Gubernatorial candidate Bill Johnson filed official qualifying papers at the Alabama GOP headquarters in Birmingham last week.

With Johnson’s qualifying, he says that the voters of Alabama now have a choice to elect a governor with the broadest range of international experience and work in state and local government than any other candidate in the race.

On the issue of electronic bingo he said, “To me it’s been incredible that it’s become the issue that it has.” Johnson is the only candidate that says a vote of the people should be the way to decide if it is allowed in this state. If approved by a vote, he would tax and regulate it in order to close some of the budget shortfalls in the state. That is the only tax he said he would support.

The economy is key on the Prattville resident’s agenda. As former assistant director and director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), Johnson managed the state’s grant-making and managing agency, handling some quarter billion dollars in grants to grow and strengthen communities in all 67 counties. He said that cities and counties need to take a hard look at the strings attached to federal stimulus money.

To grow the state’s economy he said that he would first help small business. “One thing that St. Clair County does well is work together of a team to get projects to the table,” he said. Thinking regionally is something he would promote as governor in order to get large businesses in the state.

“We have to keep Alabama a business friendly state with a low-tax, business friendly environment,” Johnson. He speaks fluent Spanish and said that gives him an advantage over other candidates since he could talk directly to many potential global company leaders.

The son of a career Army soldier volunteered as a medic while in college to fight the anti-communist movement in Afghanistan and later served as a medic with the anti-communist freedom fighter in Honduras.

He said that industry wanting to locate here look at school systems, the healthcare infrastructure and recreation. “A lot of times in rural areas they don’t have those things, but if an area presents things in a regional way then they can show in a large way the things industries are looking for.”

On the educational front, he said that he would be more for families sending their children to private, Christian academies, rather than charter schools, as Governor Bob Riley has proposed in recent months.

He said that having a 35 percent dropout rate can be changed by identifying alternatives for students like career tech training like the Icademy here in St. Clair County. “That could get them educated and get them at the time they finish school to make a wage where they can support a family, even if they don’t go to college,” Johnson said. “I really think this is something that will have to come from the governor sending the message down… At some levels we have a stigma these days of keeping kids on track to get to college. But we need to realize that not all of them are going to go to college and we need to accommodate that.”

He said that instead of dictating a route for students’ future, that he would make it a priority to let students know where well-paying jobs are in order to have them choose their own route in their lives.

For farmers, who have been facing raising hay and corn prices in the past two years, he said that education is the key for them, too. Johnson, who holds a chemistry degree, said that irrigation techniques could help lower the costs of feed for area farmer. “We leave a billion dollars a year on the table because we don’t use all the water resources that are available,” he said.

As former Birmingham City Councilman, Johnson worked on the front lines of local government in one of the most diverse districts of our state. He was iatrical in getting the city council members together to get Barber Motorsports Park built.

Johnson said one of his top concerns for the state is growing the exports of the existing industries here and work with international companies already in the state.

He said that he will partner with faith-based and community groups instead of growing governmental services and get those groups better equipped to serve after disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake.

Johnson, who developed the Community Partnership for Recovery and Re-entry, said he would continue to help people who have incarcerated and need to find a way to get their lives back.

He and his wife, Kathy, are currently traveling the state together to promote his faith-based, conservative platform.