While early voting in the primaries and East Cobb cityhood referendum got underway Monday, voters in a legislative district in East Cobb will go to their home precincts Tuesday to decide a special election.
Eligible voters in the current boundaries of Georgia House District 45 can go their usual polling precincts between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday during the runoff between Republican Mitchell Kaye (left) and Democrat Dustin McCormick.
They were the top two finishers in the April 5 special election, in which none of the four candidates received a majority of the votes.
The election was called by Gov. Brian Kemp after former State Rep. Matt Dollar resigned in February.
The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:
Dollar, who served nearly two decades, was the main sponsor of East Cobb cityhood legislation and resigned shortly after the bill passed the Georgia House.
His successor will serve through the end of the year in the current District 45 boundaries.
Kaye, who preceded Dollar in the legislature for a decade, got 42 percent of the vote in the special election, and McCormick got nearly 40 percent.
Both oppose East Cobb Cityhood.
McCormick also is on the primary ballot as the only Democrat to qualify for the new District 45. Current District 43 State Rep. Sharon Cooper and Carminthia Moore are competing in the Republican primary, with the winner to face McCormick in the November general election.
The East Cobb Government Service Center will once again be an advance voting location.
Starting Monday, Cobb voters will be able to cast in-person votes ahead of the May 24 primaries and three Cityhood referendums, including one in East Cobb.
Advance voting goes from May 2-20 at various locations in the county, including the East Cobb Government Service Center and the Tim D. Lee Senior Center. Voters can vote early at any location in the county, and not just one that’s closest to them.
Voters in East Cobb will have contested primaries in several key races, including District 3 Cobb Commission (Republican), Georgia Senate 6 (Democrat and Republican), Georgia Senate 32 (Republican), Georgia House 43 (Democrat) and Georgia House 45 (Republican.)
We’ve conducted interviews with the candidates in the contested Republican primary for Cobb Commission District 3: Incumbent JoAnn Birrell; and challenger Judy Sarden.
A big Republican field also is on the ballot in the 6th Congressional District, and several sitting statewide office holders are being challenged. They include Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Non-partisan candidates will be included on the party ballots, but no party-specific candidates will be included on non-partisan ballots.
The sample ballots above are countywide; to get a sample ballot customized for you, and to check which races you will be able to vote in, click here.
The East Cobb Cityhood referendum will be on the ballots of eligible voters who live inside the proposed boundaries; check the interactive map by clicking here. Also visit our Cityhood tab for more information about the referendum.
A photo ID is required to vote in-person and absentee, and you can check which ones are accepted by clicking here.
What follows below is a graphic from Cobb Elections on where, and when, you can vote in-person in advance:
Cobb Elections is providing real-time updates on estimated wait times at the early voting locations and here is the link.
If you wish to vote via absentee ballot, you have through May 13 to request one, and you can do that by clicking here.
Those casting absentee ballots can return them via standard mail, or at a designated dropbox as noted above.
Unlike the 2020 elections, the drop boxes will not be located outside buildings for 24/7 deliveries; following a new state law passed this year, they must be returned inside during opening or voting hours.
All absentee ballots must be returned before the polls close at 7 p.m. on primary election day, May 24.
There also will be a May 3 runoff between Democrat Dustin McCormick and Republican Mitchell Kaye to determine the successor to Matt Dollar, a Republican who resigned his Georgia House seat representing District 45 in February.
The winner will hold office only through the end of the year, the end of Dollar’s term.
McCormick has qualified for the May 24 primary for the redrawn District 45. The Republican primary candidates are current District 43 State Rep. Sharon Cooper and Carminthia Moore.
Voters eligible to cast votes in that race will go to their assigned precincts on Tuesday, and not the early voting locations.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
After narrowly winning re-election in 2018, JoAnn Birrell said there was plenty of unfinished business for her to address in her third term as a member of the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
That term, which is coming to an end this year, has been an eventful one for the District 3 commissioner, who’s been at the center of some major zoning and development issues in her area and around the county.
Birrell, who is seeking a fourth term as a Republican and has an opponent in the May 24 primary, said she’s running again because there are other matters to address and because “I want to continue to serve the public.
“There are some things I want to see come to fruition,” said Birrell, including a rebuild of the Gritters Library branch and the construction of a new Cobb Police precinct off Sandy Plains Road that are both underway and a future repurposing of Shaw Park.
She’s also supporting efforts to create a veterans memorial in Cobb and continued pay incentives for public safety personnel.
The winner of the primary will advance to the general election in November against Democrat Christine Triebsch, a former candidate for the Georgia State Senate.
Sarden was critical of Birrell’s votes on the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment, a residential rezoning on Ebenezer Road and the East Cobb Church rezoning, saying they’re too dense for the area.
Birrell said she’s been working for years to clean up the blighted Sprayberry Crossing, which is finally being demolished for a mixed-use development.
It’s taken time for the previous owner to sell, and for efforts to push public officials to address the situation with a blight tax and other pressures.
Birrell credited residents Joe Glancy and Shane Spink, who spearheaded a citizens’ drive to tear down an eyesore and prompt a redevelopment that’s been touted as transforming the community.
Critics of the project have traffic concerns and didn’t like general apartments initially proposed (and which were dropped due to her opposition).
“Anything that goes there is going to create traffic because it’s been dead for so long,” Birrell said.
Some opponents of the rezoning still insist the senior age-restricted apartments could be converted.
Birrell said county attorneys have told her the latter is not the case; of the 132 planned senior apartments a maximum of 26 could be rented out to younger people due to federal housing law.
For a larger version of the new District 3 map, click here.
Birrell voted for the East Cobb Church rezoning, which she said initially contained residential plans that were too dense.
That case also was delayed for several months after many revisions.
