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.

First Full Day

I came in to the office early today for my first full day on the job. When I arrived, Mayor Wood was already meeting with Bill Largin, who is the Tech-coordinator of this campaign. Bill brought his daughter Lilly along, as seen in the picture, and we discussed how to handle the internet aspect of this campaign.

Afterwards, the Mayor and I went to lunch with Former Mayor of Mountain Park Jim Wright. This was a truly amazing experience because I got to sit in on a conversation between two mayors whose experiences were remarkably similar despite the fact that Mountain Park is a city of only 600 people versus Roswell's population of 101,000. We ate at the Fickle Pickle on Canton Street and it was a true taste of what local Roswell food was like: very delicious! Then, we made our way back to the law office, where I worked until about 5 o'clock on the list of Constant Contacts that were given to me earlier (which isn't exactly the most fun part of this job, I might add). Nonetheless, the first full day was great, and there will be many more to come!

First Council Meeting

Ms. Kenner had notified me that there would be a Council Meeting at City Hall at 8 am on Wednesday morning. Now, since I love politics so much, I was more than delighted to attend. When I arrived, I could feel a sense of tension in the room. That tension could easily be attributed to the fact that two of the Council members were going to run against Mayor Wood in the election for the Mayor of Roswell on November 3rd. On top of this, I would find out later that most of the Council was NOT supporting Mayor Wood in his re-election campaign. What a tough group! Then, after the Council Meeting, I made my way over to Mayor Wood's law office, which is where I would be working during most of my internship. At first sight, I thought 'Man, what an old building!' But soon after, I would learn to appreciate the historic aspect of this building. Later that evening, I was to attend Mayor Wood's very first Campaign Volunteer Meeting (for this campaign, anyway), to which I arrived almost an hour late! Turns out Ms. Kenner gave me directions FROM City Hall to Mayor Wood's house, which didn't strike me until I realized I was going the wrong way for more than a half hour. In the end, however, the meeting turned out to be great and I began to realize the role that I would be playing in Mayor Wood's re-election campaign (a pretty big one, at that).

First Meeting with Mayor Wood

Mrs. Drummond, my internship advisor at Alpharetta High School, gave me a call today to notify me that Roswell City Government was interested in my resume and wanted for me to give them a call. So I followed her directions and gave Ms. Robyn Kenner, Mayor Wood's Executive Assistant, a call. Little did I know, she was thinking about when I would give her a call at that exact moment! To my surprise, she asked me to come in within the next hour to City Hall to meet with her and Mayor Wood. So I quickly printed out my resume, dressed up with a shirt and tie, and headed on over to City Hall as fast as I could. The first thing Mayor Wood said to me when I met him was: "Come on, let's take a picture!" The guy didn't even know me and now he wanted to already take a picture with me! All I could think about is how nice a man he was for being a person of his stature. In any case, he and Ms. Kenner sat down with me and tried to detail what the next 6 months would be like with Ms. Kenner repeatedly asking me: "Are you sure you can do this?" And I would respond that this is exactly what I wanted to do; to learn what it takes to be a Mayor.