State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican who said last May he'd seek the state's No. 2 job, announced Friday that he'll run for his current post instead.

In a letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue, Oxendine said he'd rather remain insurance and fire commissioner because the lieutenant governor's job has become "ineffectual."

But the commissioner also may have been sizing up his chances. Two other Republicans state Sen. Casey Cagle and well-known activist Ralph Reed have since joined the race.

Oxendine insisted he wasn't afraid of losing he'd raised more than $500,000 already, he said but said he simply decided he didn't want to be lieutenant governor.

"I feel very good about being elected, but I didn't feel good about being able to do a lot of good for Georgia," he said later. "I wouldn't be able to make a difference." The current lieutenant governor, Democrat Mark Taylor, is leaving the post next year to seek the governor's office. Taylor presides over the Senate, but since Republicans took control of that chamber in 2003, they have stripped much of his power.

The only Democrat who has announced plans to run for lieutenant governor is former state Sen. Greg Hecht, who left the Senate for an unsuccessful 2002 bid for Congress.

Oxendine said Friday he wasn't ruling out future plans for higher office.

"It's no secret. People have asked me if I'd like to be governor, and I said, 'Of course I'd be interested,'" he said. "I think there's no one outside the current governor who is more qualified."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)