House Speaker Glenn Richardson engaged in a “full-out affair” with a utility lobbyist while pushing a bill that would benefit her employer, Richardson’s former wife said in an interview that has placed his political future in jeopardy.
Susan Richardson’s revelations, in an interview with Atlanta television station WAGA, reverberated Tuesday through the Capitol. They also exposed the speaker to new scrutiny of his personal ethics, just three weeks after he announced he had recently attempted suicide.
No legislative leaders openly called for Richardson (R-Hiram) to resign. But several lawmakers and other Republican operatives said privately that Richardson may be too damaged politically to continue as speaker, and some said they expect him to quickly step down. A measure of his waning support came in the muted reaction of House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, a close ally of the speaker’s who passed when given the chance to say Richardson should stay in office. “What I think would be fair,” said Keen (R-St. Simons Island), “is to let me get back [to the Capitol] and sit down with our leadership team and talk with the speaker.”
Richardson stayed out of sight Tuesday. He left his Capitol office before noon without meeting with House leaders or other Republican officials, including Gov. Sonny Perdue. The speaker’s office initially said it would release a statement from Richardson, but later announced it would have no comment.
Richardson apparently learned about the interview just three to four hours before it aired Monday. Other legislative leaders — many of whom had publicly consoled the speaker after his suicide attempt last month — had no warning.
Susan Richardson did not respond to numerous requests for an interview Tuesday. After the couple ended their 17-year marriage in 2008, she moved to Cobb County with two of their three children. The divorce settlement called for her to receive an unspecified amount of alimony, in addition to $3,000 a month in child support payments.
In the interview, she depicted her former husband as a controlling, manipulative force whose suicide attempt last month actually was a call for attention. She said he was furious when she recently went out of town with a boyfriend, sending her 49 text messages in which he accused her of abandoning their children, threatened to beat her and vowed to use the Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to track her down.
Most damaging, however, may be the corroboration of allegations that the speaker had an affair with a lobbyist for Atlanta Gas Light Co. At the same time, he was sponsoring a bill that would have helped the utility build a controversial $300 million pipeline.
E-mail evidence?
Just before the General Assembly convened in January 2007, state Democratic leaders filed a complaint with a legislative ethics panel alleging that Richardson’s “inappropriate” and “personal” relationship with the AGL lobbyist had created a conflict of interest. The ethics panel — made up in part by Richardson appointees — quickly dismissed the complaint. At the time, Richardson, 49, a seven-term lawmaker who has been speaker since 2005, refused to address the allegation, other than to say he had no conflict.
In the television interview, Susan Richardson said her husband admitted he had been unfaithful. She said she discovered the affair when she found airline tickets to Las Vegas issued to the speaker and the lobbyist.
“It’s not an alleged inappropriate relationship,” she said. “It was a full-out affair, and I knew about it.”
She also said she had obtained “a series of e-mails” that confirmed a lengthy relationship.
“They’re very explicit,” she said.
In one message, according to WAGA, the woman wrote that she feared for her job when her boss heard the rumors about the affair.
“He will not fire you!!” Glenn Richardson replied. “I can and will bring all hell down on them if they do.”
Lobbyist left utility
Indeed, a few weeks after the ethics complaint was dismissed in 2007, an anti-AGL bill began moving through the House, sponsored by some of Richardson’s closest legislative allies. The bill, which created a process for municipal gas systems to run pipelines into some areas where AGL had a monopoly, eventually passed.
A spokeswoman for AGL, Tami Gerke, declined to comment Tuesday.
The lobbyist has since left the utility and now works for an Atlanta-based engineering firm. The woman, 34, a former legislative intern and staff member at the Public Service Commission, was not identified by name in the ethics complaint and the AJC has decided not to name her at this time. The woman did not respond to telephone calls or an e-mail message Tuesday, and has never publicly addressed the ethics complaint.
Susan Richardson’s comments could provide fodder for reopening the ethics case.
“It is past time for people to know the truth,” said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), a candidate for governor in 2010. “What she said is what everyone around the Capitol knew to be true. It’s an indication of the arrogance of this leadership and the corruption that is out of control and in exchange for favors.”
Republicans responded cautiously, speaking in equivocal terms that could give Richardson room for a graceful exit.
“I trust that he’s going to make the right decision and he will make it in the right time,” said Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), who last year unsuccessfully challenged Richardson for the speaker’s position. Asked what the “right decision” would be, Ralston said: “I think he needs a little bit of space. It trust he’ll do the right thing.”
Can speaker survive?
Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek), who would take over should Richardson resign or be forced from office, said, “He’s speaker as long as he chooses to be speaker.”
But Sadie Fields, chairwoman of the Georgia Christian Alliance, said the House may need to “re-evaluate the qualities they have a right to expect from their leader.”
A Republican activist and consultant, one of several who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve their relationships with the speaker, was blunter: “I don’t know how he survives this one.”
Others suggested Richardson can remain unless more embarrassing details surface.
“We knew he had an affair and we knew it was with an AGL lobbyist,” a lobbyist close to Richardson said. “It’s just more salacious now that we’ve seen [Susan Richardson] on television.”
The lobbyist acknowledged, however, that Richardson’s e-mails could be damaging. “The speaker,” the lobbyist said, “is given to emotive writing on his BlackBerry.”
If Richardson decides to fight for his job, only his fellow Republicans could act to remove him.
Expulsion procedure
Under state law, 20 members of the House majority may submit a petition that says the speaker is unable to perform his duties “because of physical or mental disability.” The majority leader then would be required to convene the Republican caucus within five days, and members would vote whether to expel the speaker and replace him with the speaker pro tem.
Lawmakers already were struggling with Richardson’s competency since his announcement on Nov. 13 that he had attempted suicide.
On the evening of Nov. 8, Richardson called his mother in Douglas County and told her he had taken sleeping pills and it was “too late” to help him. His mother alerted the authorities, and when two Paulding County sheriff’s deputies went to Richardson’s home, they found him in the master bathroom, sitting semi-conscious on the edge of the tub, with a .357 Magnum revolver on the counter.
Richardson’s statement, released five days later, attributed the suicide attempt to the depression that followed his separation and divorce.
But Susan Richardson told WAGA she didn’t believe her former husband really tried to kill himself.
“He did this before,” she said, when he got caught by me for having an affair with someone.”
“I don’t think it was because he was depressed,” she said. “I think it was power and control that motivated him to do this. ... It’s not about our marriage ending. He’s lost control, of me. He doesn’t like that.”
He called from his hospital room the day after the suicide attempt, proposing a reconciliation, Susan Richardson said. But she questioned his sincerity.
“He had his wife, had his family,” she said. “He looked good, and he had girlfriends on the side. That worked pretty well for him. He didn’t want to give that up.”
Contact reporter Alan Judd at ajudd@ajc.com, Aaron Gould Sheinin at asheinin@ajc.com and James Salzer at jsalzer@ajc.com. Staff writers Jim Galloway and Margaret Newkirk contributed to this article.
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