Runoff in Cobb State Court Judge Race

In addition to Cobb Commission Chairman, two other countywide races will be on the Aug. 21 runoff ballot.

The battle for a seat on the Cobb State Court will continue for three more weeks after Marsha Lake and Larry Burke topped a four-candidate field in Tuesday's non-partisan judicial primaries. (For a list of all Cobb winners in Tuesday's elections, visit the Georgia Secretary of State elections website.)

Lake had 36,854 votes, or 39 percent, to 24,870 votes (26 percent) for Burke. 

Gene Clark and Joyette Holmes received 20 and 15 percent of the vote, respectively. 

The runoff winner will succeed Judge Robert Castellanos, who resigned to run for Cobb Superior Court Judge. 

But Cobb Juvenile Court Judge Greg Poole defeated Castellanos and former Cobb Chief Deputy District Attorney Van Pearlberg without a runoff, earning 49,797 votes, or 51.2 percent. 

Castellanos totalled 25,537 votes, or 26 percent, while Pearlberg, who also stepped down from the Marietta City Council to run, got 21,549 votes, or 21 percent.

Poole succeeds Judge Dorothy Robinson, who is retiring after 36 years as the first woman on the Cobb Superior Court bench.

Incumbent Superior Court Judge Reuben Green defeated East Cobb attorney Nathan Wade to earn his first full term on the bench. Green, a Marietta resident, collected 54,712 votes, or 54 percent, to 44,997, or 45 percent, for Wade. 

Green was appointed to the bench by Gov. Sonny Perdue in late 2010, when then-Judge Ken Nix stepped down.

In the Cobb District Attorney Republican primary, Vic Reynolds defeated Cyndi Yeager 53-47 percent in the race to succeed the retiring Pat Head.

Reynolds, a former defense attorney and magistrate judge, received 36,410 votes to 32,263 for Yeager, a former Cobb prosecutor and trial attorney. 

There was no Democratic candidate who filed to run for District Attorney. 

The Cobb Superior Court Clerk race also will be going to a runoff between Republicans Rebecca Keaton and John Skelton.

Keaton got 48 percent of the vote (32,215) to 26,329 votes, or 39 percent, for Skelton. 

The winner will succeed retiring clerk Jay Stephenson.