By Terry M. Neal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 12, 1998; Page A03

ATLANTA—When the Republicans seeking the party's gubernatorial nomination gathered for a debate a few days ago in Columbus, 100 miles southwest of here, candidate Mike Bowers made clear his displeasure that front-runner Guy Millner was missing from the stage.

After all, if Bowers – once considered a rising star in the party and a hero to social conservatives – could show up, why couldn't Millner? Bowers had resigned as the state's popular attorney general to start his campaign for governor on June 1 last year, only to publicly acknowledge less than one week later that he had carried on a decade-long affair with his secretary. Despite the harsh glare of the media and the backlash of many voters, Bowers has stayed in the race, attended all forums and debates and made himself as accessible as possible.

"These debates are pillow fights," Bowers said in the debate broadcast live on a Columbus television station. "This is the easy part. If you're unwilling to show up for this, I question your ability to govern."

Bower's personal problems and Millner's reluctance to attend public forums with other candidates have been among the more attention-grabbing topics in an election that appears to have many Georgia voters yawning.

Despite a breathtaking siege of television and radio advertising in recent weeks, 35 percent of likely Democratic primary voters and 16 percent of Republicans were undecided, according to a Mason-Dixon poll taken late last month. The sheer number of candidates in the July 21 gubernatorial primary – four on the Republican side and six on the Democratic side – and their similar platforms have made it difficult for voters to differentiate candidates, many political observers here said. And the state's booming economy and falling crime rate seem to have robbed candidates of wedge issues.

"There just aren't a lot of the kinds of burning issues that we've seen in other years," said Michael Binford, a political science professor at Georgia State University. "The issue stances have all been so similar that the people are kind of shrugging their shoulders and saying, 'They're all the same.' "

Virtually all the major candidates have proposed major tax cuts, get-tough-on-crime initiatives and education reforms such as smaller class sizes.

Among the Democrats, trial attorney Roy Barnes, who has raised more money, $4.1 million, than anyone on either side, has defined himself as the candidate of experience, with more than 20 years in the state legislature. Secretary of State Lewis Massey, at 35, has played up his youth as an asset. With Barnes and Massey the front-runners, Steve Langford, a state senator for six years, has defined himself as the candidate with experience, but not too much experience to be considered a career politician – in contrast to Barnes.

The other major Democratic candidate is David Poythress, a former secretary of state and labor commissioner, who has tried to set himself apart by stressing environmental issues and picking a public fight with Georgia Power, which he has accused of being an irresponsible polluter. Two other Democratic candidates, community activist Morris James Sr. and veterinarian Carlton Myers, are considered minor candidates.

Despite the apparent apathy of many Georgia voters, the election looms large on the national landscape because Georgia is the last of the Deep South states not to have had a Republican governor this century. Georgia and Florida alone are among the 10 most populous states that have Democratic governors. A Republican is strongly favored to win the Florida governorship in November, so if Georgia goes Republican as well, Democrats will have surrendered the South.

In addition, the state and metropolitan Atlanta have emerged as a center of commerce and political influence. In the last few years, Georgia overtook North Carolina as the nation's 10th-largest state by adding more than 1 million residents since the 1990 census, demographers say.

The population gain will likely allow the state to add two new congressional districts to its 11-seat delegation after the next census. The new governor will help draw those districts and could also influence control of the state legislature, where Democrats hold a narrowing majority in both chambers.

Republicans see opportunity. Gov. Zell Miller (D) – among the most popular governors in Georgia history – is retiring. Many of the state's new arrivals are registering as Republicans, and rural residents are increasingly voting Republican. Keeping the state in the hands of Democrats could be particularly crucial to Vice President Gore, who will be looking for a governor to help swing the state's electoral votes his way in the 2000 presidential election.

No matter who emerges from the party primaries later this month, most pollsters and political observers expect a close contest in November. At this point, Millner, a businessman worth as much as $160 million, is considered the favorite on the GOP side. But he has faced a barrage of criticism of late from the media and his opponents for refusing to attend dozens of debates and forums.

The criticism peaked two weeks ago when all of the major candidates from both parties – except Millner – participated in a debate sponsored by the Georgia Press Association in Ponte Vedra Beach, a Florida resort town a few miles south of Georgia's border. In Millner's place at the speakers' table was a card with his name on it sitting in front of a fax machine. Last year, Millner announced his attention to run by sending a fax to reporters. And he has sometimes required reporters to fax him questions.

His campaign strategy has drawn snarls of protests from the other candidates, who accuse him of being just another rich guy trying to buy an election with a flood of television and radio ads. Indeed, about half of the $4 million he expects to have available for the primary will come from his own pocket. And his campaign ads have made his face almost ubiquitous on television. But he denies hiding from the voters and the media, noting that he has held news conferences and given many interviews to individual reporters.

This is Millner's third shot at statewide office, having lost close elections to Miller in 1994 and Sen. Max Cleland (D) in 1996. Millner said he traveled 115,000 miles around the state to attend debates, forums and other functions in those two races and doesn't see the need to retrace his steps this time. "I think Georgia's voters know me pretty well because of that," he said during an interview in his suburban Atlanta office.

Bowers, who has accused Millner of trying to buy his way into the governor's mansion, is down by 20 percentage points or so in some polls. But he said he feels confident he can beat Millner if Millner fails to get a majority in the primary and there is a runoff. Pollsters have given the other two Republican candidates, conservative activist Nancy Schaefer and biochemist Bruce Hatfield, little chance to win the primary.

Bowers, who was the state's attorney general for 16 years, gained national attention in the 1980s for defending the state's sodomy law, which had been on the books since the mid-19th century. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law after an Atlanta policeman arrested two men he witnessed engaging in oral sex in a private residence. The arrest outraged gay activists and many others. The challenge worked its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Georgia in 1986.

Bowers's handling of that case and others won him the praise of many social conservatives. But it also made his fall all that much harder when he acknowledged his affair with his former secretary.

"Because he always was seen as, and ran as, Mr. Clean, it has made it doubly hard for him to get over it," said retiree Dave Jankowitz, a Republican who lives near Columbus and a likely Millner supporter.

But Bowers said he does not regret acknowledging the affair and is willing to accept whatever voters have in store for his future. "To me personally, it was the most liberating thing I've ever done," he said in his campaign office, leaning back in his chair. "If I am elected, I'll be the freest person who has ever been elected."