Earl Ehrhart

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Earl Day Ehrhart is an American politician from the state of Georgia. As of 2007, he is a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives representing District 36, which encompasses parts of western Cobb County.

Born in Miami, Florida, Ehrhart has lived in Cobb since 1964 and resides in Powder Springs. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1980. While there, he was a member of Pi Sigma Alpha the national political science honor society, as well as a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

Ehrhart was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1988 and served 8 years as the minority whip.

Currently, he serves as Chairman of the House Rules Committee and as a member of the following committees:

Appropriations
Banks and banking
States institutions and property

In 2005 Ehrhart was elected as the National Chairman of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators with over 2,400 legislator members from all fifty states and 97 alumni members in Congress. Earl is also a member of the National Republican Legislator Association.

In 1990, the National Federation of Independent Business named Ehrhart the "Guardian of Small Business", due to his years of work for small businesses in Georgia. He also received the "Champion of the Free Enterprise System Award" from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia. He also received awards from the Medical Association of Georgia, Kennesaw State University, The Twenty Second Air Force Reserve, and the Georgia Federation of Young Republicans.

He and his family are members of McEachern United Methodist Church. Ehrhart is a member of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the Cobb County Youth Soccer Association, the Oregon Park Baseball Association and he is a contributor to both the Cobb County performing arts and the Powder Springs Youth Association. He has served on the Powder Springs Downtown Development Association which led to the formation of Powder Springs Square. Ehrhart is also a member of the West Cobb Rotary Club, The Cobb County chamber of commerce, the Honorary Commanders Association, is an Honorary Safety Fire Commissioner, and the District Chairman for the Boy Scouts of America representing the Covered Bridge District. He currently serves as Senior Vice President of the Facility Group, Inc. an architectural and engineering firm located in Smyrna, Georgia.

In 2007, Representative Ehrhart led the charge to pass a bill that would have legalized payday lending in Georgia.^[1] Oppenents classified the measure as one of the more blatant examples of corporate campaign donors subjugating the rights of ordinary citizens due to 1) the amount of campaign contributions from payday lenders to Georgia politicians and 2) the consensus that these loans have few, if any, societal benefits.^[2] The Georgia legislature narrowly defeated the measure.^[3]^[4]