The Georgia legislature this week gave final passage to a bill that would make most Cobb County elected offices non-partisan.
The state House passed HB 369 on Friday by a 93-64 vote, and the bill goes to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.
The bill introduced by metro Atlanta Republican lawmakers would make elections for county commissioners, school board members, district attorneys, court clerks, solicitors general and tax commissioners in Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties non-partisan.
County sheriffs elections and DeKalb County commissioners elections would be exempt from the law, which would go into effect Jan. 1, 2028 and would become effective with the 2028 election cycle.
The final vote in the House came down largely along party lines, after the Senate passed the bill 32-21 on Wednesday. You can read the bill here and check the roll call votes at the bottom of the page.
Republican State Rep. Don Parsons of East Cobb broke ranks and voted against the bill. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, another East Cobb Republican, was excused from voting.
All Cobb Democrats voted against the bill, and the rest of the county’s Republicans, in both the House and Senate, voted in favor of the bill.
The legislation applies to counties which have their own judicial circuits and appointed medical examiners.
State Sens. John Albers and Kay Kirkpatrick, Republicans with East Cobb constituencies, were among the main co-sponsors of the bill.
Albers said the bill is necessary for local jurisdictions to focus on public safety, as the five counties are considered “consolidated law enforcement counties.”
But the bill has been criticized by district attorneys in those jurisdictions, including Sonya Allen of Cobb. They claim the legislation is unconstitutional and is politically motivated, aimed in particular at Fulton DA Fani Willis.
She’s come under fire for her prosecution of Donald Trump relating to the 2020 Georgia presidential election results.
In Georgia, local municipal offices, such as city council and city school boards, are non-partisan, and county offices have traditionally been partisan (judicial seats in Georgia are all non-partisan).
But GOP lawmakers have been responding to Democratic gains in recent years in what had been Republican strongholds in suburban Atlanta (Republicans are in the majority in both chambers of the legislature and hold all statewide state government offices).
The Cobb Board of Commissioners has a 3-2 Democratic majority, and recent partisan battles included two years of disputes over the redistricting of commission electoral maps before former commissioner Jerica Richardson was removed from office.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the Cobb school board, and partisan fighting there has flared up over COVID-related spending, racial issues, Cobb County School District accreditation and the leadership of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
The bill was originally introduced as SB 573, and got a favorable vote in the Senate.
But it didn’t get a vote in the House before crossover day. HB 369 did make the crossover deadline, and was introduced as a measure to address food truck safety.
That bill was substituted in the Senate to include the non-partisan elections in the five metro Atlanta counties.
Related:
- Primaries loom in East Cobb commission school board races
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
This seems extremely targeted. And should apply to the entire state, or not be considered at all. I do think party affiliation campaigns are lazy and distracting.
Racism at its best! If the focus was on “public safety” then why exclude Sheriffs and include the Tax Commissioner? Why isn’t this applied statewide? Why just to the Metro counties? Kudos to those republicans who voted no. They think on their own and not simply Trump yes-men.
Now why would one specific party so suddenly wish to hide their affiliation? Are they ashamed, or afraid, of some sort of reputation they’ve earned? How curious.
Maybe this will make Lisa Cupid and her lackey commissioners rethink the idea of pushing for apartments in the yards of East Cobb homes under the guise of affordability. Yes these apartments will be affordable but the surrounding neighborhood property values will plunge. Making homes more affordable for others. I think that is the ultimate goal.
Should be for all counties across the state. Gerrymandering clearly.
Years ago, I lived in a state that didn’t have any political parties on the ballots. We voted for the person and their policies, not the party. No straight party voting was possible. This was a good thing for getting good, honest, people, elected, not partisans.
In that state, eventually, the GOP and Democratic parties finally were able to get their desire and add parties to the elections. That completely changed everything. It became much more partisan and outside money flooded into each election from dog catcher to Senators. Something good was lost in making the parties front and center.
Mainly, it gave unelected political party leaders from outside the state, control over who was funded in the state elections, so only people who were 100% behind the party manifesto could ever be elected.
Political parties are an important problem for all elections, in all states, across our Republic today.