One of Gov. Nathan Deal’s top priorities is to create jobs, and lately he has been doing just that — for lawmakers.
Deal has appointed three state lawmakers and a former House member to six-figure jobs in the past two months. Overall, at least seven current or former legislators have gotten top state jobs since Deal took office in January. And officials say he is backing another former state lawmaker to run the Department of Transportation.
In addition, at least three lobbyists have been hired to run key state agencies in less than a year.
The hirings show that in many cases, Deal isn’t looking far beyond Capitol Hill to run the state, despite calls for dramatic change in how government operates coming from groups as diverse as the Tea Party Patriots, Common Cause and political candidates from both parties.
“It’s clear they are putting together an insider administration,” said Wayne Garner, a lobbyist and former state senator who served as corrections commissioner in the 1990s.
“I think it’s continuing the same good ol’ boy, club system,” said Debbie Dooley, one of the founders of the Georgia Tea Party Patriots. “That’s definitely what it looks like from the outside looking in.”
Dooley said the system needs to be transparent so the public knows the state is hiring the most qualified people for key jobs.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said most of the lawmakers and insiders Deal appointed had experience in the private sector or on legislative committees related to their new jobs.
“Having a political background helps when you are in the executive branch,” Robinson said. “Politics shouldn’t drive your decisions necessarily, but it does help you understand the wider world, that these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, that we are answerable to the voters in Georgia.”
Deal’s pace of insider hiring may be quicker than that of some past governors, but it has precedent both in Georgia and across the country. In fact, some jobs, such as those on the parole or workers’ compensation boards, have frequently gone to lawmakers and insiders over the years.
“People today feel like you should be making appointments based on merit or a speciality in a particular area ... but I don’t think it’s unusual at all for a governor to make appointments based on people that they have met or been involved with throughout their political career,” said Katherine Willoughby, a public management and policy professor at Georgia State University. “I do think in this day and age, it helps if you have some experience.”
While his predecessor, Sonny Perdue, often looked to bankers, businessmen, retired military officials and veteran bureaucrats to fill top posts, Deal is looking to people with experience in statehouse politics.
Among them:
• Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, a longtime Senate budget hawk who was named deputy state treasurer. Seabaugh, who has an accounting degree, was once the chief financial officer for a local homebuilding company. In 2010 he agreed to pay a $2,500 ethics fine as part of a consent order that said he “failed to properly account” for several loans to his campaign.
• Sen. Jim Butterworth, R-Clarkesville, one of Deal’s Senate floor leaders and a Delta Air Lines pilot who once flew B-1 bombers for the Georgia Air National Guard. Butterworth was a captain when he originally served in the guard, but Deal jumped him several ranks to three-star general and put him in command of the Guard.
• Rep. James Mills, R-Gainesville, a lawmaker for almost 20 years, who was chosen for the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Mills runs a self-storage business and was chairman of the House banking committee. He represented Deal’s hometown in the House. Lawmakers are frequent appointees to the board, and Mills will join it Jan. 1.
• Former Rep. Melvin Everson, R-Snellville, who left the Legislature at the end of last year to run unsuccessfully for labor commissioner. First he was Deal’s director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. Then Deal named him director of the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity. In his new job, Everson replaced former Fulton County Commissioner Gordon Joyner, a political appointee of Gov. Roy Barnes.
• Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica, a former police officer who was chairman of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. Bearden, best-known as a regular sponsor of legislation to make gun laws less restrictive, was named head of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
• Another Deal floor leader, Rep. Hank Huckaby. Earlier this year, the University System Board of Regents chose Huckaby, a former state budget director and university administrator, as its chancellor. Huckaby’s selection was a break from the recent past: the last three chancellors were high-ranking officials from out-of-state universities or systems. But Huckaby was Deal’s choice, and governors appoint members to the Board of Regents.
• Bill Stephens, another former top Republican lawmaker. This summer, Stephens took over the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, the organization that runs Stone Mountain Park.
