After a year-long battle with lung cancer, former Rep. Ronald “Bo” Ginn (D-Ga.) died Jan. 6 in an Augusta, Ga., hospital. He was 70.

According to reports, the former five-term Peach State Congressman, who made an unsuccessful run for governor in 1982, had been in the hospital since Dec. 27 suffering from pneumonia in both lungs.

A one-time aide for former Georgia Rep. Elliott Hagen (D) and former Sen. Herman Talmadge (D), also from Georgia, Ginn won his seat in Congress by challenging Hagen in 1972.

During his decade representing Georgia’s 1st district, Ginn worked on the Public Works Committee and Appropriations Committee and championed the rebuilding and expansion of several military and law enforcement facilities in his home state.

Ginn stepped down from Congress in 1982 to seek the Democratic nomination for governor but lost in a runoff to Joe Frank Harris, who went on to win the governorship.

After his unsuccessful run, Ginn returned to Washington and started a government relations firm in Alexandria, Va. In 1996 he was convicted of bank fraud before filing for bankruptcy and served a short prison sentence. In recent years he had been living in Georgia.

Funeral services for Ginn were held this past weekend at Millen Baptist Church in Ginn’s hometown of Millen, Ga.

— John McArdle