A Sinking Ship

originally published June 20, 2007

It’s amazing how much things can change in the course of a year. It was only 12 months ago that Sonny Perdue was on the way to a smashing victory over his hapless opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, in the governor’s race. His colleagues in the Republican Party were poised to maintain solid majorities in both houses of the General Assembly and put themselves in position, seemingly, to adopt any policy initiatives that Perdue cared to propose. Perdue figured to ride his record as a Southern Republican governor to a spot on the presidential ticket in 2008 as the GOP candidate for vice president. The future could not have been more promising for the man from Houston County.

One year later, well, it’s fair to say that things are not looking quite so bright. Perdue’s carefully cultivated image as the governor who supposedly transformed a “culture of corruption” in state government began to fall apart last October when newspaper reporters started writing annoying stories about Perdue’s multi-million-dollar real estate deals. Even worse, those uppity journalists followed with exposés about Perdue giving himself a $100,000 tax break by signing a bill that was surreptitiously amended by his real estate attorney.

These disclosures, which would have sunk the campaign of a candidate for governor in any other state, did no damage to Perdue’s reelection efforts. His campaign aides stonewalled all attempts to get an explanation for all of this wheeling and dealing with big-money developers. To this day, Perdue has never offered any plausible explanation of the land deals and tax breaks. This refusal to explain himself did not prevent Perdue from beating Mark Taylor in the November General Election, but all of these suspicious business deals - which don’t even come close to passing the smell test - will keep him from ever being considered seriously as a vice presidential candidate.

Perdue has also killed any chances of getting anything substantial passed by the legislature during his second term in office. He failed, first of all, to propose anything meaningful as this year’s session convened. At a time when Georgia is choking to death on traffic congestion, running out of water to support future economic growth, and cutting state funds for public schools, Perdue’s big idea was to build boat docks that would attract bass fishing tournaments to Georgia.

The governor also disappeared from the Capitol for long stretches of the General Assembly session, creating a power vacuum that Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson were only too happy to fill. The legislative leadership junked Perdue’s request for a tax break for wealthy senior citizens and instead put a property tax rebate in the midyear budget. When Perdue reappeared on the scene for the closing days of the session to insist that the legislature dump the property tax rebate and restore his tax proposal, he was essentially laughed off the stage. Perdue then had one of his customary temper tantrums and vetoed the midyear budget, which prompted the House on the last day of the session to vote 163-5, with Republicans and Democrats working in unison, to override that veto.

Perdue has continued to fuss and fume at lawmakers ever since. He angrily vetoed dozens of bills and budget projects sponsored by Republican legislators to wreak his revenge upon them. Those vindictive actions have created a bipartisan spirit seldom, if ever, seen in the General Assembly - Republicans now criticize Perdue as much as Democrats do. “He did what nobody else could have done,” remarked a longtime Capitol observer. “He united the parties.”

Perdue now faces two equally unappetizing possibilities. The House and Senate have been discussing the extraordinary step of calling themselves into a special session to override the latest wave of gubernatorial vetoes. If the votes aren’t there for a special session, then Richardson has promised that the legislature will spend the first few weeks of next year’s regular session voting on veto overrides. Either way, Perdue is in the embarrassing position of being repudiated by a legislature controlled by his own party. It’s no wonder that even Perdue’s mouthpiece for the last five years, press secretary Dan McLagan, has jumped ship to start his own agency. As the old saying goes, rats tend to swim away from a sinking ship very quickly. Who would have thought 12 months ago that Perdue would sinking quite so quickly?

Tom Crawford

Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.ciclt.net/garpt that covers government and politics in Georgia.