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Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Taylor preaches, asks for prayers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Wednesday night, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor was where any good churchgoer should be – in Bible study.
Taylor, in his bid to become Georgia’s next governor, visited Ebenezer Baptist Church and Friendship Baptist Church, where he “preached” about healthcare, education and increasing programs for senior citizens and children.
He also sought prayer.
“I ask for your prayers,” Taylor told the group gathered at Friendship Baptist in South Fulton. “I ask for your traveling grace for me and all of the candidates as we criss cross Georgia on trains and planes. As we greet voters and ask for your support.”
As Taylor and Perdue enters the final days of the long gubernatorial campaign, group meetings become more important. Perhaps none more so that Georgia’s faith-based community.
LaSalle Smith, Taylor’s faith based coordinator, said that without a doubt, the church will play a huge roll in the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
“He is able to reach the masses of the people in the church,” Smith said of Taylor. “And pastors play a tremendous role in getting their members out to vote.”
Taylor, a member of Porterfield United Methodist Church in Albany, said he grew up in the Baptist Church, and had grown accustomed to “Wednesday supper and prayer meetings,” when he was growing up.
“He is a great man of God. He loves the church and the Lord and he wanted to make sure he could attend some Bible studies,” said Smith, adding that Taylor has visited some 200 pulpits during the campaign, average about three per Sunday.
Smith, the pastor of Bountiful Blessings Christian Ministries in Decatur, said there are tentative plans to meet at five churches this Sunday.
Friendship’s pastor Donald Earl Bryant Sr., said he has already voted for Taylor in early balloting and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. Many of them didn’t need much convincing.
“I was really happy to hear him talk about education,” said Annette Eubanks, who has a daughter who teaches. “He is going to work for the schools. I believe he is going to back us.”
As Taylor spoke, sporadic calls of “preach” and “speak on it,” were shouted.
When he finished speaking and taking questions, he received a standing ovation. Than he spent another 30 minutes shaking hands and talking.
“Mark Taylor is a friends of the community and we need to support him,” Bryant told the church. “We need to support the persons working for the good of Atlanta.”
Bryant said that had Taylor visited on Sunday, he would not have been allowed to talk, according to church policy.
“But tonight was not a worship service,” Bryant said.
Taylor is scheduled to campaign in Athens on Thursday.
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Wife stars in Perdue trek
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mary Perdue’s star turn through her husband’s re-election bid continued Wednesday as Georgia’s governor raced across South Georgia.
The bus tour that will eventually take Sonny Perdue to nearly four dozen small and mid-size communities went through Bainbridge, Thomasville and Fitzgerald.
Perdue repeatedly put his wife out front, praising her as a great wife, mother, grandmother and life partner.
“Mary is a wonderful asset to our campaign because of her genuiness of spirit,” the governor told about 100 folks gathered on the Fitzgerald square.
The events Wednesday took the governor to a cinderblock hotel in Bainbridge, a family restaurant in Thomasville and even a recreational vehicle assembly plant outside of Fitzgerald.
Along with praising his wife - who has starred in several homey television commercials - Perdue repeatedly stressed the same message: I am one of you.
“We are coming very respectfully, asking for your vote. We don’t take it for granted,” Perdue told Thomasville residents.
BAINBRIDGE - THE CHARTERHOUSE HOTEL
Wednesday’s early stop took Perdue and company to a two-story cinderblock hotel in Thomasville built around a rectangular pool.
The 7:30 a.m. crowd of about 55 was primarily political candidates, handlers and others somehow affiliated with the coming election.
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and Georgia GOP party chair Alec Poitevint joined the tour Wednesday.
Perdue supporters gathered in a small meeting room behind the reception lobby.
Ryan Lee, 38, of Cairo, said he came Wednesday because he’s a Republican and knows local elected officials.
“The direction we’ve gone the past four years is the right direction for the state,” Lee said. “It reflects the values of South Georgia.”
Lawrence Jones, 44, brought his son, Joel, 12, to meet some of the folks he only sees on television or reads about in the papers.
The house painter said he’s a lifelong Republican.
Joel kept the meeting in perspective. “It was fun and interesting, and I enjoyed the food,” he said.
THOMASVILLE - THE PLAZA
About 100 supporters packed into a back room at the Plaza restaurant in downtown Thomasville to meet Perdue and the Republican team.
The governor hit on familiar themes - faith, family, values.
Outside, a handful of women wearing hospital scrubs lined the sidewalk leading to the restaurant. They carried signs saying, “Georgia Nursing Homes support Perdue.”
The industry has made similar showings at several stops on the tour. Why?
Patty Fowles, who works at Hospitality Care Center in Thomasville, said the industry needs Perdue’s support.
“We are really struggling,” Fowles said. “We are here to let him know we support him, so he will support us.”
Perdue left the second breakfast with a police escort that blocked intersections and led the governor out of town followed by about a dozen other candidates getting similar star treatment.
The governor also got a similar escort along the way by local sheriff’s deputies which allowed Perdue’s motorcade to zip through small towns at breakneck speeds.
