Congressman Deal steps up for governor’s race

By BILL TORPY

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mention Nathan Deal’s name, and you’ll probably draw blank stares from Georgians not living in the mountains.

But Deal and his supporters aren’t worried. They are quietly building a political machine to put the nine-term Republican congressman from Hall County in full view of voters for the 2010 governor’s race.

In April, Deal spotted an opening when Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle of Gainesville dropped his gubernatorial bid and U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Coweta County, announced he wasn’t running.

Although he’s not a household name statewide, Deal, a lawyer with nearly three decades of legislative experience, quickly made himself into a factor. He announced his candidacy May 1, raised nearly $1 million in two months and locked down support from the state House leadership and five of the six other Republican congressmen from Georgia.

And as Congress takes its vacation this month, Deal will spend a month crisscrossing Georgia, hobnobbing with local political leaders to set up an organization he hopes will build momentum in the upcoming year.

“It’s simply a matter of renewing friendships in those counties. Each [leader] has a constituency of his own. That gives me a network I can build on,” Deal said in an interview last week from Washington. “That’s, of course, what a campaign is all about, get grass roots in all counties.”

A ‘quiet’ man

Deal was elected to Congress in 1992 — as a Democrat — and was part of the same congressional class from Georgia that included Democrat Cynthia McKinney, whose outspoken, controversial style was the antithesis of his.

“I’m not one to go out and toot my own horn; I’m not always looking for the television camera,” said Deal, 66, who is described by both supporters and opponents as “quiet.”

Supporters see his low-key mannerisms as steady, humble, confident leadership. “He’s not inflammatory; he’s not hyperbolic,” said U.S. Rep. John Linder, a Republican from Duluth, who came to Congress with Deal in 1992 and helped convince him to turn Republican after Newt Gingrich and the GOP took over Congress in the 1994 election.

But others, such as Jeff Scott, a teacher from Chickamauga who ran last year as a Democrat against Deal, sees his low-key demeanor as self-preservation.

“He’s in a very Republican district,” he said. “He hasn’t had to go out there a lot on tough issues and take tough stands. He can’t do that as governor.”

Scott, however, has been impressed by the focus Deal has brought to his campaign so far.

“If he can bring forth the energy that he has brought on since he has announced, there’s no doubt that he’ll be the Republican nominee,” said Scott.

An ‘adult’ campaign

When announcing his candidacy, Deal tried to establish his campaign themes: He’s his own man. Thoughtful. And experienced.

“If you want a governor who does his own thinking, writes his own speeches, and ties his own shoes,” he said, “if you want all these things in your next governor, have I got a deal for you.”

Campaign literature plays on his name: “Deal. Real.” The campaign kicked around “Real Deal” but realized Atlanta’s own Evander Holyfield, the former heavyweight champ, had dibs on that one.

Matt Towery, a former GOP state legislator who runs the polling firm InsiderAdvantage, said Deal likely will position himself as being above the fray.

“He can plod along, raising money and be the experienced candidate, someone who doesn’t play games,” said Towery. “If I was running the Deal campaign it would be a message of ‘Experience. Experience. Adult. Adult.’ There has been too much theatrics with Georgia’s politics.”

Deal is not one to pick fights with opponents — at least not now, a year out from the Republican primary.

“The governor is supposed to be the CEO, solving the problems of the state,” he said. Deal said he entered the race because Cagle left the field and “there was a void on the Republican side. I looked at the field and determined there was a need for someone with the breadth of my experience.”

A matter of timing

Towery said the time was right for Deal to make a move. Democrats have a clear advantage in Congress, and President Barack Obama is in power at least until 2013.

“Who wants to sit around and wait for a realignment [in Congress]? The action is here,” said Towery. He pointed out that the decade Deal spent in the Georgia Senate before going to Congress positions him well in having statewide connections.

“Since the 1940s, no governor — except Lester Maddox — has been elected without having served in the state Legislature,” he said.

A May poll conducted by InsiderAdvantage put Deal’s support at 11 percent, half that of Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and equal to Secretary of State Karen Handel. Towery said that is no problem.

“No one knew who Sonny Perdue was in 2002,” he said. But “he was persistent and steady and had a base.

“Deal will have the money to be known on TV, no question,” he said.

Head start on funds

Deal’s campaign manager Philip Wilheit, who has been with his campaigns since he first ran for state Senate in 1980, said Deal is disciplined in performing the unpleasant task of sitting down and calling potential donors for money.

“When he has free time or is in Gainesville, he’s on the phone,” he said, adding that a kickoff campaign fund-raiser at a Gainesville country club brought in more than $540,000.

It was a shot across the bow to other candidates.

“The message sent was the people who know him support him,” Wilheit said.

In the campaign reporting period ending July 1, Deal led his three main Republican rivals, pulling in about $980,000. State Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), who has the state Senate solidly behind him, raised $962,000. Handel, who has been seen to be supported by Perdue, raised $430,000. Oxendine raised nearly $420,000.

Deal, the top Republican on the House Subcommittee on Health, got at least $55,000 from drug and health care companies, their lobbyists, associations and political action committees. His Washington connections will help in the next year, observers say.

Deal believes that $5 million might be needed to win the primary, which will likely include a runoff, and another $5 million will be needed to win the general election.

“My biggest competition is getting myself known,” said Deal.

He says a lot of people will be hearing about him in the next year.