Cobb Commission, School Board Maps Yield Heated Debate At First Committee Hearing

COBB COUNTY, GA — Following over an hour of debate over the local redistricting process, Cobb County's commission and school board redistricting maps did not get voted on but will still move to a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday.

State Rep. John Carson, R-northeast Cobb, proposed the Board of Commissioners' district maps, while state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-west Cobb, proposed the one for the Board of Education.

Typically, local commission maps go through the House's Intragovernmental Coordination Committee. But Republican legislators in both Cobb and Gwinnett counties have filed those maps through the Governmental Affairs Committee, allowing them to advance without the majority support of the county's delegation, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.

Ehrhart's map is the same one approved by the Cobb school board's Republican majority in December, and drafted by law firm Taylor English Duma LLP.

In Carson's proposed map, most of East Cobb would be drawn into District 3, represented by Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, instead of split between Districts 2 and 3. District 2 would instead include the Interstate 75 corridor from Kennesaw through Marietta and retain a majority of the Smyrna-Vinings area.

District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson — first elected in 2020 and whose term expires in 2024 — would then be drawn out of her East Cobb district, meaning she'd have to move if the bill is approved. She lived in the Cumberland area until last summer, when she moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road, East Cobb News reported.

State Rep. Erick Allen, D-Smyrna, drafted his own map for the county commission, which was endorsed by the commission's Democratic majority last month.

"The voters of District 2 should be appalled — and I mean appalled — that they are regarded as not being intelligent enough to know what is in their best interest," District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield said Monday at a House subcommittee hearing, according to the MDJ.

The new school board map would shift Post 6, including the Walton and Wheeler clusters, into the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area, according to ECN.

This would reduce East Cobb representation to one board member: Republican David Banks of Post 5 and vice chairman of the board. Democrat Charisse Davis of Post 6 would be drawn into the same district as Jaha Howard, another Democrat representing the Smyrna area of Post 2, ECN reported.

The Cobb County Democratic Committee called the maps "gerrymandered" and urged the public to "stand in protest against these shameful acts."

However, some supporters of the maps said the new versions reflect the county's makeup more appropriately, and accused some legislators of "talking out of both sides of their mouth."

"Someone came up a moment ago and said, 'Erick Allen's map got voted on by a 3-2 vote of the county commission, therefore that makes it legitimate.' Well, the map that. ... Rep. Ehrhart's presenting was voted on 4-3 by our school board, but that's now being attacked as being illegitimate," state Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, said at the hearing, according to the MDJ. "People can't have it both ways."

Related:

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• Cobb Law Firm Tapped To Redraw Cobb's School District Maps
• Cobb School Board Member To Run For Georgia School Superintendent