Cobb Elections and Registration workers are notifying 73 absentee-by-mail (ABM) voters they received the wrong ballot in a batch mailed out on Friday. The problem came to light when a couple came to vote during advance voting on Monday and told poll workers they had received the wrong ballot in the mail.
Election workers immediately investigated and found that a processing error resulted in only republican ballots being sent out Friday, February 23. Of the 194 ballots issued that day, 75 of them should have been democratic ballots.
The 75 ABM ballots incorrectly sent out have been canceled, and elections workers will notify the remaining 73 voters of the issue and mail them the correct ballots on Tuesday.
“We are happy this situation was found quickly,” said Elections Director Tate Fall. “Our staff was able to pinpoint the issue, identify those who received the wrong ballot, and determine how to correct it. We believe this processing error only impacted ballots issued on Friday, February 23rd.”
Anyone with questions concerning this or any other issue should contact the Cobb County Elections and Registration office at 770-528-2581 or ElectionsInfo@cobbcounty.org.
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Kay Morgan, a Republican who has announced her candidacy for Cobb Commission Chair, will be speaking in East Cobb next week.
She’s the featured guest at a Feb. 20 meeting of the Association of Mature American Citizens at the East Cobb Library (4880 Lower Roswell Road) starting at 6:45 p.m.
Morgan, a realtor from West Cobb, is the only Republican thus far to announce her campaign, with qualifying taking place the first week in March (her campaign website).
She is vying for the seat held by Democrat Lisa Cupid, who last year announced she would be seeking a second term.
Morgan is a first-time candidate who has the backing of influential figures in Cobb business and Republican political circles. They include former Cobb Chamber of Commerce president John Loud, who’s also taking a major role in the Cobb Board of Education campaign of GOP candidate John Cristadoro in Post 5 in East Cobb.
Morgan, who has been involved with Cobb Executive Women and Leadership Cobb, has reported raising more than $102,000 in 2023, including a $22,000 personal loan, and has more than $82,000 in cash on hand.
An amended disclosure report filed by the Cupid campaign on Feb. 7 noted more than $54,000 in fundraising, but it’s unclear how much cash on hand she has, according to an addendum statement that her campaign said would be updated.
The 2024 election includes most countywide elected offices, in which all but one are held by Democrats (Tax Commissioner Carla Jackson, who has been elected as a member of the GOP the last two elections, has switched to the Democratic Party for this year’s ballot).
According to its website, the Association of Mature American Citizens is a conservative advocacy organization founded in 2007 and that “is here to protect and defend the sanctity of our Constitution and fidelity to our Nation’s Founders. We are unabashed in our fight to protect freedom of the individual, free speech and exercise of religion, equality of opportunity, sanctity of life, rule of law, and love of family.”
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While the presidential primaries have yielded little drama thus far, voters will have options when they go to the polls in Georgia.
Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump were the winners of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire Jan. 23.
Both will be on Georgia’s March 12 primary ballot, and are heavily favored to win their parties’ nominations.
Trump is among 11 names listed on the Republican ballot that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, all of whom have dropped out and endorsed Trump.
Former South Carolina Nikki Haley, who is actively campaigning, is also on the Georgia GOP ballot.
She finished second in New Hampshire, collecting 43 percent of the vote to 54 percent for Trump, who also won the Iowa Caucuses.
Biden, who didn’t formally enter the New Hampshire primary due to Democratic National Committee schedule changes, still won 63 percent of the vote thanks to a write-in campaign.
The South Carolina Republican primary is Feb. 24, setting off a wave of primary contests in short order. That includes “Super Tuesday” on March 5, the week before Georgia, with voting taking place in 17 states and territories.
Voters choosing either primary ballot in Georgia also will be able to cast a write-in vote.
The Cobb Board of Elections has approved early voting for the presidential primary, starting Feb. 19 and continuing through March 8.
Among the early voting locations will be the East Cobb Government Services Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).
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Reggie Copeland, who served a term on the Marietta City Council from 2018-2021, announced Tuesday he will be running for the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
In a brief e-mail message, Copeland said he will be running as a Democrat in the May 21 primary for District 2, which includes the City of Marietta.
He is the second candidate to express interest in the seat being vacated by Democrat Jerica Richardson, who is running for 6th District Congress.
Previously, former Cobb Board of Education member Jaha Howard filed a declaration of intent form with Cobb Elections, also for the Democratic primary.
Copeland, who is a counselor, said he will be providing more details about his priorities and platform soon.
In his e-mail announcement, he said that “I don’t see myself literally as just running against another candidate but I am running for ‘All’ people in Cobb County.
“The reason I am running is to improve the quality of life for ‘ALL’ individuals through a process call legislation via best practices, policies, and procedures,” he said.
Copeland represented Ward 5 on the Marietta City Council and was a controversial figure during his time in office.
A judge dismissed his request in 2018 for a restraining order against fellow council member Andy Morris following an argument in a meeting.
A city employee filed an ethics complaint against Copeland for verbally attacking her during a meeting, but that complaint was dismissed.
In 2019, he was charged with obstructing police after a traffic accident. Months later he said he feared for his life as a black man in dealing with law enforcement.
Copeland, who was chairman of the city council’s public safety committee at the time, was sentenced as a first offender and ordered to have an anger management evaluation.
In November 2021, he was defeated for re-election in a runoff with Carlyle Kent, who got 71 percent of the vote.
UPDATED:
After this story was posted, Copeland sent what he called a “complaints file” to East Cobb News (you can read it here) and said that “these FACTS will be shared with the community at large, as I host round tables while on my exciting campaign trail. Also, I will make this information available to ALL that have questions regarding your story.
“As a matter of fact we have already shared the FACTS with numerous citizens and they were elated to find out the real FACTS! Please know that I appreciate FACTS not fake news or alternative facts.”
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A native of Marietta, Copeland was a standout athlete at Marietta High School. He earned an undergraduate at Piedmont College, a master’s in education and counseling from the University of Georgia and a master of divinity from Emory University.
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Following up last week’s story about a GOP Cobb school board map that passed the Senate; the same bill was approved by the House Monday by a party-line vote and was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Brian Kemp.
