BONAIRE - Blink twice and you could miss this middle Georgia farming community of Bonaire, 100 miles south of Atlanta, where locals joke that the Exxon gas station and attached Taco Bell is the ``Mall of Bonaire'' and where Sonny Perdue's 45-foot-high grain silos are the tallest structures around. <br>
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They take their politics seriously here and many are quick to declare that Perdue -- a balding, burly farmer's son and former football player who became a veterinarian, then a businessman and politician -- may be just months away from becoming the first Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction. <br>
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But if voters outside this community have heard of Perdue at all, they may only remember that he once was a Democrat who gave up the second-highest position in the state Senate when he changed parties four years ago. Or they may remember that Perdue was instrumental in the passage of a bill to deregulate the gas industry in Georgia -- a step many have blamed for monumental billing and service problems, if not for price increases. <br>
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Enter the rat: A big, bruising rodent labeled ``King Roy'' which looms over a cityscape not unlike Atlanta's and wreaks havoc while the narrator of Perdue's campaign video describes it as ``shifty'' and ``crafty.'' The animal represents Democratic Governor Barnes, the man Perdue would like to prevent from winning a second term. <br>
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The video provoked criticism from some when Perdue unveiled it in May, but it also brought new attention to his campaign. <br>
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Perdue says, ``When you're running against someone with 10 or 12 or 20 million dollars, you've got to do some creative things. We knew we had to elevate the level of attention to the campaign so we could talk about the real issues.'' <br>
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With $876,000 in his campaign account on June 30, Perdue was the best-funded of three candidates seeking the GOP nomination in the August 20 primary election but significantly trailed Barnes, who had $9.4 million and is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
