ATLANTA - Nathan Deal is running for governor as a tax-cutting fiscal conservative.
But as a state senator in 1989, he voted to boost the state's sales tax by one penny, which experts say remains the largest tax increase in Georgia's history.
Deal said the vote 21 years ago doesn't undercut his credentials and points to a long tally of votes since that one - most in Congress - which prove he has been a champion of keeping taxes low.
"It was a vote that I felt was appropriate. I do believe in consumption-based taxes, and it was consistent with that," Deal said of the sales tax vote, noting that the final bill exempted some food from taxation.
Deal has held office for almost 29 consecutive years, and that long experience serves as the foundation of his campaign. It also furnishes a telling look at how some of his views have shifted over the years.
The 1989 vote wasn't the first time he backed the penny sales tax increase. Records show that in 1984, he voted for a Senate resolution that would have boosted the state sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent, with the proceeds split between education and property tax relief. The measure fell just short of the needed supermajority. Deal also sponsored a measure that would have placed a tax on alcoholic beverages to help fund treatment for alcoholics.
For Deal, the most obvious change over the years is party affiliation. He was elected to the state Senate and later to Congress as a Democrat. But in 1995, he swapped parties and became a Republican, adding to the ranks of then-U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution on Capitol Hill.
And on one critical issue in particular, Deal acknowledges he has had a change of heart: abortion.
Deal - who says he is now firmly against abortion except in cases where the mother's life is at risk - cast a handful of votes favoring abortion rights early in his congressional career, according to congressional records. In one, he opposed an amendment that would have forced family planning clinics to notify parents two days before providing an abortion to a minor.
Deal said he once supported the right to have an abortion in the first trimester but no longer does.
"I definitely changed my mind on the issue," Deal told The Associated Press. He said conversations with friends and religious leaders as well as scientific advances, like sonograms, convinced him that life begins at conception.
Those remarks appear to contradict a statement released by his campaign in the midst of a tough Republican runoff in July, when the abortion issue was a flashpoint with conservative primary voters.
"Personally, I have always been pro-life," Deal said in an e-mail to the AP on July 25. "From a public policy perspective, my views became even more conservative over time."
Arriving in Congress in 1993, Deal was known for a steady - but not particularly flashy - legislative agenda.
A review of congressional records by the AP shows Deal was the lead sponsor on 72 bills over his 18-year career. Just seven became law, and three of those involved the naming of post offices.
"Nathan is a very, very cautious person. I think that has been his style personally and his approach to serving on Congress," said former U.S. Rep. Buddy Darden, a Democrat from Cobb County who's backing Deal's opponent, Roy Barnes.
"He's generally avoided any type of high-profile legislation and been pretty quiet," Darden said.
Deal said he is not one to seek out the spotlight.
"I think that most real progress comes incrementally," Deal said. "The ones who swing for the fences are the ones who want to be in the headlines. I've always thought it was more important at the end of the day to get something done and to get some results."
If he has had a signature issue on Capitol Hill, it is immigration. While he's proposed a number of tough immigration proposals, most have failed to become law.
In 1995, Deal proposed using soldiers to help enforce immigration and drug laws at the border. He also sponsored legislation that would require all employers to use a federal database called E-Verify meant to keep illegal immigrants out of the work force.
He was an early supporter of ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, which has recently gained momentum.
"Nathan Deal's record on trying to stop illegal immigration is exemplary," said D.A. King, founder of the Dustin Inman Society, which seeks stricter laws against illegal immigration. "Especially on ending the insanity of birthright citizenship, he has been a leader."
But Deal said his proudest accomplishment in Washington was one that combined cutting spending with toughening restrictions on illegal immigration.
In 2005, he slashed some $20 billion in health spending from the federal budget as part of the deficit reduction act. It's a figure, aides quickly note, that is larger than the current budget of Georgia. Deal was also able to include language requiring those seeking Medicaid benefits to provide identification, a move designed to halt illegal immigrants from tapping the taxpayer-funded benefits.
"To be able to almost single-handedly save $20 billion is very significant," Deal said, adding that he would bring the same conservative sensibility to the role of governor.