ATLANTA — A bill that would explicitly prohibit Georgia counties from drawing their own district lines passed the state Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee along party lines Monday.
Senate Bill 124, sponsored by Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, takes aim at Cobb County’s effort to redistrict itself via its purported home rule powers.
“Let’s clarify in law, let’s make it crystal clear. … Counties do not have the power to apportion themselves. Only the General Assembly through local act, or statewide act, can do that,” Setzler told the committee.
The Democratic majority on the Cobb Board of Commissioners last October passed a pair of “home rule” resolutions amending a General Assembly-approved map, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, that draws Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her district. The county’s map, using one drawn by former state Rep. Erick Allen, D-Smyrna, would keep Richardson in her seat.
Republican opponents of the county’s home-rule resolution, including Attorney General Chris Carr, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Cobb’s two Republican commissioners, have argued the effort is unconstitutional.
In tandem with the bill that cleared committee Monday, Setzler has also filed SB 236, which would reimpose the Kemp map. That bill was not considered at Monday’s hearing, and is scheduled to be heard Tuesday afternoon.
East Cobb activist Larry Savage and Republican Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill, meanwhile, sued the county in Cobb Superior Court late last week, challenging the legality of the home rule gambit. That came after Savage filed, then withdrew, an earlier suit.
Setzler was asked by the committee about ongoing litigation. He initially said there “is no current litigation,” before saying “there may be litigation that I’m not aware of.”
His bill was passed by five…
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