State Sen. Ed Setzler’s Cobb school board electoral map would split the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones. For a larger view click here.
The Georgia legislature was ordered to draw new maps last month by a federal judge as part of a continuing lawsuit alleging that the 2022 maps diluted minority voting strength under the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
The judge, Eleanor Ross, will review the newly approved map.
The 2022 maps pushed most of the East Cobb area (Walton and Wheeler attendance zones) out of Post 6 and into the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area.
That’s one of three posts held by Democrats on the seven-member Cobb Board of Education. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority and three of the GOP-occupied seats expire at the end of this year.
That includes Post 5 in East Cobb, where four-term Republican David Banks is retiring. The new map, sponsored by GOP Sen. Ed Setzler of Acworth would include most of the Wheeler zone in Post 6.
The 2022 maps had Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters in Post 5, with Kell, and most of the Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters in Post 4, which is represented by Republican David Chastain.
The new maps were introduced despite the objections of the Democratic-majority Cobb legislative delegation. Rep. Teri Anulewics of Smyrna, the delegation chairwoman, has introduced her own maps, and legislation has passed the House.
Democrats contend the Setzler map continues to pack minority voters into limited areas and reduce their political influence.
Qualifying for school board races is in early March, with primaries in May. Thus far Democrat Laura Judge and Republican John Cristadoro, parents in the Walton zone, have announced their candidacies for the Post 5 seat.
(Note: While school board posts are drawn by the legislature, school attendance zones are determined administratively by the Cobb County School District.)
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Jaha Howard, who served on the Cobb Board of Education from 2019-2022, has filed a declaration of intent form to run for the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
A Democrat from Smyrna, Howard is considering a campaign for the District 2 seat being vacated by first-term Democrat Jerica Richardson, who is running for Congress.
She was a top campaign aide for Howard when he won election to the school board in 2018, helping reduce a 6-1 Republican majority to 4-3.
A declaration of intent is not a formal campaign launch; candidates interested in seeking public office in Cobb have until March to qualify for the May primaries.
Howard was a controversial figure during partisan disputes on the school board, notably over racial and equity issues as well as the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.
He and the school board’s two other Democrats at the time filed approached Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency, complaining that they were being silenced by the four Republican members who make up the majority.
That prompted a special review by Cognia that was reversed in early 2022.
In 2022, Howard opted to run for Georgia School Superintendent, but lost in the Democratic primary. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Georgia State Senate in 2016.
Last year, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid appointed Howard to the county’s transit advisory board.
A graduate of Atlanta Public Schools and Howard University, he is a pediatric dentist who is married with three children.
East Cobb News has left a message with Howard seeking comment.
The District 2 commission boundaries that were approved by the Georgia legislature during reapportionment in 2021 drew Richardson out of her East Cobb home.
Cobb commission maps passed by the Georgia legislature would include most of East Cobb in District 3 (gold), with District 2 shown in pink.
She and her Democratic colleagues on the commission tried to invoke home rule to keep her in her seat. Last week a Cobb judge ruled that maneuver violated the Georgia Constitution and the county filed an intent to appeal.
Richardson then reiterated her intent to run for the 6th District Congressional seat, which includes South Cobb.
The redrawn 2nd Commission district includes the Smyrna area as well as much of the city of Marietta and the I-75 corridor. It took out most of East Cobb, which is represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell.
Democrats hold a 3-2 majority on the commission and the 2nd District is likely to be held a Democrat.
Cupid and District 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield are the other Democrats, and their terms also end this year.
Before the Cobb court ruling on redistricting, East Cobb resident Kevin Redmon had declared an intent to run for the District 2 seat as a Democrat.
A former member of Richardson’s community cabinet, he reported raising more than $30,000, but he lives in District 3 according to the boundaries approved by the legislature.
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A member of Congress who represents part of East Cobb has changed his endorsement in the Republican presidential primary.
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, who initially pledged support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said Tuesday that he will be backing former President Donald Trump, who easily won the New Hampshire primary.
DeSantis dropped out last week after finishing a distant second to Trump in the Iowa Caucuses.
Trump defeated former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the first primary of the 2024 election calendar in New Hampshire by a 54-43 percent margin.
The South Carolina primary is Feb. 24, and Haley has vowed to continue. Georgia’s presidential primaries are on March 12 but both Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden are expected to face off in a rematch of the 2020 election.
“After another overwhelming victory, it’s abundantly clear that the American people want Donald J. Trump to serve as President of the United States once again,” said McCormick, who is in his first term, in an e-mail distributed by his campaign Tuesday.
“As President, Donald Trump can reverse the failed policies of the Biden Administration that have compromised national security, undermined public safety, stifled our economy, and threatened our nation’s future.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we can spur economic growth, stop the border invasion, restore our country’s standing abroad, safeguard our rights and liberties, and protect the American Dream for generations to come.”
On Wednesday, members of Georgia’s delegation to the Republican National Committee urged Haley to end her campaign.
“We are united in our call to move to the general election phase of this campaign so that the finite time, money, and other campaign resources can be focused on firing Joe Biden,” said the statement, which was signed by state party chairman Josh McKoon and RNC members Jason Thompson and Ginger Howard.
Cody Hall, a top advisor to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, denounced the message on X (formerly Twitter), saying that “the GAGOP’s role is to support our party’s nominee, not to try to decide them. One would think they would have learned that lesson in 2022.”
That was a reference to Kemp’s easy re-election in 2022 that included a primary victory over former U.S. Sen David Perdue, whom Trump endorsed after Kemp declined demands by Trump to challenge Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results giving Biden a narrow victory for the state’s 16 electoral votes.
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Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson said Tuesday she will remain a candidate for the 6th Congressional District of Georgia, although it’s been vastly redrawn from when she announced her run last year.
The first-term Democrat, who lives in East Cobb and represents District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, said in a video-taped message that she’s staying in the 6th District.
During a special session in December, it was redrawn by the Georgia legislature in a special session in December to include South Cobb, parts of Atlanta and the south metro area.
Most of East Cobb will be in the 11th District, represented by Republican Barry Loudermilk.
