Back to Future for Mitchell Kaye
Nearly two decades after leaving the state House, the Cobb County Republican returns on an interim basis.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Former state Rep. Mitchell Kaye will again be state Rep. Mitchell Kaye, if only for eight months.
Based on unofficial results, Kaye won the May 3 runoff to fill the remaining months in the House district 45 term of Republican Matt Dollar, who resigned in February to become deputy commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia.
Kaye won 56.7 percent of the runoff vote to defeat Dustin McCormick and told the AJT that he was “humbled and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the victory.” Kaye and McCormick advanced to the runoff as the leading vote-getters in an April 5 non-partisan, all-comers primary, in which none of four candidates received a majority.
Kaye, a member of Chabad of Cobb, will hold the 45th district seat until the General Assembly – which adjourned its 2022 session on April 5 — convenes in January 2023.
“There is important work that’s done outside the 40-day legislative session, fleshing out important public policy issues for the next session and beyond, in addition to crucial constituent services. Although I may not participate in any legislative session, unless a special session is called, I am reminded from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) ‘you are not required to complete the task, yet you are not free to withdraw from it,’” he said.
The Cobb County Republican represented House district 37 from 1993-2003. Kaye, a financial and valuation analyst who has lived in East Cobb for more than 30 years, is believed to have been the first Jewish Republican elected to the Georgia legislature.
During the campaign, Kaye said that, in addition to ensuring constituent services, “it is important that this seat remain Republican.” Kaye previously said that he would not seek a full two-year term.
McCormick, a Democrat, is seeking a two-year term and in November will face the winner of the May 24 Republican primary between state Rep. Sharon Cooper, who currently represents district 44, and Carminthia Moore, a Cobb County Republican activist.
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