Voters turn against official over Braves stadium

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) – A county chairman who helped the Atlanta Braves move to the suburbs has been badly beaten in a runoff election.

Unofficial results from the Cobb County Board of Elections early Wednesday showed Tim Lee, the incumbent chairman of the Cobb County Commission, got just 36 percent of the votes to challenger Mike Boyce’s 64 percent.

With all precincts reporting results early Wednesday, the unofficial tally was 25,264 votes for Boyce and 14,246 for Lee.

Lee was credited with engineering the deal to build the Braves a new stadium in suburban Cobb County.

Boyce criticized the secrecy of negotiations between Lee and the Braves and said bonds shouldn’t have been issued in the deal without first being approved by voters.

Lee defended the deal, saying the new SunTrust Park will boost the economy.

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