Greek god announces 2010 gubernatorial bid
August 27, 2008 at 1:18 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsAnd like all immortals, he’s a Democrat!
David Poythress, brother of Prometheus, descended yesterday from his gymnasium high atop Mt. Olympus, cousin of Stone Mountain, to announce he’s running for governor in 2010.
In reality, it was at the Peace Officers Association of Georgia meeting at Jekyll Island, and according to his bio, Poythress is a Macon native. A mythical land in its own right, yes, but Greece it is not.
This won’t be the first time the former commander of the Georgia National Guard takes a stab at the state’s top job. He ran an unsuccessful bid in 1998 while he was commissioner of the state Department of Labor.
Just how successful of a run this could be depends, first, on who else jumps into the still-26-months-away race, and second, if a Democrat really has any chance of winning a gubernatorial election in Georgia. Aside from Atlanta, that island of blue in the red sea that is the rest of the state, a Democrat may have a hard time convincing voters to check his name. According to this report from the AJC, Poythress thinks he has a chance to win over moderate Republicans and independents. WMAZ in Macon reports Poythress highlighted transportation, commuter rail and trauma care as the key issues he’ll stress.
The only other candidate who’s officially tossed his name into the mix is state insurance commissioner John Oxendine. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and state House Minority Leader DuBose Porter, D-Dublin, have also been mentioned as possible candidates.
Poythress has a long list of superlatives attached to his name. We’ve pasted them from his state Dept. of Defense website bio after the jump.
(Photo courtesy of the state DOD)
Lieutenant General David Poythress is the Adjutant General of Georgia. He is the first Adjutant General of Georgia to hold the rank of lieutenant general.
A native of Macon, Georgia, General Poythress has had a long and distinguished career that includes military service, public service and private law practice. He attended Emory University where he received his law degree with honors in 1967, and he is a distinguished military graduate of the Emory ROTC program. General Poythress served four years on active duty with the U.S. Air Force as a judge advocate officer, including one year as Chief of Military Justice at DaNang Air Base in the Republic of Vietnam.
Upon returning to civilian life, General Poythress remained in the Air Force Reserve, serving as a judge advocate officer in various positions of increasing responsibility. In 1991, he was recalled to active duty to oversee the continental United States backfill of reserve legal officers during Operations Desert Storm/Shield. He was promoted to Brigadier General in February 1994, and to Major General in July 1999.
General Poythress, who practiced law in Atlanta from 1983-1992, has spent much of his civilian career in public service. He has served as Deputy State Revenue Commissioner, Secretary of State and Commissioner of Labor of Georgia.
The general and his wife Elizabeth have three grown children and three grandchildren. He is a member of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the USO. He has served on the board of directors of Wesley Homes and the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women. He also served two terms as Chairman of the Board of the State YMCA of Georgia.
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August 28th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Poythress is running? You mean Sonny can’t run for a 3rd term? I thought since Sonny and his republican legislators have done such a bang up job we’d make an exception and let him run for a 3rd term.
I mean seriously when can you remember things being this good in Georgia?
Ok ok, for real serious, Sonny is in many ways far superior to Zell Miller. I’m not certain they planned it but between Bush’s economy and Sonny’s apparent lack of push for sprawl inducing roads Atlanta has seen a return to living ITP, transit use is up and people are second guessing the need to live on a 1/2 acre of grass.
In otherwords in terms of transportation, doing nothing is allowing some free market forces to work.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I wouldn’t rally chalk the ITP resurgence to Perdue. Across the country we’re seeing people flock back into the urban core. Chalk it up to gas prices, the wear and tear of a long commute on a person’s soul, a generation raised in the suburbs deciding they don’t want to go back to them, etc. Sonny’s administration has long been agog about roads, they just haven’t had the cash lately to keep building and maintaining them.