Crunch Time

A new poll today from The Beacon showed that Mayor Wood and Lori Henry both had 26.2% of the vote in Roswell, while David Tolleson trailed with only a meek 15.6% of the vote. The Beacon has done it again! Their last two polls have shown a tie of some sort to the tenth of a percentage point. What is the likelihood of that? About 1 in 1,000,000,000, or something like that (too lazy to do the math). So is The Beacon telling the whole truth with these polls? Common sense tells us that any election polls of the past have never showed much accuracy, and this is no different. The underdog in this election, Lori Henry, has somehow shown resilience and is beating Councilman Tolleson by more than 10 percentage points? No way. Whatever the polls say, it's clear now that Mayor Wood, Lori Henry, and David Tolleson all need to fight to the finish because this election is likely to be decided in the next week. Back in the law office, things are getting hectic. After the calls made on Sunday to many different constituents, over 100 yard signs have been requested. That's more than double all the yard signs requested in the past few months of the campaign! This shows that it's crunch time in the campaign: it's time to win this thing.

"Scaring the Competition Away on Canton Street"

It's crunch time. Mayor Wood's campaign is off to the races, but it seems like Henry and Tolleson are yet to clear the opening gates. Our campaign is soaring to the sky while the competition has been left behind in the dust. Well, this is how I see it anyway (God knows what our good 'ole buddy from the Beacon thinks). We interns have even created a scarecrow for the Canton Street Scarecrow Competition "to scare away the competition on Canton Street," as Mayor Wood put it. With the election less than four weeks away, our campaign is now in overdrive. Yard signs are going out in a frenzy, campaign t-shirts and bandanas (yes, I said bandanas) are being distributed, and advertising is in an uproar. With all this happening, there is a debate coming up this weekend; a debate that is very important to Mayor Wood's political capital. It is the East Roswell Forum and it is a debate where candidates get to ask each other questions. East Roswell is place that seems to favor David Tolleson a bit more than Mayor Wood, but we are hoping that might change after they see who the real Mayor Wood is in this debate. This is true politics and with one month remaining, this is when I get to learn the true meaning of what it takes to be a part of a political campaign; a winning one that is.

A Week to Remember

What a week. This was the most engaging week of my entire internship experience thus far. It all started on Tuesday when we first introduced the two new interns, Mike and Brandon, to our political arsenal. They will be working WITH me (not for me, as Mayor Wood wanted to point out) in the coming months of the campaign. After both of their interviews, we immediately were off to the GOP Victory Dinner at the Westin in Buckhead. There, we met many of the most highly influential politicians of our entire state including Representative Tom Price, Secretary of State Karen Handel, and many others. If that wasn't enough, the following day we all attended a Town Hall Meeting at Roswell High School where Tom Price came to speak on the issue of healthcare. People were overly passionate and were not afraid to cut other people off while they were speaking. Most of the time when people were requested to come up and ask a question of Tom Price, they would not ask one! Instead, they would ramble on about this or that usually in opposition of Representative Price. This would cause immediate disgust among the towns people and every would just all of a sudden begin to yell at each other. It was a crazy, but highly educational experience no doubt. The next day, there was a cookout at Mayor Wood's Law Office for all of the volunteers in the campaign and there was a really great turnout. It is clear that Mayor Wood's campaign is gaining momentum. Yard signs are going up, phone calls are being made, and all around you get the sense that people are truly getting excited about Mayor Wood's chances in this upcoming election. To top all of this off, Mayor Wood came to speak to our FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) chapter this morning at Alpharetta High School on the importance of leadership and how it has helped him progress in his political career. There was a great turnout for this meeting as well and all of the members of our chapter truly enjoyed Mayor Wood's presence at Alpharetta High School. What I learned: As Tom Price told me, "whenever you get the opportunity to speak in front of a group of people, it is extremely important that you seize it as it is not an opportunity that will always be available." All in all, this was truly a week to remember.

Alive After Five... and New Interns? What??

