The crash of 2007–08 that torpedoed the American economy has given us many hard-luck stories to

tell. We all have a friend or relative who had to give up their plans for early retirement or sell their house to raise money to pay medical bills. It’s no surprise that during this economic downturn we have also seen the early departure of several members of the General Assembly.

Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) resigned from the House in 2009 after 17 years as a lawmaker, where he had become chairman of the House transportation committee. Smith was named commissioner of the department of transportation, but that job only lasted two years.

Rep. Mike Coan (R-Lawrenceville), who ran a construction business and was also a committee chairman, left the Legislature in the summer of 2010 when Sonny Perdue appointed him administrator of the state’s Subsequent Injury Trust Fund.

Rep. Mark Williams (R-Jesup) quit the Georgia House in late 2010 when Perdue named him natural resources commissioner.

Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) rose to majority whip during his time in office, but he bailed out last year when Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him assistant state treasurer.

Sen. Jim Butterworth (R-Clarkesville), an airline pilot who flew for the Georgia Air National Guard, stepped down when Deal picked him as the state’s adjutant general. Rep. James Mills (R-Gainesville), who served as banking committee chairman, became another legislative casualty when Deal named him to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) left the House when Deal appointed him director of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. Rep. Michael Harden (R-Toccoa) stepped down in May to accept a job with the Department of Community Affairs.

It is interesting that these appointments mostly involved legislators who described themselves as conservatives. I heard several of these politicians proclaim that state government was getting too big, so the solution was to cut jobs and reduce government spending.

These small-government advocates left elective office to take high-paying jobs with state government. Their salaries are financed by the taxpayers, and their employment depends upon the governor maintaining or even expanding the current level of government spending.

Another interesting development is the perception among voters of how business failures reflect upon a candidate’s fitness for public office. It used to be that if you had business problems, it would be used against you in a political campaign. Your opponent would argue, “If he can’t run his own business successfully, why should we trust him with the taxpayers’ money?”

That issue doesn’t seem to hurt candidates anymore. We saw this in 2010 when it was reported that Nathan Deal’s personal finances were so shaky he might have to file for bankruptcy. The voters elected him governor anyway. When Tom Graves ran for Congress that same year, it came out that he and state Sen. Chip Rogers had defaulted on a $2.2 million bank loan. Graves was still elected to Congress.

In 2011, when a special election was held for a Georgia House seat, one of the candidates was Chuck Williams of Oconee County. Williams was president of a local bank that went under, and one of his opponents raised the issue of the bank failure during the election campaign. Williams was elected anyway and has no opposition in his race for a full term this year.

I don’t bring up these incidents to make any moral judgments. The economic downturn has caused financial misery for almost everyone I know. It is just interesting to me how the hard times have changed the way people look upon those they elect to public office. You could almost say that where Georgia politics is concerned, failure is not only an option, it’s an advantage.

Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an Internet news service at gareport.com that reports on government and politics in Georgia. He can be reached at [email protected].