Gov. Nathan Deal last lost an election in the early 1970s, when he was defeated in a race for president of the Gainesville Jaycees. Seventeen contests — and 17 wins — later, the Republican is preparing for his final year in public office in a fraught political environment.
First, he has the chance to cement his stamp on the criminal justice overhaul he engineered in his first term as governor and changes to the education system he's pursued in his second. And he could put the finishing touches on other items to burnish his legacy, such as a new cybersecurity campus in Augusta and a needs-based scholarship he championed.
But he’ll face new questions about whether he can corral the competing factions of his party one last time to wrangle his top priorities. Though Deal has managed to enforce an uneasy truce in past years, it will be more difficult as his would-be successors intensify their campaigns to replace him.
The governor has so far been tight-lipped about his initiatives for the legislative session that starts Monday, unlike past years when he unveiled proposals weeks before lawmakers gathered in Atlanta. But he’s outlined a few priorities he’s likely to put at the center of what could be an understated agenda.
He's a forceful advocate for a rewrite of the state's adoption rules — without a provision that would allow private agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples. He's likely to support a new expansion of Georgia's court system and initiatives for Georgians struggling with mental health issues.
The governor will also surely back lucrative new tax credits and incentives designed to lure Amazon’s second headquarters to metro Atlanta. And he’ll look to expand Georgia’s reserve funds, which have grown to about $2.4 billion since he took office.
Just as notable will be the initiatives he probably won’t embrace in his final term.
He’s warned about the fiscal impacts of broad new tax cuts and has become a forceful critic of the “religious liberty” legislation he vetoed in 2016. And he’s not expected to attempt the overhaul of the state’s school funding formula that he made the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
“We have blazed some trails, we have planted some trees,” Deal said of his approach to his final session. “Sometimes you just have to go back and continue to improve on what you’ve already done.”
‘A disappointment’
The Republican faced an uncertain legislative session last year after he was rocked by conservative backlash that was, at times, fiercer than the pushback he faced from Democrats.
His vetoes in 2016 of religious liberty legislation and a campus gun bill brought condemnation from grass-roots Republicans and threats of payback. And the thumping defeat of his constitutional amendment to empower the state takeover of perpetually failing schools led to questions about his waning political clout.
His response was a lower-key agenda that he largely managed to fulfill.
Lawmakers voted to adopt a new system that gives the state power to intervene in struggling schools. He agreed to sign a new but similar campus gun measure, but only after legislators carved out exceptions he demanded. He secured 20 percent raises for state law enforcement officers, though it infuriated some county and city officials left out of the program.
And he effectively muzzled any significant push for religious liberty measures that supporters said would grant new protections for the faith-based but critics derided as thinly veiled discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.
One of his biggest misses — the overhaul of the adoption laws, aimed at speeding up the process — is a top goal for this year.
The debate over the adoption overhaul is one of the thorniest fights in the Legislature, and Deal is echoing a position he took throughout last year’s back-and-forth over the bill. Both he and House Speaker David Ralston demand a “clean” version of the adoption measure stripped of religious liberty language that they see as discriminatory.
“That was a disappointment to a lot of people last year that the adoption bill was not finalized,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll send it to my desk as early as possible.”
This session also gives Deal one more chance to pursue a final phase of his years-long criminal justice overhaul.
A commission he created calls for a new statewide business court system and legislation to counter a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that effectively bars residents from suing the state when trying to overturn a law they believe is unconstitutional.
‘He’s not done’
He may have less leverage than ever before to carry out his plans.
As a lame-duck governor, he’ll have to wrestle with lawmakers who are looking past his final year to November’s election. Five Republicans and two Democrats with sharply contrasting strategies and agendas are in the race, and several are eager to direct their fire squarely at the governor.
But he still has some mighty tools at his disposal. He can dangle judgeships, board seats and other coveted appointments in front of wavering lawmakers and power brokers, many which will extend far beyond his term. And he has the first and final say on Georgia’s $26 billion budget, as well as the power of the veto pen.
Plus, he'll inevitably have his legacy on his mind. His office in recent days has attempted to highlight legislation he signed that eliminated the state sales tax on energy used in manufacturing and his support for a package of fees and taxes that raises nearly $1 billion each year for road improvements.
“We’ve come a long way in seven years, and we don’t intend to let up,” Deal said. “We intend to push forward.”
State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat, said the tone of the session will start and stop with the governor.
“It’s hard to predict that real substantive work will get done, but I’m hoping the governor will continue to be a real leader in his last year,” Oliver said, alluding to election-year politicking. “He’s not done. I hope he will continue to offer some substantive reforms on criminal justice.”
Ralston said he expected Deal to be “fully engaged” until he leaves office next year.
“I don’t know his legislative package, but I expect it will be a strong one,” said Ralston, who said he expects to be largely “on the same page” as the governor when he does.
“I don’t see a lame duck when I see him.”
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