“I told them to get into compliance with JOSH [a new master plan which outlined maximum residential density of five units an acre], which they did,” Birrell said, referring to a final site plan allowing up to 5.1 units an acre.
She also noted there is nearby residential zoning in a similar RA-6 category that was approved unanimously when the area was in her district.
“I know [opponents] are saying it’s too dense, but it was at five units per acre and it meets the JOSH plan,” Birrell said. “My defense is that they did what we asked them and the district commissioner (Jerica Richardson) supported it.”
The Ebenezer Road rezoning was a straight R-15 (single-family detached residential) and not RA-5, a higher-density proposal that was dropped.
“No way was RA-5 going in there,” said Birrell, adding that the applicant, Pulte Homes, has pulled out of developing the property.
Birrell pointed to her vote against the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project on Powers Ferry Road as an example of rejecting what she said was too much density.
“They want to pin me as high-density,” she said of her critics, “but I’m not. And I can back it up.”
Birrell opposed East Cobb Cityhood when it first came up in 2019, but said she is neutral about the May 24 referendum. The proposed city would be entirely in the new District 3.
“I get that they want local control,” she said of East Cobb Cityhood supporters, who have said that a local commissioner can get outvoted by those not representing the community. “But I don’t think they will have that problem with me.”
She also proposed a code amendment to take away the discretionary power of commissioners on rezoning matters around the Dobbins Air Base Reserve.
A controversial residential rezoning approval last year near the base’s accident potential zoneresulted in a land swap with the county following heated opposition from other elected officials and the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Birrell’s code amendment got the votes of fellow Republican Keli Gambrill and Richardson.
“We got the issue resolved, but I went a step further to take it out of the code,” Birrell said.
After reapportionment, the new District 3 is a more Republican stronghold, something she said the current boundaries are not.
Birrell had been part of a 4-1 Republican majority that ended with the 2020 elections. Democrats now have a 3-2 edge.
She said of the current commission—which is all-female as well—that while she’s “keeping my conservative values . . . we really try to work together. There are things we are never going to agree on, but when we can work together, I’m all in.”
Birrell opposed Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s proposal for a 30-year transit tax that has been dropped, saying anything more than 10 years “is just too long.”
She also is against hiring outside consultants for a proposed Unified Development Code that has drawn some criticism from citizens who think it will lead to more urbanization.
“It should be done in-house,” she said of the Cobb community development staff. “They know Cobb County.”
Birrell said her top budget priority is to continue to build out a pay-and-class salary structure for public safety personnel that started three years ago.
She’s touting her experience and deep relationships across the county to voters as she seeks another term.
“I can get things done,” Birrell said. “I know the county, and I want to continue to serve.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Judy Sarden admits that until recently, she “never had aspirations about politics.”
A real estate attorney who is a homeschooling advocate, Sarden had been the chief of staff for a county commissioner in Jefferson County, Ala. (Birmingham).
The quest for a more traditional suburban life was behind her family’s move Northeast Cobb from Smyrna several years ago, but she admits now that what’s propelled her to campaign for public office is that she’s “not happy with the direction of the country.”
In qualifying for the May 24 Republican primary for District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, Sarden said she is “modeling the kind of behavior I want to teach my children.”
And running at the local level as a first-time candidate, Sarden said in an interview with East Cobb News, is as important now as ever.
She’s challenging three-term incumbent commissioner JoAnn Birrell in a redrawn district that includes most of East Cobb.
Sarden’s campaign website can be found by clicking here. East Cobb News also has interviewed Birrell and her campaign profile can be found here.
Early voting begins Monday in the primaries.
The winner of the primary will advance to the general election in November against Democrat Christine Triebsch, a former candidate for the Georgia State Senate.
A former representative for development interests whose husband is a commercial architect, Sarden is critical of some of Birrell’s votes on zoning cases.
“I felt like my background is better-suited for dealing with zoning issues,” said Sarden, who lives with her husband and two children in the Sprayberry High School area.
Sarden also pointed to the East Cobb Church rezoning at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection that she said includes housing that’s too dense for the area.
For a larger version of the District 3 map, click here.
While all three of those cases had some community support, there also was vocal opposition.
“A lot of people are not happy here and in the JOSH area,” Sarden said. “I’m not happy with it.”
The Ebenezer Road case, she said, is “completely urban-style, pack ‘em in.” The site plan included mail box banks, she said, because there isn’t room in front of every home. (Pulte Homes, which applied for the rezoning, has since pulled out of the project.)
Sarden said Cobb doesn’t require enough of developers to avoid results like that.
As for the Sprayberry Crossing case, while she said she’s glad general apartments were taken out (Birrell wouldn’t support it), Sarden is skeptical that the senior age-restricted units will stay that way.
She also thinks the rezoning decision, which was delayed for months, still lacks sufficient traffic and parking solutions.
“That eyesore needed to go,” Sarden said of the Sprayberry Crossing retail center, “but they needed to flesh out some more details. There were some more things that could have been done.”
Sarden said that while Birrell has been in office for a while, “there appears to be a decided lack of getting into the weeds.”
The focus on zoning and development in Cobb comes as a Democratic-led commission has been in the spotlight in high-density cases around the county.
Sarden referenced statements by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who “has made no bones about the feeling that she wants to urbanize. Nobody wants East Cobb to urbanize.”
Some of those decisions, she said, have led to cityhood movements, including East Cobb, which will have a referendum also on May 24.
Sarden said she is neutral on the subject of East Cobb Cityhood, but supports the right of voters “to determine their own destiny.”
Should cityhood votes be approved, she said, “there’s definitely going to be an impact to the county.”
But Sarden thinks Cobb is likely to be in good shape because of a growing tax base (projected for an increase of 10 percent this year).
In addition to zoning votes, Sarden also says she doesn’t think Birrell is doing enough to stand up to the Democratic majority on other issues, including affordable housing.