The 6th District currently includes parts of East Cobb, North Fulton and Forsyth and Dawson counties, a strongly conservative area designed for a Republican, although Richardson had been making appearances in some of those places.
That’s represented by Republican Rich McCormick, and most of that area is now included in the redrawn 7th District.
When a federal judge ordered new maps due to violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act, Richardson said she would not run against an incumbent Democrat.
But the new maps were approved, and former 6th District Congresswoman Lucy McBath, who switched to the Gwinnett-based 7th District in 2022, announced she would be switching back to the 6th.
That’s because much of Gwinnett was carved up by the GOP-dominated legislature into four Congressional districts,, most of them designed for Republicans.
Richardson didn’t mention that in her message (video below), but said her candidacy represents an “opportunity for sustainable and transformational change that will move the entire state forward.
Richardson, who lives in East Cobb, called the new 6th District “my community.” For a larger view click here.
“It’s because this race has always been about us. About our community, and the hopes and dreams that we bring to the table.”
Richardson was drawn out of her District 2 seat during reapportionment, and she and her fellow Democratic commissioners tried to invoke home rule to draw commission district boundaries.
But in a ruling on Monday, Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris ruled that action violated the Georgia Constitution. She has not ruled on a lawsuit asking that the legislative-approved boundaries—which would place East Cobb in District 3—be reinstated.
The county has filed a notice to appeal that ruling.
The area of the new 6th District includes much of the 13th District, which has been represented by Democrat David Scott since 2003.
Congressional candidates do not have to live in the districts they’re running in. Richardson moved to her East Cobb home in 2022 after living in the Delk Road area.
“From Mableton to Austell to Powder Springs to Smyrna and Vinings and Sandy Springs and the Perimeter area and South Fulton and College Park and Douglasville and Fayetteville, I love my community,” Richardson said.
“And the Sixth District is my community. I’m deciding and running for you, and I hope you will run with me.”
According to her latest campaign disclosure reports—from April 1 through Sept. 30 of last year—Richardson reported more than $52,000 in contributions and reporting spending roughly half that amount.
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Cobb commission maps passed by the Georgia legislature include most of East Cobb in District 3 (gold).
A Cobb Superior Court judge has ruled that Cobb County Government’s invocation of home rule over Board of Commissioners reapportionment violates the Georgia Constitution.
Judge Ann Harris issued a motion for summary judgment on Monday on behalf of plaintiffs David and Catherine Floam, North Cobb residents who along with Commissioner Keli Gambrill filed suit in 2023.
They were contesting a 3-2 vote by the commission in October 2022 along party lines—the board has three Democrats and two Republicans—to challenge electoral maps drawn by the Georgia legislature earlier in 2022.
Those maps, approved as HB 1154 (see map at right), drew Democratic District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home and placed most of East Cobb in District 3.
The Georgia Constitution stipulates that redistricting of county commission and school board maps is a function of the legislature.
The Republican-led legislature bypassed maps drawn by the Democratic-led Cobb delegation that would have kept District 2 lines largely unchanged (see map at left).
The county’s legal challenge focused on a number of home rule exemptions, passed in 1965 legislation designed to give local governments more control.
But in her ruling (you can read it here), Harris said that law, the Municipal Home Rule Act, and a Constitutional Amendment passed by Georgia voters the next year, does not allow counties to invoke home rule to affect elective county office, including procedures for electing and appointing a county governing authority.
“Cobb County argues that the map is not a procedure,” Harris wrote in her ruling. “Read in the most natural and reasonable way, and giving words their ordinary meaning within the text and context, the Court finds that redistricting is part and parcel of the procedures for an election.”
Maps approved by the Cobb commission’s Democrats would keep Jerica Richardson of East Cobb in the District 2 (in pink) that she currently represents.
At the end of her ruling, Harris concluded that “the Court concludes that Cobb County’s Amendment to Act 562 [the home rule law] was an unconstitutional exercise of authority under its Constitutional Home Rule powers, inasmuch as this Court has found it was an action affecting an elective county office and affecting the procedure for election of the county governing authority.”
A separate lawsuit asking that the state-approved maps be implemented is still pending.
Through a county spokesman, Cobb County Attorney Bill Rowling said Monday that his office will be appealing Monday’s ruling.
“We respect the ruling by Judge Harris issued this morning,” Rowling said. “The county has already filed its notice of appeal and looks forward to making our case during the process ahead.”
That filing states that the appeal should be heard by the Georgia Supreme Court.
Qualifying for the 2024 May primaries is in the first week of March; in addition to District 2, the District 4 seat and Cobb Commission Chair—all held by Democrats—will be on the ballot.
The county statement didn’t include a reference to Richardson’s current tenure on the board.
Her term expires at the end of 2024, but it’s uncertain whether she would have to vacate her office immediately.
For Which It Stance, a non-profit advocacy group created by Richardson, issued a statement Monday afternoon denouncing the ruling.
“This ruling casts a spotlight on the Dist 2 Seat, triggering the possibility of an immediate vacancy due to the reinstatement of the state’s HB1154 map,” For Which It Stance Executive Director Mindy Seger said in the statement.
“The unprecedented mid-term vacancy arising from redistricting history in Georgia raises legitimate questions about the potential violation of O.C.G.A 1.3.11, a critical statute addressing the alteration of terms of office.”
Cobb Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs hailed the ruling, saying Harris is “an astute jurist for standing up for the Georgia Constitution. We are happy this case is resolved not only for Cobb County but for every sovereign county in the State of Georgia. Most importantly this is a big win for the voters of Cobb County who were being disenfranchised by this gross overreach and who were left in limbo until this case was resolved.”
Harris held two hearings last year on the lawsuit. Initially filed by East Cobb resident and former Cobb Commission Chairman Larry Savage, the lawsuit later was joined by Gambrill.
But she was later dismissed as a plaintiff after Harris ruled she didn’t have standing.
Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell, the board’s two Republican commissioners, have argued publicly that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment of county elected bodies.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr also issued a statement last year saying the same thing, but his office did not get involved in the lawsuit.
