STANDING HIS GROUND

Sunday, January 16, 2005 ~ Marietta Daily Journal

   By Aaron Boca - Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer

ATLANTA - He's mean. He's stubborn. He enjoys picking a fight.

Those are many of the things you might hear should you start asking around the Capitol about Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs). Even his Republican colleagues admit Ehrhart can be a tough man.

"I don't know if I'd call him all of that, but I do know where people are coming from when they say it," said Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna). "You see, Earl never wavers in telling you what he thinks."

Ehrhart said he knows what people mean when they complain about his argumentative side.

"Oh I guess I prefer being called direct over being called mean," Ehrhart said. "But this is politics. I'm not into sugar-coating things."

Ehrhart, 45, laughs about his image.

He said a lot of what is said about him is most likely exaggerated a bit. The truth of the matter is probably somewhere in between the tough guy at the state Capitol and the nice guy he thinks of himself as at home with his two sons, Quentin, 13, and John, 8.

Ehrhart, a single father, is a Boy Scouts troop leader and Little League baseball coach who serves as senior vice president for The Facility Group, a Smyrna engineering firm where he works as a sales executive.

But, he also is a politician.

With 17 years under his belt as a representative from Cobb, Ehrhart now is arguably the most powerful member of Cobb's 19-member legislative delegation.

Ehrhart, named last week to chair the heavily influential House Rules Committee, also is one of the most powerful Republicans in the state behind Gov. Sonny Perdue and Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson.

It's a position Ehrhart said he's waited to hold for many years. And he said it's a position that will prove beneficial to Cobb.

As chairman of the Rules Committee, Ehrhart is the gatekeeper who gets to decide which bills make it to the House floor for debate.

"This can be very good for Cobb," he said. "I'm finally in a position where we can make things happen."

As such, Ehrhart said he plans to promote conservative values at this year's Georgia General Assembly, making sure bills that make it to the floor contain themes such as family values, personal responsibility and accountability.

They are ideals Ehrhart said he has tried to represent since he was first elected to the House in 1988.

"These are Jeffersonian (Democracy) ideas," he said.

Born in Miami, Ehrhart moved to Cobb with his family at a young age in 1964.

He attended Campbell High School in the 1970s, and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1980 with a political science degree.

Ehrhart said his political agenda has been shaped largely over the years from his experiences as a father, a divorcée and a businessman.

He said he believes government should interfere as little as it can with people and business. He said he sees nothing wrong with pushing for legislation that takes on hot-button social topics such as gay marriage. And he said he believes in promoting legislation that's pro-business to create better jobs.

Locally, he said he's interested in transportation issues to help ease traffic woes in Cobb. He said he would like the Legislature to begin working on finding a way to distribute education money more equally throughout the state. And he said he's interested in reducing the state's Medicaid costs.

Ehrhart's political leanings were on display early this legislative session when he introduced a bill on the third day of the session that put him squarely in the middle of the fight between the City of Atlanta and Druid Hills country club over the issue of gay spousal rights.

In that matter, Atlanta officials are trying to fine Druid Hills because it won't extend membership privileges to a gay member's partner unless the partner pays her own membership dues and initiation fees.

Ehrhart's bill seeks to block cities from punishing groups that want to exclude gays.

Ehrhart said by throwing his hat into the ring he doesn't mean to discriminate against anyone. Instead, he said he sees the issue as being one of family values and government interference.

"It clearly meets the test (for applying legislative action)," he said.

Ehrhart said he believes gays should not be allowed the same status as a heterosexual married couple.

"I'm not afraid of arguing that," he said.

Ehrhart's colleagues say he is not afraid to argue almost anything. His willingness to argue, however, does not stretch into personal relationships, some say.

"We have not always had positive interactions," said Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell). "But one thing I will say is that even though we've had our problems, it never came off the floor (of the House).

"I can respect that about somebody."

Ms. Morgan recalls a time last year when she and Ehrhart clashed heatedly over a bill to reform juvenile justice. The debate was harsh and other members of the House took notice, Ms. Morgan said.

"But he stayed cordial after that," Ms. Morgan adds. "I think that said a lot about him."

Freshman Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) who served in the House prior to winning his current seat in the Senate, said Ehrhart is a throwback to a time in politics when heated debate was encouraged but was not permitted to sour personal relationships.

Stoner said anyone - Republican or Democrat - would find out that what goes around comes around with Ehrhart: he treats people like they treat him.

Ehrhart said politics should be about improving the quality of life in a community. He said government is expected to work properly and do things like take care of roads and schools.

But being a politician, he said, is also about enjoying a good fight.

"I love it. I really do," he said. "It's the only sport there is for adults."

abaca@mdjonline.com

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