Few Georgia politicians are more respected than Johnny Isakson. However he isn’t taking a third senate term for granted—even if there’s no one to seriously challenge him.
Max Blau
Less than two weeks after Republicans trounced Democrats in the lopsided November 2014 midterms, Isakson came to the Georgia Capitol to announce his re-election bid for a third term in the U.S. Senate—an election that wouldn’t happen for an additional two years. When qualifying for the 2016 Senate race ends on March 11, Georgia’s senior senator already will certainly have actually spent 480 days on the campaign trail.
During his time in Washington, Isakson has actually worked to secure funding for the Savannah Port, reform the Department of Veteran Affairs, and reduce the federal deficit. If his record of bipartisanship wasn’t enough to win over voters, he’s relentlessly campaigned, padding his war chest along with $5.6 million simply in case a serious challenger emerges.
So far none have actually appeared. However that hasn’t slowed Isakson down. On an unseasonably warm February afternoon, he was working in his ninth-floor office in Cobb County a couple miles east of SunTrust Park. During a weeklong trip back home, Isakson glad-handed constituents at a Kiwanis meeting in Americus, spoke along with realtors in Newnan, and held fundraisers across the state from Tifton to Atlanta. Prior to heading back to D.C., he spoke along with us in a wide-ranging interview about the state of the Republican Party, his preference for compromise over grandstanding, and living along with Parkinson’s disease. This interview has actually been condensed and edited for clarity.
You successfully pushed a bill to offer victims of the Iran hostage crisis $10,000 for each day they were held captive. During your trip home, you met along with a Georgia man that was held hostage in Iran in 1979. How was it talking to him or her along with a finalized settlement in place?
It was pretty emotional for them and, really, for me. Joe Hall was a captive in 1979 for 444 days like the others 54 hostages that were beaten, tortured, and finally released thanks to Ronald Reagan. He was pretty appreciative, obviously, of exactly what we’d done. I’ve been working on [compensation] for seven years along with two different administrations, two secretaries of state, [and] two attorneys general. We got close so several times However we finally delivered this year, so persistence pays off as well.
You’ve been an elected official since the mid-1970s. You’ve won close races and lost some races. This time around, no serious challenger, not even a Democrat, has actually entered the Senate race. How do you campaign when no one wants to run versus you?
The only thing you can easily control in a political race is yourself. You can’t control that your opponent is. You can’t control when they grab in or when they grab out. We’ve raised a lot of money. I’ve got a excellent professional staff that keeps me straight. We’ll be ready.
When I initial ran in 1974, I had never run for office in my life, and so I ready much differently than I ready today having served in office for 35 years. Before, I was establishing a record. Now, I’ve got a record. You can’t be good at anything unless you’re being yourself. You run on exactly what you’ve done, and you describe exactly what you want to do in the future.
Political outsiders have actually become increasingly popular in the 2016 presidential race. have actually you tailored your approach, considering you’re viewed as Georgia’s consummate establishment politician?
When I went to the Legislature in 1976, I was the 19th Republican. There were 161 Democrats. Custer had much better odds than we had. To do anything, I had to discover a person to job along with in the Democratic Party to guidance me go from 19 votes to the 91 votes it took to grab a majority. As time has actually gone by, we went from being a pretty minority party to the majority. The same points hold true today. If it’s only going to be your method or the highway, you’re never going to grab anything done. If you’re willing to discover common ground on 80 percent of an issue, then don’t gone it over the 20 percent where you can’t discover it. That’s always been the method I’ve operated. It’s served me well.
When you look back at your preference for compromise, is there a particular example of that approach that you feel has actually served Georgians ideal during your time in office?
In December, I was able to pull [Georgia’s] delegation with each other almost unanimously to support the omnibus appropriations bill, which had its detractors. In return for extracting the language that was punitive to the ports of Savannah and Brunswick, we saved Georgia from a threat to its water supply in skewing the balance of power between Alabama and Georgia in the “water wars,” which have actually been going on for 26 years. Even though some didn’t like the bill, it cut $100 billion in spending from the 2008 level.
