Oxendine Campaign Video Targets Barnes

A new video will soon be on the internet in the Georgia governor's race. The video paints the campaign as a two-candidate contest with more than a year to go before the election.

The video is to be released Thursday night by the campaign of Republican John Oxendine. The video is a small in-house production that attempts to reach a new audience with an old theme.

A 23-year-old Oxendine campaign animator produced the feature, which depicts former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes as a power-hungry, King-Kong-like rat.

The Oxendine campaign plans to post the video on the internet and hopes it will be seen widely online, which is a key campaign platform 13 months before the election.

The rat image was first used by Governor Sonny Perdue, who upset then-Governor Barnes in the 2002 election.

"It's a question that we want Republicans asking right now, 'who can really beat Roy Barnes?' and of course we believe its John Oxendine," said Oxendine campaign manager Tim Echols.

The Barnes campaign issued a statement saying, "We are all tired of petty politics, campaign gimmicks, and personal attacks. If this is their solution to the serious issues that face Georgia - water, education, transportation, and jobs - we now know where they stand."

Former Governor Barnes has also posted his own YouTube.com video.

Candidates Barnes and Oxendine have led polls for their parties' primaries, but as a crowd of other candidates will tell you, it is still very early in the process.