Contrasting Two Campaign Stops

I’ve had the honor of going to events for two GAGOV candidates in the past month or so, one for Austin Scott at the State Theater last month, and one for Karen Handel at a local law firm last night.

I had met Scott several times before that event – I even walked 10 miles with him a month prior – but I met Handel when she walked into the room, though I’ve chatted with her via twitter sporadically before then.

Some of the most striking things about these two events:

With Scott’s event, it was advertised at least a week or two in advance. I learned of Handel’s event Monday, for an event that was to take place Tues evening.

Both events were advertised as two hours long. At Scott’s event, I was lucky to get out of there 3 hours after I got there, after talking to several people for quite a while, including many of Scott’s family and staff that had come. At Handel’s event, people were leaving 45 min into the event, and I was among the last to leave 65 min or so after I got there. Admittedly, this could have been due to Scott’s late arrival to his event (traffic) or that I was closer to the door at the Handel event, and therefore could more easily see when people were leaving.

On the speeches themselves, Scott contradicted himself within his own speech when he said at one point that he would not support anything that increased the cost of living on a family, and then later said that he supported his $10 “user fee” on car tags to support a statewide trauma network. Handel had no such obvious contradictions, though what I found interesting about her speech was that while she came out a few weeks ago as officially supporting the “Fair” Tax, she never once used those words in her speech, instead speaking of “comprehensive tax reform”. Both said they support a statewide solution (ie, tax increase) on transportation.

As far as overall crowd size, it appeared that the Handel crowd was much larger – maybe 50 – 150% larger, and certainly there were fewer family and staff there. Crowd size appearance could be due to the smaller room though, and I don’t really have an estimate of the actual numbers for either event. I can personally remember that Scott had at least two staffers and two family members with him though, whereas Handel came by herself. Note that I’m just pointing that distinction out relative to crowd size, and I am not saying anything positive or negative about either candidate in that regard.

There were three people that I noted as being at both. State Rep Ed Rynders, Sara (the occasional commenter here, so I won’t reveal her last name unless she chooses to), and myself. I assume it was legislative courtesy on Rynders’ part, as I have been told by others that he was also at an event for Nathan Deal in Leesburg last month. I would have been at the Deal event myself, but it was during the workday and I couldn’t get there.

But the major difference was in who was at one or the other, but not both.

The youngest Brimberry (Jay III, I think?) is a Scott staffer, but his dad was also there. If his grandfather was there, I don’t remember being introduced to him. Bo Henry was also there (indeed, it was the first time I met him), as was the Chairman of the Lee County GOP, Tom Heldenberg.

At the Handel event, Dougherty County GOP Chairman Karen Kemp was there, as was Albany Mayor Willie Adams.

Honestly, I had a great time at both events. It is always fun to get to hang out with Scott, and it was a genuine pleasure to meet Handel for the first time. I also met quite a few people at the Handel event, whereas I had already known most of the people at the Scott event, and I had another chance to promote this site, which is always a good thing for me!

Finally, just an interesting note from the Handel event: Obviously, she knew my name when she saw it on my shirt. She told me after her speech that she was anticipating me hammering her on Voter Verification when she asked for questions, but I did not. As I told her last night, I was trying to be nice and not attack her at her own event. Similar to how when I’m at someone’s house and they do something I disagree with, I try my best not to say anything if at all possible. But we did get into a good discussion on the issue after many had left and we could talk somewhat privately, and she did say that many of the things I brought up on that issue had already been corrected. Am I completely ready to believe her and acquiesce on that issue? Not quite. But what she said sounded reasonable, and I AM prepared to listen to her a bit more on the issue – while still doing my own research, obviously.