With the possibility of significant political change abounding in Cobb County, Jerica Richardson wants to be more than a symbol of what she says has been transpiring for some time.
A self-professed policy wonk and technology professional, the 31-year-old aide in several successful local campaigns is making her first stab at political office.
It’s coming at a time when her fellow Democrats have been gaining momentum in recent elections in the county.
“That I’m running is really separate from that,” said Richardson, who is facing Republican Fitz Johnson for District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in the Nov. 3 general election.
Johnson has received the endorsement of retiring commissioner Bob Ott, while Richardson is being backed by former Gov. Roy Barnes of Cobb County.
She says she’s part of “new flavor” of Democrats that forms just one part of a “wide spectrum of candidates” who’ve been making inroads into what has been a strongly Republican electorate.
Her sizable campaign staff includes quite a number of young people responsible for such duties as Hispanic outreach, sustainability initiatives and social media fundraising.
Richardson’s website can be found here; East Cobb News profiled Johnson earlier this week.
A former state school superintendent candidate, Johnson has been pointing to his military, business and community experience in attempting to win his first election.
Most recently, Richardson directed the campaign of Cobb Board of Education member Jaha Howard and was his appointment to the district’s SPLOST oversight board until she decided to run.
On Sunday, she’s having a get out the vote rally with Howard at the green space at The Battery Atlanta, and has been “tag teaming” with other Democratic candidates in leaving campaign materials with targeted voters.
She was unopposed in the Democratic primary and received more votes (24,126) than the three Republican primary candidates combined (18,371).
She said she’s not taking those numbers for granted and is learning the lay of a very diverse district, which stretches from the Cumberland-Vinings area to northeast Cobb around Mabry Park.
Richardson, who lives in the Delk Road area, is familiar with the heart of East Cobb. Her family moved to the Hampton Chase subdivision as she was finishing up at North Springs High School, and her brothers attended Walton High School.
The family came to metro Atlanta after evacuating New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. Richardson graduated from Georgia Tech with a biomedical engineering degree.
She said her vision in seeking office is to help better connect Cobb County—its citizens, communities and organizations—across a range of issues.
“The message is timeless,” Richardson said. “There are so many wonderful things that Cobb County has to offer, but we have some divisions. Connecting Cobb is the overarching message for that.”
She raises similar concerns as Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who’s running against Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce.
Whether it’s land use and development, transit and other issues, Richardson thinks county government leaders need to establish stronger working ties with other public officials and bodies and citizens and community groups.
“A lot of relationships are just broken,” she said, citing the process under which the Atlanta Braves stadium deal was brokered in 2013. “A lot of people felt that their concerns weren’t considered at all, and it was a missed opportunity. They didn’t feel like they mattered, and this is still going on in other parts of the county.”
Richardson said she would prioritize community engagement—what she calls her “empowerment” agenda—in numerous capacities, and according to what she calls “responsible transparency.”
Those include land use, zoning and development issues in a District that ranges from high-density commercial districts in Cumberland and traditional suburban neighborhoods in East Cobb.
Richardson advocates more master planning activities that includes community feedback beyond the current zoning process.
She also said the county needs to do a better job of steering citizens toward community resources.
“Only a certain group of people know how to find that kind of information,” she said.
Richardson said that while “the sky is not falling” in Cobb County in terms of political leadership, she thinks the commission has become too fractious, with commissioners acting “too separately” instead of the county has a whole.
“All five board members have equal votes on the issues that matter the most,” she said. “I want to look for solutions that affect everyone.”
Richardson opposes East Cobb Cityhood. A bill proposed last year by State Rep. Matt Dollar, an East Cobb Republican, included a city map with most of District 2 east of I-75. But a cityhood group said a year ago it was delaying its efforts.
After attending several cityhood town halls over the last couple of years, she said “I was very inspired by the community response. Democrats and Republicans were really united about that!”
She said that with cityhood, “you’re going to see higher taxes, you’re going to see a double layer of government.”
More than anything, Richardson said she questions the motives of those behind cityhood. “Whether it’s for political power or for demographic reasons, I don’t know.
“But I heard from a lot of people who were concerned about what would happen to the rest of the county,” she said, adding that she gets a few e-mails a week about the cityhood issue.
Richardson said she’s encouraged by the start of a step-and-grade salary structure for public safety employees.
She worries that “very conservative leadership” in Cobb over many years has the county, now with more than 750,000 people, budgeted at what she estimates is 60-70 percent of what “counties our size have been operating on.
“It’s thin but I don’t support raising taxes,” Richardson said. “I want to raise the tax base.”
She supports creating a potential Cobb sales tax for extending transit in the county in targeted areas, and would advocate a long-term public health response in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Among those initiatives would be coordinating pandemic preparations with local school districts and have a strengthened working relationship with Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
“They’re at the table, but we need to figure out how to move past this in the long run,” she said.
As Cobb continues to grow and become diverse, Richardson said she’s eager to tackle the challenge of striking the right balance for a county that’s at an important crossroads.
“The task is to keep Cobb home for those who have been here, but also for those who are yet to come,” she said.
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