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!