“She’s at all the photo-op events, but I’ve been talking to a lot of people,” Sarden said. “I’m running as a public servant, not as a politician.”
While Birrell raised extensive campaign funds in her 2018 re-election campaign and easily won the GOP primary, she defeated a first-time Democratic candidate with only 51 percent of the vote in the general election.
Sarden is conducting a grassroots campaign while she homeschools her two children and does some business and homeschooling consulting.
She said she’s not against growth and development in Cobb, but insists that it must follow future land-use maps and master plans, such as was done in the JOSH area before the East Cobb Church case.
But a failure to adhere to those blueprints, she says, is a source of continuing concern.
“If you keep doing a bunch of one-offs, then there’s no cohesion to the county,” Sarden said.
She said Cupid talks about affordable housing and workforce housing “interchangeably. I fear she is going to continue to push this agenda.
“I feel like I will be in a better position to counter this,” Sarden said. “That’s why I’m putting my hat in the ring.
“I’m not afraid to stand up and I’m not concerned with all that politically correct stuff.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Early voting takes place this week for a special election runoff to fill a Georgia House seat in East Cobb.
Republican former legislator Mitchell Kaye and Democrat Dustin McCormick are vying to fill the remainder of former State Rep. Matt Dollar’s seat in District 45 through the end of the year.
Kaye got nearly 47 percent of the vote and McCormick had 38 percent.
Eligible voters in District 45 can vote in-person from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road).
The facility also is serving as an absentee ballot dropoff location, also during the hours stated above. The dropbox is located inside the building and will not be available after hours.
Absentee ballots also can be dropped off at the Cobb Elections Office Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 736 Whitlock Ave., Marietta.
There will be no early voting on Saturday; the final day of voting in the special election runoff will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, at regular precincts.
The current District 45 includes some of East Cobb and a portion of North Fulton.
But the lines for the May 24 primary for the new District 45 will be different.
McCormick has qualified as the only Democrat; the Republican primary candidates are current District 43 State Rep. Sharon Cooper and Carminthia Moore.
Early voting for the primaries in all races in Cobb County starts next Monday, May 2.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The May 24 primary has taken on additional significance in East Cobb due to the Cityhood referendum that also will be on that ballot.
There will be Democratic and Republican primaries for county, state and federal offices and non-partisan primaries for county and state judicial seats.
(Here’s our previous post summarizing who’s qualified for which offices. Cobb Elections will be posting a countywide sample ballot soon.)
If you’re not registered to vote, you have until April 25 to do so. You can check your registration status by clicking here. To check your registration status, register, or if you have moved, change your registration here.
If you wish to vote via absentee ballot, you have through May 13 to request one, and you can do that by clicking here.
Advance voting will take place for the primaries and the East Cobb Cityhood referendum (see our Cityhood tab for more) from May 2-20 at designated times and locations (see flyer below).
The Cobb Elections office said it also will be providing wait-time estimates at CobbElections.org during the advance voting period. Voters can vote early at any location in the county.
Voters who will be casting their ballots on the May 24 election day will do so at their assigned precincts.
A photo ID is required to vote in-person and absentee, and you can check which ones are accepted by clicking here.
Voters will choose from among Democratic, Republican or non-partisan ballots. Non-partisan candidates will be listed on the party ballots, but no party-affiliated candidates will appear on the non-partisan ballot.
Before the primary, there will be a special election runoff to fill a legislative seat that includes East Cobb and some of Fulton County.
The May 3 runoff between Democrat Dustin McCormick and Republican Mitchell Kaye will determine the successor to Matt Dollar, a Republican who resigned his seat representing District 45 in February.
There will be absentee and advance voting for the runoff. Advance voting will take place at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) on Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and from April 25-29 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Absentee voters can drop off their ballots there during those times at a drop box inside the building, as well as at the main Cobb Elections office (736 Whitlock Ave., Marietta) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
The winner will hold the seat only through the end of the year, the end of Dollar’s term.
McCormick has qualified for the May 24 primary for the redrawn District 45. The Republican primary candidates are current District 43 State Rep. Sharon Cooper and Carminthia Moore.
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Georgia elections law requires a runoff when the leading candidate does not receive a majority of the votes.
Two other candidates, both Republicans, also were running. Pamela Alayon received 733 votes, or 13.67 percent, and Darryl Wilson got 242 votes, or 4.49 percent.
The results are unofficial, but McCormick and Kaye have been leading all evening.
Both have have both come out publicly against East Cobb Cityhood; Dollar has been the chief sponsor of a Cityhood bill that passed the Georgia legislature calling for a May 24 referendum.
The special election was called by Gov. Brian Kemp to determine a successor to former State Rep. Matt Dollar, who resigned on Feb. 1. The winner will fill out the rest of his term this year.
McCormick is the only candidate in the special election who has qualified for the May 24 primary election in the new District 45.
Current State Rep. Sharon Cooper of District 43 and Carminthia Moore have qualified as Republican candidates.
The winner of the November general election will assume office in January, when a new legislative session begins.
ORIGINAL POST:
The polls have closed in a four-way “jungle” special election in Georgia House District 45 in East Cobb, and East Cobb News will be providing updates as they become available.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office is providing real-time results at this link; as of 7:49 p.m., two candidates appear headed for a May 3 runoff.
Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat, has 1,153 votes, or 46.89 percent, while Mitch Kaye, a Republican former legislator, has 47 votes, or 38.5 percent.
Two other Republicans are in the race: Pamela Alayon, with 268 votes, or 10.9 percent, and Darryl Wilson, who has 91 votes, or 3.7 votes.
Here’s how advance voting went: McCormick 998; Kaye 887; Alayon 233; Wilson 79.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Early voting has ended in a special election for Georgia House District 45, and final balloting will take place Tuesday.