Former legislator for DOT?
In addition to those appointments, Deal is backing former Republican legislative leader Steve Stancil, head of the Georgia Building Authority, to become the new DOT commissioner.
If the DOT board approves, Stancil would replace Vance Smith, a legislator who was hired by the DOT board in 2009.
Deal also chose statehouse lobbyists to run the Department of Community Health, which handles Medicaid, and the state’s economic development agency. Another state agency lobbyist was recently appointed top staffer of the state ethics commission by its board.
Statehouse veterans said Deal is hiring based on his own, decades-long experience in government.
“Sonny [Perdue] was comfortable dealing with business people,” said Rusty Paul, a lobbyist and former Republican senator who advised Perdue. “Nathan is very comfortable with political people. He understands them, and he understands that politics extends beyond the governor’s office and legislative chambers. The politics of governing is an important skill.”
Keith Mason, a former top aide to Gov. Zell Miller, said Deal’s choices are not all that surprising.
“It’s natural to appoint the people you know,” he said.
But Gary Horlacher, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for secretary of state last year who ran on an ethics reform platform, said hiring a lot of legislators who know “how the game” works at the Capitol isn’t necessarily a good thing.
“You can put all the politics aside, but at the end of the day, what you want is people with expertise and a proven track record of administering and fixing things, not representatives who don’t even draft their own legislation,” Horlacher said.
When Deal left for Congress in 1993, Miller was governor. Miller also hired a lot of lawmakers or former lawmakers and veteran bureaucrats to top jobs. Sen. Al Scott was named labor commissioner. Former Sen. Eugene Walker headed the Department of Children and Youth Services. Miller appointed his House floor leader, Thurbert Baker, as attorney general. Sen. Harrill Dawkins became director of the state Workers’ Compensation Board. Garner and Walter Ray went on the parole board, and Garner later became corrections commissioner. All, like Miller, were Democrats.
Legislative burnout
Although he was among the leaders of the state Senate at the time, Garner said he was looking to get out of the Legislature, especially after a contentious, failed bid to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
“I had just had enough,” he said. “That’s how it works. It has been my experience in the past that legislators get burned out and have gone to the governor and said, ‘If I can help out in any way, I’d like to.’
“If you look at those he [Deal] is bringing out of the Legislature, I suspect they have just gotten tired of the daily grind,” Garner said.
Others, like Stephens, said they wanted a chance to serve in an area that interested them. Stephens, who worked in Miller’s administration before becoming a state senator, said the Stone Mountain Park job fit his interest in the tourism industry. He served on tourism and economic development committees when he was in the Senate.
Miller and Deal aren’t the only Georgia governors who hired from the legislative ranks.
Gov. Roy Barnes, who replaced Miller, picked longtime Atlanta lawmaker Jim Martin to head the Department of Human Resources and put Walker on the parole board. He also appointed lawmakers to judgeships and to workers’ compensation board posts. He nominated a former Senate colleague to head the DOT and created a new insurance consumer advocate job that went to a former senator.
Patronage hires elsewhere
Nationally, some recent insider hires have brought complaints of cronyism.
The Texas Transportation Commission in September installed an energy company lobbyist and former top aide to Gov. Rick Perry as executive director of the state’s Transportation Department. Phil Wilson, who is being paid at least $100,000 more than his predecessor, is the first non-engineer to run the agency.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker was slammed after he picked the father of the two most powerful Republican state lawmakers to head the Wisconsin State Patrol.
While Deal’s propensity for hiring lawmakers has been noticed at the Capitol, criticism has been limited. Insiders see it pretty much as business as usual at the statehouse.
“I don’t see anything different in what Gov. Deal is doing,” said Garner, who is mayor of Carrollton.
But Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, said Deal’s appointments show that the governor wants to be surrounded mostly by white, male politicians like himself.
“It may betray a kind of small view of the universe,” Orrock said. “It may betray blinders about the wealth of talent that is across this state.”
About the Author
