SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Bradley Byrne drew a line in the dirt Wednesday, challenging residents interested in moving Alabama forward to follow him to “the right side” and elect a conservative, reform, Republican governor to succeed Gov. Bob Riley in 2010.

The Republican gubernatorial hopeful declared his candidacy for the state’s highest office before a standing-room-only crowd at the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center’s Tensaw Theater in Spanish Fort before departing to repeat the announcement in Montgomery, Birmingham and Huntsville.

“When it comes to ethics reform, educational improvement and economic development I will not back down. We need a conservative, reform, Republican governor, and I want to be that governor,” Byrne said, reiterating the “Three Es” of his campaign platform.

Byrne, who resigned only days ago his post as chancellor of the state’s two-year college system to pursue his campaign full time, said ethics reform will be central to his platform because it threatens the very fabric of the state’s political system and hampers progress on all fronts.

“You can’t do what I did for the past two years cleaning up the two-year college system and not recognize the need for ethics reform in this state,” he said, adding the experience proved that if people are “willing to stand up and stand strong against special interests in this state” one can, in fact, fix what’s broken.

The metaphorical line Byrne mentioned repeatedly in his stump speech is not one representing partisan, geographical or even racial divides, he said, but the state’s forward progress in the throes of recession.

Education reform and economic development round out the final two of his “Three Es” in the hopes of creating an educated, capable work force and, in turn, more content constituency eager to help the state capitalize on the rebuilding phase of the nation’s severe economic slump.

“It’s about making sure our children have good-paying jobs to stay here with, and that means having a governor who gets up every day and thinks, ‘How can we move our state forward economically,’” he said, adding, “If we wait around for the federal government to solve this problem for us, we’re going to fail.”

Byrne said he supports continuing Riley’s incentive initiatives—signed into law only Tuesday—designed to attract “knowledge-based industries” such as biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, health care and aeronautics.

Of course, ensuring the state can support cutting-edge industries of this caliber means addressing shortcomings in Alabama’s public education system.

Byrne—flanked by his wife and four children, all of whom are products of the state’s public school system—vowed to expand the Alabama Reading Initiative through the middle school level; reform the state’s tenure law he said is “strangling our ability to reform education in this state”; and explore adoption of a charter school system that would give parents more influence when their children become “trapped” in underperforming institutions.

In addition to his post-secondary resume, Byrne, 54, formerly represented Baldwin County in the state Senate and has served on the state Board of Education.

Tim James, son of former two-term Gov. Fob James, is the only Republican who has announced that he is running for the office at this time. State Sen. Roger Bedford, in his sixth term, announced May 18 he will not run, and instead, will seek re-election of his Senate seat.

To date, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham; and Alabama Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks are the only Democrats to declare their candidacy for governor. Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. has announced he is running for re-election in his current position.