The Floams are residents whose home previously had been in Gambrill’s District 1, then was placed in Birrell’s District 3.
Gambrill and Birrell were re-elected in 2022 with the legislative-approved maps, and voiced their objections each public meeting of 2023 as the commission operated with the Cobb delegation maps.
The commission’s first meeting of 2024 is Tuesday morning, at which a discussion about the case and the ruling may take place.
East Cobb News also asked the county spokesman how commission business will proceed in the wake of the ruling, but he did not respond.
Kevin Redmon, a Democrat from East Cobb who has announced for the District 2 seat but lives in the legislative-approved District 3, issued a statement Monday.
“Redrawing district lines in the middle of a term opens the path to renegade politics where districts can be pulled into question at any point and for any reason,” he said. “We eagerly anticipate an appeal that will further this discussion, which is critical to Cobb County’s political future.”
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East Cobb resident Kevin Redmon, who announced in October his candidacy for District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, has filed his first financial disclosure report.
Redmon’s report with the Cobb Board of Elections shows more than $30,000 in fundraising (including in-kind contributions) for the period ending Dec. 31.
Roughly half of that is via a loan he made to his campaign. In addition, Redmon reported $11,540 in monetary contributions from others and $3,833 in in-kind contributions.
Monday is the deadline for local candidates in Cobb to file 2023 financial reports with Cobb Elections.
Redmon, a Democrat and an IT sales and account manager, is seeking the District 2 seat being vacated by first-term Democrat Jerica Richardson, who is running for Congress.
Redmon’s report (you can read it here) indicates he’s spent $11,000, mostly for campaign staff and consulting, and has $15,539 cash on hand.
Redmon’s individual contributions range from $20 to $3,300 from East Cobb resident Justin Smith, whose employer is listed in the report as Goldman Sachs.
The expenses include $6,375 for campaign staff services to Christopher-Robin Millican, a member of the Cobb state committee to the Democratic Party of Georgia; $1,200 to Blake Judkins, a political consultant based in Gwinnett; and $870 to Mindy Seger, the head of Richardson’s non-profit For Which It Stance and a leader of the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance.
Redmon has been a member of Richardson’s “community cabinet” but resigned that volunteer post when he announced his candidacy.
“This is an incredible vote of confidence in the message we are communicating to the community as we continue to build the Kevin for Cobb campaign,” Redmon said in a statement issued Friday by his campaign. “We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to assemble a strong team to educate the community on the importance of the right kind of leadership at this time in Cobb’s history.”
No other candidates have announced for the District 2 seat, whose boundaries for the 2024 elections are unclear.
A partisan dispute between current Cobb commissioners about the commission’s electoral map that began at the end of 2022 continues into 2024.
District 2 was redrawn by the Georgia legislature in 2022 to put Richardson out of her seat and to place most of East Cobb in District 3, represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell, who was re-elected that year with those new lines.
In the current map, Redmon also lives in District 3, but Cobb Democrats are trying to invoke home rule over redistricting, a claim Republicans say violates the state constitution.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris held hearings last year on a lawsuit filed by GOP commissioner Keli Gambrill (since dismissed as a plaintiff) challenging the home rule action, but has yet to make a ruling.
The District 2 seat is one of three on the 2024 ballot, including District 4 in South Cobb, held by first-term Democrat Monique Sheffield, and Cobb Commission Chair.
Incumbent Democrat Lisa Cupid and Republican challenger Kay Morgan, a real estate agent from West Cobb, have announced for the latter, but have not filed financial disclosures.
Also on the 2024 ballot is Post 5 on the Cobb Board of Education. Incumbent Republican David Banks has not announced if he is seeking a fifth term but has filed a 2023 disclosure form indicating no contributions or expenses.
Republican John Cristadoro and Democrat Laura Judge, who announced their Post 5 candidacies last year, have not filed financial reports.
Qualifying for the 2024 May primaries is in early March.
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Legislative and Congressional electoral maps redrawn by the Georgia legislature during a special session this month have been approved by a federal judge who ordered them.
Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Thursday upheld a “remedial plan” for the 2024 elections to redistrict seats in the Georgia General Assembly and for Georgia’s representatives in the U.S. House.
That was prompted by a lawsuit alleging violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act by plaintiffs including some Cobb African-American citizens.
They include redrawing East Cobb’s U.S. House boundaries dramatically.
Georgia’s 2024 primaries for Congress, the legislature and local offices are in May, with qualifying in March.
Maps approved in 2021 split East Cobb into the 6th and 11th districts. But the new maps (click here) put most of East Cobb in the 11th District, represented by Republican Barry Loudermilk.
For the 2024 election, his strongly-conservative district also will include his home base of Bartow County, all of Pickens and Gordon counties and some of Cherokee County.
The redrawn 11th Congressional District. For a larger view click here.
The East Cobb area had been largely represented in the Senate with one seat, District 32. But after the 2021 Census, legislators redrew the East Cobb area to include District 32, District 56 and District 6.
For the 2023 session, those incumbents were Republicans Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers and Democrat Jason Esteves, respectively.
The new lines remove District 6 and place some of East Cobb in District 33, which stretches from Powder Springs and through the city of Marietta.
That’s represented by Democrat Michael “Doc” Rhett, who represented a smaller part of the East Cobb area until reapportionment.
Republicans will still likely have nine of Georgia’s 14 U.S. House seats after the 2024 election.
The Georgia legislature has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Former 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, who moved to the Gwinnett-based 7th District in 2022, announced after the judge’s decision this week that she will run in the new 6th, which includes most of South Cobb and covers an area represented by longtime Democratic incumbent David Scott.
The new 7th District is designed to maintain a Republican representative and covers north Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson counties, all in the current 6th. That’s held by first-term GOP U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick.
Cobb’s new boundaries in the Georgia State Senate.
Before the special legislative session, Cobb Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson announced her intent to run fort the 6th District.
She said after the interim maps were approved that they “didn’t pass the smell test” and that she hasn’t decided which district to run in.
Richardson, who hasn’t commented on Jones’ decision this week to approve the maps, said she would not run in a district with a Democratic incumbent.
