Chip Rogers

Chip Rogers
In office 2003–2012
Preceded by	Robert Lamutt
Succeeded by	Brandon Beach
Personal details
Born	(1968-05-03) May 3, 1968
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Amy Rogers
Alma mater	Georgia Institute of Technology J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University

William "Chip" Rogers, born May 3, 1968, is a former American politician from the state of Georgia. He is a Republican and was first elected in 2002 to the Georgia General Assembly to the Georgia House of Representatives, in 2004 he was elected to the Georgia State Senate. Rogers was unanimously chosen as the Senate Majority Leader of the U.S. state of Georgia in 2008 and again in 2010.

In November 2012 Rogers resigned his position as Senate Majority Leader, and in December, he resigned his position in the state Senate.

Biography

Education

Rogers graduated from North Gwinnett High School in 1986 and from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a certificate in Economics in 1991. He then attended the Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business, graduating with an MBA.

Family

Rogers and his wife Amy have four children. Rogers is a Christian and attends First Baptist Church of Woodstock.

Career before politics

Chip Rogers founded Rogers Broadcasting in the early 1990s, which later became Rogers Communications. The company held interests in a radio station and real estate. During the 1990s Rogers worked for a number of metro Atlanta radio stations including WGST, WBHF, and WRAS.

Rogers purchased radio station WYXC, located in the Atlanta suburb of Cartersville, GA, in 1999. He owned and operated the radio station for six years, selling WYXC to Clarion Communications in 2005. Rogers acquired sole ownership of Clarion Communications in December 2012 and immediately entered into a lease management agreement with Newstalk corporation to operate WYXC.

Before entering politics, Rogers appeared in infomercials for a sports handicapping service, portraying “Will 'The Winner' Rogers”. They promoted a "pay-per-call number" to receive football predictions. Rogers said the media stories on the topic were "gutter politics", that the work was scripted, and that he was not a sports handicapper.

Fred Thompson campaign

In September 2007, Senator Rogers was chosen as Executive Director and Communications Director for the Fred Thompson for U.S. President campaign in Georgia. A November 2007 poll among Republican primary voters in Georgia showed Thompson with a large lead over his G.O.P. primary candidates. Rogers secured endorsements for Thompson from 58 fellow Republican legislators, more than all other G.O.P. candidates at the time.

Oglethorpe Inn

Rogers and Tom Graves were involved in a civil suit and counter suit with Bartow County Bank over a $2.2 million loan on the Oglethorpe Inn. Graves & Rogers sold the hotel to John Edens, but remained as guarantors for the loan. The matter was settled out of court. The Bartow County Bank's former chairman, Morgan Akin, a long-time contributor to Democratic candidates, said their acts "contributed significantly" to his bank's eventual failure.

Theft of opponents' campaign signs by campaign employees

During Rogers' first campaign for the legislature, two teenage campaign workers stole signs of his opponent. Rogers stated he supported the plan after he alleged dozens of his own signs had been stolen, but added he had told his campaign manager not to proceed with any such plan.

House of Representatives (2003–2005)

Rogers first ran for office in 2002, winning a majority of the votes in a four-person primary for an open seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. The seat represented the citizens in the southwest corner of Cherokee County that encompasses Woodstock, Towne Lake, and parts of Acworth.

Georgia Senate

After two years in the State House, Rogers ran to replace State Senator Robert Lamutt, who had decided to run for an open Congressional seat vacated by then Congressman Johnny Isakson. Rogers routed the early front runner and lawyer Craig Dowdy in the Republican primary, taking 81% of the vote.

Rogers was a leading voice for education reform and school choice. He was the Senate sponsor of the Constitutional Amendment to create public charter schools. The Constitutional Amendment Rogers sponsored was approved by Georgia voters on November 6, 2012.

Senator Rogers authored the Grade Integrity Act aimed at protecting the classroom teacher's authority to give students the grade they actually earned. The law prevents school personnel from changing a grade given by the classroom teacher unless such grade was given in conflict with school policy.

Rogers also helped make Georgia a national leader in K-12 digital learning. He authored the Digital Learning Act and was the Senate sponsor of the Online Clearinghouse Act. Both measures, which were signed into law, are aimed at expanding digital learning options and offerings for Georgia students.

Rogers helped pass legislation aimed at preventing identity theft. He authored the Georgia Personal Identity Protection Act which requires government agencies to provide notice to their customers upon a breach of a security system and a loss of electronic data including personal information. Rogers also authored the Georgia Credit Protection Act which would allow Georgia residents the opportunity to freeze their personal credit in order to prevent identity theft.

Senator Rogers was the author of Mattie's Call Act, a law which uses the Georgia statewide emergency alert system to help locate person's suffering from Alzheimer's disease or Dementia, who have gone missing.

A highly publicized issue of lobbyist gifts for lawmakers made news in Georgia during 2011 and 2012. According to a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rogers committed to not accepting any lobbyist gifts, "Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, quietly decided not to accept anything from lobbyists." In 2011, Rogers received $10,771 from lobbyists. He has indicated that he has now given everything back, saying "I spent considerable amounts of money paying people for things I never asked for" and that he wanted a "zero" on his lobbyist balance sheet."

