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Ga. Lawyer to Run for Secretary of State
Apr. 29, 2005 -
A 30 year-old corporate and securities attorney in the Atlanta office of the international law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton, Reddy was galvanized to co-found Red Clay Democrats, a Democratic club of young professionals in Atlanta, after Bush squeaked by Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 elections.
His work for the club and the Democratic ties he forged over the past five years have served as a springboard for the young attorney to help engineer a Democratic resurgence in Georgia.
Reddy told India-West April 22 that he believes he can overcome some formidable hurdles arrayed ahead of him.
The race for secretary of state is for an open seat, because Democratic incumbent Cathy Cox has announced she will run for governor.
However, Reddy will face at least one former state senator in the Democratic primary in July 2006, and there are two seasoned politicians, a current state senator and a former state senator, who have already said they will contest the GOP primary.
Another obstacle is that Georgia has gone Republican in the recent elections – a trend that Reddy feels is ready to be reversed.
“It is time for the next generation of leadership to take over for a more representative government,” he said. According to one political observer, Reddy’s law firm has also backed his rise in Georgia’s political landscape.
Indicating he will hammer away at his being the “most qualified” of any of the announced candidates, Reddy rattled off the areas of his expertise at the law firm – corporate law, securities statutes and licensure issues, to name three areas under the purview of the secretary of state.
He also pointed out that he knows the intricacies of campaign finance law, another key concern for the secretary of state.
The young attorney received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public health from Emory University and his law degree from the University of Georgia.
Married, he plans to emphasize his rural background in a state where rural areas pack voting power.
While his parents, Mohan and Sujatha Reddy, are from an area near Hyderabad, he was born in Carrolton, Ga., and was raised in Dublin, Ga., “a rural town off I-16, where everyone stops for food or gas on their way to Savannah or Atlanta,” he says on his Web site (www.shyamreddy.com).
Reddy said his parents have been “very supportive” of his running for office.
“My parents continually reminded me how precious freedom and democracy were,” he says on his Web site, “and how fortunate we were to live in a nation where people could run for office, start a business, attend university – all without having to be a member of a privileged class.”
“I was raised in a strict environment deeply grounded in strong principles and moral values, where my parents impressed upon me the importance of compassion for others and the need to give back to the communities where we live.”
Reddy told India-West he needs to raise “at least $2 million” to run a statewide campaign and he perforce must look for some of that money outside the state.
He will position himself as a fiscal conservative who will “make things better for business” in the state. “This is a time for technology revolution and we must come up with solutions that are innovative,” he added.
Richard Springer
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