What inspired Better Georgia?

Kenny B. with Macon’s Fox 24 wanted to know how Better Georgia started. Executive Director Bryan Long speaks about the origins of the group in this 1:31 video clip. A partial transcript is below the video.

Transcript:

KENNY B: Tell me this. You left a PR firm — Jackson Spalding — in Atlanta. Very successful there. What inspired you to do this? Were there people coming to you saying ‘Hey, Bryan, have you ever thought about this?’ or is this something you came up with own your own?

BRYAN: It’s a little bit of both. I’ve been interested in politics for a long time. I’ve been to a couple of Democratic conventions and went to the Republican convention in ’08. And I really enjoyed that. I realized that as a business person in Atlanta I could be more involved in the political scene than I was when I was a reporter. I was a journalist for a very long time.

KENNY B: It’s interesting. Your background is not political science, it’s journalism.

BRYAN: Absolutely. I worked for the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), I worked for CNN. I realized after going to the conventions and working in the business community in Atlanta (that) what I was hearing from a lot of executives and CEOs is that it’s getting tougher and tougher to do business in Georgia. It’s getting tougher to raise money and function as a growing business in Georgia. And that’s because we’re having a tough time with our transportation system, having a tough time with water and having a really tough time with education.

As I was watching our lawmakers go to the Gold Dome every year and getting nothing done on those issues while spending a lot of time on these fringe issues that mean nothing to most people in Georgia, I just got frustrated with it — got fed up — and decided that I needed to do something. I can’t just sit there and not do anything.

More video:

• Better Georgia featured on Fox 24′s Live at Five
• Is Better Georgia a break from the Democratic Party?
• Is ‘progressive’ simply a code word for ‘liberal’?
• What’s wrong with political candidates in Georgia?
• Does Newt Gingrich have it right on immigration?
• Will Better Georgia endorse candidates?
• What should Georgia Republicans, Democrats do differently?
• Is there hope for Georgia’s education system?