Roy Barnes

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Roy Barnes

80^th Governor of Georgia
In office January 11, 1999 – January 13, 2003
Lieutenant(s)	Mark Taylor
Preceded by	Zell Miller
Succeeded by	Sonny Perdue

Born	March 11 1948 (age 59) Mableton, Georgia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Marie Dobbs Barnes
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Methodist
"Roy Barnes" in the New Georgia Encyclopedia

Roy Eugene Barnes (born March 11, 1948) was the governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from January 1999 until January 2003. He is a member of the United States Democratic Party.

Barnes was born in Mableton, now a suburb just west of Atlanta. He first became successful in politics in 1974, when he was elected to the Georgia state Senate. He served there from 1975 until 1990, when he ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Georgia. He was defeated by Zell Miller, who later won the election and became an ally of Barnes. Barnes returned to politics in 1992, serving in the Georgia state House of Representatives until 1998, when he ran for governor again, this time winning the Democratic primary. Barnes defeated then-Secretary of State Lewis Massey to win the Democratic Primary. He defeated Republican businessman Guy Millner 53%-44% in the General Election. 1998 was a good year for Democrats in Georgia. The Democrats retained control of both houses of the legislature and retained all but two state level offices (Republican were elected Insurance Commissioner and School Superintendent). Pushing education reform, Barnes focused on a smaller teacher-pupil ratio and more accountability by raising academic standards. He also supported legislation that guaranteed patients the right to choose their physicians and helped pass legislation that allowed insurance companies to be held liable for denying or delaying health care for individuals. Barnes successfully pushed for tax cuts on family farms and established a sales tax holiday for Georgia.

[edit] Governor of Georgia

Georgia state flag from 1956 to 2001

His tenure as governor was also marked by controversy over education reform and the redesign of the state flag, which, since 1956, had featured the Confederate battle emblem. Barnes made the decision to push for, and succeeded in, removing the Confederate Emblem from its prominence on the flag. Barnes used a more centralized approach to education and eliminated tenure for newly hired teachers. He also pushed through a controversial initiative to end social promotion by requiring students to pass a test before advancing to the next grade. Many educators strongly disagreed with Barnes's criticisms of teaching methods and the education system as a whole. He further pushed the building of the Northern Arc, an outer perimeter north of Atlanta that met with opposition from the locals. During most of his tenure, his former law partner, State Senator Charles B. Tanksley, who was a member of the United States Republican Party, served as his floor manager in the Georgia Senate.

Facing re-election in 2002, he lost in an upset in November 2002 due to his stands on those issues, as well as part of a larger GOP Midterm sweep. Particularly important was the impact the Flag decision had had on rural south Georgia counties, where his vote percentages shrank by 20% in places. Following his defeat, he decided to lend his talents to a legal aid group and offer his talents in the field of private consulting and certain legal defense. For his stance on the Flag Issue and the price it ultimately cost him, Roy E. Barnes was awarded the 2003 Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Barnes founded the Barnes Law Group with his daughter soon after leaving the Governor's Mansion, where he works with his family and many of today's citizens.

[edit] Involvement with Northern Arc and Beltline

Owners of large tracts of land near the proposed Northern Arc's major interchanges were found to have donated more than $120,000 to Gov. Roy Barnes' November re-election campaign. Many of those contributors are developers whose land, much of it vacant, would stand to increase in value if the Northern Arc is built. Some have contributed the maximum amount of $10,000 allowed by any individual campaign donor to one candidate.

Landowners near the key interchanges of the proposed Arc, included Wayne Mason in Gwinnett County, William G. "Billy" Hasty Jr. in Cherokee County and John Wieland in Forsyth County, among others, have given thousands of dollars to Barnes. Among the landowners who contributed to Barnes is Mason, a Gwinnett developer who owned more than 150 acres of land near the proposed Northern Arc's Interstate 985 interchange, according to county records. Mason, a member of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce executive committee, donated $10,000 to Barnes individually. State records list Mason as a director of Lone Pine Inc., which donated $5,000. In addition, Mason's son, attorney and former Barnes adviser Keith Mason, donated $5,000. And Wayne Mason's wife, Annette Mason, donated $10,000.

Organized opposition to the Northern Arc connecting I-75 to I-85 north of Atlanta resulted in suburban voters to overwhelmingly vote against Arc supporter Barnes, contributing measurably to his 2002 defeat. The Northern Arc proposal died quietly soon after the election.

In 2005 the AJC identified 25 companies that appear to have violated campaign disclosure requirements among those was Wayne Mason's development company, Lone Pine Inc., which gave $11,500 to local campaigns, statewide candidates and political action committees in 2004. "You can't give a ticket to somebody going 65 miles an hour if there's no sign," said Wayne Mason.

John Williams, founder and former CEO of Post Properties Inc. and king of Atlanta’s apartment business, in December 2005 began to assemble $100 million into a real estate “opportunity fund” to leverage into $1 billion worth of developments. Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and three others were appointed to the investment committee.

The fund has about 90 investors, including prominent developers Ray Weeks, Wayne Mason, Charlie Ackerman and Brad Smith. At least one project in Atlanta is already in the works, although Williams refused to disclose details. He said the project will be a first for the city and have a high profile.

Wayne Mason in 2006 proposed building a pair of 38- and 39-story towers overlooking Piedmont Park which required rezoning the property. Mason in exchange for the rezoning proposed to give the City of Atlanta 43 acres for transit and greenspace for the Beltline Project.

Negotiations over rezoning disintegrated between the City of Atlanta and the mega-developer who owns nearly a quarter of the Beltline, a proposed 22-mile loop of transit and greenspace circling intown Atlanta

Former Gov. Roy Barnes, who was retained as an attorney by Wayne Mason, says that if the city attempts to take the Masons' land by eminent domain, "I'll acknowledge service and we can go strike a jury. I still remember how to strike a jury."

“They think Piedmont Park should be their private park," Mason says of his foes. "This decision is not so much about specifics, but about whether Atlanta becomes a major city or whether we continue to be polarized," says Roy Barnes, the ex-governor and one of Mason's phalanx of attorneys.