State Rep. DuBose Porter made no mention of his candidacy for governor when he spoke to the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday at Coosa Country Club.

“You know what I’m fixing to do, but I’m not going to talk about it now. We can talk about it after, if you want,” he said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.

But the Democrat from Dublin laid out a campaign platform as he discussed failures of the latest Georgia General Assembly session — and repeated a mantra voters can expect to hear frequently in the run-up to the 2010 election.

“Do we have the political will to say that’s the priority for our state?” he asked about fixes he proposes for education and transportation.

“We grow our economy in the long term through our education system, and in the short term through our transportation system,” he added.

Porter said prioritizing is the key to efficiency in both government and business, especially when finances are strained.

“When you do across-the-board cuts instead of prioritizing, you basically shift the responsibility to someone else,” he said.

He wants to see the penny of state motor fuel tax that is funneled to the general fund returned to the Georgia Department of Transportation budget, he said.

And he decried the more than $2 billion in state education money that’s been cut during the past seven years.

“That was picked up by the property taxes in your community,” he said.

Porter, co-owner and editor of the Courier Herald in Dublin, has served in the legislature since his election in 1982, and he also is the House minority leader.

Other Democratic candidates for the governorship include David Poythress, former adjutant general of the Georgia Army and Air National Guard, and Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

Declared Republican candidates include U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal; state Sen. Eric Johnson; Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine; Secretary of State Karen Handel; and state Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton.