Thurbert Earl Baker was the first African American Attorney General of the U.S. state of Georgia. He was appointed to that position in 1997 by Governor Zell Miller and served until January 10, 2011. Governor Zell Miller installed his chief state House lieutenant, Rep. Thurbert Baker, as attorney general on June 1, 1997 making him the first African-American to hold that job in Georgia and the only black state attorney general in the country at that time. Baker was elected to his position three times as a Democrat. In the 2006 general election, Baker received more votes and a higher percentage than any other Georgia Democrat running statewide.
Legislature
Baker served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1989 to 1997. From 1993, until his appointment as Attorney General, he was the Miller Administration's House Floor Leader. During his legislative tenure, Baker sponsored several significant legislative initiatives. Chief among those were the HOPE Scholarship and the "Two Strikes and You're Out" law, designed to put the worst repeat violent felons in prison for life without parole.
Attorney General
Baker served as the President of the National Association of Attorneys General from 2006 to 2007. As Attorney General, Baker focused on initiatives to fight crime and fraud, including stronger laws against sexual predators who use the Internet to target children, laws against financial identity theft, and stronger laws against residential mortgage fraud. He also advocated for the abolition of parole for persons convicted of violent crimes, which the Georgia General Assembly did not enact. In 2003, Baker and Governor Sonny Perdue clashed in court, with both claiming the right to control the state's legal affairs. The controversy involved gerrymandering, and arose when Perdue ordered Baker to drop an appeal of a case involving a legal challenge to a legislative redistricting map drawn by the Democratic legislative majority and signed into law by Perdue's Democratic predecessor, Roy Barnes. When Baker refused to drop the appeal, Perdue sued him. The Supreme Court of Georgia ultimately sided with Baker, ruling 5-2 that the Attorney General, as an elected constitutional officer, is independent of the Governor and has the power to control the state government's legal affairs. In 2010, Perdue and Baker clashed again when Perdue asked Baker to sue the federal government over the passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Baker declined, arguing that he saw no legal basis for the suit, believed it would ultimately fail, and decrying it as a "frivilous waste of taxpayer money". In response, Perdue appointed a "special" Attorney General for that purpose. Some Republican state lawmakers subsequently introduced legislation to impeach Baker for his refusal.
2010 Campaign
In 2010, Baker ran for Governor. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by former Gov. Roy Barnes. Barnes was defeated in the general election, later that year, in a Republican sweep of statewide offices.
