Garrett Michael Hayes

Garrett Michael Hayes (born 1956) is a U.S. politician from Georgia. He was the Libertarian Party's candidate for governor in both 2002 and 2006.

He was born in California, was raised in Maine, and moved back to California in 1969, where he later attended Beverly Hills High School and California State College at Bakersfield. He moved to Georgia in 1991, and currently serves as the secretary of the Cobb County Libertarian Party.

After serving in a number of roles with the both County and State Libertarian organization in Georgia, Hayes sought and won the party nomination for Governor of Georgia in 2002, and again in 2006.

In his second run at office, Hayes set several benchmarks for third party politics in the state, beginning with being the first Libertarian to run twice for Governor. [ [http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/default.htm Georgia Secretary of State] ]

Hayes’s campaign was the first LP Gubernatorial campaign to produce and run television advertisement in Georgia. [ [http://www.peachpundit.com/2006/10/21/garrett-hayes-has-up-his-first-ad/ Peach Pundit] ]

Hayes also garnered the highest polling numbers to date for an LP Gubernatorial candidate in the state (as high as 9% in some polls) [ [http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2006/09/12/wsjzogby_puts_perdue_under_50.html Atlanta Journal and Constitution] ] ,leading to significant press speculation that Hayes might force an unprecedented runoff [ [http://crazyforliberty.com/2006/10/26/garrett-hayes-in-creative-loafing.aspx Crazy For Liberty] ] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/10/31/cq_1754.html?pagewanted=print New York Times] ] [cite web
url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJToImYipfI
publisher = WSB-TV
title = WSB report on "X factor"
date = 2006-09-27
accessdate = 2008-09-24] between incumbent Republican Sonny Perdue and Democratic rival Lt. Governor Mark Taylor.

Though a runoff did not in fact result, Hayes still gathered both the highest number and the highest percentage of votes [ [http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/default.htm Georgia Secretary of State] ] for a Libertarian Gubernatorial candidate in Georgia.

Hayes currently co-hosts a weekly Libertarian-themed political radio talk show [ [http://www.gmhforliberty.com Crazy For Liberty] ] on radio station WHIE in Griffin, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

References

External links

* [http://www.lpgeorgia.com/candidates/hayes.html Profile at lpgeorgia.com]