New Ga. legislative, Congressional electoral maps approved

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.

The Republican majorities in both Houses were under orders to create more majority-black districts, but Democrats said they thought the new maps weren’t sufficient.

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 legislative lines also would redraw East Cobb’s representation in the Georgia State Senate.

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.

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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