Jimmy Carter

== Georgia governorship (1971–1975) ==
[[File:Jimmy Carter official portrait as Governor.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A black and white photographic official portrait of a young Carter as the governor of Georgia|Carter's official portrait as Governor of Georgia; dated 1971]]

Carter was sworn in as the 76th governor of Georgia on January 12, 1971. In his inaugural speech, he declared that "the time of racial discrimination is over",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/inaugural_address.pdf |title=Inaugural Address |access-date=November 27, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201224225/https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/inaugural_address.pdf |archive-date=December 1, 2016 |website=[[Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum]]}}</ref> shocking the crowd and causing many of the segregationists who had supported him during the race to feel betrayed. Carter was reluctant to engage with his fellow politicians, making him unpopular with the legislature.<ref>Bourne, p. 204.</ref><ref>Hayward, pp. 55–56.</ref> He expanded the governor's authority by introducing a reorganization plan submitted in January 1972.<ref name="Bourne, pp. 214–220">Bourne, pp. 214–220.</ref> Despite initially having a cool reception in the legislature, the plan passed at midnight on the last day of the session.<ref name="Bourne, pp. 214–220"/> Carter merged about 300 state agencies into 22, although it is disputed whether that saved the state money.<ref>{{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roger A. |title=The Wayward Welfare State |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNF5kqmKi78C&pg=PA5 |publisher=Hoover Press |isbn=978-0-8179-7493-0 |page=5 |year=1982 |access-date=September 1, 2021 |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705115615/https://books.google.com/books?id=KNF5kqmKi78C&pg=PA5 |url-status=live }}</ref> On July 8, 1971, during an appearance in Columbus, Georgia, he stated his intention to establish a Georgia Human Rights Council to help solve issues ahead of any potential violence.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19710714&printsec=frontpage |title=Carter aims to create human relations panel |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=July 8, 1971 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140454/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19710714&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a news conference on July 13, 1971, Carter announced that he had ordered department heads to reduce spending to prevent a $57 million deficit by the end of the 1972 fiscal year, specifying that each state department would be affected and estimating that 5 percent over government revenue would be lost if state departments continued to fully use allocated funds.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GW5NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vDUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3623%2C1460658 |title=Gov. Carter orders cuts in Georgia spending |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=July 14, 1971 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=September 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901170904/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GW5NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vDUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3623,1460658 |url-status=live }}</ref> On January 13, 1972, he requested that the state legislature fund an early childhood development program along with prison reform programs and $48 million ({{Inflation|index=US|value=48,000,000|start_year=1972|fmt=eq}}) in paid taxes for nearly all state employees.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19720113&printsec=frontpage |title=Two budget proposals offered by Gov. Carter to legislature |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=January 13, 1972 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140459/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19720113&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Jimmy Carter and wife with Reubin Askew and his wife.jpg|thumb|left|Carter greeting Florida governor [[Reubin Askew]] and his wife in 1971; as president, Carter would appoint Askew as [[U.S. trade representative]].]]
On March 1, 1972, Carter said he might call a special session of the general assembly if the Justice Department opted to turn down any reapportionment plans by either the House or Senate.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N5pMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xzUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2478%2C241190 |title=Reappointment rejection could bring session |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=March 2, 1972 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=September 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901170905/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N5pMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xzUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2478,241190 |url-status=live }}</ref> He pushed several reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools in Georgia's wealthy and poor areas, setting up community centers for mentally disabled children, and increasing educational programs for convicts. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldbook.com/content-spotlight/item/1156-lives-and-times-of-american-presidents-1961-present/1156-lives-and-times-of-american-presidents-1961-present?start=5 |title=Carter, Jimmy |publisher=World Book Student |author=Hugh S. Sidey |date=January 22, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427131522/http://www.worldbook.com/content-spotlight/item/1156-lives-and-times-of-american-presidents-1961-present/1156-lives-and-times-of-american-presidents-1961-present?start=5 |archive-date=April 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-0-7166-0101-2 |title=World Book Encyclopedia (Hardcover) [Jimmy Carter entry] |pages=542 |publisher=World Book |date=January 2001}}</ref> In one of his more controversial decisions, he vetoed a plan to build a dam on Georgia's [[Flint River]], which attracted the attention of environmentalists nationwide.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25889670/ns/us_news-environment/t/jimmy-carter-battles-plan-dams-again/ |title=Jimmy Carter battles plan for dams – again |agency=Associated Press |date=July 28, 2008 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |publisher=NBC News |archive-date=August 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801090635/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25889670/ns/us_news-environment/t/jimmy-carter-battles-plan-dams-again/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="bourne-250">Bourne, pp. 250–251.</ref>

