Boyce clinging to narrow lead over Lee
Retired Marine Col. Mike Boyce was clinging to a narrow lead over incumbent Tim Lee in Tuesday’s Republican primary election for Cobb Commission chairman, with 90 percent of the county’s 144 precincts reporting.
Boyce was just short of the margin necessary to avoid a runoff, which would be held in July if he does not receive more than 50 percent of the vote.
Boyce has run an extensive grass-roots campaign that launched late last year, with more than 23,000 houses visited and 47,000 phone calls to registered voters, according to his website.
Lee, chairman since 2010, ran a campaign this year painting himself as a conservative who has cut property tax rates to pre-recession levels while also making big investments in public safety — creating 80 new police officer positions and providing investments in police cars, equipment and benefits. Lee’s direct mail advertising says his “unquestioned conservative leadership” has created 19,000 jobs, led to continuation of the county’s high bond rating and to $1.2 billion in transportation improvements.
He has also continually called the SunTrust Park deal a “home run” for the county.
“Cobb is on the right track; we can’t change course now,” says one glossy mailer.
But stadium issues were the prime counter-attack for Boyce and the third candidate in the race, retired businessman Larry Savage. They both talked about the county’s lack of transparency in the stadium deal, no referendum on the $400 million public investment and what they call Lee’s favoritism of special business interests over everyday citizens.
The tag-line for Boyce’s campaign was: “If we can vote on a $40 million bond for parks, why can’t we vote on a $400 million stadium bond?”
Lee handily defeated Boyce and Savage in 2012, and ultimately won in a run-off by 1,300 votes against former Commission Chairman Bill Byrne.
This year, the three candidates ran campaigns largely focused on issues, until the last few weeks. Lee sent out a piece of direct mail that depicted Boyce with puppet strings and saying: “Who is Mike Boyce? Nothing more than a puppet for disgraced ex-chairman Bill Byrne.” Byrne is not in this year’s race.
And just a month ago, a political consultant who shares office space with the company that’s paid $168,000-a-year as the county’s lobbyist, formed a political action committee that has been running television ads touting Lee’s conservatism.
In the other contested race on the Cobb Commission, incumbent Bob Ott had a big lead over first-time challenger Jonathan Page for the Republican nomination for the District 2 seat.
About the Author
Dan Klepal is editor of the local government team, supervising nine reporters covering county and municipal governments and metro Atlanta. Klepal came to the AJC in 2012, after a long career covering city halls in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. He has covered Gwinnett and Cobb counties before spending three years on the investigative team.
