Georgia 6th District

In the red clay north of Atlanta, an almost wholly new metropolitan quarter has grown up over the past four decades, as affluent Atlanta has spread out past the Interstate 285 Perimeter into territory that was once farms, small towns, and modest factory cities. Where there were perhaps 100,000 people in the 1950s, there are more than 1 million today. No longer is downtown Atlanta the only focus. The edge cities of Perimeter Center and the area near Cumberland Mall are not just for shopping. They are major office centers, exceeding downtown Atlanta in square footage. Along the usually jammed Georgia 400 highway, in the fast-growing northern part of Fulton County, are the affluent suburbs of Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Alpharetta. At the tip of the county, near the Chattahoochee River, the new cities of Johns Creek and Milton were incorporated in 2006 to free residents of county government. Cobb County is the headquarters of The Weather Channel. Home Depot, the nation’s second-largest retailer, is based in Sandy Springs. Farther out in Cherokee County, where the population has more than doubled since 1990, the big issue has been the proposed Northern Arc highway. Commuters on congested roads have ached for relief. For all this economic and demographic change, this Golden Crescent north of the Perimeter and between Interstate 75 in Cobb County and Interstate 85 strives to keep at least some reminders of old rural Georgia. The buildings are tree-shaded, and lush foliage and large-lot requirements have given most of the communities a woodsy look.

The 6th Congressional District of Georgia occupies a large portion of this suburban area north of Atlanta, including the eastern slice of Cobb County, much of northern Fulton, the northwest tip of DeKalb, and all of Cherokee County. It contains affluent Alpharetta, fast-growing Canton, and historic Roswell. This seat was created after the 1990 census, and its boundaries have twice been reshaped by redistricting. It would surely surprise Georgians a generation or two ago to learn that one of their congressional districts would rank among the nation’s richest and most educated. Now the 6th and the 7th districts both do. The 6th is one of several heavily Republican Georgia districts, and the political tension here tends to be between economic and cultural conservatives. In 2004, President Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry 70%-29%. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama trimmed the Republican lead for John McCain here to 65%-34%.