ATLANTA —
Democrat Roy Barnes has won the backing of one of Georgia’s largest teachers’ groups in the race for governor.
The 43,000-member Georgia Association of Educators on Friday announced it is supporting Barnes in the November general election. He’s facing off against Republican Nathan Deal, a former congressman from Gainesville.
GAE President Calvine Rollins called Barnes, the former governor who’s seeking his old job back, “the best choice to be able to come in and hit the ground running” on problems like class size and education funding.
Teacher anger over Barnes’ aggressive plans to overhaul the state’s school system has been blamed for contributing to his 2002 re-election defeat to Sonny Perdue. The Georgia teachers’ group declined to endorse a candidate in the 2002 race for governor, a move that was widely read as a rebuke to Barnes, who had secured their support in the 1998 general election.
Barnes has been courting teachers aggressively as part of his comeback bid and has apologized to educators.
“It was never my intent — and it is not my intent now — not to treasure teachers and learning,” Barnes says in a video ad posted on his website and shipped to teachers.
In its release Friday, the GAE said Barnes “while still facing some backlash from his previous administration, now has the benefit of hindsight in what is truly needed to help our public schools and its students.”
The Deal campaign on Friday said the endorsement “demonstrates how out of touch the union bosses are with Georgia’s educators.”
“Teachers haven’t forgotten the arrogance and bullying of the Barnes administration, and most will vote for Nathan Deal,” spokesman Brian Robinson said. He noted that in Barnes’ home base of Cobb County, the association of educators have endorsed Deal.
The Barnes campaign had no immediate comment Friday.
The GAE overwhelmingly backs Democratic candidates. Its list of statewide endorsements announced on Friday were all Democrats.
Election
Teachers group backs Democrat Barnes for governor
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