Politics & Government
Braves' Move to Cobb Creates Strange Bedfellows
Liberal and conservative activists have united in opposition to the Atlanta Braves' move to Cobb County in 2017.
You would be hard-pressed to find any political issue that Debbie Dooley and Rich Pellegrino could agree on.
Dooley, the leader of the Atlanta Tea Party and Pellegrino, a noted champion of liberal and progressive causes, have joined forces with other community activists to fight the Atlanta Braves' stadium deal in Cobb County and the county commissioners who approved the deal.
According to an Associated Press article run in the Marietta Daily Journal, the group of concerned citizens is considering all options before them, up to and including removal from office all Cobb County Commissioners who voted in favor of the stadium deal.
Both Pellegrino and Dooley decry the cozy relationship between big business and Cobb County's government. Dooley says that the public-private partnership Lee touted as a "grand slam" for the county would not have come to fruition in a free market.
The Braves Come to Cobb
- Cobb Commission Approves Braves Stadium
- Ott: Ready for Vote on Braves Stadium
- Cobb Residents Speak Out on Braves Stadium
- Get Your First Looks at Braves' New Stadium
- Cobb Releases Memorandum of Understanding With Braves
- Braves-to-Cobb Draws National Headlines
- Cobb to Fund 45 Percent of Braves Stadium
- Braves Announce Move to Cobb County
Pellegrino created the group "Citizens for Governmental Transparency" in the wake of the Braves relocation news and asked the Cobb Commissioners for a 60-day delay in the vote to approve the deal to allow citizens to digest the details of the memorandum of understanding between the Braves and the county.
Pellegrino told Patch in an e-mail that Citizens for Governmental Transparency will have more news on their battle against the Braves stadium deal in the coming days, but that a recall is, "reserved in our arsenal should other efforts not produce results."
As the deal currently stands, Cobb County is on the hook for $300 million of the $672 million cost to build the Braves' new stadium in the Cumberland Mall area by Opening Day 2017.
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