Hey, hey, hey... Goodbye!
Bob Ott defeated Joe Thompson in the Cobb County Commissioner Republican primary race in District 2, by an almost 2 to 1 margin. I know the cycling community pushed hard with a get out the vote effort against Thompson, who was the commissioner who introduced the Columns Drive anti-cycling measure. While many other groups were happy to be rid of Thompson, I am very happy the cycling community was able to flex it muscles and show that it is a group of people to be considered.
Annette Kesting, the Democratic Commissioner from District 4 was defeated in the Democratic primary by Woody Thompson, a former 2-term Republican commissioner from District 4 who changed parties to challenge Kesting, who beat him 4 years ago in the general election. (Thompson was also formerly a Democrat who changed to Republican to... hey, whatever he has to do to get himself elected...) While Kesting did not introduce the anti-cycling ordinance, she did happily vote for it, so it is nice to see her ousted. I wish the cycling community could take some credit for that, but Kesting shot herself in the foot repeatedly and pretty much insured who own defeat.
Commission Chair Sam Olens, also voting for the anti-cycling ordinance, was not challenged. He seems to be the GOP's fair haired boy right now, and is probably untouchable.
The Commission may net out on Thompson's. We lose anti-cycling Joe Thompson and may gain Woody Thompson. I cannot say for sure how Woody Thompson will vote on cycling issues, but I do know that Paul McNulty, townhome owner on Columns, and one of the people pushing the anti-cycling ordinance, seemed to be a very big Woody Thompson supporter when I talked to him during a Cobb Commission meeting. Hopefully he has seen what can happen to commissioners who propose anti-cycling ordinances. He does have to face Republican Barbara Hickey in the general. This may be another race cyclists may want to get feedback on.
Barbara Hickey is an Smyrna etiquette school owner. Her website is here. She seems to be very active in the community, but not with any cycling organizations.
Congrats to Bob Ott and good luck in the general election!
Story in AJC.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment