There haven't been many high profile Cobb politicians who've publicly advocated significant public transit options in the county.  But former Marietta mayor Bill Dunaway has done more than merely support TSPLOST funding for more than just road improvements.  He's also accusing those who oppose transit plans of lacking vision.  In an op-ed piece on Sunday in The Marietta Daily Journal, Dunaway teed off on those who claim the $856 million project is a waste of taxpayer money, will take too long to build and will not solve traffic congestion in Cobb:  "I am not supporting any transit proposal …

Given the hostility at a recent public hearing in East Cobb to the proposed metro Atlanta regional transportation SPLOST, the results of a new poll suggesting changing attitudes in key suburban areas may be surprising.  As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailed the poll results on Monday, the passage of the TSPLOST next summer could very well hinge on how the vote goes down in Cobb and Gwinnett. Voters in the 10-county TSPLOST area will either approve or reject the penny sales tax across the board, regardless of the results in individual counties. The Mason-Dixon results showed support for…

Former Cobb commission chairman Sam Olens is returning to his political roots Wednesday.  Olens, an East Cobb resident who was elected Georgia's Attorney General last November, will be the featured speaker at the East Cobb Civic Association's monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the East Cobb Library, 4880 Lower Roswell Road.  Olens also is a former president of the influential ECCA, which also was the springboard to electoral office for current East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott.  Gingrey to hold Cobb town hall meeting U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey will conduct the second of two town hall meetings …

The additional U.S. House seat awarded to Georgia could substantially affect the shape of two of the three Congressional districts covering Cobb County.  They are the seats occupied by Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell), who represents most of East Cobb and Northeast Cobb in his 6th District, and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta), whose 11th District would get a major redrawing according to maps unveiled Monday.  (See PDF attachments of current maps and proposals for the metro Atlanta area and state of Georgia for details.) As noted by the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, not only would House …

The window to apply to run in the Sept. 20 special election to succeed the late state Rep. Bobby Franklin won't be open very long—from next Monday to next Wednesday, as Julia Harris explains at Northeast Cobb Patch.  Franklin, the Northeast Cobb Republican who was found dead at his home late last month, engendered a firestorm of criticism for his socially conservative views and legislation.  What he didn't attract during much of his 15-year Georgia legislative career was political opposition.   The 43rd House District he represented covers the northernmost corner of Northeast Cobb, roughly …

Without the mandate of a balanced budget amendment, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey said he could not go along with a federal debt ceiling agreement that passed the House of Representatives Monday night.  On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate also passed the plan 74-26, with Georgia Republican Senator and East Cobb resident Johnny Isakson votingwith the majority. Saxby Chambliss was one of 11 GOP senators to vote no.  The agreement barely beats a deadline under which the U.S. government would have defaulted for the first time in history, but members of Congress on both sides of the vote, from both parties …

Not long after a federal judge in Atlanta put a hold on portions of Georgia's new immigration law on Monday, state Attorney General Sam Olens promised he would "vigorously defend" the measure.  That's part of his job as the state's top legal officer. But the AJC's Jim Galloway this morning points to a blog post written by one of the attorneys seeking to invalidate the statute. In that post, former DeKalb prosecutor Keegan Federal accused Olens, an East Cobb resident and former Cobb commission chairman, of "spin:" "Even though a U.S. judge in Atlanta dealt the state a devastating blow today in…

Newt Gingrich may have lost most of his top campaign aides in a shocking departure last week, but the former House Speaker from East Cobb is vowing to continue with his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.  A total of 16 aides -- including his Atlanta-based campaign manager and spokesman -- resigned en masse, questioning Gingrich's commitment to the race just as he and his wife returned from a cruise vacation in the Greek islands.  Instead of addressing the matter directly, Gingrich took aim at President Barack Obama and summoned support from Jewish Republican voters before …