East Cobb Politics & Elections

Georgia State Senate special election runoff features two Democrats

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A Georgia State Senate seat that includes a small part of East Cobb is heading for a runoff, and two Democrats remain.

Jen Jordan, an Atlanta attorney, got 5,860 votes, or 24 percent, in the special election “jungle” primary in District 6. In the Dec. 5 runoff, she will face Jaha Howard, a Vinings dentist, who got 5,398 votes, or 22 percent.vote logo

Their all-Democratic runoff means the Republicans will lose a seat in the Senate. Incumbent Hunter Hill resigned from the long-held GOP seat, which covers some of Cobb, Buckhead and Sandy Springs, to run for governor.

The East Cobb portion of the district includes an area along Powers Ferry Road. In voting in that precinct, Terrell Mill 1 (Eastvalley Elementary School), Howard got 55 votes (52 percent) to 36 for Jordan (34 percent).

There were municipal elections Tuesday in Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna, and a few of those races will have runoffs.

Those Dec. 5 runoffs will wind down a busy and dramatic election year that featured the nationally-watched 6th Congressional District special election won by Republican Karen Handel over Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Handel strongly carried Republican-heavy East Cobb, getting 58 percent of the vote.

East Cobb voters also elected a new state senator in Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican and retired orthopedic surgeon, who succeeds Judson Hill. He ran for Congress and is contemplating a bid for Georgia Insurance Commissioner in 2018.

That will be one of many elections on the ballot next year, as statewide and legislative offices will be decided, in addition to Congressional seats and some state and local judgeships.

There will be a contested election for the District 3 Cobb Board of Commissioners seat in Northeast Cobb held by JoAnn Birrell. Tom Cheek, a civic activist who filed a lawsuit last year against Cobb County and filed an ethics complaint against former Chairman Tim Lee over the Atlanta Braves stadium vote, has announced his intention to run in the Republican primary.

Cheek, who resided in West Cobb, recently moved into the District and has set up a campaign website. Birrell, who is in her second term, has had a fundraising event this fall.

Two East Cobb posts on the Cobb Board of Education will also be on the ballot. They are currently held by Republicans Scott Sweeney of Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler high school districts) and David Chastain of Post 4, which includes the Kell and Sprayberry districts.

 

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Cobb schools closed Tuesday for local elections, special State Senate race

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Because of Tuesday’s elections, Cobb schools will be closed for classroom and other extracurricular events.

The Cobb County School District calls this a “student holiday,” and it will also be a professional learning day for teachers and staff. Cobb schools closed

Municipal elections are taking place across Georgia, including Marietta (whose schools will be open) and other Cobb cities.

There also is a special election being decided on Tuesday to fill a Georgia State Senate seat that includes a small portion of East Cobb. Here is a sample ballot for that race, which includes five Republicans and three Democrats.

A portion of the Powers Ferry Road corridor, below Terrell Mill Road, is located in the State Senate 6 district. That seat has been vacated by Hunter Hill, who is running for Georgia governor.

The candidates are Republicans Leah Aldridge, Matt Bentley, Kathy Eichenblatt, Charlie Fiveash and Leo Smith and Democrats Jaha Howard, Jen Jordan and Taos Wynn.

The district (map) includes most of Smyrna and the Cumberland area of Cobb and portions of Buckhead and Sandy Springs.

East Cobb’s Eastvalley Elementary School (2570 Lower Roswell Road), will serve as a polling station in the Terrell Mill 1 precinct for the state senate race. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Turnout is expected to be light.

 

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Voter registration deadline approaching for Cobb 2017 elections

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Several municipalities and a special election to fill a vacant Georgia State Senate seat are on the Cobb 2017 elections ballot. The deadline to register is next Tuesday, Oct. 10 for the Nov. 7 elections.Cobb County logo, Cobb 2017 elections

The elections include the Ward 7 race in the City of Marietta, which contains a sliver of East Cobb. A portion of the Powers Ferry Road corridor, below Terrell Mill Road, is located in the State Senate 6 district. That seat has been vacated by Hunter Hill, who is running for Georgia governor.

East Cobb also contains some of Marietta’s Ward 6, but that election was cancelled because only one candidate, current council member Michelle Cooper Kelly, qualified to run. Here’s the full notice of cancellation, including East Cobb-area precincts that will not be open on Nov. 7.

Here’s a list of qualified candidates in running in Marietta municipal elections.

Voters already registered and who live in those areas don’t have to do anything. Those wishing to sign up who haven’t done so can complete the process by clicking the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.