McBath, a Marietta Democrat and an ardent gun-control advocate, defeated GOP incumbent Karen Handel in the 6th District in 2018.
While members of Congress don’t have to live in their districts, the Gwinnett area currently in the 7th District was carved up into four districts designed for Republican representation.
“I refuse to allow an extremist few Republicans decide when my work in Congress is finished,” McBath said Thursday in a statement issued by her campaign.
She’s switching to the 6th, she said, “because too much is at stake to stand down.”
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Cobb Board of Education electoral maps before 2021 reapportionment (left) and after (right), with the latter maps having been thrown out in federal court.
The Georgia legislature was ordered on Thursday to draw up new electoral maps for the Cobb Board of Education by mid-January.
A federal judge in Atlanta threw out maps lawmakers approved in 2021 that were submitted by Cobb Republican lawmakers and drawn by a law firm hired by the Cobb County School District.
Those maps pushed Post 6, which had included the Walton and Wheeler high school clusters, out of East Cobb and into the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
A group of parents and progressive advocacy groups filed a lawsuit, claiming that the new maps were racially gerrymandered and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
In her ruling granting an injunction to the plaintiffs (you can read the ruling here), U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross concluded that it was “substantially likely” that the 2021 maps would be declared unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, spearheaded by the Southern Poverty Law Center, claims that the redrawn posts 2, 3 and 6—all held by the current Democrats on the school board—diluted minority voting strength.
Posts, 1, 4, 5 and 7—occupied by the Republican majority—had their minority voting percentages reduced curing reapportionment, with all four posts having at least 58 percent white constituencies.
The two posts in East Cobb have the highest percentage of white populations. While Post 5 didn’t change much (going from 66.97 percent to 67.24 percent), the Post 4 difference also was noticeable, rising from 57.24 percent white to 65.56.
David Chastain, one of the four GOP members of the school board, was re-elected to a third term in Post 4 last year.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said that the 2021 map “bleaches the population of the northern districts,” a charge the Cobb school district has heatedly denied.
Ross gave the legislature until Jan. 10—two days after the 2024 General Assembly session begins—to draw new maps, which are considered temporary for use in the 2024 elections. The Cobb school district intends to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking a stay of the judge’s order.
The Cobb school district was denied by Ross to join the lawsuit as a defendant, a decision that also is being appealed.
Ross also gave the plaintiffs and the defendant—the Cobb Board of Elections, which is not defending the current maps—until Jan. 12 to object to the redrawn maps, and Jan. 17 for the parties to respond to the other.
The 2024 Georgia primaries are May 21, with qualifying set for March.
Four of the seven Cobb school board posts are on the ballot in 2024, and three of them currently occupied by Republicans, including David Banks of Post 5 in East Cobb.
He hasn’t said whether he will seek a fifth term next year, but two first-time candidates announced earlier this year: Republican John Cristadoro and Democrat Laura Judge. Both are parents in the Walton cluster.
Post 5 was redrawn in 2021 to include the Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters, while Post 4 includes the Kell, Sprayberry and Lassiter clusters.
In October, Ben Mathis, the lead attorney for the Cobb school district, accused the elections board of “a total surrender” to what he called “leftist political activists” who wanted to usurp the power of the legislature to redraw the Cobb school board maps.
That and another related message were posted on the Cobb school district website, including a charge from Mathis that the SPLC was trying “to impose their will over the Legislature, the Governor, and the voters of Cobb County.”
In a statement issued Friday through the SPLC, Sofia Fernandez Gold, associate counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under the law, said the order by Ross to redraw the maps “affirms the fundamental right of Black and Latinx voters of Cobb County to fully and fairly participate in the democratic process by having an equal opportunity to elect members of their choice to the Cobb County School Board.”
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“I can’t support a 30-year tax, but it will be up to voters to decide,” commissioner JoAnn Birrell said.
In a partisan vote, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved adding a referendum to the November 2024 general election ballot on whether to collect a 30-year sales tax for a major development of the county’s transit system.
Commissioners also approved a project list for the referendum that in East Cobb would include the reinstatements of bus routes running along Roswell Road and connecting to the Dunwoody MARTA station, and a new transit station in the Roswell-Johnson Ferry area.
The Cobb Mobility Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax, if approved by voters, would collect a one-percent tax for an estimated $10.8 billion, financing the creation of several high-occupancy bus routes, the construction of transit centers and expanding microtransit, paratransit and other transit options around the county.
Cobb collects a SPLOST for overall county projects, and the Cobb County School District also has its own SPLOST for school construction, maintenance and technology projects.
But Cobb DOT officials have been planning for a possible transit referendum for several years, with Atlanta Regional Commission projections that the county’s population will near a million people by 2050.
The board’s three Democrats voted in favor of having the referendum, while Republican commissioners were opposed.
The items on the project list would add 106 miles of bus and transit routes to the existing CobbLinc service, which has only one route in the East Cobb area, along Powers Ferry Road.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb said the length of the proposed tax is far too long, and consists only of transit projects.
“In the past I’ve always supported our county SPLOST going to a referendum, but the maximum they were was six years,” she said. “But they had not only transportation, but libraries, parks, public safety and other departments.
“I can’t support a 30-year tax but it will be up to voters to decide and that’s the bottom line.”
Commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb, who grew up in Brooklyn, said she might not have had the educational opportunities she had without being able to ride the subway in New York City, and that many young Cobb citizens are facing similar obstacles.
“The generations are getting younger, things are changing,” she said. “I look forward to see how this plays out in the community.”
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “we have moment of transformation before us today.”
She compared the chance to vastly expand transit options to the 2013 vote by commissioners to enter into a 30-year memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Braves to build a baseball stadium, and the county’s buildout of sewer systems in the 1980s.
“I’m sure there were reasonable voices of concern about those times, but there are reasonable considerations of why now,” said Cupid, who was the only commissioner to vote against the Braves stadium deal.
“This is a board of action, this is a board that wants to get this done,” she said. “I’ve seen moments of opportunity come and go.”
Cobb voters rejected a referendum in 1971 to join the then-now Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. In 1989 the county created Cobb Community Transit (now called CobbLinc) to provide a limited amount of transit services, including express buses serving commuters in downtown Atlanta.
