MOULTRIE — Georgia’s former Senate president pro tempore came through Moultrie Thursday as part of his campaign for the state’s top governmental job.

Eric Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor, is originally an architect from Savannah. He was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1998 and served as minority leader of the Senate until he was chosen as president pro tem when Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Republican Party took over the majority in 2002. He resigned from the position recently to focus on his campaign for governor.

Johnson said he entered the governor’s race to ensure Georgia continues to work to come out of the current recession. If elected governor, he will work to ensure Georgians do not have to face higher taxes while focusing on the state’s priorities.

“I didn’t want to see people come into the office and tax and spend their way out of the recession,” Johnson said. “We have got to continue to manage the budget without tax increases and to focus on our priorities.”

Georgia’s main priorities need to be public safety, education and transportation, Johnson said. The state needs to focus on roads and water in the short term and continue to ensure education for the long term.

In addition to those priorities, Johnson said he wants to ensure Georgians keep the jobs they have and to create more jobs in the state. He wants to see Georgia’s largest industry, agribusiness, continue to flourish and ensure water is plentiful and accessible to those in agribusiness.

Johnson said he knows he does not have the name recognition as some other candidates for the governor’s office, but he said that won’t matter when the campaign heats up. He is well known through the Republican party and among business leaders, he said, and he expects to be the top fundraiser and to have built a strong grassroots organization in the state.

If elected to the governor’s office, Johnson said he wants to make sure private sector businesses grow and flourish in Georgia. Being from South Georgia, he wants to ensure the whole state, and not just Atlanta, gets served by the Legislature.

“The whole state needs to worry about Atlanta,” Johnson said, “but Atlanta needs to worry about Moultrie.”