Bobby Banks isn't afraid to show the chip on his shoulder.

In his bid for re-election to the Hall County Board of Commissioners this year, Banks didn't even make it past the primary.

The District 1 commissioner, seeking to represent South Hall for four more years, lost to Craig Lutz, a former city councilman from Flowery Branch, in a runoff for the Republican nomination.

Lutz was elected Nov. 2 and will take Banks' place in January. He already has made public proposals to reverse one of Banks' most publicized decisions and build alliances with the outgoing commissioner's rivals.

"I am - I'm bitter," Banks said.

At the end of December, Banks said he will refocus his energies on the trucking company he said he almost lost while he served on the commission.

Banks said a fleet of 40 trucks for CBT Transport Inc., owned with his wife Connie, has dwindled to four since he took the seat in 2007.

Banks blames the hit to the time he spent dealing with county business, claiming it could "easily" keep him away from the office for four hours a day.

"It's not a two-meeting-a-month job," Banks said. "If you do your job, you can have maybe 15 to 20 meetings a month."

Since joining the board, Banks has made a name for himself as an outspoken commissioner who shows little fear of offending enemies or allies alike.

"I wasn't afraid to stand up and say what I thought," he said. "If it was wrong, it was wrong."

It's a conviction that keeps Banks' wife from watching him debate county business. Even Banks said he has considered it a blessing when a malfunctioning microphone kept all of his comments from being broadcast on the local government cable channel, TV18.

"(My wife) never knows what I'm going to say," Banks said. "And she doesn't want to know what I'm going to say. ... I have said some stupid things."

Banks will admit to slips of the tongue, but he won't claim any regrets for the last four years.

He said he is satisfied with what he has accomplished on the board: A number of paved roads; a solitary vote against the other four members of the commission who approved the reappointment of former County Manager Jim Shuler, who later resigned amid uproar over a lucrative contract; and at least a few months of stability among board members.

"I always did what I thought was best for the county," Banks said. "I've accomplished a lot - at least I thought I did until I ran against Lutz."

This summer, as two Republican challengers, Lutz and Kimbo Senter, mounted campaigns for the seat, Banks found himself in a different campaign environment than in 2006.

"I was the lowest (SOB) that ever lived," Banks said of how he felt he was portrayed. "I mean, I was lower than a whale in the ocean."

During the campaign, Banks for the first time faced anonymous attacks on social media websites and blogs. One Facebook page titled "Dukes of Hall County Georgia," characterized Banks as "Roscoe P. Coltrane" from the popular TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard."

"Do not approach if you are a politician going door to door. May use his one bullet to take you out," reads part of a caption under Banks' picture on the site. The comment referred to Banks' support of a county proposal to require politicians to pay for a license before campaigning door-to-door, a proposal Lutz called an infringement on constitutional freedoms of speech.

The caption also said Banks was missing in action.

"I was portrayed as a crook to some people," Banks said.

Earlier in the campaign, Banks refused to face his two opponents in debates. Banks and Senter, a businessman from Chestnut Mountain, were no-shows at least during two scheduled events for commission candidates. The incumbent said, at the time, that he had nothing to gain from it.

Banks said the debates would be filled with Lutz supporters, a scenario he said could only hurt him.

"I'm not going, because I don't have to," Banks told a reporter before skipping one July debate sponsored by the Hall County Republican Party.

That allowed Lutz to campaign without interruption on ethical issues, reigning in county spending and finding equitable sewer rates for South Hall residents.

It paid off. Though Banks led vote tallies in July's primary, he didn't receive a majority, earning 44 percent to Lutz's 29 percent and 27 percent for Senter. In the August runoff, Lutz took the nomination with 53 percent.

Lutz will be sworn in to the seat in January. He already is promising to help undo some of the decisions of which Banks was a part.

Shortly after the general election, Lutz, Commissioner Ashley Bell and Commissioner-elect Scott Gibbs promised to reverse a recent decision to build a library on the site of a planned park on Nopone Road in North Hall.

The original decision outraged Clermont residents, who said they voted for a special sales tax to fund the library because they believed it would be built in their town. Town officials filed a lawsuit that was not successful.

Banks said he is sure the vote to build the library on Nopone Road snuffed out any chances he had at re-election.

"I made one vote in the 3 1/2 years. I swear that's what cost me the election," Banks said. "Seven or eight people took it personal."

Having the library in Clermont, Banks said, was not best for the county.

His vote to locate the library on Nopone, where there are about three times the households in a five-mile radius than in a five-mile radius surrounding the original Clermont site, was based on a desire to place the library near the most residents, Banks said.

"I don't think I was wrong on the Clermont vote, but evidently, some people think I was wrong on it," he said.

Still sticking to his guns, Banks is becoming a little more cautious about his words in his final days on the commission.

"There's so much I want to say that I've just got to watch what I say," Banks said. "Because it might come back to bite me in the butt in two years."

Banks' sudden caution suggests he might not remain missing in action, and may not be ready to give up the political ghost.

"Some people would like for me to be done with politics," he said. "I won't say I'll be back, but you never know what happens."