Both are symbols of the McDonough media advertising salesman's long shot challenge of Gov. Sonny Perdue in the Republican primary July 18.

Keith Hadley/AJC (ENLARGE)

GOP primary candidate Ray McBerry says he supports little of what the Perdue and Bush administrations have done.

He's an anti-abortion Baptist who advocates states' rights and thinks Perdue has failed to live up to his conservative platform.

In fact, McBerry calls the governor what amounts to dirty names in Georgia's GOP primary: "neo-conservative," or, worse yet, a "moderate."

"I want to give people, especially Republicans, a chance to vote for a conservative," said McBerry, 38, who is the Georgia chapter chairman of the League of the South, a Southern nationalist organization. "The main thing we are trying to get across is there is an alternative to Sonny."

You wouldn't know that from the way the Georgia Republican Party has handled McBerry's challenge.

McBerry paid his $3,867 qualifying fee to run as a Republican, which is about a fourth of all the money he has spent on his campaign.

But on the GOP's Web site (www.gagop.org), under "candidate info," Perdue is the only listed candidate for governor. McBerry's name isn't anywhere to be found.

Clelia Davis, a party spokeswoman, said the GOP supports incumbents and lists only them on the Web page when they are being challenged. For instance, Republican School Superintendent Kathy Cox has primary opposition but is the only one listed on the GOP Web site for the post.

"We're not picking on Ray McBerry; it's a policy," Davis said.

The party has also spent about $2.2 million in advertising, mostly supporting Perdue's re-election bid.

Political pundits haven't bothered to poll the race, because they figure there won't be much of one on July 18.

Still, McBerry is traveling the state preaching an old-fashioned, small-government message.

He wants to give voters another chance to vote on the state flag, and one of the choices would be the old one with the prominent Confederate battle emblem.

Flaggers have posted "Sonny lied" signs across rural Georgia because Perdue ran in 2002 promising such a vote. Instead, when the referendum was held in 2004, the old flag wasn't included.

McBerry said his campaign is about more than the flag, and he's talking about:

• Immigration. He opposes any amnesty for illegal immigrants and backs harsher, criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire them.

• Eminent domain. He wants a constitutional amendment that would allow government to take property only for more traditional uses, such as for roads.

• Second amendment. He would oppose any anti-gun laws and "encourage public awareness of the principle that the best guarantee of liberty is a well-armed populace of good citizens."

• Abortion. Wants a law to recognize the "rights of the unborn, beginning from the moment of conception as a life." He thinks America wouldn't need the labor of illegal immigrants if millions of abortions hadn't been performed over the past few decades.

•Ten Commandments. He doesn't believe the federal government, or its courts, have any right to tell communities not to post the Ten Commandments in government buildings. He would work to block any federal action on the issue.

McBerry says Perdue has done little to address problems conservatives care about. And he's not afraid to take on his own party.

"I am a staunch Republican, I am a lifelong Republican, but I do not support much of what the Bush administration is doing and what the Perdue administration is doing," he said. "Sonny has essentially been a 'yes man' for the Bush administration.

"At this point, I don't care who people vote for as long as they know what we stand for."