There were a lot of people that said, “Don’t vote for any appropriations bill, period.” However if you can easily cut $100 billion in spending and save your state’s position in the Tri-State Water Compact, then I think of that a smart thing to do. Of the 16 members of the delegation—senators and representatives—14 voted together, Democrat and Republican. We made a deal nobody believed we could make. It’s exactly what you’re able to do in the process, not exactly what you’re able to do for the camera.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died earlier this month. You’ve said you favor waiting until President Barack Obama leaves office to confirm his successor. The president intends on moving forward along with the nomination process this year. Is there any scenario in which you would certainly vote for his nominee?
The issue has actually nothing to do along with President Obama and everything to do along with Antonin Scalia. He was appointed in 1986 by Ronald Reagan, that was dead in 5 or 6 years. Scalia served for 30 years. Whoever is appointed to fill this seat probably will certainly serve for 30 years. It could be a Republican. It could be a Democrat. It could be an independent. For a tie-breaking appointment on a court divided four-four, it’s more appropriate for the people of the United States to make that appointment than for a president who’s going from office at the end of the year.
You haven’t endorsed a candidate in the presidential race. Do you strategy to?
No, I do not.
Why not?
I serve at the pleasure of the people of Georgia. They didn’t elect me to be their consulting adviser on that to vote for. They elected me to do a job for them. I’ll embrace the nominee of the [Republican] party when we know that the nominee is. In the meantime, the people deserve the opportunity to make that choice, not me.
After President Obama won re-election in 2012, there was a belief that to take back the White House, the Republican Party required to become more inclusive. Candidates like Donald Trump have actually done the opposite by taking an exclusionary stance. I understand you’re not endorsing anyone, However how do you feel about candidates that have actually deviated from that strategy of inclusion?
We’ve got a pretty diverse country that’s getting more diverse. Georgia is a good example of that. The white voting population in Georgia has actually declined about two percent every four years for the last three presidential elections and will certainly continue to as the minority population grows. I do everything I can easily to reach out to every Georgian without excluding anybody. Everybody’s vote is important.
Obviously, if Bernie Sanders were nominated, the Democratic Party would certainly have actually him or her crawling to the focus from the left so fast it would certainly make your head swim. If a person on the far right were nominated in our party, they’d be crawling to the focus from the right. Reagan was probably the most effective example. He was really an arch-conservative right-wing challenger to Gerald Ford, that lost However got the nomination four years later. [Reagan] moved to the focus and became a excellent example of finding common ground. Ronald Reagan signed the [bill that created Martin Luther King Jr. Day], which no Republican had ever done before. He empowered the EPA. He did all kinds of points that conservatives were not believed to have actually wanted to do, However he reached out and found compromise.
You were at a Google event in Cobb County during your trip home. Google is one of about nearly 100 companies or universities in Georgia that are fighting the “religious freedom” bills proposed at the Gold Dome. You’re working on a federal bill, the initial Amendment Defense Act, which would certainly make a single “religious freedom” law across the entire country. If your bill doesn’t pass, and a Georgia bill does pass, do you fear there will certainly be a scenario in which the state would certainly face backlash similar to exactly what was seen in Indiana last year?
Vermont passed a law that says every agricultural product sold in the state ought to have actually a label that tells exactly what GMOs are contained in the product. The agricultural products sold in that state come from all 50 states. If everybody’s got to make their label fit Vermont, then exactly what do you do when Brand-new Jersey or Georgia passes a conflicting GMO law? The cost would certainly be incredible. There are certain areas where you simply need to have actually a national standard.
I happen to believe the initial Amendment that protects my right to worship as I see fit—and for the government to not establish a religion—is the “religious liberty” protection that I need. However if you [must] have actually a “religious liberty” standard, the reason I support one at the federal level is because it would certainly be seamless for all 50 states. However if there are isolated “religious liberty” bills passed in every state, you’d have actually a labyrinth of bills that are not necessarily consistent, which would certainly cause all the ramifications you referred to in your example [of Indiana].