Eligible voters in the current District 45 boundaries—not the new lines that will be in effect for the May 24 primary—will be able to vote at their normal precincts on Tuesday.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots also must be returned by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, what the current District 45 boundaries look like, and how you can check your registration status.
The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:
As of Thursday, Cobb Elections said 1,861 people have voted in the special election in person. A total of 204 absentee ballots have been accepted.
The “jungle” special election includes three Republican candidates and one Democratic candidate who are vying to fill the remainder of the term of former State Rep. Matt Dollar.
If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there will be a May 3 runoff.
Dollar, a Republican who had been in office since 2003, resigned Feb. 1, and his successor will serve only through the end of 2022.
The Republican candidates are former State Rep. Mitchell Kaye and Darryl Wilson and Pamela Alayon, both of whom have been involved in Cobb GOP activities.
The Democratic candidate is Dustin McCormick, a project manager at McKesson.
Kaye and McCormick have both come out publicly against East Cobb Cityhood; Dollar has been the chief sponsor of a Cityhood bill that passed the Georgia legislature calling for a May 24 referendum.
McCormick is the only candidate in the special election who has qualified for the primary election in the new District 45. Current State Rep. Sharon Cooper of District 43 and Carminthia Moore have qualified as Republican candidates.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A second candidate in an April 5 special election for a legislative seat in East Cobb said this week he’s opposed to East Cobb Cityhood.
Mitchell Kaye, a former legislator and one of three Republicans in the four-candidate field for Georgia House District 45, issued a statement Wednesday saying that public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb “continue to bother me.”
Voters in the proposed city will be deciding in a May 24 referendum on whether to create a city, and to approve a charter on how the city would be governed.
When cityhood legislation was filed in March 2021, it proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.
But when a financial feasibility study was released in November, it included police and fire services. Cityhood leaders said public safety was an issue that kept coming up when they met with citizens and community groups over the last year.
Kaye said the initial services “offer a real benefit to local residents, but unfortunately the original legislation was hijacked to include an unnecessary public safety component.
“The more I looked into the public safety component, the worse it looked. In my 33 years in East Cobb, I have heard no complaints regarding our excellent police and fire protection,” Kaye said in his statement.
“Regarding our own police force, there will be no benefit, but costs will rise with the duplicative requirement for our own municipal court, municipal judge(s) and a jail.”
East Cobb is the only of four cityhood campaigns in Cobb proposing public safety. Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums also will be on May 24, and a Mableton cityhood bill is still pending in the Georgia legislature.
Early voting is underway for the District 45 special election, which was called in February when former State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor, resigned his seat.
Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat in the special election, has said he is adamantly opposed to cityhood.
The other two Republican candidates, Darryl Wilson and Pamela Ayalon, previously told the MDJ they encourage voters to inform themselves about cityhood issues but didn’t state a personal position. East Cobb News has contacted both seeking further comment.
Wilson replied by saying he doesn’t have a vote on cityhood since he lives outside the proposed boundaries. He also told us this:
“Ultimately, all voices have to be heard and vote on the best way to control the character of your community.
“I believe that is what is about to happen in East Cobb with the referendum.
“The people will decide and I will represent the people.
“If you agree, I really need your vote and all of your neighbors friends in our district with the widest distribution possible.”
Kaye said he supports citizens having the right to vote on a referendum.
But in his statement he said that a friend’s home was destroyed last week by fire (and the man suffered extensive burns), and he noted the extensive response from Cobb Fire.
“They were able to use county-wide departmental resources, resources that a city the size of East Cobb could not,” Kaye said.
“This incident only reinforces my NO position on cityhood. The safety and well being of our community cannot be jeopardized.”
Early voting continues through April 1 for the special election in the current boundaries of District 45. The winner will fill the remainder of Dollar’s term, through the end of this year.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, which is different from those who may be voting in the primaries.
McCormick also has qualified for primary in the new District 45. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, has qualified after serving in District 43 since 1997.
Cooper is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill has a primary candidate in Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.
None of the special election GOP candidates qualified to run in the new District 45.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Republicans on the ballot include former State Rep. Mitch Kaye and Cobb GOP activists Pamela Alayon and Darryl Willson.
The Democratic candidate is Dustin McCormick, a project management official at McKesson.
Early voting began this week and according to Cobb Elections, 353 people have cast ballots.
Of those, 342 have voted at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and 11 at the Cobb Elections office (746 Whitlock Ave., Marietta). Another 40 ballots have been accepted in absentee voting, out of 194 ballots issued.
Early voting continues at both locations March 21-25 and March 28-April 1 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There also will be early voting next Saturday, March 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the same venues.
The deadline to submit an absentee mail application is March 25, and absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on April 5, which is the special election day for in-person voting.
Dollar resigned on Feb. 1 after nearly 20 years in office to take an economic development job with the Georgia technical college system.
Gov. Brian Kemp called for an April 5 special election to be decided by a “jungle” format, meaning candidates from all parties are running against one another.
If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there will be a May 3 runoff.
The winner will fill out the rest of Dollar’s term, which expires at the end of the year.
Due to redistricting, District 45 will have new boundaries for the May 24 primaries and the November general election.
None of the Republican candidates in the special election qualified for that race, but McCormick has qualified.
His name will be on the May 24 primary ballot, along with State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, who currently represents District 43, as has Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, what the current District 45 boundaries look like, and how you can check your registration status.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education member who has represented the Walton and Wheeler high school clusters since 2019 is not seeking re-election this year.
Charisse Davis
Democrat Charisse Davis, who ousted then-incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney in 2018 in Post 6, did not qualify last week for the newly redrawn seat that takes out East Cobb.
The Georgia legislature approved maps submitted by Cobb Republicans over the objections of their county Democratic colleagues.
