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After announcing last week that he won’t run in next year’s U.S. Senate race, Brian Kemp went out of his way to make it clear he has no intention of coasting through his remaining 19 months as governor.
“Just because my name’s not going to be on the ballot, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be on the political playing field,” Georgia’s two-term governor told reporters.
Kemp flexed his executive muscles in Savannah last month to sign multiple laws that affect Coastal Georgia — and his decision to withhold the support of his office for another.
To those who have followed Kemp’s ascent from Athens real estate developer and state senator to secretary of state and governor, his political combativeness is no surprise.
Just ask state Rep. Edna Jackson of Savannah.
A notable omission
Kemp was all smiles when he swept into a 2nd floor conference room at the Savannah Convention Center for a ceremonial signing of more than two dozen mostly bills passed by the Georgia General Assembly earlier this year.
Accompanied by his wife Marty, the governor had just toured the $276 million, state-funded expansion of the center. The investment, along with the state-subsidized $7.3 billion Hyundai electric vehicle plant in nearby Ellabell, stand as two of Kemp’s crowning economic development achievements in the state.
Bidding local lawmakers to gather around him at the signing table, he went on to sign 29 bills into law. Kemp then distributed as souvenirs the ballpoint pens to the legislation’s sponsors and supporters.
In a rare departure from partisan rancor, local Democrats and Republicans joined the joking and backslapping. Kemp and state Rep. Carl Gilliard warmly exchanging greetings and congratulations when the governor signed into law legislation sponsored by the Savannah Democrat that authorizes the construction on state capitol grounds of a memorial to the “Original 33.”
But one piece of legislation lacked the governor’s signature, the bill shepherded by Jackson, a Democrat and a former Savannah mayor.
A cardinal rule
On the surface, the omission made no sense.
The measure, calling for restructuring of Chatham Area Transit’s board of directors, was hyperlocal, without statewide ramifications that would warrant lengthy consideration from Kemp before signing it into law.
Two area GOP lawmakers — Bill Hitchens and Jesse Petrea — had joined two Democrats — Anne Allen Westbrook and Carl Gilliard — in co-sponsoring House Bill 756. With the blessing of Rep. Ron Stephens, the dean of Coastal Georgia’s legislative delegation in Atlanta, the measure had passed both chambers of the General Assembly unanimously, except for one vote.
Neither local officials nor Kemp offered a reason for why Kemp had ignored the public transport legislation.
Only later did it become clear that Kemp was following a fundamental rule in politics: Reward your friends and punish your enemies.
Paying a price
A bill signing ceremony, it turns out, comes at a price.
And Jackson, the 80-year-old former mayor of Savannah, didn’t pay it, according to people close to the governor.
Some six weeks earlier, Jackson had rebuffed lobbying efforts by Kemp allies by voting against his signature legislation during the spring legislative session: limits to civil lawsuit damages, also known as tort reform.
In the days leading up to a crucial House vote on Senate Bill 68, the main piece of the governor’s reform package, Jackson had indicated she would vote for the measure, according to a person involved in the intense lobbying effort in Atlanta to win its passage.
Jackson told The Current, however, that while she and the governor met face-to-face and discussed the bill, she never disclosed how she would vote until March 20, just minutes before the roll call was taken.
Jackson joined 74 other Democrats and eight Republicans in voting no. Three Democrats voted in favor of it. House lawmakers approved the bill by just one more vote than required for passage.
The Senate later also passed the measure and with much fanfare, Kemp signed it into law in the capitol in late April.
But in the aftermath of such a rancorous, razor-close legislative victory, Kemp allies saw a political account to settle with Jackson.
They believe the veteran Democrat had flip-flopped, making a close vote closer than necessary. That rankled the governor and stuck with him.
Six weeks later in Savannah, the governor’s office decided that Kemp would not sign Jackson’s bill in front of TV cameras nor give it the spotlight of his office, these allies said.
Jackson, it seems, was not even alone in drawing the governor’s ire over the lawsuit reform effort.
State Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, said he was fired from his job as CEO of the Harris County Chamber of Commerce because he defied the governor and voted against tort reform. Kemp’s spokesman, Cody Hall, denied that the governor played any role in that decision.
Not angry
Jackson and people close to Kemp said the two do not view each other as enemies, despite the conventional center snub.
Meanwhile, the governor is still reviewing what action to take on HB 756, according to his spokesman, Garrison Douglas. The governor has a Wednesday’s deadline to act on all of the 378 bills and resolutions passed by the legislature this year.
“I would love to have the governor’s signature, but he has the right to choose what bills he wants to sign and which ones he doesn’t. He’s just like me — he makes his decisions based on what he thinks are the needs of the people.”
Rep. Edna Jackson
He can sign those measures, veto them — or take no action, in which case it automatically becomes law.
For her part, Jackson said she is not angry with Kemp.
“I would love to have the governor’s signature, but he has the right to choose what bills he wants to sign and which ones he doesn’t. He’s just like me — he makes his decisions based on what he thinks are the needs of the people.”
The District 165 representative also is pragmatic.
“I’m not going to make enemies just because he doesn’t do it. I like to leave the door open because there are other bills where I may need his support.”
A kingmaker
Whatever the fate of HB 756, there is a lesson to draw from the convention center bill-signing.
While it is true that the methodical Kemp has never been known for having the folksiest personality in Georgia politics, what it shows — and what the Georgia GOP’s MAGA base has learned — and is that while his conservatism may be too moderate for its taste, Kemp is not mild in political temperament.
For Kemp himself, the message also will prove especially useful as he tours the country dispensing money from his enormous war chest to favored Republican candidates and building a national network for a possible run for the White House in 2028.
Just ask Jackson.
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