Roy Barnes
Roy Barnes ( born March 11, 1948 in Mableton, Cobb County, Georgia ) is an American politician and former Governor of Georgia ( 1999-2003).
Youth and political rise
Barnes graduated to 1966 South Cobb High School and then studied at the University of Georgia Law. In 1972 he completed his studies successfully completed with a grade of cum laude. Since 1974 he has been politically active. In that year he was elected to the Democratic Party in the Senate of Georgia. This mandate he held until 1990. In the Senate he was a member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee from time to time. In 1990 he competed for the first time for the governorship of Georgia. In these elections, however, he was defeated by Zell Miller. Then he successfully ran for the House of Representatives of Georgia. There he worked until 1998 in various committees. This year, he ran again for the office of governor. This time he was able to prevail within his party and he managed to beat 44% also, the Republican Guy Millner in the actual elections with 53%.
Governor of Georgia
As Governor, he presented two issues to the fore: the education and health care reform. In education, the average number of students per class was reduced and increased academic standards. In the field of health care, he advocated that patients can choose their doctors freely. Another law made the health insurance for any consequences responsible arising from denials or delays of necessary treatments. So that the governor wanted to achieve better medical care of the population. During his tenure, the state flag was redesigned, which led to protests in the population and later (2003 ) to a further revision of the flag. In 2002, Barnes ran again; but this time he defeated his Republican opponent Sonny Perdue.
After the end of the term
Today, Roy Barnes has been a lawyer in a large law firm in Atlanta again. Since 1970 he is married to Marie Dobbs, with whom he has three children.
In July 2010, Roy Barnes won the Democratic Party primary for the gubernatorial election this year by a wide margin against Thurbert Baker, the Attorney General of Georgia. However, he was defeated in the general election of November 2, 2010 his Republican challenger Nathan Deal with a score of 53% to 43% of the vote.