Rep. Cannon: Goal for first session was to listen and learn

May 9—MOULTRIE — Colquitt County's new state representative described his first legislative session to the Moultrie Rotary Club Tuesday, including telling them about the first bill he sponsored.

Chas Cannon, a member of the Rotary Club, also farms near Berlin and serves as Colquitt County administrator. A military veteran and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, Cannon said he brings all aspects of himself to the District 172 House of Representatives role.

Cannon said his goal was to listen, learn and begin building relationships with his fellow legislators. Those relationships are key to getting their support for any initiatives he might put forward.

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to build relationships," he said.

Cannon's first bill, House Bill 545, passed the House 172-0 on March 2 and passed the Senate 47-3 on March 20. The bill, which creates a commodity commission for Georgia's citrus industry, was signed into law by Gov. Brian KempApril 18 during a ceremony in Bainbridge.

Once it's in place, the commodity commission will levy a small fee on citrus farmers and use the money to fund research that improves citrus yields and to fund marketing campaigns to improve sales of citrus products. Several other crops already have similar commissions.

"The Citrus Association basically gave the bill to me and said, 'We want you to carry this for us,'" Cannon told the Rotarians.

He showed a photo of legislators applauding him. He said that's a tradition whenever a freshman representative's first bill passes.

"There's only one way to pass a bill," he said. "There are a thousand ways to kill a bill."

A representative places a bill for consideration. The speaker directs it to a committee — if he wants to. The committee chairman decides whether the committee will consider it. If the committee considers it, the members of the committee vote whether to send it to the House floor. If the committee sends it to the House floor, the Speaker decides whether it actually gets heard. If it does, the House members can vote on it. If it succeeds in the House, it's only half done: The representative must get a colleague in the Senate to sponsor the bill in that chamber, and it must go through the same process there.

Pushing the legislation through this process falls on the representative who sponsored the legislation, Cannon said. He has to build relationships with the people who make the decisions that get his bill heard — as well as with the rank-and-file legislators who'll vote on it. Unlike congressmen in Washington, Georgia legislators have little staff to help, he said.

"If you want a bill," he said, "you've got to do it yourself."

He said each new representative is assigned a mentor to show him the ropes. His is Rep. John Corbett, R-Lake Park. Corbett was one of six sponsors on Cannon's HB545, along with Reps. Robert Dickey of Musella, Trey Rhodes of Greensboro, Penny Houston of Nashville, Joe Campbell of Camilla and, of course, Cannon himself.

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