With less than a month until the election, the race for one Cobb County Board of Education seat is heating up with various accusations circling about both candidates.
Republican incumbent David Chastain has been accused of flouting campaign finance laws. Democrat challenger Catherine Pozniak and her supporters have been accused of incivility.
The testiness between the two camps, and complaints from outside groups, reflects the importance of this race.
If Democrats prevail in the Post 4 race, and the one between two newcomers for the Post 2 seat, it would change the school board’s balance of power in Georgia’s second largest school district. The board’s three Black Democrats have complained for years that the four white Republicans who hold the majority are “silencing” them — including in a letter to the district’s accrediting agency. The agency later advised the board to learn to work together.
Voters can head to the polls as early as Oct. 17.
From the Georgia Decides Voter Guide
County County School Board District 2
Cobb County School Board District 4
Financial questions prevail
Chastain has been on the board since 2015 and currently serves as its chairman. He’s supported by businesses in the community. But Pozniak, a lifelong educator, has earned an endorsement and a campaign contribution from the Cobb County Association of Educators, which represents hundreds of the district’s teachers. Their fundraising is neck-and-neck.
Several of the largest donors to Chastain’s campaign are connected to the law firm that assisted with the school board’s controversial redistricting process earlier this year. The board’s Republicans opted to hire Taylor English Duma LLP to conduct the process without seeking competitive bids and over the concerns of the board’s Democrats. Voting rights groups are currently suing over the maps, which they called discriminatory.
Attorney Jonathan Crumly with the law firm donated a total of $4,000 to Chastain’s campaign, according to a recent financial disclosure.
The law firm’s consulting subsidiary Taylor English Decisions is run by Earl Ehrhart, a former state representative. His wife, current state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, donated a total of $5,500 to Chastain’s campaign through her campaign account.
Both of these contributions were initially reported as single sums. Georgia campaign finance regulations say candidates for local office can’t receive donations greater than $3,000 from a contributor in the primary or general election. An amendment to Chastain’s financial disclosure split the sums from Crumly and Ehrhart into two donations each: one to the primary election cycle, one to the general.
Chastain said candidates can split donations between the primary and general elections even after the primary is over. The primary election was in May. Each of the contributions are dated in August.
“Everything’s legit,” he said.
Over the course of her campaign, opponents have criticized Pozniak for receiving money from out-of-state donors. She said most of her more recent donations are coming from local parents, but that she initially reached out to her family and friends.
Tensions roil online
Pozniak frequently takes to Twitter to call on Chastain to participate in a debate or candidate forum. Chastain has declined, accusing some of Pozniak’s supporters of threatening his supporters. Chastain uses an email newsletter to communicate with his supporters. Cobb County employees have complained on social media that they’re receiving the newsletter to their work accounts without having signed up.
A new ad from a political action committee associated with the Southern Poverty Law Center also accuses Chastain of misusing taxpayer funds in his role as board chair.
Meanwhile, the Cobb County Republican Party called on Pozniak to denounce a satirical Facebook page that uses Chastain’s image.
Pozniak denied having anything to do with the page.
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