By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Ending a whirlwind week, Peachtree City resident Lewis Jordan announced last Wednesday that he would abandon the possibility of running for the U.S. Senate.

Though his flirtation with running for such a major political seat was over quickly, Jordan didn't dismiss running for another office at some other time if he is asked to do so. His main focus after withdrawing from consideration, however, was to spend some time with his family and wife, Peggy.

Jordan also made it clear that he would study another possible run for public office very carefully.

Two weeks ago, Jordan was contacted by several key national Republican leaders who courted him about running for the seat. Last Tuesday, Jordan indicated that he planned to qualify for the seat Wednesday when he returned to Georgia from the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

But Wednesday Jordan announced that he was taking himself out of the running, which allowed former U.S. Senator Mack Mattingly to throw his hat in the ring as the lone Republican candidate for the non-partisan election in November.

Monday afternoon, Jordan told The Citizen that he made his decision based on family concerns and concerns for the better of the party.

“It was a personal and private matter I had to take into account and I made the decision based on what was best for my family,” Jordan said. “This happened very rapidly, but it was a constant process of reevaluating factors.”

There was some concern about Jordan facing Mattingly, also a Republican, in the special election scheduled for November. That might have split the vote, thus helping the current seat holder, former Gov. Zell Miller, to win the seat easily.

When he was contacted about the seat two weeks ago by Republican leaders, Jordan had no idea he might consider running. Until then, his only experience with politics had been in the area of fund-raising as he “helped get people elected who I thought we could be proud of.”

“It's fair to say I have been a business person my entire career and over the course of the years I have become aware of the importance of having good people in office,” Jordan said. “I've had no political aspirations. I've just been going about my business until the phone calls began to come in.”

Those phone calls indicated that Jordan's status in the party has changed somewhat, at least in the eyes of influential Republican leaders.

“With so many people calling, I felt strongly urged to at least consider it,” Jordan said.

Jordan is the founder of ValuJet airlines, now known as AirTran. He is the largest shareholder of the company to this day, and he also owns his own consulting firm.

Jordan and his wife, Peggy, have lived in Peachtree City since 1993.