Civil rights were a high priority for Carter, who added black state employees and portraits of three prominent black Georgians to the capitol building: Martin Luther King Jr., [[Lucy Craft Laney]], and [[Henry McNeal Turner]]. This angered the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name="bourne-250" /> He favored a constitutional amendment to ban [[Desegregation busing|busing]] for the purpose of expediting integration in schools on a televised joint appearance with Florida governor [[Reubin Askew]] on January 31, 1973,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730201&printsec=frontpage |title=Governors disagree on school busing |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=February 1, 1973 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140451/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730201&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref> and co-sponsored an anti-busing resolution with Wallace at the 1971 National Governors Conference.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19711107&printsec=frontpage |title=Southern governors meeting in Atlanta |date=November 7, 1971 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |publisher=-Rome News-Tribune |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140455/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19711107&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="bourne-212">Bourne, pp. 212–213.</ref> After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Georgia's [[Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state)|death penalty]] statute in ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'' (1972), Carter signed a revised death-penalty statute that addressed the court's objections, thus reintroducing the practice in the state. He later regretted endorsing the death penalty, saying, "I didn't see the injustice of it as I do now."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/jimmy-carter-supreme-court-death-penalty |title=Jimmy Carter calls for fresh moratorium on death penalty |author=Pilkington, Ed |work=The Guardian |date=November 11, 2013 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705115637/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/jimmy-carter-supreme-court-death-penalty |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ineligible for reelection, Carter looked toward a potential presidential run and engaged in national politics. He was named to several southern planning commissions and was a delegate to the [[1972 Democratic National Convention]], where liberal U.S. Senator [[George McGovern]] was the likely nominee. Carter tried to ingratiate himself with the conservative and anti-McGovern voters. He was fairly obscure at the time, and his attempt at triangulation failed; the [[List of United States Democratic Party presidential tickets#1972|1972 Democratic ticket]] was McGovern and senator [[Thomas Eagleton]].<ref>Bourne, pp. 221–230.</ref>{{efn|Eagleton was later replaced on the ticket by [[Sargent Shriver]].<ref>Bourne, p. 230</ref>}} On August 3, Carter met with Wallace in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], to discuss preventing the Democrats from losing in a landslide,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19720804&printsec=frontpage |title=Carter, Wallace hold election conference |date=August 4, 1972 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |archive-date=October 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011183951/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19720804&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref> but they did.<ref>Bourne, p. 234</ref>

Carter regularly met with his fledgling campaign staff and decided to begin putting a presidential bid for 1976 together. He tried unsuccessfully to become chairman of the [[National Governors Association]] to boost his visibility. On [[David Rockefeller]]'s endorsement, he was named to the [[Trilateral Commission]] in April 1973. The next year, he was named chairman of both the [[Democratic National Committee]]'s congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.<ref>Bourne, pp. 237–250.</ref> In May 1973, Carter warned his party against politicizing the [[Watergate scandal]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730513&printsec=frontpage |title=Carter cautions Democrats to play it cool on Watergate |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=May 13, 1973 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=August 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817013656/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730513&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref> which he attributed to President [[Richard Nixon]]'s isolation from Americans and secretive decision-making.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730514&printsec=frontpage |title=Carter off on European tour |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=May 14, 1973 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140453/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BJbdYPG6LGMC&dat=19730514&printsec=frontpage |url-status=live }}</ref>