How Perdue’s power benefits his friends Sonny Perdue has long mixed personal and political business to benefit his friends and business associates — and he’s on track to do it again.
By IAN KULLGREN 03/13/2017 05:08 AM EDT
Sonny Perdue has a long history of ethics controversies, notably when he signed a law giving himself a tax break. | AP Photo
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Agriculture secretary, agribusiness tycoon and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, has long mixed personal and political business to benefit his friends and business associates — and he’s on track to do it again, even before he’s confirmed to the Cabinet post.
A POLITICO examination of Perdue’s list of appointments when he was governor — from 2003 to 2011 — found more than a dozen instances when he gave positions to business associates and campaign donors, and other occasions when he rewarded his state staff with opportunities in his agriculture and shipping empire after he left office.
And though Perdue has yet to face a confirmation hearing, he’s already lined up an associate with a job in the Trump administration. Heidi Green, a partner of Perdue’s shipping business who also worked for him in Georgia state government, landed a political appointment as senior adviser at USDA in January. She’s now being mentioned as a likely candidate to serve as his chief of staff.
Perdue, tapped by Trump to run USDA in January, has a long history of ethics controversies, notably when he signed a law giving himself a tax break, and when he was found to have violated Georgia law by funding his campaign accounts with contributions from his private enterprises. He still hasn’t faced a confirmation hearing, largely because his ethics paperwork has been under review. The Senate received his ethics disclosure forms — promising to put his assets into a blind trust — late Friday after weeks of delay.
Whether any of that will matter when it comes to a Senate vote remains to be seen. But when Perdue finally does appear in front of the Senate Agriculture Committee, he’s sure to face questions about how he’ll manage a $150 billion agency with thousands of employees across the country, and whether some of his practices in Peach State politics will follow him to the federal level. “That good-old boy system is definitely embedded and definitely entrenched here,” said Sara Henderson, the public policy director for Common Cause Georgia, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. “And I think former Gov. Perdue is going to bring that to the federal government."
A spokeswoman for Perdue and Green did not respond to a request for comment from Perdue. She provided a comment from Green, who said Perdue aimed to create jobs and help the economy.
“The governor has spent most of his life in public service working to grow jobs and opportunities for people," Green said through the spokeswoman. "Even in the private sector this was the focus of his work. He is proud of what he accomplished in Georgia as governor and, if confirmed, he hopes to continue efforts to improve conditions in rural communities around the country.”
Despite his ethics run-ins, Perdue’s chances of being confirmed are good. He’s popular with farm industry power brokers, who welcomed his nomination after pushing back on a number of other candidates being considered by Trump. Republicans on Capitol Hill like him, and even Democrats concede Perdue is qualified for the job.
As the first modern Republican to hold the Georgia governorship after more than a century of Democratic rule, Perdue faced his share of controversy for securing good deals for himself. When he took office in 2003, he refused to put his businesses in a blind trust, a decision that caused many entanglements over the next eight years.
"I am a small business owner, I’m in the agri-business," Perdue said in a debate while running for reelection in 2006. "That’s about as blind a trust as you can get. We trust in the Lord for rain and many other things."
Yet Perdue faced 13 complaints to the state ethics commission during his years as governor, two of which resulted in findings that he broke state ethics laws. In 2002, Perdue was caught funneling illegal amounts of money from his private businesses into his campaign account and, in 2005, Perdue was forced to pay a $1,900 fine for improper campaign contributions and failing to correctly report the use of his private plane for a campaign event, records show.
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