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Thursday, November 2, 2006
Feeling the momentum
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An hour before Mark Taylor was supposed to arrive at the Thomas Lay Community Center in Athens for a Democratic get-out-the-vote rally, Isaac Smith still did not know whether Taylor would get his vote for governor.
“I have to talk to the candidate. I have to look in their eyes,” said Smith, an 18-year-old from Snellville, who was in Athens working on a voter awareness project. “Talk to me after I see him.”
Two hours later Smith was sold.
“I’ll vote for him,” Smith said.
After Taylor spoke, Smith stole him away for a couple of minutes. The two talked politics and Taylor told him to establish himself as a community leader, if he was serious about pursuing politics.
“He seems pretty sincere,” Smith said. “I got to analyze his speech. Now I have to watch what he does. It is good to hear someone, but it is more important to see what he does afterwards. I will be watching him.” Taylor said he welcomed that and was heartened by Smith’s sudden support.
“This is what is so exciting. People, in their busy lives are starting to tune in to this election. I feel the momentum moving forward,” Taylor said. “They are seeing the difference.”
After focusing his efforts earlier in the week in metro Atlanta, Taylor took a big step outside Thursday night to campaign in Athens.
In the community center’s gymnasium, several candidates for local and state offices gave stump speeches as the crowd munched on pizza, potato chips and an orange sherbet drink. Sylvanus “Zeke” Turner, a local performer, serenaded between speeches, singing gospel music.
As the candidates spoke – championing the cause of the Democratic Party and promoting themselves – Taylor waded through the gymnasium’s bleachers, shaking almost every hand and looking into the eyes of the 200 or so party supporters.
“We are gonna have a great win for the people of Georgia on Nov. 7 because of your hard work,” Taylor said. “These races are not about the candidates. These races are about the people and the people need a new governor.”
The unofficial theme of Thursday’s event was hard work. Taylor told the group not to be outworked and urged them to phone and email friends, even knock on their doors to get them out to the polls.
Labor commissioner Michael Thurmond said that kind of work would be needed to defeat Republicans Tuesday.
“The Republican party has developed an aggressive and successful ground game,” Thurmond said. “In order for us to be successful, we as Democrats have to reach out to as many people as possible to get them to the polls. That includes getting independents, liberals and moderates as well.”
Taylor, who is winding down his bid to become Georgia’s next governor, told the Democrats that he was the candidate the state needed and that he and Sonny Perdue were political opposites.
“Go out and tell my story. Tell them the big difference between Mark Taylor and Sonny Perdue. Tell them that everything I am for, he is against,” said Taylor, adding that he will restore cuts made to public education, restore HOPE dollars and develop a low cost prescription drug plan.
“I come from across the state with good news. That a new, fresh wind is coming,” Thurmond said. “A wind that will take back the governor’s seat, the House and the Senate. We have to stick together. We have to live together. Work together. Pray together and on Nov. 7, go to the polls together.”
On Friday, Taylor is expected to attend a football game at Westside High School in Macon before visiting a First Friday mixer in downtown Macon.
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Perdue rolls north on RV tour of state
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As Gov. Sonny Perdue’s election tour left South Georgia to head to the mountains, a fall chill overtook the air and the flat, green piney landscape gave way to bursts of orange and red.
Also, the crowds grew substantially.
By noon Thursday, Perdue had already seen more Georgians than he had on the entire day Wednesday.
The tour began Thursday in LaGrange. And, the days drive would eventually take the GOP bus tour as far north as Lafayette before turning east and running across the north of the state.
The governor added special guests for west Georgia - Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Congressman Phil Gingrey. They all rode with Perdue in his RV.
LAGRANGE - THE BEST WESTERN HOTEL
The early breakfast drew more than 175 well-wishers to a hilltop hotel in bustling LaGrange.
The stop was a challenge logistically for the campaigns because Wedneday’s efforts capped off in Waycross, some 400 plus miles away near the swamps of southeast Georgia.
Chambliss warmed the crowd with a joke that certainly hit home with the campaign staffers, “Is everybody here ready for this election to be over with? I can tell you everybody up front here is.”
The early start, typical of a tour with nearly four dozen starts, had one unusual happening. Secretary of State candidate Karen Handel and Gary Black, agriculture commissioner hopeful, were the first to arrive and work the crowd, a position normally held by Perry McGuire, who’s running for attorney general.
Jerry Rigby, 60, of LaGrange, called himself a lifelong Republican and early supporter of Perdue four years ago. The governor greeted him with a warm hug and handshake.
“I believe in what he’s said and what he’s done. He’s been great for this state,” Rigby said.
Rigby, a Georgia graduate like Perdue, runs a business which manufactures clothes for nearby Auburn University in Alabama.
“I tell people it took a Georgia grad to make money off of those Auburn people,” he joked.
DALLAS - DOWNTOWN SQUARE
Dallas greeted Perdue like a visiting head of state.
The police presence was so overwhelming that even campaign staffers couldn’t help but notice. Officers and deputies blocked streets and patrolled the courthouse lawn and snipers even took up positions in the old courthouse.
Even so, well wishers outnumber the uniformed and plainclothes police easily - with a crowd in excess of 250 souls.
Perdue shared the stage with Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, who lives in nearby Hiram.
In Dallas, the East Paulding marching band pumped up the crowd. And, a color guard opened the ceremony.
Cathy Bailey, 45, of Dallas said she came hoping to get the governor’s attention for a program she’s working on to help at-risk youth.
“We need to do more with the middle school youth,” Bailey said. “That’s when they decide if they are going to drop out.”
She works for a non-profit group called the Giving Back Foundation in nearby Austell.
Perdue told Dallas he was excited by the crowd. “We won’t forget this kind of day,” Perdue said.
ROME
The Republican Party took over an old theater outside downtown Rome, and a standing room only crowd turned out.
The governor, who’s been greeted at almost every stop by nursing home workers, found one of the largest groups yet in Rome.
The Rome event produced rare serial introductions: Cagle introduced Isakson, who introduced Chambliss, who introduced Perdue. And, during his remarks, Perdue introduced another 10 statewide GOP hopefuls and Gingrey.
“This is one of our biggest crowds yet, we are so proud of it,” said Casey Cagle, the party’s nominee for lt. governor.
Chambliss joked that he and Isakson were looking forward to Perdue cutting taxes on senior citizens so they could benefit from it.
Isakson spoke of his 44 year friendship with Chambliss.
Perdue told the Rome crowd he never forgets the responsibility he has as governor.
“It’s an awesome responsibility to govern 9 million people. But you do it one by one,” he said.
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