POLITICOS ARE SPECULATING that largely built-out east Cobb could lose some of its representation to faster-growing northwest Cobb in the wake of the upcoming 2011 redistricting.

A look at Jan. 1 voter registration totals from the Elections Division of the Georgia Secretary of State shows that Rep. Earl Ehrhart's northwest Cobb 36th District has a much larger total of active registered voters (38,470) than any of the four districts that are located mainly in east Cobb, including Rep. Sharon Cooper's 41st District (26,186), Rep. Don Parsons' 42nd District (30,240), Rep. Bobby Franklin's 43rd District (30,363) and Rep. Matt Dollar's 45th District (31,415).

Since a federal court redrew the legislative lines at the Gold Dome nearly six years ago, Ehrhart's district has ranked as Cobb's largest House district, and one of the largest House districts in Georgia, ranking seventh in size in voter registration among Georgia's 180 state House districts.

Forms in a few months will be mailed to residents to determine the number of people in each household. Responses will be used to tabulate the state's 2010 count, which in addition to determining political representation for the state, also will be used to allocate federal funds.

NEWLY RELEASED Census Bureau population estimates show Cobb and Georgia remain among the fastest-growing in the nation.

Georgia's latest estimated population was 9,829,211, an increase of 20 percent from the 2000 census count of 8,186,453. Georgia ranks fourth in the latest population figures, the 1,642,758-person net increase trailing only Texas (3,930,482), California (3,090,016) and Florida (2,555,591).

Georgia is ninth among the 50 states in population but seems poised to move to eighth. Georgia trails eighth-place Michigan by 140,516 persons in the 2009 count, compared with a much larger 1,751,991 population difference between the two states in the 2000 census.

Michigan is hard hit by decline of the state's auto industry.

Based on the latest figures, Georgia is projected to gain one U.S. House seat after next year's census, and ditto for adjoining Florida and South Carolina. The lines for the state's 13 other districts will be redrawn in 2011.

DOES COBB COUNTY need another memorial to its war veterans? Northeast Cobb Commissioner Tim Lee - who's running to succeed Sam Olens and Board of Commissioners chairman - thinks so.

Lee is pushing to have a veterans' memorial included as part of a planned post exchange/commissary being sought for the corner of South Cobb Drive and Atlanta Road just south of Marietta. Olens and National Guard officials want the PX on the corner of that intersection, although that highly visible site had been expected to become the home of the Marietta Aviation Museum.

That visibility makes it desirable not just for a PX or a museum, but for a veterans' memorial as well, in Lee's eyes.

That said, does Cobb need another veterans' memorial? There's already the Marietta National Cemetery and the Confederate Cemetery, both of which are studded with memorial stones and headstones honoring war dead. The City of Smyrna and the City of Acworth both created admirable-looking and well-maintained Veterans' Memorials in the 2000s. Don't forget Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, where 3,000 young Americans lost their lives in June 1864. And there also are memorials in downtown Kennesaw to war veterans and to 9/11 victims.

Also planned is the "Forever Remember" statue on Roswell Street in Marietta across from the National Cemetery. A project of the Marietta Kiwanis Club and president Victoria Turney, the life-sized bronze statue will honor not just veterans, but "first responders" (police, fire, 911 workers) and those who await their return.

So there is no shortage of such remembrances in Cobb. But this community is one where patriotic feelings run wide and deep, so chances are good that the Lee and Kiwanis veterans' memorials not only will prove popular, but that they won't be the last to be erected here.

DOES COBB COUNTY need another memorial to its war veterans? Northeast Cobb Commissioner Tim Lee - who's running to succeed Sam Olens and Board of Commissioners chairman - thinks so.

Lee is pushing to have a veterans' memorial included as part of a planned post exchange/commissary being sought for the corner of South Cobb Drive and Atlanta Road just south of Marietta. Olens and National Guard officials want the PX on the corner of that intersection, although that highly visible site had been expected to become the home of the Marietta Aviation Museum.

That visibility makes it desirable not just for a PX or a museum, but for a veterans' memorial as well, in Lee's eyes.

That said, does Cobb need another veterans' memorial? There's already the Marietta National Cemetery and the Confederate Cemetery, both of which are studded with memorial stones and headstones honoring war dead. The City of Smyrna and the City of Acworth both created admirable-looking and well-maintained Veterans' Memorials in the 2000s. Don't forget Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, where 3,000 young Americans lost their lives in June 1864. And there also are memorials in downtown Kennesaw to war veterans and to 9/11 victims.