She said Cobb has had “consideration of a robust investment in transit for almost 50 years now. . . . and we’re at a key time to offer commensurate options for our community.”
Commissioners voted along the same 3-2 split to approve spending $187,000 for an education campaign to take place in 2024 ahead of the referendum.
That effort, which includes a combined donation of $100,000 from the Town Center and Cumberland Community Improvement Districts, will include town hall meetings and other information presented to citizens.
After the vote, citizens spoke on the issue in public comment sessions.
Kevin Cutliff of East Cobb, a 21-year-old who supports the transit tax, said many in his generation are struggling to afford cars to get around.
He uses a combination of an electric bike and CobbLinc, but said he doesn’t feel safe with the former and feels “disconnected” with the latter, saying the current system has very limited access to the rest of metro Atlanta.
“This transit referendum hopefully will change that going forward,” Cutcliff said. “When voters use transit, this affects all of us, when all of it is connected.”
But Cobb resident Tracy Stevenson said the overall cost of the Mobility SPLOST—nearly $11 billion—”is a buttload of money.
“Do we need to overhaul the system? Probably? Do we need to have compassion for people? Absolutely. Are there are better ways to do it that use a 30-year technology to move forward. We put rosy new names on things, but it’s still a bus system.
“If we can manage the system better than we have now then why don’t we?”
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Brunessa Drayton, a former Cobb Library System supervisor and chief assistant to Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, announced Tuesday she is running for Cobb Superior Court Clerk in 2024.
Drayton, a Democrat who declared her intent to run in November, said she is running “because the Clerk’s office is in need of leadership that’s focused on the details. I’m ready to bring leadership, integrity, and transparency to the Clerk’s office.”
She the second Democratic hopeful challenging incumbent clerk Connie Taylor, who has come under fire for personally pocketing more than $400,000 in passport fees—which are legal—but far beyond her salary of $170,000.
More recently, Taylor has been the subject of complaints from lawyers, judges and prosecutors, as reported by the MDJ, for a backlog of filing online court records going back several months.
The newspaper reported last week that Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard even posted a message on his Facebook page telling attorneys with cases before him that “if you have something important that needs attention, or even a responsive pleading with a hearing coming up, please send my office a courtesy copy.”
Taylor was elected in 2020, defeating Republican incumbent Rebecca Keaton.
In a release announcing her campaign, Drayton didn’t mention Taylor by name or specify those issues, but said that “I know the importance of a government that works for people and makes the most of our community’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Under my leadership, the Clerk’s office will solve problems instead of creating them.”
In her time in Cupid’s office, Drayton helped provide oversight during the county’s COVID-19 response and to develop programs such as the county’s first Youth Commission and Cobb African American Public Policy Forum.
She also was the Northwest Georgia Outreach Coordinator for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Drayton and her husband have four sons and live in Powder Springs. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University and a master’s degree in public administration from Kennesaw State University and has been a member of the Cobb Library Board of Trustees.
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The proposed 11th District would include all of East Cobb and Marietta as well as the Town Center area and I-75 corridor north of Smyrna.
The Georgia legislature completed a special session Thursday by adopting Congressional maps that would place all of East Cobb in the 11th U.S. House District.
But Cobb Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson, who has announced for the 6th Congressional District that was substantially redrawn, said she doesn’t think the maps will “hold up.”
They don’t pass “the smell test,” she said in an interview Thursday on the Politically Georgia podcast, before the maps were passed.
The Republican-majority legislature was called into a special session following a federal judge’s order to redraw legislative and Congressional lines for violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
Specifically, lawmakers were ordered to create a new majority-black Congressional district in metro Atlanta. That appears to be the new 6th District, which includes most of South Cobb and covers an area represented by longtime Democratic incumbent David Scott.
In a posting on her campaign Facebook page, Richardson said Thursday night that “the maps that Republicans drew are in clear violation of a federal court order to add a new majority-minority district. We fully expect a legal challenge to this map, and there’s a high likelihood that it can succeed.”
Richardson said she hasn’t decided which district she may decide to run in—candidates do not have to live in their Congressional districts—but ruled out competing against any Democratic incumbent.
“We will evaluate where the need is and decide whether my message will resonate with the communities in that district,” she said in the Politically Georgia interview.
While she was asked if she may take on current 6th District Republican incumbent Rich McCormick in the new 7th District, Richardson didn’t mention the prospect of running in the new 11th District.
That seat is held by Republican Barry Loudermilk, and the new lines would include some of Cherokee County, as well as all of Bartow, Pickens and Gordon counties.
She continued in her social media message that “while the battles play out in court over the next few weeks, I remain committed to running a grassroots campaign on the same issues that have driven me from the start: connecting all communities to power and ensuring they have a voice in government, protecting our fundamental rights, expanding access to healthcare, improving infrastructure and transit, and enhancing economic empowerment.”
Richardson, who was drawn out of her Cobb Commission District 2 home in East Cobb by the legislature last year, has been holding meetings and events in the current 6th—which stretches from East Cobb up through North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson counties—since she announced her Congressional ambitions this summer.
Richardson and her two Democratic colleagues on the commission invoked home rule over reapportionment, which critics say violates the state constitution.
A Cobb Superior Court judge is expected to rule this month on that legal dispute.
“At every roadblock, there has been an incredible outpouring of community support,” she said on the podcast. “I don’t expect this to be any different.
“At the end of the day, people just want people to represent them. If we can keep the focus, we’ll all be okay.”
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New Georgia State Senate maps (left) would put some of East Cobb in District 33, while the State House boundaries (right) didn’t change much.
East Cobb voters who got a substantial new look on their ballots for Georgia State Senate races in 2022 elections will get another one in 2024.
The Georgia General Assembly on Tuesday adopted legislative maps that likely ensure Republican control and would substantially alter East Cobb’s representation in the upper chamber.
After passing the Senate on Friday, the Senate maps were approved Tuesday by the House. Likewise, the Senate passed State House maps that left the East Cobb area relatively unchanged.
