Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)

"Between Kennedy's youth and the Vietnam War and landing on the moon, there were a lot of things that could either turn you on or off to public service. I was one of those who got turned on," Isakson said.

Start of a Political Career

The building boom of which Isakson was a part quickly overwhelmed the residents of Cobb County and a backlash "no-growth" movement popped up on the county board of commissioners. To counter it, Isakson ran for the county board.

But just as his earliest days in real estate proved to be an "absolute failure," so, too, was Isakson's first foray into politics. He lost that county commissioner race largely because he was a Republican in a solidly Democratic area, and went on to lose his first race for the Georgia General Assembly in 1974 as well.

Isakson rebounded two years later and won the Georgia House seat he'd lost in 1974. He went on to enjoy a seven-term career in the state House, eventually becoming minority leader, and a two-term stint in the state Senate. But Isakson also lost two more elections in that time: the 1990 governor's race and the 1996 U.S. Senate election.

Early Setbacks

Isakson lost the bruising governor's race to then-Lt. Gov. Miller, a popular Democrat whose campaign was managed by a neophyte political operative named James Carville. Miller not only had a better statewide organization, but ran on a popular pledge to start a state lottery and use the proceeds for public schools. Isakson proposed holding a ballot referendum on the lottery, but that would have delayed its implementation by at least two years. Miller won easily.

When Sen. Sam Nunn, a gentlemanly Georgia Democrat to whom Isakson has been favorably compared, retired in 1996, Isakson made another statewide bid. This time, however, he took a risk he hoped would distinguish him from other Republicans in the field who were courting religious conservatives. He ran a television ad announcing his support for abortion rights even though the GOP primary was dominated by those religious conservatives for whom opposition to abortion rights was a litmus test for candidates.

The ad featured a woman who said two of Isakson's Republican primary opponents "will vote to ban abortions, making criminals out of women and their doctors." Then Isakson, his wife, Dianne, and their teenage daughter appeared on the screen. "I don't believe our government should fund, teach or promote abortion," Isakson said. "But I will not vote to amend the Constitution to make criminals of women and their doctors. I trust my wife, my daughter and the women of Georgia to make the right choice."

Isakson was co-chair of Bob Dole's (R-Kan.) presidential campaign in 1996, as he was in 1988, and may have been inspired to run the ad by Dole's own attempt to have a constitutional amendment banning abortion removed from the national party's platform to prevent its convention from becoming a "televised holy war over social issues."

Isakson won the 1996 Senate primary but didn't get a majority of votes, forcing him into a run-off election that attracted little public attention because it was held around the time the 1996 Summer Olympic Games opened in Atlanta. Isakson did his best to use the Olympics to his advantage, once boasting he was as "busy as a badminton player against China" and then saying of his opponent "if hypocrisy was an Olympic sport, this guy will win a gold medal." But he didn't laugh at the result: He lost.

House Career

Even as Isakson was trying to climb the political ladder, another Cobb County politician, much more flamboyant and politically ambitious than Isakson, was progressing rapidly. Gingrich, a back-bencher in Congress in the 1970s was by 1994 leading a Republican surge that seized control of the House from Democrats for the first time in 40 years. Gingrich had become speaker, but in a flurry of ethics charges and Republican election losses he announced in 1998 that he was resigning his House seat.

Isakson was Gingrich's handpicked successor. Though stopping short of a full endorsement, Gingrich issued a statement calling Isakson "a very close personal friend'' who would ''do a great job of representing Georgia's Sixth District." Isakson raised $1 million and added $500,000 of his own money to total far more than any of his five challengers. Furthermore, he openly embraced conservatives, talking mainly about economic issues and playing down moderate positions on social issues like abortion. He easily won the special election to replace Gingrich in January 1999.

Russell K. Paul, the Georgia Republican Party chairman at the time, summed up the differences between Isakson and the man he replaced this way: "Whereas Newt was referred to as a bomb-thrower and a revolutionary, he was also a bridge burner. And Johnny Isakson is perceived as the quintessential bridge builder.''

Senate Career

Isakson went on to win a full House term in 2000 and was re-elected easily in 2002. But in 2005, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat who turned on his own party and endorsed Bush for re-election in 2004, announced he was retiring and Isakson immediately threw his hat into the Senate ring.

Two conservative opponents for the Republican nomination tried to portray Isakson as too moderate for Georgia, citing the abortion-rights ad Isakson ran in 1996. But the state's business community rallied around Isakson and he sailed to victory in the 2004 race.

Isakson has since repaid some of those Georgia business interests with legislation that has financially aided some of the state's largest corporations, including Delta Airlines and Home Depot.

2010 Campaign

Isakson's popularity in Georgia is evident by the way his 2010 re-election campaign is shaping up. At a time when Democrats are scrapping to snatch Senate seats from Republicans in their quest for a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority, several prominent Georgia Democrats, including Barnes, have already announced that they'd sit out Isakson's race or run instead for governor.

Isakson was heavily recruited by Georgia Republicans to run for governor in hopes of extending the GOP's eight-year hold on the office. (Until Gov. Sonny Purdue was elected in 2002, there had not been a Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction).But Isakson announced in February 2009 that he'd seek reelection instead.

Though the political landscape could change by November 2010, Isakson's current situation sharply contrasts with the 2008 re-election fight of his partner in Congress, Sen. Saxby Chambliss ( R-Ga.). Democrats crowded their 2008 primary hoping for a shot at Chambliss, who was ultimately forced into a drawn out and expensive runoff race before winning re-election in December 2008.

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