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Political Insider

God and DuBose Porter’s name ID

1:35 pm November 12, 2009, by Jim Galloway

This week, 2,400 delegates to the politically influential General Missionary Baptist Convention — a largely African-American group — met in Rome to talk politics and religion.

On Wednesday, we mentioned that former Gov. Roy Barnes addressed the group. But we neglected to say that his Democratic rival, House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter, also spoke from the convention floor.

Porter, in fact, was inspired to explain his lower name ID in theological terms. This from the Rome News Tribune:

“A lot of you might not know my name, because I’ve been in the trenches, but that’s okay, because I give my glory to God,” Porter said.

“Folks, the solutions are there. Do we have the will do it?”

He discussed a proposed passenger rail system through Georgia; water quality and conservation; increasing public defenders and funding for public safety; partnerships with the state to improve health care; and job training in schools for 11th and 12th graders.

In his speech to the group, Barnes promised to “fix the mess and go back home again.” Which prompted a call this morning from another Democratic rival, former state labor commissioner David Poythress. “I’ll fix the mess, and he can stay home on the couch,” Poythress said.

Neither Poythress or the Porter campaign interpreted Barnes’ remarks as a hint that he’d limit himself to a single term. Considering the cost of running a gubernatorial primary gauntlet, a single four-year stint just isn’t cost effective anymore.

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6 comments Add your comment

mikey

November 12th, 2009
2:56 pm

About the only time Poythress gets any press time is when he is whining about something Roy Barnes said. Poythress is an ingrate…Roy Barnes promoted him to General over the Georgia Army and Air Guard which helped Poythress get a really sweet pension deal. We don’t hear Poythress whining about that, do we?

Daisy Duke

November 12th, 2009
4:00 pm

It’s not Poythress’ fault the press doesn’t cover any thing but negative comments. He says plenty of important issue-oriented things but nobody seems interested in that. By the way, Poythress was an Air Force General before Barnes was ever Governor.

Base

November 12th, 2009
4:03 pm

Roy needs to stay home,he is a failure.

Disco Flu

November 12th, 2009
5:23 pm

If Porter gives his glory to god, then why is he seeking public office? Oh, because he doesn’t, he just needed an excuse for the fact no one wants him in office. Politicians are such dugans.

Emory Texan

November 12th, 2009
5:32 pm

Daisy Duke, I agree 100%. The media seems content with making this a Barnes vs Repub race, when that really isn’t fair to the other candidates or the people of Georgia. That said, this isn’t just a problem in Georgia, but probably nationwide. Here in Texas, the media (state and national) only focus on two candidates, KBH and Rick Perry, when the vast majority would vote for “Someone Else.” The problem is that people don’t ever learn their options for that someone because the media does a poor job of presenting the other candidates and their positions. Personally, I would like to hear a lot more about the Porters and Poythresses of this election because I think the GOP candidates are weak and Barnes has too much bad history to truly unite both sides of the aisle. I’m a libertarian so there isn’t a perfect candidate for me in this election but I like DuBose at the moment. He seems to have a good background and understanding of the water issue that is facing the state, while focusing on the making Georgia’s poor education system better (read:making Georgians more competitive in a global economy) and improving Georgian infrastructure.

Most people wouldn’t know that, though, because the Democratic primary is treated as “Barnes and others”

BPJ

November 13th, 2009
11:31 am

I think Poythress or Porter would be the strongest nominees.

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