MOULTRIE — Thirty years old and ready to be Secretary of State, Shyam Reddy is interviewing with the people of Georgia for their vote in the Democratic primary. He was stumping in Moultrie Friday.

The son of South India immigrants, Reddy and his brother were born and reared Georgian — more Georgian, he said, than any other candidate for Georgia’s Secretary of State. His hometown is Dublin.

His education and experience are almost tailor-made for the position of Secretary of State, he said, and it’s carried him to the lead in the Democratic primary race, raising more than $150,000 in the first few months of his campaign from Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Reddy obtained his undergraduate degree in political science at Emory University and there he also earned a master’s in public health. From there, he entered law school at the University of Georgia and took his law degree to a large Atlanta international law firm, Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP. There, he is the firm’s expert on elections law and campaign finance law in Georgia, he said, and also does some of the firm’s private equity and investment work.

Now, he said, if he loses, “At least I’ve given them a choice.”

It’s partly for this reason that he’s running. His parents raised up from dirt floor beginnings. His mother studied to be a doctor and his father an engineer. They instilled in their American-born sons the importance of working hard and studying hard to contribute to the economic fabric of America — to give back.

“Because we almost didn’t have the good fortune of being born here,” he said.

His parents told him, he said, to everyday act as if he had to earn his citizenship. If you think about it that way, he said, you will always be giving back.

America is all about opportunity, about entrepreneurship, he said. Here, anyone can succeed, he said.

“All you have to do is work for it. The Secretary of State is the chief business officer, the chief elections officer, so as Secretary of State, I can actually have an impact on the things I care so deeply about — creating opportunities for people, preserving and promoting our right to vote as chief elections officer, and also promoting entrepreneurship or fostering an environment that will cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us,” he said.

“Basically, I look back over the past three election cycles, and currently look at the state of affairs, and feel like it’s time we had a whole new brand of leader at the forefront. In my case, a new brand of Southern Democrat, someone who’s fiscally conservative and yet socially responsible, someone who’s got the right experience for the job and not just political experience. Someone’s who’s eminently qualified for the job so that people can be faced with what they should be faced with — a person who is interviewing before them, someone who is asking them to hire them,” he said.

This new brand of Southern Democrat would be someone who believes in the office he is running for and not just running for an office to build a political career, he said. He wants to use the office to inspire and empower people through the right to vote.

“We’re over in Iraq giving people the right to vote, and over here, I feel like we’ve done so many things to take it away — and with the swipe of a pen. It’s just not right. … You can continue to push election reform forward and continue to protect the sanctity of the ballot without disenfranchising people. There are ways to do it. I can go through a whole litany of them,” he said.

“Let’s not pay attention to party affiliation. Let’s just look at the candidate and say, you know, the Secretary of State as the chief business officer should have the right experience to make Georgia the best state to start a business and grow a business. A chief investment officer should have the right experience to protect me from investment fraud but at the same time encourage more investment in Georgia private companies. Also, this person being the chief elections officer should have the right experience to be able to increase voter turnout while at the same time protect the integrity of the ballot, to make sure our elections are run fairly and smoothly, to make sure everyone’s vote is counted. In order to do that, it is important we have the right person there, with the right experience and the right vision and passion to get it done,” he said.

His master’s in public health and his legal and business experience, he said, will aid him in overseeing Georgia’s licensed professionals and balance good business with public safety.

“Even though I’m 30, I feel like I am the most qualified person for the job. In fact, in traveling the state and being in debates, I’ve definitely got the knowledge and the experience, practical as well as educational, business and legal experience to do the job and really move the state forward,” he said.

State and national media have Reddy on the radar. He made Georgia Trend Magazine’s 2005 Top 40 Under 40, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Top 40 Under 40, National Law Journal’s America’s 2005 Movers and Shakers and Atlanta Magazine’s Georgia’s Rising Stars. He is also a founder and board member of the Red Clay Democrats, a political group with more than 1,000 members.



On the Net

www.shyamreddy.com