The qualifying deadline for 2020 elections in Georgia has passed, and there haven’t been any major surprises from what candidates had announced in the weeks leading up to this week’s filing period.
The most competitive primary races for East Cobb voters will be in the Republican primaries for Cobb Commission Chairman and Cobb Commission District 2, as well as Democratic and Republican primaries for Post 5 on the Cobb Board of Education.
There also will be a multi-candidate field in the Republican primary for the 6th Congressional District, including former Congresswoman Karen Handel and four others.
The primaries are May 19, and Cobb voters also will be choosing party nominees for countywide offices including sheriff and district attorney, all legislative seats and one of two U.S. Senate seats.
Non-partisan primaries for judge positions on Cobb State Court and Cobb Superior Court also will be on the primary ballot.
Two legislative elections in East Cobb will feature rematches in November. In State Senate 32, Republican incumbent Kay Kirkpatrick is being opposed once again by Democrat Christine Triebsch.
In State House 43, Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper will face Democrat Luisa Wakeman, who made a close race in what has been a what has been a safe seat for Cooper, the House Health and Human Services Committee chairwoman.
Cobb Commission Chairman
Republican incumbent Mike Boyce of East Cobb is seeking a second term, and will be facing a familiar primary opponent and another newcomer.
Another East Cobb resident, Larry Savage, is making his third attempt in the GOP primary, having run in 2012 and 2016. Ricci Mason of Acworth, a retired Cobb Police officer, will be making his political debut.
The only Democrat to qualify is Lisa Cupid, who is completing her second term as District 4 commissioner in South Cobb.
Cobb Commission District 2
The retirement of Bob Ott has prompted several Republican candidates to qualify for the district, which includes some of East Cobb as well as the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area.
The GOP qualifiers are East Cobb residents Andy Smith, Ott’s appointee to the Cobb Planning Commission, Kevin Nicholas, a Boyce appointee to the Development Authority of Cobb County, and business executive and entrepreneur Fitz Johnson of Vinings.
Nicholas ran for Post 6 on the Cobb school board (Walton, Wheeler clusters) in 2012 and Fitz Johnson is a former candidate for Georgia School Superintendent.
Jerica Richardson, who’s worked on several Democratic campaigns, including that of current Cobb school board member Jaha Howard, is the only Democrat to qualify.
Richardson and Smith are first-time candidates for public office.
Cobb School Board Post 5
Three-term Republican incumbent David Banks had little opposition in his last two re-election bids but has plenty this year from several first-time candidates for the seat that includes the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones.
Other GOP candidates he’ll be facing in the primary are Delta Air Lines pilot Shelley O’Malley and IT consultant Matt Harper.
Another announced Republican candidate, attorney Rob Madayag, said this week he wouldn’t be running due to legal action he’s threatening against the Cobb County School District over bullying reporting issues.
Two Democratic candidates have qualified, current Lassiter PTSA co-president Tammy Andress and physical therapist Julia Hurtado.
The Pope High School Council is holding a forum for the Post 5 candidates next Sunday, March 15, at 3 p.m. in the school’s performing arts center.
6th District Congress
Handel, who won the seat in a 2017 special election but lost to Democrat Lucy McBath in 2018, got the support of the Republican establishment as she began her bid to regain her seat.
In the GOP primary, she will be on the ballot along with operations manager Mykel Lynn Barthelmy, Alpharetta businessman Blake Harbin, retired business owner Paulette Smith and former Altanta Falcons running back Joe Profit.
McBath is the only Democrat to qualify in the 6th District, which includes East Cobb, North Fulton and North DeKalb.
Cobb Sheriff
Longtime incumbent Neil Warren is the only Republican to qualify, but there’s a three-way race for the Democratic nomination, involving former sheriff’s deputy Jimmy Herndon of East Cobb, Gregory Gilstrap and Craig Owens.
Legislative races
The only East Cobb seat in the Georgia General Assembly with a contested primary is in District 46. Caroline Holko, who ran for Cobb Commission District 3 in 2018, is facing nurse Shirley Ritchie. Incumbent State Rep. John Carson is the only Republican who qualified.
In District 33, Republican incumbent Don Parsons will face Democratic consultant Connie DiCicco in November. In District 45, Republican State Rep. Matt Dollar is being challenged by Sarah Tindall Ghazal, a former voter access specialist for the Georgia Democratic Party.
Cobb Judgeships
Five incumbent Superior Court judges will not face re-election opposition: Kimberly Childs, Mary Staley, Gregory Poole, Tain Kell and Chief Judge Reuben Green did not draw any challengers.
Two retirements have prompted primary contests: Attorneys John Robert Greco, Jason Marbutt of East Cobb and Greg Shenton are vying for the post being vacated by Stephen Schuster.
Judge Lark Ingram also is retiring, and her post drew candidates Kellie Hill, currently a Cobb magistrate judge, and attorney Daniele Johnson.
In State Court, a retirement there also has led to a contested primary in Division 1, Post 6, where Toby Prodgers is stepping aside. The candidates are attorneys Joseph Atkins, Trina Griffiths, Scott Halperin, Mazi Mazloom, Diana Simmons and David Willingham.
Seven other incumbents are unopposed, as are the incumbent Chief Magistrate Judge, Brendan Murphy, and Probate Court Judge Kelli Wolk.
See State Court candidates listed here.
U.S. Senate
Seven Democrats have qualified for the nomination to oppose Republican incumbent David Perdue, who has no primary opposition.
The hopefuls include Jon Ossoff, who lost to Handel in a special Congressional election in 2017, former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, former lieutenant governor candidate Sarah Riggs Amico, retired military veteran James Knox, journalist Tricia Carpenter McCracken, health care professional Marckeith DeJesus and civil rights lawyer Maya Dillard Smith.
A “jungle primary” to determine who’ll finish the final two years of former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term will take place in November.
Republican businesswoman Kelly Loeffler, appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp until then, has primary opposition from Congressman Doug Collins, engineer Derrick Grayson, business executive Wayne Johnson and educator Kandiss Taylor.
Democratic candidates include Matt Lieberman, the son of former U.S. Senator and Democratic vice presidental nominee Joe Lieberman, Tamara Johnson-Shealey, physician Joy-Felicia Slade, attorney Ed Tarver and Richard Dien Winfield, a philosophy professor at the University of Georgia.
Unless there is an outright winner (50 percent plus-1 of the vote), the top two finishers, regardless of party, would go into a runoff.
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