Cobb commissioner dropped as plaintiff in redistricting suits

A Cobb Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill doesn’t have standing in lawsuits she filed to contest the county’s invocation of home rule over redistricting.

Judge Ann Harris said that Gambrill, a Republican who represents District 1 in Northwest Cobb, failed to show specific harm done to her when the commission’s three Democrats last fall voted to implement commission maps they preferred over those adopted last year by the Georgia legislature.

In court filings, Gambrill—who said she was acting as a private citizen in the lawsuits—said the uncertainty over the maps may affect if she’s re-elected and where she would be voting.

But Harris noted that Gambrill was re-elected last year after being unopposed and that her district lines changed little.

“At best, the concerns raised by Gambrill are generalized and according to her, shared by all citizens,” Harris wrote. “They are not particular to Gambrill, and therefore, they are not sufficient to show an injury in fact to Gambrill. Several of her claims arise from her official capacity and are not relevant to this suit. As a result, Plaintiff Gambrill has no standing to proceed on these claims and her case ends here.”

(You can read the ruling by clicking here.)

Harris said the other plaintiffs, Catherine and David Floam, can remain, since they are residents of District 3 in East Cobb that is at the heart of the map dispute.

They had been in District 1 and voted there in 2022, but the Democratic maps that are being recognized by the county placed them in District 3.

The Democratic maps dramatically altered the two districts in East Cobb. Jerica Richardson of District 2 was drawn out of her home by the legislative maps, which put most of East Cobb in District 3, represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell.

Birrell was re-elected under the legislative maps last year but did not get involved in the lawsuits. She attended a July 7 hearing in Harris’ chamber on the issue of standing.

Attorney General Chris Carr, while issuing an opinion this spring that the Cobb Democratic maps are not legal, said his office cannot get involved until there is a legal action.

The county filed for home rule to keep Richardson, a first-term Democrat, in office. Her term ends in 2024, and she has repeatedly claimed that drawing her out of her district during her term has been unprecedented in Georgia.

She started a non-profit education organization, For Which It Stance, to advocate for local government control on a number of issues.

Gambrill and Birrell have said their Democratic colleagues’ action is unconstitutional because only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.

Gambrill also filed a suit to have the Democratic maps ruled unconstitutional and replaced with those adopted by the legislature. She initially filed the lawsuits in March with former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate Larry Savage of East Cobb, who later withdrew.

She spent her own money to hire Ray Smith, an Atlanta attorney, who argued on her and the Floams’ behalf at the July hearing before Harris.

On Tuesday, Smith was indicted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Both of the redistricting lawsuits are before Harris, who has scheduled a Nov. 20 hearing on the county’s motion for judgment.

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