The man behind a political action committee running television ads that encourage people to re-elect Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee has close ties to the founder of a company that is paid $168,000 per year as Cobb County’s lobbyist.
Chip Lake, owner of the political consulting firm Glendale Strategies, formed Cobb First, Inc. on April 28, and the PAC has been paying for commercials touting Lee’s conservatism on Fox News in heavy rotation. The ads say Cobb First is not affiliated with Lee’s campaign.
Lake has for years shared office space — including a county-owned building on Waddell Street in Marietta — with heavyweight political advisor Heath Garrett’s companies, GMHC360 and COMM360.
In addition to lobbying for Cobb, Garrett's company has been involved in Lee's campaigns as recently as June, when former partner Sheri Kell produced a "tribute video" for the chairman. Kell, whose mother-in-law is Lee's campaign chairwoman, left the firm in August when she was hired as the county's $110,000-a-year spokeswoman.
Lake said Glendale Strategies is a separate company from Garrett’s, and that Garrett does not have any involvement in Cobb First. Lake also said his company has never performed work for the Cobb government. Glendale Strategies currently shares a suite with Garrett’s companies in an office tower on Cumberland Boulevard.
“My company … along with several other companies lease space at the same location,” Lake wrote in an email. “While I have worked on projects with COMM360 in the past, Cobb County was not one of them. In fact, there have been at least two instances over the last three years in which my company has competed with COMM360 for business.”
Kerwin Swint, chair of Kennesaw State University’s Political Science Department, said there is nothing unusual about consultants sharing office space. But, Swint said, voters “have a right to know who is behind campaign spending.”
Lake's association with the PAC paying for the television ads isn't readily apparent in the incorporation documents.
The address listed for Cobb First is a mail box in a UPS store on Whitlock Avenue in Marietta. The registered agent is Anne Lewis, general counsel for the Georgia Republican Party. Lake’s address on the document is also listed as the mail box on Whitlock.
“Glendale Strategies and at least eight other entities have leased or subleased space in that location over the last two years,” Garrett said of the suite on Cumberland Blvd.
Lee did not respond to requests from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for an interview. He is locked in a tough re-election battle with two challengers — retired Marine Col. Mike Boyce and retired businessman Larry Savage. Both challengers said they are focused on their bids for office and can’t be distracted by the Cobb First PAC.
Cobb First’s incorporation papers say its purpose is to operate “as an independent committee to support … candidates … who will make certain Cobb County remains at the forefront of innovation and job creation and continues to be the best place in Georgia to do business and to raise a family.”
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