Cobb redistricting maps OK’d as primary qualifying approaches

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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.

As we noted last week, the bills were sponsored by Republican members of the county’s legislative delegation over the objections of their Democratic colleagues.

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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