The year 2021 started with the election of two new U.S. Senators from Georgia and ended with the passing of a state and Cobb County political icon.
In January, Democrats Jon Ossoff (left) and Raphael Warnock won U.S. Senate runoffs by beating Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
That put the upper chamber of Congress in Democratic hands, forging a 50-50 tie, with new Democratic vice-president and former Sen. Kamala Harris presiding as President of the Senate.
Republican turnout soured after former President Donald Trump claimed voter fraud in Georgia, where Democrat Joe Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 presidential race by less than 12,000 votes.
Loeffler had served only a year after being appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to succeed Johnny Isakson, the Republican from East Cobb who retired due to health issues.
On Dec. 19, Isakson died at the age of 76, after fighting Parkinson’s Disease diagnosed in 2015, the year before he won his third term in the Senate.
Isakson served a total of 45 years in the Georgia legislature and Congress, and was praised for his commitment to bipartisanship.
His memorial service is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2022, the first anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who were attempting to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election results.
In the November general elections, Cobb voters extended the local special-purpose local-option sales tax to fund school construction, maintenance and technology projects.
Cobb Education SPLOST VI will begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and will continue through Dec. 31, 2029, raising $894 million for the Cobb school district.
Among the major projects on the list will be a new main classroom building at Sprayberry High School, as well as classroom additions at Kincaid, Mt. Bethel, Murdock, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools in East Cobb.
Also in November, the Georgia legislature held a special session to conduct Congressional and legislative reapportionment.
Among the major changes made to those lines was redrawing the 6th Congressional District, which includes most of East Cobb.
Since 2019 that seat has been held by Democrat Lucy McBath, but the new lines include part of Forsyth, Dawson and Cherokee counties that likely will create a Republican-held seat.
After the lines were finalized, McBath announced she would be running in 2022 in the 7th District, which contains most of Democrat-leaning Gwinnett County.
The new 11th District represented by GOP U.S. Rep. Barry Lowdermilk also will include some of East Cobb.
The new legislative lines will split East Cobb into four State Senate seats and retain five State House seats.
However, incumbent Republican House members Sharon Cooper and Matt Dollar were drawn into the same new District 45.
Dollar, the principal sponsor of East Cobb Cityhood legislation to be considered in 2022, announced he will not be seeking re-election next year.
In January, the Cobb legislative delegation will draw new lines for the four districts of the Cobb Board of Commissioners and all seven posts of the Cobb Board of Education.
For more politics and elections news, visit our special page.
Other Top East Cobb 2021 posts:
- Anti-Semitic incidents at Pope, Lassiter
- Major overhaul coming to The Avenue East Cobb
- Tokyo Valentino adult store closes
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