Jerica Richardson

Cobb commission, school board redistricting maps approved

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Cobb redistricting
Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.


Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.

The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.

The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.

Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.

Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).

District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.

The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.

The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.

But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.

“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.

“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”

District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year. 

Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.

She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.

Cobb school board redistricting town hall
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.

East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.

She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”

While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.

Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.

For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.

The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.

Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.

The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.

(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)

McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.

Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.

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Jerica Richardson declares as Cobb commission District 2 candidate

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Jerica Richardson, Cobb commission candidate

After working to get a new member of the Cobb Board of Education elected last year, East Cobb resident Jerica Richardson has decided to run for public office in 2020.

Richardson, who lives in the Delk Road area, is a candidate for the District 2 Cobb Board of Commissioners seat held by 11-year incumbent Bob Ott.

She said she’s formally launching her campaign in August (her campaign website is here) and is running “because it is time that the community has a seat at the table.”

On her personal website, Richardson describes herself as a “hacktivist” who’s writing a book on the subject. In it, she urges those who are “tired of being ignored” to “pick up those dreams again and inch closer to being who you were meant to be.”

In an interview with East Cobb News, Richardson didn’t offer many specifics about what her priorities would be for now. She admits to being a “firebrand” who dates her interest in politics to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which took place when she was 12.

“Running for office has always been something that’s been in the back of my mind,” she said. “The impact our elected representatives have can serve as an empowerment tool for the community.”

Richardson, who works in an enterprise transformation unit at Equifax, serves on the Facilities and Technologies Committee, a SPLOST advisory board, for the Cobb County School District. She was appointed by school board member Jaha Howard, whose campaign she worked on and who was elected last year to represent the Osborne and Campbell clusters.

Richardson, who’s running as a Democrat in what’s been long-held Republican territory, is the only declared candidate thus far in District 2. It includes most of East Cobb below Sandy Plains Road, as well as the Cumberland-Vinings area and portions of Smyrna.

(story continues below the map)

Cobb commission District 2
Map via Cobb Elections. For enlarged map click here.

Ott, a Republican and the dean of the five-member Cobb Board of Commissioners, has not yet indicated whether he’s running for a fourth term. He’s also downplayed speculation he’s interested in running for commission chairman, or possibly mayor of a proposed City of East Cobb should such a referendum be on next year’s ballot.

Current chairman Mike Boyce and South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid have announced their candidacies for chairman next year.

Richardson and her family moved to Atlanta from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Her brothers attended Walton High School. She graduated from the North Springs arts and sciences charter school in Fulton County and earned a biomedical engineering degree from Georgia Tech.

She said that community “disconnections” between citizens and their elected officials promoted her to consider running. Who are those individuals?

“People who live and work here and who want to see Cobb grow,” she said.

As for specific issues, Richardson said “I’m keeping my finger on that. I want to be very careful how I look at these issues.

“It’s not about me being any kind of savior,” she said. “It’s about bringing people together. I want to be a real representative.”

Richardson declined to comment on what she thinks of Ott’s record, saying that “my campaign is fresh, and he hasn’t made a decision.”

Among the challenges she sees are those the commissioners are dealing with now, including getting a long-term handle on budgeting, taxes and public safety.

She said she will have more detailed comments on policy issues when she unveils her campaign next month.

“There’s a lot there,” Richardson said. “How to articulate what direction we need to go is very important to me. Words matter.”

In mid-June Richardson filed a campaign declaration form with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. Since then, she said her campaign has raised around $10,000 (the current reporting period must be filed by the end of September).

Ott’s latest campaign disclosure form, dated July 1, indicates he raised $55,000 in the second quarter of 2019, and lists the office being “held or sought” as District 2.

 

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