Why DuBose Porter maybe the better candidate against the GOP in November

Many credit DuBose Porter for keeping the Georgia Democratic Party together after the democrats lost control of the governor's mansion, as well as both chambers of the state legislature when democrats lost both due to party switching & retirements by long-time democratic state reps & senators.

Porter was elected in 1982, challenging the then old guard democrats, some having been in office since the 1940s. Porter interned in Washington, D. C., for then Georgia Senator Sam Nunn (D-Perry). In 1991 and 1992, he served as Administration Floor Leader in the House of Representatives to Governor Zell Miller. In January 2003, Porter was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the House of Representatives. He has served as Chairman of Education as well as Chairman of Higher Education.

Porter has many accomplishments under his belt & just as qualified to be governor. But democrats seem to rather go back to the past & have Roy Barnes as the democratic nominee as governor in 2010. Nothing wrong with that. But why renominate someone who lost his re-election bid in 2002 to a unknown Sonny Perdue for without a shadow of a doubt the most important election the Georgia Democratic Party has faced ever?

The Democratic Party pipeline of prospects is almost empty. This is the time for new people to lead the party into the future, with a new vision & ideas to strengthened the party. I'm not saying the Barnes doesn't have those things, but you talk about someone who lost about 120,000 or more votes in 2002. Teachers, despite his apologies haven't totally forgotten what he tried to do in 2002, while some have.

Porter has fought his heart out for public schools here in Georgia, while the GOP have been trying to ram school vouchers through the legislature for years, which will deprive public schools of funding, which as a result will weakened them. He has fought for teachers his entire career, against furloughs & pay cuts. You'd think the GAE Georgia Association of Educators would have hastily thrown their endorsement behind him.

No doubt him serving in the legislature has hurt him somewhat by fundraising & getting out there & getting his message out, but one would think democrats would be eagerly clamoring for the candidacy for DuBose Porter. He has done alot for the democrats here in Georgia & democrats, in my opinion owe him alot for even being somewhat relevant in a GOP-controlled Legislature.

When the party was down & out, where was Roy Barnes? After his lost, he took his ball & went home & started a very successful law practice.

Where was Thurbert Baker? As the top vote getter in the 2006 elections, he could have been the leader of the party, but he chose to stay behind close doors & keep a low profile.

Gen. David Poythress was serving as State Adjuntant General during those years, so you can't harp any blame on him, but he has returned to Ga Politics after a 11 Yr absence.

Only Dubose was there when the party needed him. It was a difficult task for him to keep the party together after the disaster of 2002 & to keep the few democrats who were comptemplating a switch to th GOP. Porter deserves alot of credit, but its a shame that democrats haven't given him his due for all of his hard work.

Roy Barnes is not a bad guy. I met once earlier this year & he is as good as they come, but the fear I have, as well as other democrats is will Georgians re-elect him for a second time? Only Eugene Talmadge has been re-elected on two different occasions. Tha's a hard question to answer.

Porter has a base that democrats need to compete for: Middle Georgia. Like I said in a earlier post, democrats can't keep plowing the same field over & over, expecting to see results in their favor.

What I mean is they can't keep relying on the same areas that are traditionally democratic (Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Bibb, Muscogee, Chatham, Clarke, Dougherty & the Rural Black Belt Counties) for victories in the General Election.

They got to get back into places like Homerville, Alamo, Cordele, LaGrange, Ludowici, Douglas, Eatonton, Greensboro, Greenville, rural areas of the state if they want to statrt winning again. To do that, democrats need to nominate a candidate that go to these places & bring back conservative democrats into the party, as well as independents & republican voters & that why Porter or Poythress are the type of candidates that can do exactly that. I'm just not sure if Barnes can do that, although he has spent more time in Rural Georgia than he did in 2002.

And democrats need a fighter in that governor's mansion & someone who will rebuild the democratic party back to its prominence. This is not a endorsement of Porter, that'll come July 1, but what I'm saying is democrats got to get it right on July 20 & possibly the runoff. Democrats, in my opinion only reason in supporting Barnes is money! If that's the reason in supporting Barnes & not the solutions part of it, democrats are going to regret it. Money isn't everything folks, but if you don't have a compelling message to go with it, well you know the rest.