Perdue’s promise: ‘I’m not going to be a just-say-no senator’ | www.myajc.com

WASHINGTON — Economic reforms and spending cuts, two of U.S. Senator-elect David Perdue’s top policy priorities, line up well with the agenda of the incoming Republican Congress.

The third, term limits, most certainly does not.

Perdue is somewhat of a blank slate politically as he heads to the Capitol this week for orientation, ahead of his January swearing-in. In his first-ever bid for office, the former Fortune 500 CEO ran against the Republican establishment and did not play nice with influential groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as he won election as “the outsider.”

As he enters the inside of the highly exclusive club of 100, Perdue gave a few clues as to how he will comport himself in a Friday phone interview. He spoke of wanting to be a deal-maker, sounding similar to Georgia’s current pair of GOP senators, Johnny Isakson and the outgoing Saxby Chambliss.

But Perdue did not depart much from conservative orthodoxy in his campaign and promised to stick to his guns in Washington.

“They want a consensus builder,” Perdue said of the voters who elected him by an 8 percentage point margin over Democrat Michelle Nunn.

“They don’t want me to compromise my values and principles, but I think they want progress,” he said. “If an 80 percent solution will get us moving forward, then I’m going to be in there fighting. I’m not going to be a just-say-no senator.”

Emory University political science professor Merle Black said he expects Perdue to be a “pretty-much-down-the-line conservative Republican” who could have a rocky transition from CEO to legislator.

“It may take him a while to find who his natural allies are in the Senate,” Black said. “I don’t think he wants to be a Ted Cruz, but I’m not sure. I think basically he’ll go along with the party.”

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