The Fayette County Republican Party held its first breakfast meeting of the year and heard two candidates who are running for the chairmanship of the county party.

"I want to make the Fayette County chapter the shining light of the Republican Party in Georgia," said Lane Watts, one of the candidates. "And we must have a definite program. We must be for something and not against something. The enemy should not ourselves, the enemy is the Democrats."

Watts is a longtime Republican activist, beginning in his teen years when he founded and served as the first chair of the Fayette County Teenage Republicans. He served as the state chairman of the Teenage Republicans from 1988 through 1991.

He also founded and served as the first chair of the Fayette County Young Republicans, and is a member of the State Board of Directors for the Georgia Federation of this group.

During the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, he served as a delegate at Large.

Also running is Eric Dial, who graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in political science.

"I share your vision for a strong, responsible Republican Party in Fayette County," Dial said. "However, I recognize that politics sometimes gets in the way of responsible leadership and sometimes when this is not found, good people turn away. We must agree that we have more in common than not, and we must reinvigorate this party and this county with hard work and commitment."

Dial was a state field director for Paul Heard of Peachtree City when Heard ran for governor and has worked in Washington, D.C., as a staff member for Rep. Mac Collins.

He currently works as the Director of Development with the Southeast Legal Foundation.