ATLANTA - After House Speaker David Ralston gaveled Georgia's grueling legislative session to a close, he calmly strolled to a side chamber and embraced a long line of lawmakers from both parties as he patiently waited to talk to the media.

It was a far cry from the end-of-session routine of his predecessor, Glenn Richardson, who seemed to barrel out of the Capitol as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving surrogates to talk to reporters and bid farewell to the exhausted legislators.

"Wasn't that a good change?" Ralston asked as he finished his goodbyes to his colleagues. "I think that's a good change."

As Georgia lawmakers closed the books on one of their most productive sessions in years, reaching breakthroughs on a range of top priorities that had long eluded them, lawmakers in both parties credited the successes to the stability that Ralston brought to the House.

"He is the absolute right person to lead the House, not only right now, but in the future," said House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, one of Richardson's top lieutenants.

Ralston took charge of the chamber when Richardson stepped down following allegations of an affair with a lobbyist and a suicide attempt. The Blue Ridge attorney quickly vowed to change the tone of the chamber and cooperate with his counterparts in the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans.

He and other rank-and-file members had long been frustrated at legislative gridlock that defined previous sessions because of acrimonious feuding between the House and Senate. It got so bad during the 2008 session that Richardson angrily called for the ouster of Casey Cagle after the lieutenant governor helped kill his tax cut plan.

Ralston and Cagle aimed to change the tone. They met each week, issued joint statements, brokered agreements on contentious issues such as legislative furloughs and appeared at press briefings together. The Senate even issued a resolution honoring Ralston and allowed him to address the chamber.

That cooperation paid off. The two chambers broke through a logjam on a transportation funding plan after three years of trying, adopted new lobbyist disclosure rules and passed a measure that would impose a wide-ranging series of water conservation efforts.

"There's no big secret," Ralston said Friday, minutes after the session ended. "It's about toning things down and having a positive dialogue. We're focusing on issues instead of personalities."

Ralston still endured his share of growing pains.

DuBose Porter, the House's top Democrat, said Ralston's leadership led to a "smoother" session, but said his caucus was angered when Ralston allowed lawmakers to eliminate a low-income tax credit for people who earn less than $20,000, a move that would affect thousands of seniors.

"You want more substance than just form," said Porter, who is resigning his seat to run for governor. "But the environment was very different and the accessibility was better."

Abortion opponents were frustrated that Ralston failed to bring a measure that would have banned doctors from performing an abortion if there's evidence the woman was being coerced into asking for the procedure to the floor. And watchdog groups worry that Ralston didn't go far enough in crafting an ethics overhaul.

"It was a wasted opportunity," said Bill Bozarth, executive director of Common Cause's Georgia chapter. "They really had a chance to make some substantive changes but they backed off from that."

Ralston, though, said he had no regrets about how he handled his first session, and said he hopes his leadership brought lasting changes to the Legislature.

State Sen. Don Thomas, a Dalton Republican who is retiring after 14 years, said he hopes so as well. He was grinning cheek-to-cheek as he left the Capitol Friday morning, jubilant days after the House voted to make Georgia join the rest of the nation in requiring adults in pickup trucks to wear seat belts.

The measure had been bottled up in the House for years under Richardson and his predecessor, Tom Murphy. But Ralston allowed the measure to go to a vote, and it was adopted within minutes.

"It's amazing the change one man can have," Thomas said.