Barnes ad campaign to keep him on small screen until November

ATLANTA - With the election still six months away, Gov. Roy Barnes launched the first in a planned series of statewide television ads Monday that will make him a fixture on the small screen through the fall. <br> <br> Powered by an $11 million warchest, the campaign will have a ``substantial and sustained&#39;&#39; presence on the air until election day, said Barnes&#39; manager, Tim Phillips. <br> <br> Though Barnes has no announced opposition in his own party, he will face a Republican in the November general election. Three GOP candidates are battling for the right to challenge him. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s going to be Barnes 24-7,&#39;&#39; laughed Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah, the state Senate Republican leader. <br> <br> Phillips said the ads are pre-emptive. <br> <br> ``This governor has been committed to progress, he&#39;s been aggressive, he&#39;s been an activist governor. There are people and groups who have opposed his agenda who are going to try to convey their point of view,&#39;&#39; he said. ``We&#39;ve got to get out there and communicate who Roy Barnes is, the reason he&#39;s done what he&#39;s done, what he intends to do for the future.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The three ads which began airing Monday all take a soft-sell approach to cast Barnes as ``a practical, problem-solving governor rooted in the best traditions of the past, but guiding improvements for the future,&#39;&#39; said Emory University political science professor Merle Black. <br> <br> ``He&#39;s certainly picturing himself as a reformer ... and leaving as little room as possible for Republicans to criticize him,&#39;&#39; said Mel Steeley, a history professor at the State University of West Georgia. <br> <br> All three ads begin with a small-town, family values theme and either doo-wop or bluegrass music, saying Barnes learned about life and business from running a vegetable stand in front of his family&#39;s general store. <br> <br> Two of them focus on the education law he pushed through the Legislature, saying he ``stood up to powerful education bureaucrats&#39;&#39; to demand improvement. <br> <br> Another, geared to south Georgia, cites Barnes&#39; ``One Georgia&#39;&#39; program as helping bring jobs to poorer counties. That ad, which features a mule, begins with an announcer saying: ``His daddy was a farmer, mule trader and ran a general store that sold everything from guns to horse bridles and seeds.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In the other two ads, a shot of Barnes&#39; general store in Mableton shows the signs ``ammo&#39;&#39; and ``hunting&#39;&#39; on the front of the building. <br> <br> Barnes had the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in his 1998 race. <br> <br> ``This is a way to say that he&#39;s home grown, he has values everyone would honor but he&#39;s working to improve the state,&#39;&#39; said Black, the Emory University political scientist. ``He&#39;s mixing these kind of liberal themes with conservative themes. The result is to position himself as a centrist candidate.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Black said he sees Barnes in a strong position for re-election and expressed surprise he started his media campaign so early in the season. <br> <br> But he added that Democrats ``have got a lot riding on this race. The way they&#39;ve redrawn election district lines, they&#39;re looking for huge Democrat gains in every instance ... I think they&#39;re trying to get this huge victory, and Barnes becomes known nationally as the architect of Democratic Party improvement in the state of Georgia.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Johnson said he sees the ads as a sign that Barnes ``is going to try and be a populist again and defend his big-government solutions.&#39;&#39;