Vance Smith recommended to head a re-formed DOT

A search committee on Wednesday recommended that board governing the state Department of Transportation choose Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) to be DOT commissioner. The full board will vote Thursday.

Smith would have to give up his seat in the House, where he chairs the transportation committee.

After the committee announcement Wednesday Smith cautioned that the deal wasn’t done. “They’re just making a recommendation to move forward,” Smith told my AJC colleague Ariel Hart. “You know, anything can happen in 24 hours in politics.”

All the same, his election seemed a foregone conclusion, in stark contrast to the last time he was a candidate. In a bitterly contested 2007 vote, the board chose his opponent, Gena Abraham (later Evans), by a one-vote margin.

The board was caught in a vise between Gov. Sonny Perdue, who supported Evans, and House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who supported Smith. After a year and a half of turbulence, the board fired her in February.

The board member who led the search committee was a consistent supporter of Evans, but said Smith was the right choice to replace her.

“We’ve been through a period of having a commissioner that didn’t have the full support of the board and it was difficult,” said DOT board vice chairman Larry Walker said. “We hope this will be better.”

The new commissioner will have to work closely with an appointee of the governor to implement a new law restructuring DOT.

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