If the federal “religious freedom” bill doesn’t pass Prior to the state bills, do you fear there potentially will certainly be social or economic fallout in Georgia?
Fear is not the right word. I’m elected to the Senate. My responsibility is exactly what we do there. The members of the General Assembly are elected to do exactly what they believe is ideal for the state. It’s ideal for the country to have actually a seamless interpretation of “religious liberty” for all states.
Last June, you announced that you had been diagnosed back in 2013 along with Parkinson’s disease.
That’s right.
How are you feeling today?
I feel great.
How has actually your diagnosis changed your day-to-day routine? How has actually it changed the method you see others people along with Parkinson’s? I read you have actually been an energetic fundraiser for Parkinson’s in recent months.
I always worked for people along with disabilities to guarantee they had an adequate access to education. I worked for the disability community in numerous various charitable events. I’ve always had an appreciation for people along with disabilities. None of the disabilities keep you from doing anything unless they start to control your mind and your attitude.
When I was initial diagnosed, for a couple of years only my wife knew. I didn’t even tell my kids. You have actually a few points in your walk and your gait and some points that become obvious. Then, as an elected official, I owed it to disclose exactly what I had. And I did. I do exactly what the doctors tell me to do. I do the right exercises. I try and consume right. I ate fish and green beans and corn for lunch. I want the record to reflect that: a green vegetable, a yellow vegetable, and fish, which is terrific.
What kind of fish?
I don’t know. It was fried. I wasn’t going to tell you that part. If it’s fried, it’s good, even if it’s old shoe leather.
What kind of treatment do you get?
I do the physical therapy to deal along with the complications that are all muscular in nature, not mental in nature. initial thing I do is a one- to two-mile walk usually at 5:30 or 6 [in the morning]. Then there are physical exercises that you do to tone your muscles and your agility and your extremities. I do them twice a day most of the time. I can easily accomplish the exercises in anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. The walk, depending on how brisk I’m walking, I can easily do it from anywhere for 20 to 35 minutes.
The method you deal along with a neurological disease like Parkinson’s is through physical activity and exercise. You grab a lot more of that when you’re walking the halls of Congress, walking down airport concourses, joining 6 cities in three days at fundraisers and town hall meetings like I simply did. It’s portion of the prescription for my good health, which I’m enjoying.
You’ve said you’re running along with the intention of serving a third full term. However I’ve heard people within Georgia politics theorize that you might hand off the seat to Gov. Deal, that could then appoint an additional Republican to office pretty than risk the seat in an open election.
Why on the planet would certainly anybody do that? I mean since November 17 of 2014, I’ve raised $5.6 million. When I’m not in Washington, I’m traveling the state campaigning, working to be re-elected, working on projects that have actually longitudinal solutions that are a lot longer out in the future than simply one year. I believe exactly what I’m doing, and how I’m doing it, need to be prima facie evidence that I’m not running to turn it over to the governor to appoint a person else.
If you win a third term, have actually you believed about a point where, medically speaking, you feel it would certainly be ideal to step down?
No, I believe positive. I think of how points are going to job out well. I had never contemplated the scenario.
You’ve criticized President Obama for thawing diplomatic relations along with Cuba. exactly what are your thoughts now that he’s preparation to go there next month?
There was nothing in return [with the original deal]. It was all for Cuba. There was nothing about U.S. agriculture going in to the country. Nothing about the refugees or political prisoners or anything like that. I’m happy that he’s going to Cuba. I’m not happy that he wants to close Guantanamo Bay. That prison’s been important to the security of our country. I believe he’s wrong in wanting to close it.
Outside of Guantanamo Bay, are you happy there’s a partnership now along with Cuba?
The deal’s over. He made a deal to offer them diplomatic recognition without extracting anything in return. For the Cubans that fled Castro and came to south Florida and for the people who’ve been held political prison in Cuba for decades, it’s unfortunate that he didn’t try to negotiate either their release or [compensation] for exactly what was taken from them. simply like it was so wrong to make the Iranian nuclear deal without extracting more from the Iranians. Once it’s over, it’s over. It’s simply a portion of the historical record.
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