COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- Cobb County Chairman Tim Lee admits that the deal to bring the Atlanta Braves deal likely led to his defeat.
Challenger Mike Boyce upset Lee with nearly 65% of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff.
Going in to the vote, both men were really confident it would turn out in their favor, but very quickly it became clear that Boyce was taking home a commanding win and Lee would be out as chairman.
“The question has been asked a lot of me tonight, would you do anything differently, and the answer is no,” Lee said Tuesday night.
Lee said he stood by the $1.2 billion Braves deal even in defeat.
“Clearly the Braves played a big part in that,” Lee said. “I truly believe, like I told the people, that we did the right thing at the right time.”
Boyce had called the election a delayed referendum on the stadium deal, but Lee pointed to four other commissioners who were re-elected Tuesday.
“I don't necessarily think that's true, four out of four got re-elected for promoting the Braves,” Lee said. “I did not, I'm the tip of the spear and I'm going to take responsibility for doing it.”
The Braves stadium dominated the conversation in both campaigns, but Boyce said it was the voters who made their voice heard.
“The message today is we're taking our government back,” Boyce said. “The people are taking their government back"
While Boyce says he's excited to work with the Braves organization, he couldn't be more disappointed about how the stadium deal went down.
“The issue, at the door, was that people were not happy about the way that the process went about to exclude them and their voices from this use of this money,” Boyce said.
Boyce will officially be named to the position in November.
