Denied by the GOP, Boyd abandons independent bid for governor

Ray Boyd, the mercurial millionaire who burst on to the Georgia political scene in April, announced Sunday he was giving up his long-shot bid to run for governor as an independent.

Boyd came out of nowhere when he dropped $2 million of his own money into a campaign account and announced he would run for governor as a Republican. But after refusing to sign a GOP loyalty oath, state party leaders refused to allow him on their primary ballot.

Boyd then began the long and arduous process of collecting signatures from nearly 50,000 registered voters to qualify for the November ballot as an independent. On Sunday, Boyd said it proved to be too much of a challenge.

“The ‘fire in the belly’ burns as strongly as ever,” Boyd said in an e-mail to supporters. “I will simply invest my time, energy, and funds in other ways to help insure that our children and their children will continue to have the same opportunity to enjoy the freedoms that were past down to us by our forefathers.”

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia_elections_news/2010/06/27/breaking-denied-by-the-gop-boyd-abandons-independent-bid-for-governor/

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