The legislature is in a special session to redraw state and Congressional boundaries after a federal judge declared the 2021 maps violate the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
The Georgia legislature has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Lawmakers were ordered to create a majority-black Congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta be created, as well as several majority-black legislative districts in the Atlanta and Macon areas.
The East Cobb area had been largely represented in the Senate with one seat, District 32. But after the 2021 Census, legislators redrew the East Cobb area to include District 32, District 56 and District 6.
For the 2023 session, those incumbents were Republicans Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers and Democrat Jason Esteves, respectively.
The new lines would remove District 6 and place some of East Cobb District 33, which stretches from Powder Springs and through the city of Marietta
That’s represented by Democrat Michael “Doc” Rhett, who represented a smaller part of the East Cobb area until reapportionment.
The maps that were approved were proposed by Republican leaders, who claimed the new boundaries met the judge’s order.
Democrats disagreed, and some complained that the new maps unfairly placed incumbent Democrats in the same district.
One of those situations is in the Smyrna area, where Cobb legislative delegation chairwoman Teri Anulewicz and Doug Stoner were redrawn into District 35.
After the maps are signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, they will be submitted to the federal court for final review.
Legislators also must finish Congressional redistricting by Friday. Maps proposed by GOP leaders would also change East Cobb representation, putting most of the area in District 11 and taking out District 6.
Democrats are threatening legal action at what they say is gerrymandering, including 6th District candidate and current Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson.
“These maps are an affront to the idea of fair representation and fly in the face of the judge’s order to the state,” she said.
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Two years after carving up East Cobb into two Congressional districts, the Georgia legislature could be dramatically tearing up those lines again.
During a special legislative session that got underway earlier this week, Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee Chairwoman Shelly Echols submitted a map that would put most of East Cobb in the 11th Congressional district.
Lawmakers were called to a special session after a decision by a federal judge in Atlanta to throw out the maps the legislature adopted in 2021, saying they diluted minority voting strength under the federal Voting Rights Act.
The legislature has until Dec. 8 to finish reapportionment work under the court order.
The 11th District been represented since 2016 by Cassville Republican Barry Loudermilk, and currently includes some of East Cobb.
The proposed 11th district would include some of Cherokee County and all of Bartow, Pickens and Gordon counties.
The map, proposed on Friday, would take the 6th District out of East Cobb completely. Some of the area is currently in the 6th and is represented by first-term Republican Rich McCormick.
Instead, the 7th District would include much of what is now in the 6th—North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson c0unties, plus some of Hall and Lumpkin counties.
The proposed 11th District would include all of East Cobb and Marietta as well as the Town Center area and I-75 corridor north of Smyrna.
That would likely make the 11th an even stronger Republican district than the 6th. Cobb Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson has announced her candidacy in the 6th, and she has appeared at events in more conservative reaches of the district.
Richardson was drawn out of her East Cobb home when the legislature reapportioned seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in 2021. Richardson and her two Democratic colleagues voted to invoke home rule and honor maps drawn by the Cobb delegation, an action that’s currently before a Cobb Superior Court judge.
In a social media message Friday, Richardson issued a statement saying that “these maps are an affront to the idea of fair representation and fly in the face of the judge’s order to the state.”
She referenced a similar action in Alabama, where Republican lawmakers under a court order created a second black-majority district in that state.
“My hope is they will see the error of their ways and fix these maps again before the judge’s Dec. 8 deadline,” Richardson said of the Georgia GOP lawmakers.
“If they do not, then I would support further legal challenges until the core message of the judge’s order is fulfilled.”
Nine of Georgia’s 14 Congressional districts are represented by Republicans, and eight seats are majority-white.
The judge ordered that a majority-black Congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta be created. But the map proposed Friday would not do that.
Instead, it would add a minority-white district, keep the number of majority-black districts at four and leave one district that doesn’t have a racial majority.
That’s the current 7th District represented by Democrat Lucy McBath, who left the 6th District after 2021 reapportionment. It would have a strong Republican majority under the proposed map, and would take out all of Gwinnett County that she now represents.
The legislature also was ordered to create several majority-black legislative districts in the Atlanta and Macon areas.
The Georgia General Assembly has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Maps enacted in 2021 split East Cobb into the 6th and 11th districts.
The House on Friday voted out a House map along partisan lines proposed by Republican leaders in that chamber, and it will be sent to the Senate.
GOP State Reps. Sharon Cooper, John Carson and Don Parsons, who have East Cobb constituencies, voted in favor.
Voting against was State Rep. Solomon Adesanya, a first-term Democrat who represents District 43 in East Cobb.
Three redrawn districts in the House would pit Democratic incumbents against one another, including current Cobb delegation Chairwoman Teri Anulewicz and Doug Stoner.
Adesanya said in a social media message that “rather than doing the right thing, this time, they targeted our White Democrats, coupling members in three different House seats, which, essentially under their map, three Democrats will have to go, and three Democrats will remain. The Republicans in the Georgia House of Representatives must know their time as a majority is nearing the end. They are desperate to cling on to power.”
Senate Republicans on Friday also passed a map that would add two majority-black districts, and that will go on to the House.
Committee meetings are scheduled for Monday for the Congressional maps.
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Proposed maps by Senate Republicans, left, and the Democratic caucus, at right, would carve up East Cobb representation in sharply different ways.
The Georgia General Assembly will begin a special session on Wednesday to redraw Congressional and legislative districts.
An initial hearing of the House Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee takes place at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Capitol.
The session was prompted following a decision by a federal judge in Atlanta to throw out the maps the legislature adopted in 2022, saying they diluted minority voting strength.
The Georgia legislature has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Party control isn’t expected to change, but the judge ordered that a majority-black Congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta be created, as well as several majority-black legislative districts in the Atlanta and Macon areas.
None of them are in the East Cobb area, but map proposals released earlier this week show some dramatically different lines.
A map proposed by Senate Republicans would remove District 6, currently represented by Democrat Jason Esteves of Atlanta, out of East Cobb completely.
Instead, District 33, represented by West Cobb Democrat Doc Rhett, would sweep across the county, taking in a sizable portion of East Cobb.
