Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The lawyer who brought the redistricting suit wants to lop off a piece of East Cobb, while the county commissioners ask to slice off part of the Kennesaw area.
- ELECTIONS
-
Wednesday, May 9
All of the plaintiffs in the Cobb County redistricting case “are satisfied with virtually all aspects of the court’s initial redistricting plan with one exception.” It’s just not the same exception. The five county commissioners, in a joint filing Tuesday, asked U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to tweak the border between Helen Goreham’s District 1 and JoAnn Birrell’s District 3. As discussed during Monday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, they want Jones to move his proposed dividing line east so it runs northwest along Interstate 75 until Chastain Road. The border would run west along Chastain Road and McCollum Parkway to Cobb Parkway, then would follow Jones’ existing line north to the Cherokee County border. That change would…
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The former East Cobb-based House Speaker is likely to announce the end of his GOP presidential bid on Tuesday.
- ELECTIONS
-
Wednesday, April 25
Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has been fizzling for weeks. Early next week, the former House Speaker is expected to put a formal end to his bid to become the Republican Party nominee. CNN reported that two unnamed sources close to Gingrich said the former East Cobb Congressman and House Speaker would suspend his campaign in Washington on Tuesday. According to Fox News, a campaign source said Gingrich would then endorse former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney swept to easy victories Tuesday in the Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York primaries, adding to his delegate count in what is essentially an unopposed field. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out of the race earlier this month. …
Friday, April 13, 2012
The Northeast Cobb Republican is seeking a full term in State House District 46.
- ELECTIONS
-
Friday, April 13
Just a few months after winning a special election for a Georgia legislative seat, State Rep. John Carson is gearing up for another campaign. Carson, a Republican who is an accountant with SunTrust Bank, announced Friday he is seeking a full four-year term for the State House District 46 seat. The new district covers much of the same area he currently represents in District 43. But the redrawn and renumbered district will add some areas of southeast Cherokee County to his Northeast Cobb base following reapportionment during the 2012 General Assembly. “It’s been an honor to serve the people of House District 43 in the General Assembly this session," Carson said. "It’s hard to believe it is campaign season again, since I just completed one…
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Part 2 of the pro-sales-tax campaign kicks off today. What do you think?
- ELECTIONS
-
Wednesday, April 4
Citizens for Transportation Mobility is holding a news conference in Buckhead this morning to unveil its campaign urging voters in Cobb and nine other counties in metro Atlanta to approve the TSPLOST referendum July 31. “Traffic is killing jobs. Let’s untie the knot,” the new commercial says, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which got a preview. Unlike the education phase of the campaign for the 1-cent, 10-year regional transportation sales tax, the new push makes no effort to hide its desired outcome: approval of the tax. The tax would provide an estimated $6.14 billion for a list of regional road and transit projects, plus about $1 billion in Cobb-specific projects. Opponents of the tax lack the money and organization of …
City residents will join unincorporated Cobb County in voting on the alcohol referendum this time.
- ELECTIONS
-
Wednesday, April 4
A Paulding County judge has made it official: All of Cobb County will vote again on Sunday package sales of alcohol July 31. Superior Court Judge Arthur Fudger signed a consent order Monday between the county and plaintiffs who challenged the March 6 referendum in which residents of unincorporated voted to allow Sunday sales, The Marietta Daily Journal reported. The order was filed with the Cobb County Superior Court clerk's office Tuesday. Former state Rep. Roger Hines of Acworth made the challenge, arguing that the county was wrong to exclude residents of Cobb's six cities from the countywide vote. Fudger received the case because Cobb's Superior Court judges recused themselves. The county Board of Elections and Registration decided …
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The election on the regional sales tax is exactly four months away, and the bulk-mail brochures are starting to arrive.
TSPLOST proponents have a lot of work to do in the next four months if the reaction at East Cobb forums is an accurate reflection of public opinion about the regional 1-cent sales tax for transportation projects. That work is well underway. A glossy brochure (images attached) arrived in the mail at the satellite office of East Cobb Patch this afternoon from Transform Metro Atlanta, based in downtown Atlanta. Financed by the Metro Atlanta Voter Education Network, or MAVEN, the four-page brochure follows the suburban story line of the TV commercials you may have seen in favor of the Transportation Improvement Act: In short, as the tagline on the bag of the brochure say, "Less traffic = more time at home." What do you think of the brochure? …
Friday, March 23, 2012
The elections board's decision means a July 31 referendum is likely, and sales could start Aug. 12.
Cobb County is back on the Sunday wagon, at least until mid-August. The county Board of Elections and Registrationdecided during a special meeting Friday morning not to fight a voter challenge to the referendum that approved Sunday package sales of alcoholin unincorporated parts of Cobb. That means Sunday sales will not start June 3 as now scheduled. It also means all citizens in Cobb County will likely have the chance to vote on Sunday sales again July 31, even though almost 70 percent of county voters already said yes March 6. The problem is that residents of Cobb’s six cities were excluded from the countywide referendum despite paying taxes, electing officials and receiving services from the county and voting on other countywide issues…
Friday, March 16, 2012
A Marietta lawyer is seeking a revote to include residents of the county's six municipalities.
- ELECTIONS
-
Friday, March 16
The Sunday alcohol referendom that passed earlier this month in Cobb County is being taken to court. In the March 6 primary only those in unincorporated Cobb County voted on a the referendum. Some are questioning whether or not residents in Cobb's six cities should have been able to vote on it as well. In Cherokee County, all residents, cities included, voted in November to allow Sunday sales. Marietta lawyer Justin O'Dell of Cauthron, Nohr & O’Dell filed a petition in Cobb County Superior Court Friday to ask for a revote that includes the residents of the county's six cities as well as those who live in unincorporated areas, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Asked about the county's response, Cobb government spokesman Robert …
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Cobb elections officials were about 90 minutes slower getting the first results out last night than during the SPLOST vote in March 2011, but then things moved faster.
If you went in search of election results Tuesday night on the Cobb County election returns home page, you had to wait until 9 p.m., two hours after the polls closed, for any information. It was close to 11 p.m. before all of the results were in. When Cobb County had the SPLOST election a year ago, the first results came in by 7:30 p.m. In an e-mail to Patch, Elections Director Janine Eveler says there is a logical, positive explanation: Our processes have changed since March 2011; we no longer ask the poll workers to transmit results from the polls. Transmitting did provide some initial results sooner but it delayed the overall process by adding 42 additional steps to the poll closing procedures and because some polls made multiple …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
The former House Speaker won a portion of his old Congressional district by only 308 votes.
- ELECTIONS
-
Wednesday, March 7
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who lived in East Cobb while he represented Georgia's 6th Congressional district, didn't win his old stomping grounds by much in Tuesday's presidential primary. He edged former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Republican balloting by only 308 votes, or roughly 37 percent to 36 percent of the more than 25,000 ballots cast in East Cobb's 29 precincts. Voting was tight between the two in almost all of the precincts. Gingrich tallied more than 46 percent of the vote to easily won the Georgia primary for only his second win, to go along with South Carolina. What follows is an East Cobb precinct-by-precinct breakdown of Tuesday's Georgia presidential primary and Cobb Sunday alcohol sales referendum results…
Mark Britley
10:59 pm on Sunday, March 25, 2012
This was obviously done to reverse the law and is wasting time and effort that Cobb needs in other areas to improve our county. I know they don't say this, but think for a minute: If you were accepting of the sale of alcohol on Sunday, then why would you sue Cobb County to give the right for the other cities to vote on it? Obviously you don't want the sale of liquor on Sunday and you had to find … more ›