In a message she posted Tuesday on her Facebook page, Davis explained that redistricting has moved the Walton and Wheeler areas to Post 5, represented by Republican vice chairman David Banks.
Davis, a former elementary school teacher and currently a youth services librarian in Fulton County, still lives in the new Post 6.
Davis didn’t indicate in her message why she decided not to run again. East Cobb News has left a message seeking comment, but she encouraged voters to support three candidates in particular, all Democrats.
“It has been an honor serving the students of this district, and I look forward to continuing my career in education and supporting other educators who have answered the call to run for school board: Becky Sayler, Post 2; Dr. Catherine Pozniak, Post 4; and Nichelle Davis, Post 6.
“Continue to support our CCSD schools, hold the board accountable, and vote!”
Nichelle Davis is the only candidate who qualified in Post 6, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Sayler is one of two Democrats vying in the May 24 primary in Post 2, which includes Smyrna and some of South Cobb. Post 2 first-term Democratic incumbent Jaha Howard, who also was drawn into Post 6, is running for Georgia school superintendent.
Post 4 includes the Kell and Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters. Pozniak, also a Democrat, is a Sprayberry graduate who will be challenging three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain in November.
The current Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority, and for the last three years has wrangled along partisan lines on a number of contentious issues.
Howard and Davis have been at the center of those arguments, particularly over the Cobb school district’s senior tax exemption, equity and racial issues and the district’s response to COVID-19.
Davis also signed a petition started in 2020 to advocate changing the name of Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general and which opened in 1965, as Cobb schools were preparing to integrate.
Davis and Howard also sparked a special review by the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency last year after complaining that the GOP majority was silencing them.
Before the current school board maps were redrawn, Republican Amy Henry, a parent of four students in the Walton cluster, announced her intent to run for Post 6.
Voters in the East Cobb area of what has been Post 6 will next get to vote for Cobb school board representation in 2024, when Banks’ term expires.
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Hours after qualifying ended for the May 24 primary elections, Cobb District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson said Friday that she will be “forced” to vacate her office in January.
But in a video message on her Facebook page, the first-term Democrat vowed to fight a reapportionment map that drew her out of her East Cobb residence.
As of Jan. 1, 2023, when the new map takes effect, “I will not live in the qualifying district,” she said, referring to District 2. “I will not be permitted to vote on important county matters starting on that date.”
She said the “bigger issue” is how the new map “invalidates the will of the people and has created a conundrum on the county commission.”
Nearly 100,000 Cobb citizens, Richardson said, will not have a representative for several months” until a special election would be called.
“That is why I have made the decision to not step down as commissioner for District 2,” she said, reading from prepared remarks (you can watch the video here).
Richardson moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road last summer, but in February the Republican-dominated Georgia legislature redrew Cobb commission district lines to place most of East Cobb in District 3.
Richardson did not qualify for that race, and has until the end of the year to move into the new District 2, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings and Marietta areas and some of the I-75 corridor in North Cobb.
The new Cobb commission map includes most of East Cobb in District 3 (in yellow), with District 2 in pink.
Richardson didn’t explain why she didn’t qualify in District 3 or say why she isn’t moving to District 2.
“I will not abdicate my position just to seek a future win for my own personal gain. . . . The real problem is the injustice and disservice this map has created for the people,” Richardson said in the video.
“I will not sit back, I will not step down and I will not just say nothing,” she said in a statement that could set off a political and possibly a legal challenge.
She didn’t mention any possible legal action, although she said she’s received legal advice while contemplating her situation.
Richardson, 32, is an enterprise transformation specialist at Equifax whose family moved to the Atlanta area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
She succeeded three-term Republican commissioner Bob Ott in 2020, edging GOP candidate Fitz Johnson to cement the first all-female county commission in Cobb history.
Her term expires in 2024, and she’s part of a 3-2 Democratic majority on the commission, which had been controlled by Republicans since the 1980s.
“The new mapping lines fundamentally shift our county, both economically and historically,” Richardson said in the video, “and not for the better.”
She said this redistricting process has “ignored the will of the people.”
Richardson said her office has received a “flood” of messages from citizens upset with the maps, which she said were drawn without much community consultation, and that sidestepped normal courtesies to the local delegations.
Cobb Republican lawmakers submitted redistricting maps for the commission and the Cobb Board of Education over the objections of the county delegation’s Democratic leadership.
State Rep. John Carson, a Northeast Cobb Republican who sponsored the commission redistricting bill, countered that his lines would likely maintain a Democratic majority.
In January, Cobb commissioners voted along party lines to recommend a map drawn by State Rep. Erick Allen, a Smyrna Democrat and the Cobb delegation chairman, that would largely maintain the current lines.
Birrell voted against Allen’s map, saying it removed some of her East Cobb precincts. Now she’ll have most of them, running to the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
The other GOP member of the commission, Keli Gambrill of District 1 in North Cobb, was the only candidate to qualify for that office.
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Qualifying for the May 24 primary elections ended at noon Friday, and several races in the East Cobb area will have contested primaries on the ballot.
(You can search through all candidates and all offices statewide by clicking here).
That local ballot will include the East Cobb Cityhood referendum, which will be decided by voters in the proposed city limits (visit our Cityhood page for more).
Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, will have one opponent in the newly redrawn District 3 she has represented for three terms.
Also qualifying in the GOP primary for that seat is Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling consultant (previous post here).
Birrell’s new seat will include most of East Cobb, including what had been in District 2. (That post is held by first-term Democrat Jerica Richardson, who now lives inside District 3. She would have to move into District 2 by the end of the year if she seeks re-election in 2024.)
Christine Triebsch is the sole Democratic candidate to qualify for District 3. She’s an attorney and a former State Senate candidate.
Reapportionment also reduced East Cobb representation on the Cobb Board of Education to two members.
