Why John Oxendine?

I am running to restore the grassroots to their right and proper place in our Party.

I am running to proclaim that the Georgia Republican Party is a conserv-
ative Party based on the Ronald Reagan principles of Faith, Family, and Freedom.

I am running to transform state government in Georgia away from the politics as usual model into a 21st Century model based on conservative free enterprise management principles.

I am seeking to serve Georgia as Governor with a servant’s heart and put taxpayers and families first.

All too often, politicians offer up feel good slogans that propose to solve a problem.

All they really do is put a temporary band-aid on the issue.

This must change. You do not make a permanent decision to fix a temporary problem. Georgia must have a Governor willing to implement solutions on a long term basis to address the root of our problems.

Georgia taxpayers deserve a Governor who is dedicated to real change – to true transformation of the very premise of how we manage our state government. It is my intent to wipe clean the stale 20th century model we currently employ in Georgia government and replace it with a 21st Century model based on transformational change.

Our state government is a business and taxpayers are the share holders. We deserve a business plan that is in our best interest and that of future generations. Georgia needs an incentive-based government which rewards professionalism and simultaneously provides appropriate services while adapting to a modern operational model which actually saves taxpayer dollars.

We must embrace technology and welcome advancements which allow society to work and live in new and different ways. Have you ever noticed that not even bankers keep bankers’ hours anymore? The only place where the 20th Century, 9 to 5 model of business still exists is in government. This must change.

I want to serve those Georgians who feel like they have no voice in government. I am running for the dock worker in Savannah and Brunswick, the farmer in Moultrie, the teacher in LaGrange, the nurse at Grady, the small business owner on the
McDonough square, the student at the local Starbucks,

the waitress at the Waffle House in Tifton, all those who go to work every day to make Georgia work – it is for them that I run.

All too often, special interests in Atlanta get all the attention, but those days are over.

You see, I am for the average Georgian. They are the ones who pay the taxes, create the

energy that fuels the economy, and make Georgia a special place.

They are good people. They work hard, raise their families and deserve a government which serves them. I will see that state government is transformed into a government that is there for them.

I want to serve the small business owner who will never receive a taxpayer funded bail out, but who will be expected by the politicians to fund that bailout. I want to serve the working parents who wonder why the cost of tuition keeps going up at Georgia universities but the classrooms get more crowded, the professors more liberal, and the services cut back. I want to serve the retiree who has a harder time getting quality health care and wonders if they are still welcome in Georgia. I want to serve the farmer who wonders if Atlanta cares or even understands about life outside of I-285. I want to serve the teacher who is trying to teach our children, but has a smaller budget and rising set of administrative rules to comply with which distracts from actual teaching.

I am running to restore free enterprise in Georgia. Our government needs to develop procedures for true tax reform and remove burdensome regulations from the Georgia small business owner. The old ways of taxes and regulations must be transformed to a new era of strong free enterprise and job creation in Georgia.

Faith and values matter in government. I am running to not only defend, but to promote those traditional values that have served Georgia well in years past. Many of our problems can be directly traced to an erosion of Judeo-Christian values and traditions. As the years have passed, generations after generations have not been exposed to those necessary values to sustain a healthy and peaceful society. Instead, our children and grandchildren are exposed to values, in the name of diversity and tolerance, which undermine our educational system, parental rights, and our houses of Faith.

I am running to unite the House and Senate. I will work with both the House and Senate. I will treat the General Assembly as a co-equal branch of government.

I feel that the men and women who serve our Party in the General Assembly are true patriots. As a result, I feel they are due a tremendous amount of respect and I look forward to serving with them to solve those issues before Georgia.

I have promised to do certain things if elected Governor regarding the General Assembly. Among them are to meet weekly with the leadership of both the House and the Senate and establish regular meetings with the majority and minority caucuses of the House and Senate. To ask the Speaker and Lt. Governor to do me the honor of appearing before a Joint Session on a regular basis to answer questions from Members of the General Assembly, and from the citizens of Georgia, much like Senator John McCain had proposed to do in his Administration. It is time for the Governor to be more open and available.

"I have committed that I will never veto a bill without first speaking to the principal author. In my opinion, this is the very basic respect that our citizen legislators and their constituents deserve."

The next Governor faces many issues some we know about such as soaring Medicaid enrollment , the potential for closed hospitals, rising unemployment, the drought, traffic congestion, failing schools, an overflowing prison system, skyrocketing public debt, and a $2 billion budget deficit. It is imperative that Georgia have a Governor who can work with both the House and the Senate.

We need to demand transparency as opposed to insider politics. We need open, honest, straight talk. We need to remove the ability of non-elected bureaucrats to raise fees and taxes. We need tax cuts not fee increases. If you honor me with our nomination, I will govern by embracing conservative ideas in bold and bright ways; in an Oxendine Administration there will be no pale, pastel politics as usual ideas.

I love America and I love Georgia. We need to make sure that there is a clear difference between the Republican Party and the Democrat Party in Georgia. On a national stage, the national Republican Party in Congress abandoned the principles of Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Ronald Reagan. Georgia has a great conservative Congressional

delegation but they are now the exception in Washington for the Republican Party not the rule. I am concerned that we face that same possibility here in Georgia. I promise to be a conservative first, last, and always.

America and Georgia are a Faith story. The story of a people who arrived – the tired, the poor, the persecuted, the “huddled masses” and through faith in God, faith in a destiny of greatness, America – and Georgia – was born and remains the most free, most blessed country on earth.

However as Milton Friedman said, “Eternal vigilance is required and there have to be people who step up to the plate, who believe in liberty, and who are willing to fight for it.” I am running because I believe in liberty. The problem for Georgia is the taxpayers have paid the price for certain people playing politics as opposed to offering real leadership. Georgians still have no meaningful tax reform, are still stuck in traffic, still have no new major economic development projects, and still trail other states on school test scores.

The Oxendine message to Georgia taxpayers: Let’s join together and transform Georgia.