Lacking a major challenger, Johnny Isakson forges own path in D.C.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Age: 71

Business: In 1967, he opened the first Cobb County office of Northside Realty, a small, family-owned real estate business. During the 20 years he spent as the company's president, Northside grew to become the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast.

State government: Isakson entered politics in 1974 and served 17 years in the Georgia Legislature, in both the House and Senate. In 1997, Gov. Zell Miller named Isakson chairman of the Georgia Board of Education.

Federal government: In 1999, Isakson began the first of three terms in the U.S. House. In 2004, he was first elected to the U.S. Senate. He won re-election to a second term in 2010, and he is now seeking a third term. He is currently the Senate's only double chairman, leading both the Veterans Affairs Committee and Ethics Committee. He also serves on the Senate's Finance, Foreign Relations, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees.

Notable: Isakson announced in June that nearly three years earlier he began showing symptoms of Parkinson's disease. He said it would not deter him from running for re-election and serving a full six-year term.

College: Graduated from the University of Georgia in 1966

Family: Wife, Dianne; three children; nine grandchildren

During this unpredictable, anti-establishment and often acrimonious election year, many of Johnny Isakson’s Senate colleagues are contorting themselves politically in order to convince voters they should keep their jobs.

But it’s a different story for Isakson. A walking, talking embodiment of the Georgia GOP establishment, the two-term lawmaker is operating as he has for years.

In fact, on Capitol Hill it’s easy to forget he’s running for re-election at all.

Isakson is currently pursuing one of the biggest bipartisan compromises of his career on veterans accountability legislation, working with top Senate Democrats to finalize a deal in the weeks ahead.

He also stuck his neck out for Nathan Deal, defending the governor's controversial veto of "religious liberty" legislation last month, an issue that could become a conservative litmus test for down-ticket races in the May primaries.

At the same time, he’s held the party line on issues such as the Supreme Court vacancy and the proposed closure of the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility.

Isakson has been able to set his own agenda this year mainly because he's managed to scare off any big-name opponents from either party. It also speaks to the low-key lawmaker's unique position within the Georgia GOP, allowing him to run as himself in an overwhelmingly anti-establishment time.

“My father used to tell me: ‘Don’t try and be something you aren’t. You’ll screw it up,’ ” Isakson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ve always tried to be me, and regardless of what I’m doing, whether it’s the job I had in my business or whether it’s being a father or a United States senator, I try to be a predictable, reliable person so everybody knows where I am and where I stand.”

Contrasting cases

Isakson’s relative freedom to set his own tone and tempo this election year comes in stark contrast with several of his Senate colleagues also up for re-election.

Some incumbents have taken hard tacks to the right. In order to defeat a young, tea party-backed outsider last month, five-term Alabama Republican Richard Shelby shifted toward the GOP base on issues such as immigration and government spending.

Other vulnerable senators running in blue and purple states, including Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, have pivoted toward the center. Both lawmakers recently agreed to meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, even as GOP leaders forcefully pushed for a full blockade.

For Isakson, the most fateful day of his campaign for a third term is likely already behind him.

On March 11, the final day of qualifying for Georgia political offices, he learned he would have no big name Democratic opponent. Perhaps even more critically, he did not attract a high powered primary challenger who could make the most of the strong anti-establishment current.

It’s a situation that frustrates some conservatives critical of Isakson’s voting record.

“It’s just regrettable that we haven’t had a viable candidate to oppose Johnny Isakson,” said Conrad Quagliaroli, leader of the Cherokee County chapter of the Tea Party Patriots.

Isakson is facing two Republican challengers in May, but neither is expected to be a major roadblock. Both have run and lost in previous statewide Republican primaries: Derrick Grayson, a Stone Mountain minister and MARTA engineer, in the 2014 Senate race, and Mercer University education professor Mary Kay Bacallao for the state superintendent position that same year.

Across the aisle, four Democrats are competing to challenge Isakson in November, but none have much name recognition. Jim Barksdale, the candidate backed by the party apparatus, has been virtually absent since announcing his candidacy and has yet to grant any media interviews.

There's also Libertarian Allen Buckley, an attorney and accountant from metro Atlanta who's long been a fixture in statewide races.

Observers say a confluence of factors helped scare off any big-name or well-funded challengers.

Isakson is “a well-known quantity,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

“He’s not somebody who voters don’t know about and therefore can be easily swayed with new information. He’s been known and respected for decades. … That gives him some immunity that a person newer on the scene would not have,” Bullock said.

Isakson’s high name recognition and well-organized support network across the state are hard to beat. A $5.5 million war chest and experienced staff don’t hurt either.

“I don’t think that I met anybody who dislikes him. I think they question some of his votes,” said Jack Smith, the leader of Ellijay’s Liberty Group Tea Party. “But nobody else has stepped up that we feel would really be able to do a really good job as senator.”

Ground game

For his part, Isakson and his campaign staff attribute much of their success to their ground game, one that’s constantly and methodically carried out year after year in meetings and appearances with local GOP groups, businesses, restaurants and newspaper editorial boards.

That also means sitting down with people who are at times critical of him, Isakson said.

“People tend to dislike people they don’t know very well and like people they do know very well, and I try to be somebody that they can all get to know and hopefully come to like,” Isakson said. “But at least if they don’t agree with me or I don’t agree with them, we agree or disagree agreeably, and I think that’s the secret to it.”

Quagliaroli and Smith, for their part, were divided on the subject of Isakson’s accessibility to their groups.

While the former criticized Isakson for remaining “in his ivory tower” and not present at GOP meetings in Cherokee County, Smith said the senator has been “responsive.”

“Sometimes it’s not the way we want,” Smith said, “but he does respond.”

Not everyone is writing off Isakson’s competition. Michael Opitz, the president of the nonprofit Madison Forum, which boasts many high-profile Georgia conservatives as members, said both Grayson and Bacallao have time to build up more name recognition and momentum before the May 24 primary. The political climate favors outsiders.

“If this were five or six years ago, maybe even two years ago, the traditional political laws of motion would take place” and Isakson would handily win, Opitz said. But the outsider phenomenon has made it so that “the people with the name recognition are people with political baggage behind them, whether it’s perceived or real. (Voters are) looking for nonpolitical candidates.”

He said Isakson's diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is also raising questions about whether the senator could serve out a full six-year term. "With Parkinson's, you don't know. That means do the people want Nathan Deal as governor to appoint the next senator? And Nathan Deal doesn't have the highest standing in the state," said Opitz, who underscored that his group does not endorse candidates.