One of them, current chairman David Chastain, has qualified as a Republican in his bid for a fourth term from Post 4, which includes the Kell, Sprayberry and Lassiter high school clusters.
A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain is a proposal analyst for Lockheed Martin.
The only other candidate to qualify for Post 4 is Democrat Catherine Pozniak, an educational consultant and Sprayberry High School graduate (previous story here).
Post 6 has included the Walton and Wheeler clusters and since 2019 has been represented by Democrat Charisse Davis.
But the East Cobb portion of that seat was redrawn and includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area. Davis did not qualify; the only candidate filing for Post 6 is Nichelle Davis, an educational equity advocate and a former Teach for America teacher.
Legislative incumbents opposed
There will be contested primaries in two State Senate seats that include East Cobb.
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick
Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick has qualified in District 32, which includes some of East Cobb and parts of Cherokee County. A Woodstock State House member, Republican Charlise Byrd, had announced for the seat, but qualified instead to retain her District 20 seat.
The other GOP candidate is Andy Soha, who lists himself as self-employed. The only Democrat seeking that seat is Sylvia Bennett, a social worker.
In State Senate 6, the GOP primary field includes financial advisor Fred Glass and Angelic Moore of Atlanta, who owns a business and political consulting company.
The Democratic primary includes Luisa Wakeman, who twice ran for a State House seat in East Cobb, and former Atlanta school board chairman Jason Esteves.
State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a 25-year legislative veteran and the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, has qualified in State House District 45. Her GOP primary opponent will be Carminthia Moore, a program manager who’s active with the Cobb Republican Party.
The only Democrat to qualify is Dustin McCormick, who’s also running in an April 5 special election to fill the unexpired term of former State Rep. Matt Dollar (previous story here).
In District 43, a Democratic primary will have restaurant owner Solomon Adesonya and attorney Benjamin Stahl. The winner will face geologist Anna Tillman, a Republican, in November.
East Cobb Republican incumbent House members Don Parsons (District 44) and John Carson (District 46) also qualified, and will have Democratic opposition in the general election.
Redrawn State House seats in East Cobb include District 44 (in orange), which stretches into Cherokee County.
Democratic incumbent Mary Frances Williams of Distict 37 will have a Republican opponent in Tess Redding.
Crowded federal, state races
The East Cobb area will be represented in the U.S. House in two seats following reapportionment.
In District 11, GOP incumbent Barry Loudermilk has qualified, and he will have a Democratic foe in the fall.
The redrawn District 6 includes much of East Cobb and stretches into North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson counties.
The Republican field has nine candidates who have qualified:
Jake Evans, attorney
Byron Gatewood, self-employed
Megan Hanson, attorney
Blake Harbin, business owner
Rich McCormick, emergency room physician
Paulette Smith, retired business executive
Mallory Staples, former teacher, homeschooler and small business owner
Suzi Voyles, consultant
Eugene Yu, retired
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock
The two Democrats running in the 6th District are business owner Bob Christian and international development consultant Wayne White.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was elected in 2020 to fill the remaining two years of the late Johnny Isakson’s term, will be seeking a six-year term. He has an opponent in the Democratic primary, and five Republicans also are running.
They include current Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and former UGA football great Herschel Walker.
Gov. Brian Kemp qualified for re-election Thursday in the Republican primary, which includes former U.S. Sen David Perdue and two others.
One of them is Kandiss Taylor of Baxley, Ga., an educator who has been campaigning with a slogan of “Help Me Save Georgia! Jesus, Guns and Babies.”
Former legislator Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp in 2018, is running for governor again and also has a Democratic primary opponent.
Four Republicans and 10 Democrats are vying for lieutenant governor after incumbent Republican Geoff Duncan decided not to run again.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is being opposed in the primary by David Belle Isle, whom he defeated in 2018, and Congressman Jodi Hice.
Incumbent Republican Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods is getting a primary challenge from John Barge, his predecessor.
On the Democratic side, current Cobb school board member Jaha Howard is one of four candidates in the field.
Cobb Chief Judge challenged
Those running for judgeships in Cobb County are in non-partisan elections.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris qualified without opposition. Current Chief Judge Robert Leonard, who has been on the bench since 2010, has two primary opponents in Charles Ford, a public defender in Fulton County, and private attorney Matt McMaster.
Judge Robert Flournoy is retiring from Superior Court and five candidates have qualified:
Sonja Brown, Cobb Magistrate judge
Daniele Johnson, private attorney
James Luttrell, private attorney
Taneesha Marshall, regional counsel, Federal Aviation Administration
Gerald Moore, private attorney
Cobb State Court incumbent judges Ashley Palmer, Bridgette Campbell Glenn, Jason Fincher and Eric Brewton have qualified without opposition.
Cobb Solicitor Barry Morgan is retiring, with two Democrats and one Republican qualifying in the race to succeed him.
Primary runoffs are scheduled for June 21.
For more local information, including absentee voting, voter registration, maps and an elections calendar, visit the Cobb Elections website.
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Catherine Pozniak, a Sprayberry High School graduate who’s been a teacher and state education administrator, has announced her campaign for Post 4 on the Cobb Board of Education.
Post 4 includes the Sprayberry and Kell and part of the Lassiter High School clusters in a seat that’s been redrawn for the 2022 elections.
The seat is held by third-term Republican David Chastain, currently the Cobb school board chairman.
Earlier this week Pozniak declared her intent to run in the May 24 primary as a Democrat.
Pozniak, who graduated from Sprayberry in 1997, also attended Kincaid Elementary School and Daniell Middle School.
She said she’s running because the current Cobb school board hasn’t done much planning to help students recover from disruptions caused by COVID-19 closures, including use of more than $250 million in federal relief aid to help students.
She said “it’s been disappointing to see partisanship from our Board’s leaders when our schools need their support the most.