Committee assignments

Rogers served on the following committees in the Georgia State Senate:

• Administrative Affairs
• Appropriations – Ex Officio
• Assignments
• Banking and Financial Institutions
• Economic Development
• Finance – Secretary
• Insurance and Labor
• Reapportionment and Redistricting
• Rules – Ex Officio

Georgia Senate Majority Leader (2008–2012)

In November 2008, Senator Rogers was unanimously elected Senate Majority Leader for the Republican Party. He was unanimously re-elected in November 2010.

In 2010 Rogers authored a comprehensive overhaul of the Georgia Property Tax Code. The two laws authored by Rogers, SB 240 and SB 346 allowed for alternative property tax appeals, prevented local governments from ignoring distressed sales when establishing property values, and required that property sales price establishes initial assessed value. For his efforts in helping property owners, Rogers was honored as the "Legislator of the Year" by the Georgia Property Taxpayer Association.

Rogers also earned the 2010 "Golden Shovel" Award from the Georgia Utility Contractors. In a statement from the association, "(Rogers)played an integral role in passing favorable legislation for GUCA in the 2010 Legislative Session, including SB 339, GUCA's legislation that allows utility contractors to directly bid on utility construction work ... and specifically helped carry legislation to help reduce the property tax burden for heavy equipment operators."

In October 2012, Rogers held an educational meeting about Agenda 21 for Senators and staffers, at the request of constituents, to discuss "how regionalism and public private partnerships are tearing down constitutionally limited self-government and free market economics." A resolution denouncing Agenda 21 as a threat to private property rights was part of the 2012 Republican National Platform.

On December 4, Rogers announced he was stepping down from the Senate to take an executive position with Georgia Public Broadcasting. Rogers' appointment to this position, which he described as his 'dream job', caused controversy; a senior GPB producer resigned shortly afterwards, saying that Rogers' $150,000 salary was out of scale for his experience and inappropriate in view of ongoing budget cuts. In September 2013, it emerged he had become a part-owner of Clarion Communications, Inc. which had been the owner of Georgia radio station WYXC since 2006. His ownership interest in the corporation started in 2011, and was not then reported to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Georgia Public Broadcasting

Chip Rogers joined Georgia Public Broadcasting as Executive Director for Georgia Works in December 2012. The multi-faceted Georgia Works platform included a statewide radio program heard across the 17-station GPB Radio network. Georgia Works programming focused on economic development in Georgia, along with educational, training, and employment opportunities.

Rogers hosted the statewide radio program, which was also broadcast on the GPB website. The Georgia Works radio show included one-on-one interviews on topics such as: STEM Educational Scholarships Job Satisfaction Retirement Planning Savannah Music Festival Georgia QuickStart Program Savannah Pro-Business Climate Minimalism Small Business "Micro" Loans Cobb County Chamber "Cutting Edge" Technology Awards

The Georgia Works blog, written by Rogers, was the most visited such blog on the GPB website.

On April 18, 2014, Rogers was fired from Georgia Public Broadcasting. In a story titled "Rogers was fired from GPB for violating policy," the Cherokee Tribune newspaper reported that GPB terminated Rogers because “You have violated several employment policies of GPB relating to political activity, outside or dual employment, time and attendance, teleworking and the code of ethics,”

Awards and recognitions

• Rogers has been recognized as a national leader for education reform by the Foundation for Excellence in Education and Students First.
• He is also a multiple winner of the Golden Peach Award given for support of digital learning in Georgia Public Schools
• Senator Rogers was a leader for property tax reform and was recognized by the Georgia Property Taxpayer Association as "Legislator of the Year"
• Rogers was named to "Most Influential Georgians" by James Magazine
• Senator Rogers named "Senator of the Year" four times by Georgia Retail Association

Electoral history

Georgia House of Representative Primary Election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	3,447	53.70
	Republican	Larry Singleton	1,342	20.90
	Republican	Dawn Marr	1,181	18.40
	Republican	Jerry Lanham	451	7.00

Georgia House of Representative General Election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	10,034	81.20
	Democratic	Jerry Moore	2,318	18.80

Georgia State Senate Primary Election, 2004

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	15,818	81.40
	Republican	Craig Dowdy	3,625	18.60

Georgia State Senate General Election, 2004

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	61,810	100.00
	Democratic	None	0	0.0

Georgia State Senate General Election, 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	40,417	100.00
	Democratic	None	0	0.0

Georgia State Senate General Election, 2008

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers	61,991	76.70
	Democratic	Carlos Lopez	18,776	23.20

Georgia State Senate General Election, 2010

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Chip Rogers
	Democratic	Patrick Thompson

External links

• Senator Rogers web site
• Facebook Page
• Official Bio

Preceded by Tommy Williams

Georgia Senate Majority Leader 2009–2012

Succeeded by Ronnie Chance