Also planned is the "Forever Remember" statue on Roswell Street in Marietta across from the National Cemetery. A project of the Marietta Kiwanis Club and president Victoria Turney, the life-sized bronze statue will honor not just veterans, but "first responders" (police, fire, 911 workers) and those who await their return.

So there is no shortage of such remembrances in Cobb. But this community is one where patriotic feelings run wide and deep, so chances are good that the Lee and Kiwanis veterans' memorials not only will prove popular, but that they won't be the last to be erected here.

THIS N' THAT: The Cobb County 4-H Club is staging its annual plant sale. Prepaid orders will be accepted until March 10. The order form is available at cobbextension.com or by calling (770) 528-4076. ... Cobb Master Gardeners will host a series of new programs covering plant-related subjects on the second Friday of each month at the Central Library, 266 Roswell St., Marietta. Participants should bring their own lunches and eat from noon to 1 p.m. The next lunches are planned for Feb. 12, March 12, April 9, May 14 and June 11. ...

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MORE THIS AND THAT: Big Shanty Road will remain closed to thru traffic between Chastain Meadows Parkway and George Busbee Parkway through Monday, Feb. 1, to install storm pipes. Sewell Mill Road will be closed to traffic between Murdock Road and Johnson Ferry Road through May 7 for roadway construction and bridge replacement. For info, visit the "Road Reports" section at cobbcounty.org/dot.

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COBB LIBERTARIANS have elected delegates to the party's state convention in April to choose executive committee officers. Matt Godown is returning as chair. He has been involved in the financial services industry for 10 years. Ileana Zayas, a pre-med major and graduate of Lassiter High, is vice chair. He also is president of the KSU College Libertarians. Chris Neill is treasurer and was a 2008 candidate for Marietta mayor. Membership director is insurance exec Mike Wilson, who lives in North Cobb. Chelsi Rodgers is secretary. ... Leadership Cobb, the Cobb Chamber's development program, will be open until Feb. 19 for nominations for its 2010-11 class to be selected from business, industry, education, government, civic, religious and other groups.

WITH THE 28-COUNTY metro Atlanta area the cause for the majority of the state's population growth, politicos expect the new districts to be somewhere in these regions, being carved out of perhaps three or more of the region's rapidly growing districts - Tom Price's Fulton-centered Sixth District, John Linder's Gwinnett-dominated Seventh District and Phil Gingrey's northwest Cobb/Rome 11th.

In 2008, Linder's district was estimated to be the most populated U.S. House district (901,363 residents), and the eighth largest of America's 435 districts, with Price's district ranked as 19th largest (834,530) and Gingrey's 59th with 780,150.

While Republicans are likely to retain control of the General Assembly in the 2010 election, which would leave them in charge of drawing maps in 2011, Democrats hope to check any Republican plans by electing a Democratic governor, who could veto any GOP-backed maps.

Republicans are not likely to win enough seats in either chamber next year to obtain a "veto-proof" majority in the Gold Dome, with the GOP needing to win 38 seats in the State Senate and 120 seats in the State House to achieve such status.

With a Democratic governor and Republican General Assembly being unable to agree on new maps, district lines would be drawn by federal judges, as happened in South Carolina in 2002, when the state's then-Democratic governor and GOP Legislature were unable to concur on maps.

The current count in the Georgia Senate is 34 Republicans and 21 Democrats, with one vacancy in heavily Democratic Augusta that will be filled in a February runoff. The GOP holds a 104-74 House advantage. There also is one newly-elected independent from Baldwin County (Milledgeville) in central Georgia and a vacancy in Paulding County. created by the December resignation of then-House Speaker Glenn Richardson.

Republicans won control of the Georgia Senate shortly after the 2002 election cycle, after several party switches, while the GOP took control of the Georgia House in the 2004 election cycle. Republicans have a 3-2 margin over Dems in Cobb's Senate delegation and an 8-6 advantage in the State House.

If Georgia's population reaches 10 million in the April 2010 census, then each congressional district (assuming a one-seat gain after the census) would need close to 715,000 people when legislators redraw the lines in 2011. State Senate districts would need about 179,000 persons a district, and State House districts 56,000. The current maps in use for the state's congressional and state legislative districts were drawn with about 630,000 in each U.S. House districts, 146,000 in each state Senate district and 45,000 in each house district, based on 2000 data.

Cobb's population is currently 698,158. Cobb grew an estimated 14.9 percent between 2000-2008, trailing the statewide growth rate of 18.3 percent.