Office of Lt. Gov. shore ain't what it used to be (and many think it won't be any time soon, with real power being in Pres. Pro Tem & Maj. Leader).

Earlier this month Bill Shipp penned a column that began:

John Savage, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor three decades ago, delivered such an appealing campaign promise that even Democratic Gov. Jimmy Carter endorsed the notion.

Savage pledged that, if elected, he would seek to abolish the lieutenant governor's office because it served no useful purpose.

Although Savage's vow to eliminate the job he sought received wide attention, he was doomed to lose the election. Democrat Zell Miller emerged the 2-to-1 victor and immediately converted the lieutenant governor's office into a center of power politics. . . .

You won't hear many Republicans say these days the lieutenant governor's office is an empty and impotent position - though GOP senators have stripped incumbent Democrat Mark Taylor of most significant duties.
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Picking up where Bill Shipp left off earlier this month, Larry Peterson writes in the 2-26-05 Savannah Morning News entitled (excerpts):

Lieutenant governor's office isn't what it used to be
With GOP ascendancy, the office has slipped in stature.

The office of lieutenant governor ain't what it used to be.

And many think it won't be any time soon.

By tradition, the lieutenant governor not only ran the Senate, but often shepherded the governor's legislative agenda there.

He did so by naming committee chairmen and assigning bills to committees where they'd either glide smoothly through to a vote on the Senate floor, or gather dust.

Taylor also has pushed a personal legislative agenda stressing education, schools, public safety, jobs and the economy. Some of his bills, mostly noncontroversial, have become law.

All that made perfect sense when the governor, lieutenant governor, and Senate majority were from the same party. It makes none at all when - for the first time in more than 130 years - they aren't.

So the GOP dusted off something Democrats sometimes have used to run the Senate - a committee. The members: Eric Johnson of Savannah, the new senate president pro tem; Majority Leader Bill Stephens of Canton, a Johnson ally; and Taylor.

That left Taylor as the odd man out.

Sure, he still presides over the Senate, but Republicans can override him if, in their view, he tries to pull a fast one. The triumvirate chooses committee chairmen and Johnson decides which bills go where.

Meanwhile, the legislature cut Taylor's office's staff and budget.

"He sits there," said John Kearnes, assistant professor of political science at Armstrong Atlantic State University. "But he doesn't control anything."

The world according to Taylor

Taylor is running for governor next year. Win or lose, someone else will be lieutenant governor in 2007.

There's a bit of edge in his voice when he mentions the "party switchers" who gave the GOP control of the Senate.

Still, he rejects the idea that he's been marginalized.

"I don't think the changes that have been made have had very much impact on the office at all," he said.

Even under the old rules, when he controlled the committees and the flow of business, he had to do it in consultation with other senators, Taylor said.

"A lot more depends on my working relationship with the members and the leadership from both parties than on the formal rules," he said. " ... And it's been positive."

Johnson wouldn't comment on his dealings with Taylor.

He hasn't always been so reticent.

In 2002, Johnson tried to drape the Senate chamber in yellow crime-scene tape to protest what he thought were unfair Democratic tactics.

Others cite the time GOP Senators complained about how Taylor treated them as he ran the Senate and the lieutenant governor responded by saying, "Cry me a river."

Taylor is still pressing his legislative agenda.

His major 2005 bills are intended to help Georgia National Guard and military reservists called up for overseas duty and to curb use of the Internet by pedophiles trolling for victims.

"I'm very optimistic," he said.

Lieutenant governor lite?

Outside Taylor's office, though, most observers agree with AASU's Kearnes: The office has shrunk in stature.

"Other than ceremonial things and sitting on some boards and commissions, he really doesn't have that much to do," said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist.

Atlanta political analyst Bill Shipp agrees, but goes further.

Because Taylor has so little control over the Senate, no one can blame him for what it does, but he can use his office to promote his issues - and his political ambitions, Shipp says.

But what will the job be like for Taylor's successors?

Johnson makes it clear that the prerogatives the GOP stripped from Taylor won't be given back as long the office is held by a Democrat and the Senate is controlled by Republicans.

The chances of Democrats retaking the Senate under the current district boundaries, which will probably stay in place through the 2010 elections, are "slim to none," Bullock says.

Kearnes agrees, citing a recent a statewide GOP trend among voters.
What will Johnson do?

The bigger question is: What will happen if a Republican is elected lieutenant governor?

Johnson said he might give everything back.

"If it's someone I could work well with," he said, "I don't have any problem with handing back the reins. But just because he's a Republican doesn't mean he's good. ... It's something the new lieutenant governor and the Senate would have to work out."

Taylor thinks it might happen, no matter which party runs the Senate, if the lieutenant governor is from the same party.

"It will if the members believe it will let him help them better serve the people they represent," Taylor said.

That's more likely, he added, if the new lieutenant governor - like himself and others who have held the office - is a veteran of the Senate.

"There's a learning curve with this office and there's no operating manual," he said.

Others doubt, however, that Johnson will let go if the moment comes.

"I just don't see it happening," Bullock said. "I'm sure he likes the authority he has. Once power shifts, the people who have it seldom give it back."
Shipp agrees.

"Why would he want to do that?" he asked.

But Savannah political consultant Dave Simons, who has advised Johnson, doesn't rule out the possibility.

"I think it depends on who the lieutenant governor is," Simons said. "But if it's someone he (Johnson) doesn't like or trust - someone he doesn't want to work with - he doesn't have to."

Simons, Bullock and others say the three-man committee approach likely will continue to run the Senate.

"Before Eric," Simons said, "it was just one guy making the decisions. Now it's three guys. I don't think they'll want to give it back to one guy."
Johnson would likely have a leg up politically if the committee continues to run things, Bullock said.

"Because of his years of leadership experience," he said, "I think he would be the first among equals.

"The lieutenant governor would be the new kid on the block."