“The Board hasn’t even laid out goals since 2018, before the pandemic,” Pozniak said. “So of course there isn’t a plan for any of this.”
Republicans currently hold a 4-3 edge on the Cobb school board. Chastain, who has indicated he will be seeking a fourth term, is the only GOP member up for re-election this year.
Pozniak earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard University.
She taught in a school on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota and was an assistant state superintendent of education for fiscal operations in Louisiana and the head of an educational non-profit in Baton Rouge, La.
Pozniak currently is principal at Watershed Advisors, an educational and workforce consultancy started by the former Louisiana school superintendent.
Tammy Andress, a former Lassiter PTSA co-president who ran for Post 5 on the Cobb school board in 2020, said Thursday on her former campaign page that she was considering a run for Post 4 this year following redistricting.
But Andress, a Democrat, said she’s supporting Pozniak, whom she said has a “wealth of experience, knowledge, passion, empathy and determination she would bring to our School Board. She’s the real deal!!!”
Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student, previously announced his campaign as a Democrat for Post 4, but was drawn out in reapportionment.
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Redrawn lines for the Cobb Board of Education, at left, and the Cobb Board of Commissioners. For larger views, click here.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed bills redrawing the district lines for elected members of Cobb Board of Commissioners and Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Those maps have drawn Cobb school board Post 6 member Charisse Davis and District 2 Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson out of areas in East Cobb that they represent now.
Candidates who intend to run in Cobb County and and across Georgia in the May 24 primary will be qualifying all of next week, from 9 a.m. March 7 to 12 p.m. on March 11 (more details here).
The Cobb Elections office has posted general information about qualifying here; the deadline to register to vote in the primaries, if you’re not already registered or if you have moved, is April 25. More details can be found by clicking here.
Davis, a Democrat, is one of three Cobb school board members up for re-election in 2022, and has not indicated whether she’ll be seeking re-election.
Post 6 currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters but will be confined to the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area where she lives.
The Post 4 seat currently held by Republican chairman David Chastain also is up, and he has said he will be seeking a fourth term representing the Kell, Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters.
A Democrat, Catherine Pozniak, has declared her intent to run for Post 4, as has Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student.
The rest of East Cobb will be included in Post 5, currently held by Republican David Banks, whose term expires in 2024. That post will include the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope and Lassiter clusters.
The East Cobb area also has been reduced to one county commissioner in the new maps. Current District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third full term and has said she will be seeking re-election.
Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling advocate in Northeast Cobb, has announced plans to run in the GOP primary in District 3.
Richardson, a Democrat who is in her first term, is up for re-election in 2024, but she would have to move to the new District 2 by the end of this year.
All legislative seats in Georgia are up for re-election, including four state Senate seats (Districts 6, 32, 33, 56) and five in the state House (Districts 37, 43, 44, 45, 46) that include East Cobb.
All members of Congress will be up for re-election, including the newly drawn 6th District and 11th District that include East Cobb.
Statewide offices include the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Raphael Warnock; governor; lieutenant; governor; attorney general; secretary of state; state school superintendent; and commissioners of public service, agriculture, labor and insurance.
Cobb voters also will be deciding several non-partisan judicial races, as four State Court judge posts and three seats on the Cobb Superior Court will be on the ballot.
Non-partisan judicial races across Georgia include three seats on the Georgia Supreme Court and two seats on the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Also on the May 24 primary day, voters in the proposed city of East Cobb will be voting on a referendum on whether to create a new city (visit our resource page here).
Voters within the current Georgia House District 45 boundaries will be casting ballots next month in a special election to succeed former State Rep. Matt Dollar for the rest of 2022.
That special election is April 5, and the voter registration deadline is Monday.
Four candidates have qualified in a jungle election; and a May 5 runoff would take place if the top vote-getter does not get a majority.
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Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.
Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.
The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.
The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.
Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).
District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.
The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.
The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.
But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.
“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.
“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year.
Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.
She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.
East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.
She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”
While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.
Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.
For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.
The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.
Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.
The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.
(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)
McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.
Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.
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Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling advocate who lives in Northeast Cobb, has announced her campaign for District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
She is running in the May 24 Republican primary, and has lived in Cobb County for 15 years, initially residing in South Cobb.
District 3 is currently held by Republican JoAnn Birrell, whose third term expires at the end of 2022.
Sarden announced her campaign on Friday, and in a release said that she “understands first-hand why people move to and stay in Cobb County as well as the challenges that Cobb families face—specifically, zoning issues, county finance accountability, keeping taxes low, providing the best education for our children and maintaining an active and vibrant community.”
She said that her objective “is to serve the people of District 3 as a Commissioner who listens to her constituents and who ensures that their voices are heard at the county level. She understands that regardless of who a constituent voted for, our County commissioner represents all residents of her district and she hopes to help our community begin to healafter the divisiveness of the recent past.”
Sarden’s campaign website can be found here. She filed her declaration of intent to run on Feb. 11. Qualifying for the primaries is March 7-11.
On her campaign site, Sarden also mentioned East Cobb Cityhood, which is also on the primary ballot for eligible voters in the proposed city.
Sarden said while she supports voters having the right to decide on whether to become a city, “there appear to be many unanswered questions that the original feasibility study did not answer and that need to be addressed and debated before a vote should occur.”
She said the referendum is taking place along a “rushed timeline” and linked to a special work session held by commissioners last week (previous ECN story here).
While the current District 3 boundaries do not include the proposed city of East Cobb, a bill moving through the Georgia legislature would redraw the seat to cover the proposed city, and most of the East Cobb area in general.
Sarden and her husband homeschool two children and she also has an adult son and two grandchildren. The family attends First Baptist Church in Woodstock.
She earned a business degree from Auburn University and law degree from Samford University, and has been a corporate attorney for more than 20 years.
