Along with earthly aromas like freshly mown hay and rain on a hot day, less pleasant odors occasionally waft your way on a farm.

Chicken and pig manure, for example -- but whether they foul the air or effuse the perfume of prosperity depends on your perspective.

"It's like my grandfather used to tell me when we would stand outside and the wind would change direction and we'd smell the chicken house or the hog pen," said Ken DeLoach, who with Rick Allen and John House is vying for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop for Georgia's 2nd Congressional District. "I'd say, 'Whoa, that's a strong smell,' and he'd say, 'Yeah, it smells like money.'"

DeLoach draws a lesson from that: "You've got to realize that just because it doesn't smell good, if it's working and it's the right thing to do for the country, that's what we need to do. Sometimes you have to cut things that look good on paper, but they don't work in the real world."

Take the U.S. Department of Education, for example: It could be cut, because education needs to be a local function, DeLoach said: "We've got to get the federal government out of the classroom, so the teachers can actually do their job."

The Environmental Protection Agency similarly performs functions best left to the states, he said.

But the top priority of his campaign is bringing in jobs, he said, and in Georgia, agriculture still plays a leading role in the economy:

"We need somebody who's in agriculture, who's been raised on a family farm, who understands family farming, and understands their needs. I'm the only candidate in this race that does."

He's also the only one who's not a Columbus resident, and the only one who doesn't live in the 2nd District.

"I live 800 yards outside of the district," the Warner Robins resident said, but congressional races carry no residency requirement.

Both his opponents in the July 31 Republican Primary live in Columbus, and both cite similar priorities.

"One big issue with me in the district is of course getting jobs back," said Allen, who likes former presidential candidate Herman Cain's proposal of a 9 percent corporate tax rate. "A 9 percent corporate rate would help businesses tremendously, where money would flow back into America. … I think getting rid of the minimum wage would be a help to a lot of people that could become employed."

He also wants to "get the federal government out of the schools," he said, using vouchers and school choice to add more competition to public education.

"A lot of the poor residents of southwest Georgia are put into the worst possible schools with no way of getting out," he said.

Also the country has got to address entitlement programs, he said: "Entitlements are just going to eat us alive. We have to reform the whole entitlements structure of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security."

He suggests substituting private savings accounts for medical and retirement benefits.

And he wants to cut federal spending overall, "to address the unlimited spending or the lack of controls on spending in Washington, the out of control national debt, the deficit, and to fight for a balanced budget amendment," he said.

Asked his top priority, House said: "What I want to do is bring jobs to the 2nd District to improve the quality of life of people in the 2nd District. To me that's the biggest problem, is jobs.

"The other things I'm concerned about are the deficit, the debt, and reforming health care in a way that we can afford. I don't like the president's health care bill, but there are certainly things that need to be done."

Health care is best reformed piece by piece, not in one massive overhaul few understand, he said.

The corporate tax rate needs to be cut, but that hasn't been the top complaint he's heard from business people, he said: "The No. 1 complaint that I've heard, more so than the corporate tax rate, the complaint that I've heard is federal regulation. … And most of the time, the complaints that I have heard have been about the EPA."

All regulations that restrain economic growth bear re-evaluation, he said: "We have to do something to reduce the regulation that is strangling businesses of all kinds, from what everybody tells me."

Cuts in defense spending worry him, partly because they so negatively could affect Fort Benning and a Marine Corps logistics operation in Albany, and also because they could leave the country unprepared for war, he said.

When the regular Army can't deploy enough force, reserves must take up the slack, he noted: "We'll run the reserves and the National Guard into the ground."