Sen. Don Cheeks, who was born and reared in Augusta, will have served 30 years in the Legislature in January and is eighth in seniority in the Senate. Before his election to the Georgia House, he served on the Augusta City Council, beginning in 1959, having been elected from the "Fighting 5th" District in Harrisburg. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

"Personally, I do not think I did, because I can look back at what the Democratic Party was doing to me and what my lieutenant governor was doing," Mr. Cheeks said.

What they were doing, he said, was colluding with state Sen. Charles Walker, D-Augusta, during redistricting last year to reduce his base in the 23rd Senate District.

On the Democrats' map, the 23rd District is a multicounty strip running from north of Interstate 20 in Columbia County to south of Interstate 16 in Candler County. Mr. Cheeks tried to defeat the plan but realized it was futile.

"Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor called me in about five days before the vote and said, 'Donald, what have we got to do to get you to vote for the plan and come on board and help us?"' Mr. Cheeks said.

"Charles Walker was there. I said, 'Governor, we've got to do the same thing that I've been asking all along: Leave me with a base in the high 30s or 40 percent of Richmond County.

"And Mark Taylor looked at Charles and said, "Well, how about it, Senator?' And Charles said, 'No way,' and got up and went back out.

"So after Charles got up and left, I thought to myself, now this is really bad. I said, 'You know, Charles is really running the Senate' because here's the lieutenant governor, and Charles gets up and walks out."

Mr. Cheeks was leading the fight against the redistricting plan, prompting other Democrats to ask him why he wasn't a team player, he said.

"I told them, 'All politics starts at home,"' he said. "I even told them, 'If y'all don't like what I'm doing, I won't run as a Democrat.'

"They said, 'Oh, no, we want you."'

After Mr. Cheeks qualified, he learned that Monique Cheeks had qualified to run against him in the Democratic primary.

"I had heard they were trying to recruit somebody," he said, "'they' being Charles Walker and others. One of Charles' very good friends told me exactly what had transpired.

"I got Monique out of the race because she had qualified in a district she didn't live in."

He said Mrs. Cheeks would have been subject to prosecution on a felony charge if she had not withdrawn.

State Sen. Don Cheeks fields phone calls at his Augusta home. Mr. Cheeks switched to the Republican Party after Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue pledged to use his office to help bring the Cancer Center of Excellence to Augusta. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

Mr. Walker has denied having anything to do with Mrs. Cheeks' decision to run.

Stung by what he saw as a lack of support from his own party, Mr. Cheeks actively supported Republican Randy Hall, who defeated Mr. Walker in the 22nd Senate District.

After the election, Mr. Cheeks said, he asked Mr. Taylor for assurances that the $10 million that Gov. Roy Barnes had committed to build the Cancer Center of Excellence in Augusta would be in next year's budget.

"He said, 'Well, it's like everything else, Don. You'll just have to get in there and fight for it."'

"I said, 'OK. Thank you."'

When Republican Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue told Mr. Cheeks that he would use the governor's office to help bring the cancer center to Augusta, Mr. Cheeks switched to the Republican Party.

He said the reaction has been "overwhelmingly positive," except for about "five ugly letters and calls" and a pledge from Richmond County Democratic Party Chairman Lowell Greenbaum to recruit a candidate and defeat him in two years.

"I told him I hoped he would do better toward the candidate he got than he has in the past with me, because they'd never done anything for me," Mr. Cheeks said. "Not even written a letter to the editor or made a penny contribution or put up a sign. Not the first time."

Mr. Cheeks will have served 30 years in the Legislature in January and is eighth in seniority in the Senate.

Before his election to the Georgia House in 1966, he served on the Augusta City Council, beginning in 1959, having been elected from the "Fighting 5th" District in Harrisburg, where he operated a liquor store.

He also has been in the restaurant, real estate, insurance, construction and textile businesses.

In recent years, he has been plagued by kidney stones and is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, a subject he avoids in conversation.

"I don't want to discuss my health because I'm healthy," he said.

Mr. Cheeks met his wife, Betty, when she stopped at one of his stores to buy aspirin. He followed her home in his Studebaker Golden Hawk, but she refused to go out with him for months.

"I had a headache, and I picked up one for 40 years," she said of her husband.

Mrs. Cheeks said she doesn't get involved in politics.

"I tolerate politics because that's part of the bargain," she said.

The bargain also includes serving as her husband's at-home secretary, answering questions and fetching papers.

The youngest of nine children, Mr. Cheeks was born on what is now Harper Street in 1931. His father died when he was 5 months old. The family survived by truck farming from land they rented on East Boundary.

His mother later bought a farm on U.S. Highway 1, where they raised chickens, cows and whatever would grow in the sandy soil.

Mr. Cheeks bought wood slabs for 50 cents a load and cut them up for stove wood he sold in No. 2 washtubs for 25 cents per tub. For every dollar he made, he said, he saved 10 cents, kept 10 cents and saved 80 cents. By 24, he was a millionaire.

The Legislature has changed over the years, he said.

"When I first went there, there were people who could not read or write," he said. "But there were some of the best members I ever served with - people with common sense. Now everybody is literate. They're younger. They're more professional. The turnover is rapid.

"We had a third of our membership in the Senate change this year. I'm eighth in seniority in the Senate and probably about the same in the whole General Assembly."

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Monday, December 16, 2002 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle