George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III (born December 20, 1946) is the current governor of the U.S. state of Georgia. Upon his inauguration in January 2003, he became the first Republican governor of Georgia since the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s.

Perdue was born in Perry, Georgia and grew up in Houston County, Georgia, near Bonaire.

He was elected in November 2002, defeating incumbent Democrat Roy Barnes in what was widely regarded as an upset. The campaign focused largely on perceived abuses of power by Barnes, and the poor test scores in Georgia schools.

Perdue's focus in office has been on reforming state government, improving education, and growing the state's economy. Perdue has pushed hard for comprehensive ethics reform legislation, and has instituted a series of reforms designed to cut waste in government.

In education, Perdue has focused on returning decision-making to the local level. Since Perdue took office, Georgia has moved out of last place in SAT scores.

During his campaign, Perdue denounced Governor Barnes and Democratic party state legislators for changing the Georgia state flag by removing its "Stars and Bars" or "St. Andrews Cross" Confederate Battle Flag emblem. Georgia added the emblem to its state flag in 1956 in what has been widely interpreted as a rejection of the Civil Rights Movement. Georgia Governors are powerful state executives and Barnes had successfully pressed the state legislature to adopt a seemingly innocuous flag featuring the state seal on a blue field with a bottom row of small previous state and national flags, but this change proved unpopular and contributed to his defeat by Perdue.

Having won office on the implicit promise that he would resurrect the 1956 state flag—a promise that appealed to some white Georgians but was interpreted by some of his opponents as having overtones of racism—Perdue instead endorsed another version of the state flag which was similar to the pre-1956 flag and bore little resemblance to the controversial 1956 flag. Georgia voters approved that flag by a wide margin in a low-turnout 2004 referendum election scheduled outside the normal election cycle on a ballot that allowed them to choose between the new Perdue flag and the Barnes flag. The 1956 flag was not an option on the ballot. Unsurprisingly, many who had been mobilized via the flag controversy felt betrayed and a militant core continue to picket each public appearance of Perdue with the message that "Sonny Lied".

External links

• Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue
• Perdue Watch
• Sonny Perdue and the Republican Agenda
• Project Vote Smart - Political Profile