Cobb County’s redistricting maps have become a divisive issue in the county with Democrats, including former Gov. Roy Barnes, accusing the county’s Republican representatives of playing politics with the County Commission districts.
At issue is the Mableton area in south Cobb that would be split into two commission districts under a proposed map drawn by Reps. Rich Golick and Ed Setzler. All of Mableton is currently in the southwest district represented by Commissioner Woody Thompson. The proposed map carves the Mable House complex, including the Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre, out of Thompson’s district and places it in that of southeast Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott.
The lawmakers said they had to even out the size of the four districts after west Cobb commission districts grew faster than the east ones, and they argue that it gives Mableton more representation.
That's not how Thompson sees it.
“They gutted the heart of Mableton and south Cobb by putting the 2nd District [Ott’s] that far over into my district,” said Thompson, the only Democrat on Cobb's County Commission. Thompson was a Republican who had represented the area for two terms before being ousted by a Democrat in 2004.
In 2008, he switched his party affiliation to Democrat and won re-election among his changing constituency. “They are trying to make sure that the 2nd District stays Republican, so they are gerrymandering that to pick up some of the Republican neighborhoods out of my district," he said.
The proposed map, which has been approved by the county’s House delegation, is scheduled for a vote by the full House when the state Legislature reconvenes Wednesday. The maps would be used in commission elections this year.
Before that happens, Thompson is trying to drum up support among his commission colleagues for a revised map, which he hopes to place on the commission’s Tuesday agenda. Four of the five commissioners have to agree to the agenda addition.
“I’m not sure if it will mean anything to the folks downtown [Cobb’s legislative delegation], but at least this will be a vote to give them,” said Thompson.
His brother Sen. Steve Thompson, another Democrat in heavily Republican Cobb County, said he has Sen. Doug Stoner, D-Smyrna, in his corner, and he is seeking at least one more Cobb senator to at least delay a vote on the proposed map.
The Thompsons have an ally in Barnes, a Mableton native, who called the decision to divide Mableton "petty politics."
"I think it’s a shame and disgrace that Mableton, which is the only community other than Smyrna, which has pulled itself up by its own bootstraps and is trying to redevelop and has aggressive plans to do so, now is being slapped in the face by the legislative delegation and by the commission in failing to keep Mableton together in one district," he said.
By law, Cobb's four commission districts must be as evenly divided by population as possible. But the west Cobb districts grew more than the east districts, according to 2010 census figures, so the districts represented by Thompson and Commissioner Helen Goreham in northwest Cobb had to shed residents.
Commissioners could not unanimously agree on a district proposal, and did not have a formal vote or resolution, as did the county's school board on a school district map. State lawmakers, who are charged with drawing the commission districts, took over the process and presented the now contentious version of the districts in December.
When reached Friday, Setzler said he was not inclined to delay a vote or reconsider the map. “I think there is consensus that we need to move forward with what we have,” said Setzler, R-Acworth, Cobb’s delegation chairman. “... I don’t think the map that was circulated harms [Thompson’s] area."
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