Donation controversy puts spotlight on race for Cobb school board Post 4 

By Rebecca Gaunt

Photo above: Micheal Garza

Post 4 on the Cobb County Board of Education is up for grabs again, and with it, partisan control of the board, which is currently 4-3 in favor of Republicans.

The race between Republican incumbent David Chastain and Democratic challenger Micheal Garza heated up last week when members of the Georgia and Cobb Republican parties put out a press release criticizing Garza for accepting $5,800 in campaign donations from Michael Tafelski, the deputy legal director and co-interim chief legal officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In April, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the SPLC had been indicted on charges of wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

The SPLC has denied the charges, and accused the government of blatant mischaracterizations. The organization said it provided information gathered by paid informants to federal law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

Tafelski hasn’t commented publicly on the Republicans’ demand that Garza return the money, but following its release, he donated an additional $800 to Garza’s campaign, maxing out his legally allowed contributions.

Garza said he will not return the funds because they came from Tafelski, who is a Cobb resident and father of a Cobb County student, in his personal capacity.

From the GOP release:

School board candidates should be judged not only by what they say, but by the judgment they demonstrate and the campaign contributions they choose to accept.

Michael [sic] Garza accepted $5,800 in campaign contributions from a senior attorney employed by an organization now facing serious federal criminal allegations. Cobb County voters deserve to know whether he supports the Southern Poverty Law Center’s agenda or whether he will return the money and publicly distance himself from the conduct alleged in the federal indictment.

The right decision is simple: “return the $5,800, answer these legitimate questions openly, and keep the focus where it belongs—on providing every Cobb County student with the opportunity to succeed.”

The signatories include Josh McKoon, chair of the Georgia Republican Party, Sue Everhart, former chair of the Georgia Republican Party, Mary Clarice Hathaway, chair of the Cobb County Republican Party, and former chairs of the Cobb Republican party Salleigh Grubbs, Jason Shepherd, Scott Johnson, and Rose Wing. 

Garza told the Courier that his campaign is proud of its fundraising efforts last quarter, especially because there were more than 165 individual donations under $100. All but one of those was from Cobb or areas immediately surrounding Cobb. Georgia law does not require the the donors of amounts under $100 to be identified in campaign disclosures

From his statement:

It is an indication of strong grassroots support from teachers, community members, and parents of students in our schools, including parents like Michael Tafelski.

That is a key piece missing from the press release – that Mr. Tafelski is a parent of a child in Cobb County schools and a well respected volunteer within the community. He’s not been accused of a crime, and his employer has no bearing on the donation he made in a personal capacity. It does not disqualify him from being able to have a say in the direction of his child’s educational experience.

Since we started this campaign, we have received 283 individual donations, and only one of those has been by an organization – a $2,000 donation from the largest association of educators in Cobb. Cobb’s teachers certainly believe that I have the “sound judgment expected of those entrusted with educating the next generation”.

It is telling that the first signatory on the press release is not from someone in Cobb County – it is from the head of the Georgia Republican Party who lives 2 hours away from our county. It is yet another in a series of outside political distractions being brought into our county that have nothing to do with our public schools.

As someone who is deeply invested in our schools, as a parent, as a volunteer leader, and a long-time public schools advocate, I have zero desire to wade into those distractions. Our families can’t afford to have leaders who care more about retaining power for a political party than they care about actually serving the students in our community. So while the county and state GOP’s focus is on everything but education, I am going to remain focused on what matters in our schools – improving the educational experience for our children and giving them the resources they need to thrive in the classroom.

Chastain did not sign the statement, but asked for comment on the GOP’s request and allegations it contained, he provided the Courier with the following response via email:

Candidate Campaign Disclosure Reports (CCDR) require donations over $101.00 be disclosed. This requirement allows the public to see which individuals and groups voluntarily express their alignment with the philosophy, principles, or outlook of the individual candidate. I am not surprised that Mr. Garza has received a donation from a leader of the Southern Policy [sic] Law Center (SPLC). I understand why Republicans rightly requested the Democrat candidate return the funds. I am not surprised Garza has kept the funds. 

Surely Mr. Garza is aware the SPLC is making headlines this week in an Alabama courtroom as it responds to its questionable activities and allegations of inciting violence and agitation through payments to white supremacist groups and the like. Maybe Garza is not aware that, essentially, the SPLC has been running a long-time donation scheme to raise funds from uninformed supporters to add to the over $750,000,000 reserves already resting in SPLC bank accounts. 

Maybe Garza is unaware that former SPLC employees have referred to the SPLC Montgomery headquarters as “The Poverty Palace.” I recommend Michael [sic] read Tyler O”Neil’s 2025 book, Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

This is not the first time tensions have erupted over campaign donations to school board candidates. In 2022, Democrat Catherine Pozniak challenged Chastain and was criticized by his camp for accepting out-of-state donations. She later filed a complaint against Chastain for accepting two donations in excess of the $3,000 maximum. One was from the campaign of state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-west Cobb) for $5,500 and the other was from Taylor English attorney Jonathan Crumley for $4,000. Chastain was fined by the state and required to return a portion of the money.

In 2025, the New Southern Majority IE PAC, a super PAC created by the SPLC, filed a complaint with the state regarding donations received by Republican candidates Randy Scamihorn, John Cristadoro, and Brad Wheeler. All three had to forfeit funds after the state found they received the legal maximum in contributions from the Freeman Mathis & Gary law firm, as well as the two other companies that were found to be the same entity by the Commission.

Taylor English is the firm the district hired to create the voting maps for redistricting. Freeman Mathis & Gary represent the district in the lawsuit against those maps, which are accused of being racially gerrymandered. The SPLC is representing the parties who filed suit against the map.

Read more: Secrecy dominated Cobb school board redistricting process, court documents show – Cobb Courier 

The SPLC has taken the Cobb County School District to court on other occasions, such as the expulsion of a student for an off campus incident and another who used a school-issued device to warn a friend about a shooting threat. It also represented a parent who accused the district of violating her child’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Though he didn’t call out Garza by name, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale weighed in on the election, at his annual welcome-back speech for teachers. In his comments he referenced controversy over the district’s removal of books from school libraries in recent years.

Read more: Libs of Tik Tok complaint behind books’ removal in Cobb schools – Cobb Courier 

Cobb schools remove 13 more books across the district – Cobb Courier 

“There are some of those very people who think that we are doing the wrong thing by removing these inappropriate sexually explicit materials who have chosen to run for the Board of Education…there is no room for disagreeing with that situation of what we’re doing. Somebody that disagrees with it has no business in education or anywhere around education where there is responsibility of kids,” he said.

Garza, however, said he has criticized Ragsdale’s unilateral decision making in the removal of books from campuses, advocating for following policy and a decision-making committee with the input of media specialists and teachers.

Ragsdale’s full speech is available on the district website: Cobb Schools Kicks Off New Year with Focus on Excellence, Safety and Student Success