Column: Sen. Josh McKoon starts 2017 General Assembly session with weaker hand

Monday morning in the Georgia Senate chamber, Sen. Josh McKoon stood at his desk, his wife Jacqueline holding the Bible as he took the oath of office.

He went through the paces, just hours away from being officially stripped of his leadership position in the Senate. For four of his six years in the General Assembly, McKoon has been the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. There are more powerful titles in the Republican-dominated body, but it is a respected chairmanship that carried some clout.

Chairmen can have some control on legislation that comes in front of their committee, and they can raise campaign contributions because of that title and its influence.

Much has changed for McKoon since the General Assembly adjourned last March. For McKoon, a Columbus attorney, a lot of it has not been good. And it is not like it is coming from the other team. McKoon’s problems are with his fellow Republicans, starting with the highest ranking Republican of them all, Gov. Nathan Deal.

McKoon had his committee chairmanship taken away by his own Republican caucus. They voted 35-2 for the new Senate rules, which eliminated one of the three Senate judiciary committees and left McKoon on the outside looking in.

The official reason given was there were not enough attorneys in the Senate to fill the positions. However, you got the feeling that some in Atlanta would like to see one fewer lawyer in that body.

And it is not just the Senate.

A fellow Republican, Rep. Richard Smith, came out at the close of the 2016 session and said Columbus State University lost nearly $8 million in state funding and the National Infantry Museum lost approximately another $2 million because of McKoon’s actions toward the governor and House Speaker David Ralston.

Wednesday, as senators and representatives were filing into the House chamber for the governor’s State of the State address, Ralston called for order from the House members.

“Unfortunately, I have no control over the Senate,” the speaker joked.

One could just imagine that gentle barb was aimed in the direction of McKoon, who was not in the chamber. He watched the governor’s speech from his office across the street.

Ralston, without mentioning the senator by name, took his shot in October when he visited the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

“A community has to be very careful about who it selects as leaders to represent its interest in the General Assembly,” Ralston said. “I tell House members all the time their effectiveness comes by relationships and trust that other members have in you. If you don’t have these, you cannot be very effective. ... I don’t make decisions based on personalities. It’s about trust and relationships.”

That leads to the question that could and must be answered as the General Assembly sessions kicks off with high stakes for Columbus, starting with the funding for CSU that was deleted in the final hours a year ago.

Who is willing to work with McKoon to pass legislation?

That is not a joke, and it is not a trick question. The three men before him in the seat he holds were attorney Pete Robinson, now managing partner of Troutman Sanders LLP and one of the state’s most influential lobbyists; attorney Clay Land, now a federal judge in the Middle District of Georgia; and attorney Seth Harp.

While political, none of those men were obsessed with politics like McKoon. He gets up on a Saturday morning and rides to all corners of the state to attended partisan Republican events in districts he does not represent. He has championed “religious liberty” legislation for the past three years but was not the primary sponsor of the bill that passed the Senate and House last year, only to be vetoed by the governor.

If a bill has McKoon’s name on it, it is DOA when it reaches the House.

It is clear McKoon is looking at statewide office. The speculation this week has been he will seek the attorney general’s job in 2018. Who knows? It takes a lot of money to run statewide in Georgia. The state chamber of commerce and many of the state’s top employers have been the most vocal opponents to “religious liberty” legislation. Will they write the checks needed to run statewide? We’ll see.

Which brings us back to the General Assembly session that just started.

McKoon has no chairmanship. His close friend and political ally, Mike Crane, is gone from the scene after his bid for the Third Congressional District seat fell short and he did not seek re-election to the Senate. To add insult to injury, McKoon bet the farm on Crane, working hard to help elect his friend against Drew Ferguson, who had been the mayor of West Point.

By working hard against a mayor, who is now a congressman, in his district, McKoon went against some of his local political allies.

Yeah, it hasn’t been a good year for McKoon.

So, what does he do on Monday morning less than an hour after getting sworn in? He goes to the Senate well to speak against some of the rules changes the Senate was about to adopt and he eventually voted for.

He was the only Republican to do so.

If you wanted to know how McKoon was going to play this new weaker hand he has been dealt, that was your answer.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Column: Sen. Josh McKoon starts 2017 General Assembly session with weaker hand."