UPDATED: Engineer Promises Wiser Spending, Better S. Cobb Image in Commission Race

Engineer Lisa Cupid, 34 of Austell, says sometimes South Cobb is seen as the “stepchild” of the county, and as District 4 commissioner, she would collaborate with the rest of the county to end that perception.

The commissioner, said Cupid, “needs to be invested in and advocate for this section of the county.” It includes marketing, creating relationships and showing the assets of the community, she opined.

Cupid, said her background as a results-oriented engineer and a community facilitator for the Austell Community Partnership makes her the best fit for the job.

Cupid earned multiple awards for leadership and service commitment while earning her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000. After graduation, Cupid was one of the first participants in a Fortune 500 company’s manufacturing leadership program. Cupid moved on to a position with a partnership of Metro Atlanta’s 15 Chambers of Commerce before working in the Governor’s Office and then as a policy analyst researcher.

She was selected as one of 30 Urban Fellows at Georgia State University. As an Urban Fellow, she discusses urban development with civic and nonprofit leaders from all over Metro Atlanta

“The biggest issue,” she said, “is our economic condition.”

To provide services, Cupid suggested that “we see how we can stretch our tax dollars through partnerships.”

When Austell’s senior center closed in 2009 for example, Cupid said the county might have partnered for space to keep something open: “We could have looked into other places like churches that are interested in serving the same community.”

"I think there are a lot of potential partnerships,” she concluded.

Her campaign had raised nearly $28,000 as of the first quarter of 2012, according to papers filed at the last state disclosure deadline. Not all candidates have hit a public disclosure deadline yet, but among those who have, she has almost ten times the cash on hand as her closest competitor in the money race. Second quarter disclosures are due July 9.

Of her sum, $5,200 is personal loans from herself to her campaign.  Self-loans are a strategy often employed by candidates who want to make their donations look bigger than their competitors, or who have few donors. Neither is a problem for Cupid. 

“When you’re running for office you have skin in the game,” she explained, so the loans, she said, demonstrate with money that she is invested in the campaign.

Cupid is set to graduate from the Georgia State University College of Law this December. She moved to South Cobb 10 years ago when she married her Georgia Tech sweetheart Craig Cupid. They have two sons, 3-year-old Nehemiah and 1-year-old Noah. “This (campaign) could not be done without my husband’s support,” she said.

She faces five other Democrats including incumbent Woody Thompson in the July 31 primary. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two will go to an Aug. 21 runoff.

There are no Republicans in the contest.

-South Cobb Patch Editor Kiri Walton contributed to this report.

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