Local & State Headlines

Royal 'bows out' of election

• Rep. Richard Royal of Camilla gives up the state House seat he's held for a quarter century.

Susan McCord

CAMILLA — A week after his 69th birthday, longtime state Rep. Richard Royal, R-Camilla, announced Friday he would not seek another term in the Georgia Houses.

At about the same time, former Camilla Mayor Jay Powell became the only candidate to qualify to run for Royal’s District 171 seat.

“I really struggled with this decision up until the last minute,” said Royal, who joined the House in 1983.

After meeting with Powell for breakfast in Atlanta, Royal said he’d made up his mind.

“I just felt like it was time for me to bow out gracefully,” Royal said.

“In my 25 years of service, I have witnessed far too many competent individuals who sadly do not know when to step down. I prefer not to follow in their steps,” he said in a statement released Friday.

“I have five children and nine grandchildren and I have not spent nearly the time with my wife, children and grandchildren that I should have. As much as I hate to acknowledge it, I am also not getting any younger.”

In early April, Royal said he began meeting with friends in the counties of District 171 — Mitchell and Colquitt — to explain why he did not want to run again and to seek a replacement.

Royal said with the next reapportionment — one that may cost south Georgia several seats in the Legislature — he wanted a suitable candidate to “get their feet wet.”

“I certainly wanted to serve four more years,” he said.

The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee when Democrats controlled the House, Royal switched to the Republican Party two years ago, and became chairman of the House Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee.

He authored several tax bills over the years whose impact is widely felt, such as the special-purpose local-option sales tax for education and, this year, an amendment he authored that reduces taxes on agricultural and forest land.

“I have nine grandchildren and two of them are about grown on me. I needed to spend time with them,” he said.

“It’s a tremendous loss in terms of knowledge,” said Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg. “Chairman Royal could work the appropriations process as well as anyone in the House or Senate.

“He was particularly helpful as a member of the Higher Education Appropriation Committee, and helped with funding projects at Albany Tech, Moultrie Tech and Darton.”

Powell said he gave Royal his answer a week ago.

“I had some reservations about what kind of time it would take from my law practice; my law partner, he’s going to have to take up the slack,” Powell said.

The mayor of Camilla for 12 years, Powell, as president of the Georgia Municipal Association, toured the state last year outlining the GMA’s ideas for tax reform, as well as its opposition to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s GREAT plan that would have replaced all ad valorem taxes with new sales taxes.

“I have not been opposed to tax reform,” Powell said. “I was the mayor of a city that was going to be directly impacted by the changes, and president of (500-member) GMA,” Powell said.

While he’s knowledgeable about tax issues, he said, “Richard Royal is probably the acknowledged expert or one of the two acknowledged experts that understands the tax structure.

“I don’t know that I have a 10th of the knowledge that Richard has.”

With no Republican or Democratic opposition in the July primary, Powell effectively is the winner. Royal’s term ends in January.

“It’s kind of scary,” Powell said. “I’ve got mixed emotions, because all of us are scared of change and this is change.”

Powell was mayor of Camilla until January. He was defeated in November by Camilla City Council member Mary Jo Haywood, who became the city’s first black mayor.

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