Sarden also has written a book about homeschooling and has spoken around the country on that topic.
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For a larger view of the current District 45 map, click here.
Three Republicans and one Democrat have qualified for a special election in April for a Georgia House seat in East Cobb.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the candidates competing in a “jungle” election in District 45 are the following:
Mitchell Kaye, a Republican;
Pamela Alayon, a Republican;
Dustin McCormick, a Democrat;
Darryl Wilson, a Republican.
Qualifying ended Friday afternoon. The special election was called for April 5 by Gov. Brian Kemp after former State Rep. Matt Dollar resigned on Feb. 1.
His successor will serve through the end of the year, when Dollar’s term expires.
In the May 24 primary, candidates for the newly drawn District 45 will be running in a separate election. Qualifying for primaries in all races takes place from March 7-11.
McCormick, a project management official at McKesson, had previously announced plans to run in the May primary in the new District 45.
Kaye is a former state representative who served District 45 for a decade, from 1993-2003, before Dollar began his tenure in the legislature.
Alayon is a hospitality recruiting franchisee who ran for chair of the Cobb Republican Party in 2021.
Wilson is a commercial airline pilot who was the chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party and also ran for Cobb GOP chair.
In the special election, the four candidates will be competing together. If the top vote-getter does not receive a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers would take place on May 3
Dollar, who took a job with the state’s technical college system, said last fall he was not running for re-election after 20 years in office.
He and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who represents District 43, were drawn together during reapportionment.
Dollar was the main sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill that was passed into law this week.
Voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will decide on whether to create a new city on May 24.
McCormick has stated his opposition to the proposed city of East Cobb.
The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts in the county with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:
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Gov. Brian Kemp signs the East Cobb cityhood bill with sponsor former Rep. Matt Dollar to his left and Committee for East Cobb Cityhood members (L-R) Scott Sweeney, Cindy Cooperman, Sarah Haas and Craig Chapin.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed legislation calling for a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood.
Final passage of HB 841 took place on Tuesday in the Georgia House, and the bill was sent to the governor’s office to be signed into law.
Eligible voters inside the proposed East Cobb city limits will decide on incorporation on the same day as the Georgia general primary.
The ballot language included in the bill will ask voters the following question:
“Shall the Act incorporating the City of East Cobb in Cobb County according to the charter contained in the Act be approved?”
If the referendum is approved by a majority of the voters, elections for a mayor and six city council members will take place on the Nov. 8 general election, with the beginning of city operations and a two-year transition to start in January 2023.
The East Cobb legislation is the first of four cityhood bills in Cobb County to be considered in the current legislative session.
The proposed City of East Cobb would have roughly 60,000 people in a 25-square-mile area centered along Johnson Ferry Road, from Shallowford Road south to the Chattahoochee River and from the Fulton County line west to a line roughly along Murdock Road and Old Canton Road. Click here for a larger version of the map.
On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed similar legislation for Lost Mountain in west Cobb, and is set to vote on a bill for a referendum for Vinings.
A Mableton cityhood bill is still in the House.
All four Cobb cityhood bills call for May referendums, instead of November.
That sparked protests by Cobb government officials, who said they haven’t had time to assess the financial and service impacts.
On Tuesday, they addressed Cobb commissioners as part of a county “cityhood awareness campaign.” The major claim is that more than $45 million would be lost in county revenues if all four cities are created.
More than 200,000 people—nearly a quarter of Cobb’s population—live inside the proposed new cities.
Cobb has had its current existing cities—Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, Austell and Powder Springs—for more than a century, after Mableton briefly became a city and then went unincorporated.
Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings are proposing “city light” services that are focused on planning and zoning.
East Cobb is proposing planning and zoning, code enforcement and public safety services, and possibly parks and recreation.
At Tuesday’s commission work session, the heads of Cobb’s public safety agencies questioned the East Cobb financial feasibility study conclusions and expressed concerns about staffing, equipment, response time and training for the proposed East Cobb police, fire and 911 services.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it is planning an in-person town hall meeting for the general public soon, but has not set a date.
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Mitchell Kaye, who held a Georgia House seat in East Cobb for a decade, announced Wednesday he is running in the special election for District 45.
Kaye served from 1993-2003, and was the first Jewish Republican elected to the Georgia legislature.
In a press release announcing his campaign, Kaye said he’s running because “it is important that this seat remain Republican.”
The special election was called for April 5 after longtime GOP Rep. Matt Dollar resigned to take a job with the state technical college system.
His successor will serve the rest of Dollar’s term, through the end of the year.
A primary for the new District 45 will be held in May. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who has held the nearby District 43 since 1997, has been drawn into the new 45.
Qualifying began Wednesday and continues until 1 p.m. Friday for the special election, which will be held in a “jungle” format, meaning candidates of all parties will be running together.
If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the vote, a runoff will take place on May 3.
Kaye has lived in East Cobb for more than 30 years and is a financial and valuation analyst. He and his wife Amy have three children and two grandchildren and are members of the Chabad at Cobb synagogue.
During his time in the legislature, Kaye was a deputy minority whip when Republicans were in the minority.
He received a legislator of the year award from the Eagle Forum for supporting parental rights in education. Kaye also worked to repeal a state tax on used cars.
The Republican-dominated Georgia General Assembly reapportioned Congressional and legislative seats in November in an attempt to solidify their majorities.
Democrats have filed lawsuits claiming the redrawn lines are diminishing black voting power, especially in former conservative areas like Cobb that are electing more Democrats.
In his campaign release, Kaye said that “unless a judge throws out the reapportionment maps, the winner of this election will not serve a single day when the legislature is in session, and it is critically important that constituent services go uninterrupted.”
If the lines must be redrawn in a special session, Kaye said, “I have been through these reapportionment battles before. Now is not the time for on the job training as experience is more important than ever.”
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