In a crowded field of Republican contenders for the gubernatorial nomination, Eric Johnson says there is at least one trait that separates him from the rest.

He’s the only candidate, the former president pro tem of the state Senate said, to have taken on presumptive Democratic front-runner Roy Barnes and beaten him.

“It’s gone from a beauty contest to who can beat Roy Barnes,” Johnson said of the Republican race. “That makes my case stronger than anyone else’s. I’m the only candidate who has gone toe-to-toe with Roy Barnes and I beat him. I’m the only one that’s done that, among all the candidates.”

Barnes, the most recent Democrat to declare his intention to run, had been governor from 1998-2002 before losing to current Gov. Sonny Perdue. It was during Barnes’ term, Johnson noted, that he went head-to-head against the Mableton lawyer and beat him on several legislative maneuvers.

Johnson, the veteran Savannah lawmaker, has been in the Senate since 1994 and was elected Senate minority leader in 1999. Four years later, as the Republican party gained control of the upper chamber of the General Assembly, he was chosen as president pro tem.

The move also made Johnson the de facto lieutenant governor, as Senate Republicans stripped away most of the power reserved for that office and handed it to the president pro tem’s seat. Those duties were restored to the office of lieutenant governor once Casey Cagle was elected to the position.

Johnson originally planned to run for lieutenant governor, since Cagle was set to embark on a campaign to succeed Perdue as governor. But back surgery forced Cagle to give up his gubernatorial aspirations and Johnson, not wanting to go head-to-head against his colleague, threw his hat into the ring for the governor’s chair.

Though most polls show incumbent Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine as the Republican front-runner, Johnson believes the team he has assembled is a potent one. He has enlisted the help of Steve Green, the chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority board of directors, Jamie Reynolds of Reynolds Plantation and Virgil Williams, an Atlanta-area businessman. Other members of his finance committee include former U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly.

“We’ve put together the best political team and the best financial team,” he said.

Johnson appears to making inroads in the campaign war chests. His recent filing with the State Ethics Commission showed he had $913,483.20 in hand for the campaign.

Still, getting name recognition outside of the Coastal Empire is key. He urged Effingham Republicans to help him lock up the southeast part of the state as he battles against Oxendine and Karen Handel, the Georgia Secretary of State and former chairman of the Fulton County Commission.

Fifty percent of the state’s electorate lives north of Interstate 20, Johnson noted.

“After a year of traveling the state, I became more enthused than ever that the state had a positive future in front of it,” he said. “I want to look at the next generation and not just the next election. That’s the problem we’ve gotten into with transportation, water and education. Georgia still has a great foundation.”

Johnson also said the recent General Assembly sessions, roundly criticized for the rancor among Republicans, aren’t being treated fairly.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said.

The failure to enact a means to support a statewide trauma care system was a disappointment, Johnson admitted. But work continues on finding a solution to the state’s transportation funding fiasco.

“We’re talking about a $1.5 billion a year tax increase,” he said. “That takes a while to figure out. There’s no excuse on trauma — we should have gotten together on trauma.”

Since Republicans have taken control of the General Assembly, legislators have passed tort reform and tougher measures against sexual predators and illegal immigration, Johnson said, among other measures.

“Everything we said we would do as conservatives we put into practice,” he said. “Have we been perfect? No. Have we squabbled a little bit in public? Yes.”

But not having been in power in the Capitol since Reconstruction also meant having to learn how to be in power.

“We had to learn by the seat of our pants,” Johnson said. “And we’re getting better all the time.”

He also chastised Republicans for straying from their roots and for the Legislature “for picking on local governments.”

“We have forgotten the principles of local control and small government,” he said.

Johnson said his principles are rooted in his belief in strong families, small government and free enterprise.

“I am pro-life and pro-gun,” he said. “I have not wavered in those beliefs.” 

Johnson has become a champion of school choice during his time in the Senate and continued to espouse its benefits to the Effingham County GOP. He noted the strength of Effingham’s schools but wants that option for parents of children in underperforming districts.

“One of our best assets is our college and university system,” he said, adding that students from across the nation and the world flock to Georgia’s institutions of higher learning. “But they don’t do it for our k-12 system. No matter how you cut it, we can do better.”

The GI Bill and the HOPE scholarship programs work on a similar principle to his school choice plan, according to Johnson.

“Seventeen of 18 studies said kids do better when exposed to that competition,” he said. “The other study said it made no difference. It cuts taxpayers’ costs and raises test scores. That’s the theory here, let the parent choose the best educational environment for their child.”

Johnson also called for a review of the state’s tax structure, something that hasn’t been done in 19 years, as tax cuts at the state level get passed on to local governments to bear. If elected governor, Johnson said he would call for a tax reform committee to be composed of county commissioners, elected municipal officials, school board members, Chamber of Commerce representatives and private citizens.

“We ought to at least start at the same table at the same time,” he said. “We may not end up in agreement, but it shouldn’t be us vs. them.”

Johnson also has begun a push to “out” lawmakers who either don’t pay or don’t file their taxes. Twenty-two members’ names of the General Assembly are on the desk of Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, and Joe Wilkinson, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee.

“Politicians that tell you to pay your taxes should be paying theirs,” he said.

Johnson contends that a solution to funding the state’s transportation needs will be found in the next General Assembly session — but the state is “flat out of money for transportation and for water and sewer,” he said. “Our growth has caught up with us.”

He also espoused the new plant in Soperton that is turning cellulose from trees into biofuel.

“We import 1 billion gallons of fuel each month from Venezuela. We can grow $1 billion worth of fuel,” he said. “We’re the Saudi Arabia of pine trees.”

And he worried that the federal bailouts and stimulus spending will only lead to greater economic woes and less freedom.

“When you look at what’s coming out of Washington, it scares me to death,” he said.

“Health care is being driven by the federal government, and it’s going the wrong way. I think there is a role for government, so consumers can determine how much they pay for (their level) of health care.”