The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A look at some of the key metro races
Mayors, councils, boards and taxes are on the docket.
Metro Atlanta voters went to the polls Tuesday to elect a slew of mayors, city council members, county commissioners and school board members. Some also decided whether to impose new taxes to pay for roads and other improvements.
Here’s a look at some of the key races.
DeKalb County
In DeKalb County, most voters were supporting a plan to raise sales taxes from 7 percent to 8 percent. This special purpose local option sales tax would raise more than $100 million a year for road repaving, fire station repairs, police cars and other infrastructure.
While the SPLOST would be a tax increase, another referendum on the ballot would lower property taxes.
The measure would dedicate all proceeds from an existing 1 percent sales tax to reducing county property taxes.
Other items on the ballot included elections for several mayors and city council seats, as well as a referendum to make permanent a tax break for homeowners.
Cobb County
In Cobb, the cities of Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna elected new council members. Marietta also held elections for the city school board.
In Austell, Ollie Clemons Jr. and Randy Green won council seats, while Marlin Lamar beat out Ikaika Anderson for a third seat by just two votes in unofficial results.
In Kennesaw, Pat Ferris, Chris Henderson and David Blinkhorn were elected to city council.
A three-way council race in Marietta was headed to a
runoff between Cheryl Richardson and Jay Davis. Reggie Copeland won the Ward 5 seat, while Jason Waters, Allison Gruehn and Angela Orange were poised to take seats on the school board.
In Powder Springs, Nancy Farmer beat out Nancy Hudson for a seat on council.
Smyrna’s special election to fill the Ward 3 seat will likely head to a runoff.
In races for three school board seats for Marietta City Schools, with all precincts reporting, there was one race where an incumbent was ousted.
Challenger Angela Orange led incumbent Jeriene Bonner-Grimes for Seat 5. Incumbent Jason Waters held a commanding lead over Arthur Vaughn for seat 2.
Incumbent Allison Gruehn defeated challenger Camile Jones for Seat 4.
Gwinnett County
In Gwinnett, voters in two cities elected what were believed to be the county’s first-ever non-white mayors.
Norcross voters elected the
county’s first African-American mayor in Craig Newton, a longtime city councilman who was uncontested in his bid to replace outgoing Mayor Bucky Johnson. Former councilman Rey Martinez became the first Latino mayor of any Gwinnett County city by besting Donna B. Jones in Loganville’s mayoral race.
Atlanta City Council
The race for Atlanta City Council president pitted three already well-known elected officials against each other.
Early results suggested a tight race between C.T. Martin, an 80-year-old retired social worker from southwest Atlanta, has been the councilman for District 10 for more than two decades; Felicia Moore, a 56-year-old real estate broker from Collier Heights, was first elected to serve the city’s District 9 in 1997; and Alex Wan, the 50-year-old director of development and alumni relations at Emory University, is in his second term representing District 6.
Fourteen other Atlanta City Council seats were also contested Tuesday, including two at-large posts. Incumbent Michael Julian Bond was being challenged by Courtney D. English for his Post 1 at-large role. Matt Westmoreland, Bret R. Williams and Cory Ruth were running for Post 2 at-large.
Fulton County Commission
Three candidates competed to replace former chairman John Eaves, who resigned to run for mayor of Atlanta.
Robb Pitts, a former county commissioner, said during his campaign that he was prepared to help Fulton County achieve greatness.
Keisha Waites, a former state representative, said she wants to expand transit and find a solution for the county’s ongoing property tax problems. Gabriel Sterling, a Sandy Springs councilman, said he wants to find the ways in which Fulton County can be a leader in the state.
The District 4 Fulton County Commission seat will likely go to a runoff, with six candidates vying to fill the post that has been open since April, when Vice Chair Joan Garner died.
Competing in the race are Eddie Lee Brewster, a former East Point councilman; Kathryn Flowers, a Realtor; Natalie Hall, Garner’s former chief of staff; Steven Lee, a member of the Atlanta Board of Education; Reese McCranie, the director of policy and communications at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; and Joshua McNair, a health care sales executive.
Roswell
Voters were picking a new mayor to replace Jere Wood, who decided not to run for a sixth term after a judge found he violated term limits. Wood is challenging that decision, which has allowed him to stay in office for the end of his term.
The candidates are Michael Litten, who filed the suit seeking to remove Wood from office; Lee Jenkins, a local pastor; and two members of city council, Donald Horton and Lori Henry. Another candidate, Sandra Sidhom, dropped out.
Atlanta School Board
All nine Atlanta Board of Education seats were up for election. The roughly 50,000-student school district is still working to recover from a massive cheating scandal.
The congested ballots featured a total of 30 candidates, including six incumbents.