A map proposed by the Senate Democratic Caucus would expand District 6 further into East Cobb.
Both maps would include much of the East Cobb area currently represented by Republicans Kay Kirkpatrick (District 32) and John Albers (District 56).
The House Republican leadership has proposed a House map (at right) that would make some minor changes to East Cobb representation in that body, retaining most of the current areas of Districts 37, 43, 44, 45 and 46. House Democrats have not yet filed a map.
The legislature also will have to redraw all 14 of Georgia’s Congressional districts, which could affect East Cobb representation. Nine of those seats are held by Republicans.
In 2022, the General Assembly drew Congressional maps that included portions of District 6 and District 11 in East Cobb.
Those are currently represented by Republicans Rich McCormick and Barry Loudermilk, respectively.
District 6 had included most of East Cobb and for three terms was represented by Democrat Lucy McBath. But she moved to the Democratic-leaning 7th District in Gwinnett after the 6th was redrawn to include North Fulton and GOP strongholds in Forsyth and Dawson counties.
No proposed maps have been submitted as of yet.
Democratic Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson, who was drawn out of her District 2 by the legislature that is the subject of a current legal dispute, is running for 6th District Congress and has held several fundraising and other events.
The legislature, which has until Dec. 8 to redraw the maps, also is conducting other limited business during the special session.
You can track the session and watch live feeds by clicking here.
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McCormick speaking from the House floor Tuesday on a resolution to censure Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, a Republican whose 6th District includes East Cobb, is temporarily closing his district office in Cumming due to what he said are “serious threats of violence against my staff.”
He didn’t specify what they were in a social media posting Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter), but he added that the “threats have been reported to Capitol Police and will be investigated fully.”
McCormick said his district staff will be working remotely and constituents can contact them via phone and e-mail.
McCormick is in his first term representing the 6th, which was redrawn to include East Cobb, some of North Fulton, as well as Forsyth and Dawson counties and a portion of Gwinnett, where he lives.
He is in Washington this week as the House voted to censure Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for comments critical of Israel.
He opposed a resolution by fellow Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene accusing Tlaib of “leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol.”
McCormick filed his own resolution Monday and on Tuesday, he posted on X saying that “that this is not a First Amendment issue. Rashida Tlaib has the right to spew antisemitic vitriol and even call for the destruction of the Jewish State. But the House of Representatives also has a right to make it clear that her hate speech does not reflect the opinion of the chamber, and that is what my resolution is about.”
In remarks from the House floor Tuesday, McCormick—a former emergency room physician—also said that while his “heart goes out to the Palestinian people,” especially those injured and killed in a hospital bombing—Tlaib’s public statements that it was from an Israel attack were incorrect.
The House voted 234-188 to censure Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, the 26th time that has happened to a member of Congress.
“I was proud to lead a bipartisan coalition of our members to hold Rashida Tlaib accountable for her dishonest and antisemitic behavior,” McCormick posted on X late Tuesday night. “Thank you to all the other members who helped me refine the language of the bill, who cosponsored and spoke on the floor in support, and the 22 Democrats that had the courage to join us in voting for final passage. This is the right way to get things done.”
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A member of Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson’s “community cabinet” is considering making a run to succeed her in 2024.
Kevin Redmon, an East Cobb resident, filed a declaration of intent form with the Cobb Elections Office on Oct. 23.
According to the filings, Redmon, an IT sales and account manager, would be running as a Democrat in District 2.
A declaration is not a formal filing for a campaign, but Redmon formed a campaign committee in August.
On Richardson’s cabinet, he serves as an East Cobb community liaison, and is a regular presence at Cobb Board of Commission meetings during public comment periods.
“I love being engaged and I was wanting to do more,” Redmon told East Cobb News.
A resident of East Cobb since 2005, Redmon said he initially got involved in community issues with the anti-cityhood group East Cobb Alliance, whose leader, Mindy Seger, introduced him to Richardson.
Thus far Redmon, who is married with a daughter, is the only individual who has expressed at least semi-formal interest in running in District 2.
Richardson, a first-term Democrat, has filed to run for the 6th Congressional District after legislative reapportionment in 2022 drew her out of her commission district.
Redmon said his priorities include “just really communicating with residents in a clear way about what’s happening.
“Complex issues are being presented to the public,” and he said it’s not always clearly understood what the potential impact of a pr0posed service or spending issue may be.
Some of those issues include stormwater management, which has become a growing concern in East Cobb since severe flooding in Sept. 2021.
The county is preparing a possible funding solution that would impose an impact fee, based on amount of impervious surface on a property, that Redmon said would likely affect larger commercial customers more than average homeowners.
“It’s a simple message, but there’s been a lot of pushback,” Redmon said.
Redmon said that it’s important to place “a focus on the future.”
Cobb’s population is growing older, and he said “the future is coming at us pretty quickly.
“We need to make decisions that respect people who have been here many years but we also have to attract people who are moving in and raising families.
The District 2 boundaries would include most of Smyrna and Marietta and areas north along the Interstate 75 corridor.
The map drawn by the legislature in 2022 placed most of East Cobb in District 3, represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell.
That electoral map is currently being contested in Cobb Superior Court after the commission’s Democratic majority voted to invoke home rule. Another hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Richardson and her party colleagues are seeking to employ maps that would place the East Cobb area in Districts 2 and 3, similar to what they had been before reapportionment.
As that dispute began, Richardson launched a civic and political education non-profit, For Which It Stance, at which Redmon also serves as a community captain.
He also participated in a recent cybersecurity awareness event held by Richardson and other Cobb County officials.
The District 2 seat is one of three that will be on the 2024 ballot, and all of them are currently held by Democrats. Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has announced she’s seeking re-election. District 4 incumbent Monique Sheffield of South Cobb will be completing her first term.
Redmon said until there’s a court ruling on what the District 2 boudaries may be, he’s going to continue “getting out to events and talking to people.
“There is a real desire for a hyperlocal focus on the job. That’s what I’m finding people are caring about.”
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The first-term Democrat, who lives in East Cobb and represents District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, said in a video-taped message that she’s staying in the 6th District.
