By SHANNON McCAFFREY
Associated Press
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ATLANTA - As Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal worked late on one of the waning days of 2011 legislative session, he got hungry.
Instead of making staff order takeout food or spiriting off to a nearby restaurant, Deal wandered out into the Capitol - teeming with legislators and their aides - grabbed a plate of baked ziti and sat at a folding table, nearly indistinguishable, except for the telltale security detail.
It was a fitting move for the Gainesville Republican, who won fans and much of his limited agenda during the busy 40-day legislative session with a low-key willingness to make himself available to lawmakers and compromise.
Deal will mark his 100th day as Georgia's governor on Tuesday. That milestone comes just days after the end of the session, the critical first test of his ability to translate campaign rhetoric into governing results. By many accounts, he passed with flying colors, sticking to a limited agenda but delivering what he promised.
Deal has already signed a landmark overhaul of the state's cash-strapped HOPE scholarship into law after helping to hustle the bill through in just three weeks. The $18.3 billion budget, which had to account for about $1 billion in lost federal stimulus dollars, passed without much controversy and largely resembles the spending blueprint he proposed. He's earmarked $32 million in bond money for water infrastructure projects.
Deal is not a backslapping pol but he has a reserved, "everyman" quality. He's made himself accessible, holding regular legislative office hours to hear what's on lawmakers' minds. Intimately with familiar with the give-and-take of the legislative process from his nearly two decades in Congress, Deal has spent his early months as governor working collaboratively and shown willingness to compromise. When educators and parents voiced worries about sweeping changes he'd proposed to the state's pre-kindergarten program to cut costs, he listened and changed course.
"It's been refreshing," state Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat who has served in the House since 1975.
"Having worked with maybe seven governors, I find he's one where, although you are on the different side, he's still receptive to dialogue."
Many said Deal's tone is particularly notable because his predecessor, Republican Sonny Perdue, was known for a my-way-or-the-highway style that some found off putting.
"I have had more communication with this governor in the first week of the session than I had with the former governor in eight years," state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, a Powder Springs Republican said.
"With Sonny, we were the recalcitrant children and he was daddy. Well, nobody likes that style of being patted on the head. This is 180 degrees from that."
Deal professes a respect for the legislative process of which he was a part for so long. Before his election to Congress he served a decade in the state Senate.
"I understand what a legislator has to go through, to take an idea to reduce it to a legislative format and then be able to convince enough people to be able to pass that," Deal said in an interview with The Associated Press. "You have to give a lot of credit to anyone who can work through that process."
Not everyone is a fan of what they've seen so far.
State Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown called the changes Deal pushed through on the HOPE scholarship "an abomination." The Macon Democrat said he was deeply disappointed that Deal wouldn't consider creating income caps for HOPE recipients, reserving the scholarship for those who really need it to attend college.
"As far as I'm concerned, if what he did on HOPE is a sign of where his philosophy is, than Georgia's in real trouble," Brown said.
Deal largely stayed out of the fray this session, sticking to his narrow to-do list.
Even though he was a strong proponent of cracking down on illegal immigration while in Congress, he shied away from the contentious debate that raged at the Capitol this session over a sweeping bill to crack down on illegal immigration in the state. Deal said the particulars were up to the Legislature to decide. Yet the day after it passed Deal told The AP he'll sign it into law. He also said he will sign a bill allowing communities to decide whether to permit Sunday alcohol sales in stores.
It remains to be seen what he will do with the hundreds of other bills that will now cross his desk.
"My goal is not to be somebody who racks up a long list of vetoes, because a veto is a rather abrupt conclusion to what, in most cases, represents a lot of hard work," Deal said. "If there are differences that you can work out during the legislative process then you should."
Looking forward, Deal, a former prosecutor, is setting his sights on revamping the Georgia's tough sentencing laws, with an eye toward scaling back the state's exploding prison costs. Tax reform, which died this session, could also be back on the agenda with Deal's stamp on it. He said he wants to push for a reduction of the corporate income tax, a key campaign pledge.
And although Georgia's economy is showing some encouraging signs of life, that doesn't mean government won't continue to slim down under the Deal administration.
Deal said the thing that has surprised him most since taking the helm of state government has been the sheer, sprawling size of it.
"To realize how many agencies and how many boards, we have. That's a little shocking," Deal told The AP. "I think we need to continue to consolidate and downsize."
Democratic state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, of Atlanta, said he wants to see what Deal will do as revenues start to pick up.
"People understand that times are tough now and everyone needs to take their hit," Brooks said. "But when things get better will that extra money go to schools or a corporate tax breaks?"
One thing seems certain: Deal may be around awhile. There has been some speculation that the 68-year-old would only serve one term.
Not so, says Deal.
"A lot of people don't know me very well," he said with a smile. "I feel good. I have every expectation that I will run for a second term."
"Our theme is enduring HOPE - enduring in that we want it to be maintained and even in tough times it is going to endure and going to survive," Deal told The Associated Press Monday.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/2/236382