Highly touted GOP recruit Wayne Mosley won’t have the Republican primary field to himself in next year’s race against Rep. John Barrow (D) in the Peach State’s southeastern 12th district.

Former two-term Thunderbolt City Councilman Carl Smith (R) announced Monday that he’s also throwing his hat into the ring to challenge Barrow. Smith has served as Thunderbolt’s fire chief for 16 years and has been an officeholder in the International Association of Fire Chiefs. On his campaign Web site, Smith listed a slew of local officials, including three state Representatives and state Sen. Jeff Mullis, as part of his campaign advisory committee.

Mosley, an orthopedic surgeon and retired Army lieutenant colonel, was talked up in state and national GOP circles in the 2008 cycle as the best candidate in the 12th district, but he backed away from the race in late 2007. After he jumped into the 2010 race earlier this year, the National Republican Congressional Committee referred to the decorated veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as one of its top recruits of the cycle.

But Mosley’s campaign stumbled a bit in early May when he noted on his Twitter page that the NRCC had rated Georgia as one of the “top three— races of the cycle.

Republican campaign officials said afterward that the committee does not have a public ranking system of recruits and that Mosley was never told of any ranking.

Barrow won a convincing 32-point victory over radio personality John Stone in 2008 in a district that President Barack Obama won by 9 points. Immediately after Election Day, Stone said he planned to run again in 2010, but he has since decided against another campaign.