THE RACE to be Cobb’s next district attorney is shaping up as a one-sided contest, if campaign contributions are any indication. Former Cobb Chief Magistrate Vic Reynolds, now one of the county’s most prominent criminal defense lawyers, has far outpaced the other candidate in the race, former assistant Cobb District Attorney Cindi Yeager, according to the latest financial disclosure reports.

The two are running in the July 31 Republican Party Primary to succeed longtime D.A. Pat Head, who is retiring this year.

Reynolds reported $27,000 in contributions during the first quarter of the year, according to the documents filed with the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission. Combined with the $125,000 he had previously raised, he now has raised a total of $152,155 and had $120,007 cash on hand as of March 31.

Yeager raised $21,799 in the first quarter, and had total contributions of $31,049. But she also had spent $30,065 and had only $983 cash on hand as of March 31, according to the reports filed by her campaign treasurer, Elizabeth Guerra. Moreover, $14,000 of Yeager’s contributions this period came in the form of a loan from herself to the campaign.

Yeager’s biggest donations included $750 from lawyer John Morgan and $500 each from lawyers Guerra and Katherine Griffiths.

Reynolds’ notable donations included $5,000 from his law partner, fellow criminal defense lawyer Jimmy Berry of Marietta. Others included $2,000 from Pearson Eastham of Hill & Associates; $1,000 from Alan Barge of Aero Engineering; $1,000 from retired BellSouth president John Clendenin of Atlanta; $1,000 from Michael Hersch of Auto Lender Services; $1,000 from builder Larry Maddox; $1,000 from Fred Moore; $1,000 from investment banker Jacob Moore; and $1,000 from Bill Talerico of Smyrna.

Other noteworthy donors included former state Supreme Court Justice Conley Ingram of Marietta ($100), Austell Municipal Court Judge Roger Plichta ($100) and Lynn Rainey ($100), attorney for both the Cumberland and Town Center Community Improvement Districts, according to the report filed on Reynolds’ behalf by campaign treasurer Mary Karras.

***MORE POLITICS: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose presidential campaign finally hit the wall this week, will none the less be one of the star attractions at next month’s state Republican Party Convention in Savannah.

Gingrich, who came up well short of front-runner Mitt Romney in all four of Tuesday’s state GOP primaries around the country, will deliver the keynote address at the “Victory Dinner” May 18 and will deliver remarks the next day from the convention floor, reports state Party Chairwoman Sue Everhart of east Cobb. ... Cobb State Court judicial candidate Gene Clark will host a “Backyard Cookout” fundraiser from 5 to 7:30 p.m. this evening at The Depot in downtown Kennesaw.

THE COBB POLICE HEADQUARTERS building at the Cherokee Street/North Cobb Parkway intersection has a new name: the Robert E. Hightower Building, in honor of retired Cobb Public Safety director Bob Hightower.

Formal dedication ceremonies are set for 11 a.m. June 14 at the complex. Hightower has been working to overcome the effects of a stroke he suffered last fall at his home on St. Simons Island.

The former Navy SEAL was hired by Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett in 1972 to be the county’s first director of public safety, and after retiring was chosen by Gov. Barnes to be state Public Safety Commissioner, then the first director of the state’s Homeland Security Task Force. He retired for good in 2003.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE? Speaking of the former Speaker, he has a new book out — sort of. It’s a Civil War novel about the 1864 Battle of the Crater in Virginia (the one in which the Yankees dug a tunnel under the Rebel trenches and then blew them sky-high, leaving a huge crater).

Gingrich’s book (with co-author William R. Fortschen) is titled “To Make Men Free” (Thomas Dunne Books) and originally was published in November under a different title, the more straightforward “The Battle of the Crater.” The new name apparently was chosen for marketing purposes.

But ironically, the Speaker’s book now sports the same title as another book on the Civil War — one written by one of Gingrich’s former constituents, east Cobb’s Richard Croker.

Croker’s novel (“To Make Men Free,” HarperCollins; an e-book version was released this spring) is about the 1862 Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, if your sympathies are Southern), the battle that set the stage for Lincoln’s decision to release The Emancipation Proclamation.

Croker spent two decades traveling the National League circuit with the late Skip Caray, Ernie Johnson, et al, as a producer for Atlanta Braves baseball games on TBS Sports. He more recently produced, wrote and edited the “Barbecue America” series on public television. He also was commissioned by HarperCollins to write a follow-up novel, “No Greater Courage,” about the Battle of Fredericksburg.

His “To Make Men Free” was published in 2004, which would seem to give him clear dibs on the title (which actually derives from a line in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”) And although his political leanings are a far cry from Gingrich’s, he’s philosophical about the Speaker’s decision to upgrade the title of his book at his own expense.

“Maybe it will drive folks to my website (www.rcroker.com),” he told Around Town. “You can’t copyright a title. He could have called it ‘Gone with the Wind’ if he wanted to. But give him credit — he stole a great title!”

One newspaper wag suggested to Croker that to retaliate he should change his name to “Newt Gingrich.”

And in response to another friend who proposed to Croker that he send a signed copy of his own book to the Speaker to make him aware of the problem, Croker retorted, “It would take me longer to decide how to autograph it than it took me to write it!”

THE NINTH ANNUAL Jim Fausett Golf Classic on Monday at the Manor Golf and Country Club in Alpharetta drew 118 golfers and raised more than $30,000 toward an endowment fund that provides scholarships to worthy students at Southern Polytechnic State University. This year’s recipient of the Fausett Scholarship is Megan Linsmayer of Marietta.

***MARIETTA historic researcher Brad Quinlin, who is frequently seen on The History Channel’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” will lead Marietta Rotarians on a tour of The Marietta National Cemetery on May 9, reports president Will Goodman. … This year’s resumption of the annual Marietta Kiwanis-Marietta Rotary Softball Grudge Match was set for May 6 but has had to be postponed for an unusual reason: The Rotarians couldn’t scrape up enough players to field a team. Look for the game to hopefully be played at some point this summer.