Nick Ayers, Perdue’s campaign manager, said the local escorts weren’t arranged by the campaign. The governor, Ayers said, waved off one enthusiastic deputy who led the parade of SUVs with blue lights.
“I’d like to say we control everything, but we don’t,” Ayers said.
FITZGERALD - TOWN SQUARE
Under clear blue skies and 80 degree heat, Fitzgerald residents blocked the cobblestone Main Street to meet Perdue and his GOP entourage.
Mac Collins, the former congressman seeking a return to office, joined on in the hope the governor’s coattails would help pull him through to victory.
Some 85 residents listened to Perdue and Cagle again made direct appeals for support.
Charles Burnham, 55, of Fitzgerald, sat against a brick fountain on the corner of Main Street.
A Democrat, and a rare non-white face at a tour stop, Burnham said he had no use for Perdue.
“I ain’t had any thought about Sonny,” Burnham said. “He’s a Republican. I’m a Democrat.”
FITZGERALD - COACHMAN TOUR
Just after 1 p.m,, the governor pulled into a recreational vehicle plant outside of Fitzgerald.
The governor, his support staff, and lt. governor hopeful Casey Cagle spent 30 minutes inside the 3-year-old facility.
The rest of the candidates had already run ahead to Waycross or skipped out altogether.
Lawton Tinsley, southeast vice-president, led the tour, showing Perdue every step of the process that takes a metal frame and turns it into a home on wheels.
The plant employs about 150 and normally cranks out about 10 RVs per week, or half as many if they are building the largest units.
The new plant allowed Coachman to expand from a facility a mile away that the company has had for 35 years.
Tinsley said a $605,000 One Georgia grant the firm got after Perdue took office helped the firm bring its lamination operation to Fitzgerald from Indiana.
The program, Lawton said “has helped the whole South Georgia area.”
Perdue and his handlers spent a fair amount of the tour fending off a persistent, ever-present horde of gnats by constantly waving at the flying pests.
They also found a disgruntled Fitzgerald woman who wanted to bend the governor’s ear.
Perdue passed her off to staffers who tried to placate her.
She said Republicans in Fitzgerald didn’t get enough contact with powerbrokers. She said she didn’t want to give her name.
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Taylor stops at Halloween bash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When you are 14 years old and throw parties for a living, having Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor crash one is a big deal. Just ask Keely Monge.
Keely, a freshman at Westlake High School and the owner of Kaffeti Event Planning, threw a Halloween party at her grandmother’s Regency Hills subdivision, a well-appointed neighborhood in South Fulton.
As part of his evening tour through Atlanta to meet potential voters, Taylor stopped by as a guest of Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta), who also lives in the subdivision.
“It is exciting that he came. I didn’t know he was coming,” said Keely. “It is a great opportunity for him to get more voters. I have been with Mark Taylor from the beginning.”
Keely’s Halloween party was the second of three stops that Taylor made Tuesday night at holiday gatherings.
“I think he has got an excellent chance of winning. To have a sitting governor with less than 50 percent in the polls is saying something,” said Bruce, citing recent poll numbers, which show Perdue leading the three-man race, but with only about 48 percent of the vote. “We are going to work like crazy for the next seven days.”
After Keely’s party – which Taylor said he didn’t want to leave because the music was so good – he visited a sick constituent, before heading to Greenbriar Mall, where he met with trick-or-treaters.
He met princesses.
He met several Supermans.
A couple of Spider-Mans, a few angels and a sprinkling of pirates.
Equally important however was meeting with the parents, who clamored to have their children photographed with the gubernatorial candidate.
Renee Anthony and Cotrina Jones said they had just been speaking about Taylor, when he walked past them.
“We were just talking about voting for him,” Anthony said. “Then we bump into him. That’s something.”
With that Jones gathered her daughter, Isley Millender, Anthony’s son, Reggie Anthony and little Kira Campbell for a picture.
The Big Guy with two princesses and a crying pirate.
“As a parent and a voter, I planned on voting for Mark Taylor,” Jones said. “And I wanted to get his picture with my daughter so that she can look at this when she gets older – and hopefully a responsible voter.”
Taylor’s first stop of the evening was as Cascade United Methodist Church, where he attended the church’s annual holiday gathering.
“To all the young people, all the trick or treaters, say thank you to whoever brought you to church tonight,” Taylor told them. “And study hard and be HOPE scholars. Everybody can dress like HOPE Scholars.”
Cascade’s pastor, the Rev. Marvin Moss, said it was important to have Taylor at the church to instill in his members the importance of voting.
On Wednesday, Taylor is scheduled to worship at Friendship Baptist Church and Ebenezer Baptist Church.
“We want to make sure that we provide the opportunity for all persons to be informed about the election process so they can make the best decision,” Moss said.
At Cascade, aside from the parents, Taylor found host of informed constituents – even those who couldn’t vote. Donavon Edwards, 9, recognized Taylor as soon as he walked into the party.
“Why do you have a Pinocchio nose on in that commercial,” Donavon said, talking about one of Perdue’s campaign ads were he paints Taylor as a liar.
“Because Sonny Perdue is trying to make me look like a bad guy,” Taylor responded. “But I am not.”
Donavon then put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder.
“I would vote for you,” he said.
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