New Orleans businessman John Georges is now — again — a Republican.

That has state GOP leaders talking and speculating, with many of them pleased to welcome the former candidate and his resources into the fold.

“I switched a couple of months ago,” Georges said in an interview recently. “It was for personal reasons, not political or business.”

He was actually a Republican for 29 years before his interest in public service prompted a run for governor as a non-affiliated candidate and a more recent bid for New Orleans mayor as a Democrat.

Georges, who orchestrated the landmark purchase of The Advocate newspaper, also expanded his publishing footprint earlier this year.

That’s when his company, Georges Media, acquired The St. Tammany Farmer, one of the state’s oldest newspapers.