaign has received 283 individual donations, and only one from an organization. That’s a $2,000 check from the political action committee of the Cobb County Association of Educators.
According to a financial disclosure report filed last week (you can read it here) Garza has raised $42,000 and has $16,000 cash on hand.
Garza said it was telling that the GOP letter is “another in a series of outside political distractions being brought into our county that have nothing to do with our public schools.
“Our families can’t afford to have leaders who care more about retaining power for a political party than they care about actually serving the students in our community.”
Chastain, the current Cobb school board vice chairman, was not among those signatories.
Late last month, he sent out a campaign newsletter entitled “Cobb County Schools—Town Hall Newsletter” and said that “I will continue my pledge to always protect parents’ right to guide their own children.”
The parental rights’ issue has been cited repeatedly by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale—whose most vocal critics include Garza—on such issues as removal of school books deemed inappropriate for minors.
Without being specific, Chastain also said in the newsletter that “we must not start chasing the newest unproven instructional fads.”
On his campaign Facebook page, Chastain also has been rolling out brief video spots for yard signs.
Last week, a video message called for the need to “stay away from distractions and keep other things from the outside from affecting how we manage our children and support our teachers.”
According to Chastain’s financial disclosure statement (you can read it here) he has raised $29,000 with $17,000 cash on hand.
He’s having a fundraiser next week on Monday at the Governor’s Gun Club in Kennesaw with U.S. Rep. Clay Fuller.
Cobb Democrats are having a “special meeting” Saturday morning called “Cobb School Board and You” at Bridge Pointe Church in Marietta.
On Saturday afternoon, Garza will be involved in a “Flip the Cobb School Board” canvassing session from 1-4 p.m. at Noonday Park.
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- Letter to the Editor: Taken aback by ECN‘s Trump coverage
- Cobb superintendent, citizens clash over Trump Wheeler visit
- Trump draws fans, foes to ‘rockin’ and rollin’ Wheeler rally
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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