Other Cobb cities with elections include Austell, Kennesaw, Powder Springs and Smyrna.

There are no Cobb, state or federal elections this year for East Cobb voters, aside from the special state senate election.

For more information visit the Cobb Elections website.

Former Ga. Congressman Tom Price resigns as HHS Secretary

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Tom Price
Official U.S. Health and Human Services Department portrait of Tom Price.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned on Friday afternoon following reports that he spent several hundred thousand dollars at taxpayers’ expense flying charter planes, sometimes for personal as well as government business.

Price is a Roswell Republican who represented East Cobb in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2006 until his appointment in February by President Donald Trump.

He is the first Trump cabinet member to step down from his position, although the administration has been unsettled by several firings and resignations within high levels of the White House staff.

Price served less than eight months in that role. He was succeeded in Congress by Karen Handel, who won a June special election against Democrat Jon Ossoff in what’s been regarded the most expensive U.S. House race in history.

Last week Politico first reported about Price’s plane travel, leading off with a government-funded trip to St. Simons Island, on the Georgia coast, for a medical conference. In all, Politico reported, Price took at least 26 trips on charter aircraft, which are far more expensive than commercial planes.

On Thursday Price said he would partially reimburse the federal government for his plane usage, which included military aircraft, reportedly after Trump expressed displeasure with the news.

Price, who also served in the Georgia State Senate, was an orthopedic physician before his political career in Washington.

A former House Budget Committee chairman, Price was the lead administration official in charge of White House efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and which has run into Republican opposition in the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Karen Handel holding town hall teleconference tonight

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Newly elected Congresswoman Karen Handel (R-Roswell) is holding her first town hall meeting tonight, but it’s in teleconference format and is restricted only to 6th Congressional District constituents. U.S. Rep. Karen Handel

The teleconference, which lasts an hour, starts at 7 p.m. and there’s an online sign-up form that’s required to be filled out to participate.

Earlier this month, Handel spoke on federal and Congressional issues at Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting at the East Cobb Library (East Cobb News coverage here).

Handel talks Charlottesville, health care and more at East Cobb town hall

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U.S. Rep. Karen Handel
U.S. Rep. Karen Handel called the Charlottesville violence an “evil, evil attack” but didn’t mention President Trump at an East Cobb town hall meeting last week. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

Newly elected Georgia Congresswoman Karen Handel got the biggest applause—a standing ovation from some in the audience—at Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting last Thursday at the East Cobb Library.

Handel, a Roswell Republican who defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in a June 20 runoff, said she’s made several trips to East Cobb, which gave her strong margins in the most expensive House race in history.

Before Ott spoke to a couple hundred constituents on the county budget and other local items, including the proposed closing of the East Cobb Library (East Cobb News coverage here), he turned the microphone over to Handel, whom he campaigned for extensively.

She immediately condemned the racially-inspired violence in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month that left one person dead and injured dozens of others, calling it an “evil, evil attack.” Of racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry, Handel said, “It is wrong. It is evil. It has no place in society and this country.”

The few hundred whites who showed up to protest the proposed removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville “are not representative of this country,” she added.

Without mentioning President Donald Trump—who came under fire for his post-Charlottesville remarks—Handel issued a call for fairness, respect and civility, “some basic kindness,” as Americans confront racial and other cultural issues that have flared up in recent weeks and months.

Less than two months since taking office, Handel also defended Congress—or at least her chamber, the House—against criticisms that it’s not getting much done.

She said more than 250 pieces of legislation have been passed in the House, including a repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed in the wake of the recession. Some in the audience voiced displeasure, but Handel said the rollback was necessary.

She also said she was bewildered that the Republican-led U.S. Senate failed to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, after it passed the House.

“I would have supported it,” Handel said of the ACA repeal, which was approved in the House before her election. Of the continuation of Obamacare, she said that “the status quo is unsustainable,” a reference to the rising costs of premiums on the ACA exchanges.

Many insurers are seeking significant hikes or withdrawing altogether (here’s a projected 2018 summary from the Kaiser Family Foundation which includes an anticipated seven-percent increase in Georgia for one of the lowest-cost plans, and a 34-percent boost in subsidies).

“The rubber will hit the road when the open enrollment period begins in fall,” Handel said.

Handel has been assigned to the House committees on Judiciary and Education and the Workforce.

Her district office is in the same location at her predecessor, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price: 85-C Mill Street, Suite 300, Roswell.

The district phone number is 770-998-0049.