Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has died at age 68.
FILE - Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston speaks during a state Republican party unity rally Thursday, July 26, 2018, in Peachtree Corners, Ga.
“A great pine tree has fallen in the Georgia House of Representatives,” said Democrat Calvin Smyre of Columbus, the longest-serving member of the House and a friend of Ralston’s. “David Ralston spent his career in public service trying to lift others up and move our state forward,” Jones said in a statement. “He knew the awesome power of bringing people together — reasoning together — and finding common ground. Regardless of political ideology, he treated everyone with respect and was a model of civility.”
The longest-serving state house speaker in the United States at the time of his death, Ralston was cut from the mold of Tom Murphy, the west Georgia Democrat who commanded the House from 1973 to 2003. Ralston took office after a chaotic period when the first Republican speaker in more than 130 years, Glenn Richardson, resigned following a suicide attempt and revelations of an extramarital affair with a lobbyist. Ralston had lost a speaker’s bid against Richardson in 2008.
Some Republicans saw Ralston as too friendly to Democrats. Ralston shepherded a wide range of Republican priorities and was always ready to cut taxes, boasting of a state income tax cut passed this year that could ultimately total $2 billion. But he helped rescue a hate crimes bill from legislative purgatory after the 2020 death of Ahmaud Arbery.
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