Next monday, I will be attending the interview of 2 more new interns in the law office. Whoa, imagine the surprise on my face to this news: I've only been here a month and they've already got new interns for me to work with? Nice. In other news, I helped out with "Alive After Five" last week in an effort to bolster the campaign effort of Mayor Wood. He had set up a tent right next to a chicken coop handled by Mr. Andrew Wordes, the "Chicken Man" (NOT the Chicken Whisperer); Interesting strategy don't you think? Nevertheless, it turned out to be a great success as Mayor Wood got lots of publicity from this traditional Roswell event. Interestingly enough, however, about 100 yards down the street Mike Martin and I spotted the campaign tent for Lori Henry with Mr. Pug Mabry (the former mayor of Roswell) sitting right behind her. Funny thing is I am almost positive that I could hear crickets chirping as I walked by her tent; there was no buzz, no activity like at Mayor Wood's campaign tent. Looks like her campaign just isn't creating the buzz that Mayor Wood's is. Oh well. David Tolleson, on the other hand, was no where to be found on Canton Street. Go figure. What I learned: Chickens are a GREAT marketing tool.

First Mayoral Debate

Today was a very eventful day as I attended my first ever Mayoral Debate at the Holiday Inn on Holcomb Bridge Road. I arrived early to notice that there was a lot of buzz going around as no one knew what to expect from Councilwoman Lori Henry and Councilman David Tolleson in the upcoming debate. But they all knew exactly what they were going to get from Mayor Wood: a man that was very honest and highly personable. There were many jokes made by each of the candidates (and by each I mean just Councilman Tolleson and Mayor Wood, because I didn't really hear Councilwoman Henry make too many jokes), but more than 90% of them were made by Mayor Wood. He was extremely personable and seemed very approachable: a trait that anyone would want in their Mayor. But the one astonishing thing that I noticed throughout the debate was the undoubted bias against Mayor Wood and Ms. Henry by the Beacon. Mr. John Fredericks, the Beacon Media host for the debate, stated time and time again that Mayor Wood was "fighting for his political life" when in fact, there was absolutely no evidence to prove such an outlandish claim. He even took a jab at Ms. Henry asking why all the people that used to support her don't anymore: which seemed very much like a low blow and completely unnecessary at such an event. It just doesn't seem right for a newspaper, which is supposed to be unbiased, to have a very strong bias against any candidate. Isn't unbiased journalism what we strive for? In any case, the debate was a huge success for Mayor Wood as many people that attended seemed to think that he was the clear winner of the debate. What I learned: In any political event, it is important for the leader to be personable and approachable so that the people are not afraid to voice their concerns to make what is wrong, right.

Chickens!

You may be looking at the title of this new post and think that I have gone truly mad, but that's essentially what the atmosphere was like at the law office this morning when I got in. Mayor Wood had gotten new chickens. The idea was passed around the office to name the chickens Lori and David, the names of Mayor Wood's opposition in the upcoming election, but the Mayor would have nothing of it (even if it was absolutely hilarious). Then, on to the more important matters of the day: Mayor Wood and I attended the local Rotary International meeting where I met many more new and interesting people. Mayor Wood used this opportunity, as any politician would, to announce his first Re-Election Campaign Fundraiser to which the President of Rotary replied: "I guess it's just that time of year again, isn't it Mayor Wood?" It seems as though he had heard many such announcements by Mayor Wood in the past and seemed to be getting bored of them. Mayor Wood would explain later that the Rotary tries to stay out of politics as much as possible. From there, we made our way to Mill Street, where the City of Roswell was being recognized for being a "Water First" city, which basically means that Roswell has made huge strides towards the water conservation effort of the state of Georgia. It was a pretty eventful day and there will surely be many more to come.

First Monday

"Take a look at The Beacon," said Mayor Wood as I walked in to my first real Monday on the job. In it, was an article about Ms. Lori Henry, councilwoman and fellow mayoral candidate in the upcoming election in November. The article talked about how Ms. Henry was "the conservative" of the race and that the other two candidates, including Mayor Wood, were both not true republicans like herself. A pretty bold statement against a mayor who has been a republican mayor for over 12 years; seems like everyone else thinks he's a true republican. But this is politics and with it, come many interesting and outlandish accusations. And this is exactly the part of this job that I like the most; to observe the political nature of being a Mayor and what it takes to get things done. After this, it was time to take a look at the Facebook aspect of Mayor Wood's campaign and both he and I came up with a system to add pictures periodically so as to keep the Facebook community updated with the daily occurrences of the campaign. All in all, it was a pretty successful day, but there is still a long way to go.