A longtime state legislator from Augusta was remembered for breaking the mold when he switched parties from Democrat to Republican.
Sen. Don Cheeks, 92, died Sunday after a long career that included time as an Augusta city councilman, state representative and senator and real estate investor.
The year was 2002 and Georgia had just elected its first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Sonny Perdue.
Augusta voters had returned Cheeks, then a Democrat, to the state senate.
A Monday Perdue fly-around in Augusta was sparsely attended, recalled longtime Republican activist Dave Barbee.
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On Tuesday, Perdue, a Republican since 1998, took the state.
Augusta Republican J. Randal Hall defeated longtime Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker for the District 22 seat.
Republicans won every statewide elected office. Georgia was a few senators short of taking the upper chamber.
That’s when Cheeks, who served 18 years in the House and 10 years in the Senate as a Democrat, announced he was changing parties.
“The Wednesday after the election, Sonny flew in again. We had to move the planes out of the hangar,” Barbee said.
A capacity crowd had turned out for Republicans’ victory lap at Daniel Field Airport.
“That election was the turning point of the state of Georgia turning red,” Barbee said.
It turned the state red – but Cheeks had a caveat. His conversion hinged on bringing a cancer center to Augusta, Barbee said.
With Cheeks, Sue Burmeister, Ben Harbin and Barry Fleming at the capitol, Augusta continued its stronghold, now Republican, in Atlanta.
“We just had the connections in Atlanta and we were supported,” Barbee said.
It did not last. By 2004, Walker defeated Cheeks, winning a reconfigured District 22 despite being under indictment for mail fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced the next year to 10 years in federal prison.
As an Augusta senator in the 1990s, Cheeks made the news almost weekly, advocating in 1993 for “a single governing body” for Augusta-Richmond County and routinely sparring with Walker on how that should be done.
He led efforts to redefine the Augusta Richmond County Coliseum Authority, which governs the James Brown Arena, and spearheaded a 1996 effort to exempt every Richmond County homeowner over age 65 from education taxes.
In the post-consolidation 1990s, Cheeks pushed to increase the Augusta mayor’s authority, give the mayor a vote and create an in-house law department.
In the early 2000s, however, Cheeks’ land dealings came into question after his son-in-law made $240,000 on the sale of land to the Georgia Department of Transportation while Cheeks was serving on the senate transportation committee.
In 2010, he bought the former Castleberry’s plant from Mercy Ministries’ owner Fran Oliver, who was donated the property. She reported the sale as worth $540,815.
The devoted patron of Curtis Baptist Church and school, Cheeks’ real estate dealings live on as Augusta officials spar over ways to redevelop the church’s downtown campus.
According to his obituary, contributions can be made to Curtis Baptist Church, located at 1348 Broad St. in Augusta. The obituary can be found at https://www.thomaspoteet.com/obituaries/donald-cheeks.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
