Touting his experience as a prosecutor, Hodges told the Rotary club Tuesday that he is the only person currently running for the office with any experience prosecuting crimes.

"Quite candidly, you need someone who's done it before," Hodges told the crowd, speaking of his prosecutorial experience. "Through my service here in Albany I have stood before juries hundreds of times, I have supervised thousands, I have been before the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court. Not a single opponent of mine can say that to you."

"No one has the record I have litigating on behalf of victims and on behalf of consumers," he said.

Hodges is facing stiff competition from Sam Olens, the former head of the Cobb County Commission in Marietta, and State Representative Rob Teilhet, a Democrat from Smyrna, and former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Maxwell Wood.

In addition to his experience, Hodges also offered a glimpse into his take on a few statewide issues like the tri-state water war.

"I'll tell you one thing, as somebody from Albany, sticking a straw in the Flint River Basin ain't my way of solving Atlanta's drinking problem," he said. "It's a problem that needs to be solved, and solved now."

With the election now less than a year away, Hodges acknowledged that even in Dougherty County, the place he considers the hub of political base, he needs help to get his message to the rest of the state.

"Albany has almost 35,000 registered voters and I need you to help me get them all out next year," he said. "Like Mark Taylor when he ran for office years ago, he walked into that race with almost 12,000 votes during early voting all from Dougherty County and the race was decided by 24,000 votes so half of that was made up here in Dougherty County."