A Georgia State Senate seat that includes a small part of East Cobb is heading for a runoff, and two Democrats remain.
Jen Jordan, an Atlanta attorney, got 5,860 votes, or 24 percent, in the special election “jungle” primary in District 6. In the Dec. 5 runoff, she will face Jaha Howard, a Vinings dentist, who got 5,398 votes, or 22 percent.
Their all-Democratic runoff means the Republicans will lose a seat in the Senate. Incumbent Hunter Hill resigned from the long-held GOP seat, which covers some of Cobb, Buckhead and Sandy Springs, to run for governor.
The East Cobb portion of the district includes an area along Powers Ferry Road. In voting in that precinct, Terrell Mill 1 (Eastvalley Elementary School), Howard got 55 votes (52 percent) to 36 for Jordan (34 percent).
There were municipal elections Tuesday in Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna, and a few of those races will have runoffs.
Those Dec. 5 runoffs will wind down a busy and dramatic election year that featured the nationally-watched 6th Congressional District special election won by Republican Karen Handel over Democrat Jon Ossoff.
Handel strongly carried Republican-heavy East Cobb, getting 58 percent of the vote.
East Cobb voters also elected a new state senator in Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican and retired orthopedic surgeon, who succeeds Judson Hill. He ran for Congress and is contemplating a bid for Georgia Insurance Commissioner in 2018.
That will be one of many elections on the ballot next year, as statewide and legislative offices will be decided, in addition to Congressional seats and some state and local judgeships.
There will be a contested election for the District 3 Cobb Board of Commissioners seat in Northeast Cobb held by JoAnn Birrell. Tom Cheek, a civic activist who filed a lawsuit last year against Cobb County and filed an ethics complaint against former Chairman Tim Lee over the Atlanta Braves stadium vote, has announced his intention to run in the Republican primary.
Cheek, who resided in West Cobb, recently moved into the District and has set up a campaign website. Birrell, who is in her second term, has had a fundraising event this fall.
Two East Cobb posts on the Cobb Board of Education will also be on the ballot. They are currently held by Republicans Scott Sweeney of Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler high school districts) and David Chastain of Post 4, which includes the Kell and Sprayberry districts.
