Mitt and Barack and Georgia
February 8, 2007 at 5:31 pm by Max Pizarro in NewsIt’s early. Way early. We know that.
But so far Georgia’s two most easily accessible and best 2008 presidential-campaign websites are dedicated to two northerners: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., georgiaforobama.org, and Republican Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, www.georgiansforromney.blogspot.com.
These are local sites run by Georgia activists designed to amp up support for their respective champs. It’s interesting to see Obama and Romney partisans making such an obvious bid to compete down here two years before the general election. This is a state, after all, where two other men have staked an early claim: Republican Newt Gingrich and Democrat John Edwards.
Southern son Edwards has good organization here. He enjoys the backing of former Gov. Roy Barnes and counts on the well-connected Emil Runge — on leave from his job as communications director of the Democratic Party of Georgia — to run his Atlanta headquarters.
“I was born not far from here in a little town called Seneca, S.C.,” the former North Carolina senator recently told an Atlanta crowd at the Carter Center.
Then there’s Newt, of course, second only to Ronald Reagan as the Georgia Republican Party’s object of adoration. He hasn’t announced he’s running for president, but it’s likely he will, considering his forays into New Hampshire, his stepped-up press appearances lately and his iconic standing in the GOP.
Since Edwards and Gingrich look so solid, the notion that other candidates will compete successfully for votes in Georgia seems slender. Not too many presidential hopefuls appear to have deep organization here. Cruising the Web, one can easily find a Hillary headquarters in Virginia, but nothing well-publicized in Atlanta. John McCain is nowhere yet in Georgia, and neither is Mike Huckabee. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd? Forget about it.
But Obama caught the attention of 26-year-old IT consultant Parag Mehta, lead organizer for Georgia for Obama, which is composed mostly of Democrats in their 20s and 30s.
“We just started a month ago, so we’re really in our infancy,” Mehta says. “After reading his books I became much more interested in the idea of an Obama presidency. He’s a very realistic person who tries to be bipartisan, and I think he has the charisma as well.”
Meanwhile, old pro Ric Mayfield of Atlanta offers a snatch of biography on his website.
“I grew up in Manchester, Ga.,” he writes. “I have � been active in politics for a while. I served as Fulton County chair for both Saxby Chambliss in 2002 and President Bush in 2004. I was previously assistant treasurer for the Ga. GOP, and I served as treasurer for Ralph Reed for lieutenant governor in 2006.”
Maybe Romney will have some appeal in Georgia, hyped heavily on Mayfield’s site and elsewhere as the new Reagan.
Send to a friend:
February 9th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
It’s being reported on other blogs that the reports of Emil Runge and Parag Mehta are either outdated or false. Did anyone talk to Emil? And are you sure Parag is with Georgia for Obama?
February 10th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Parag is active with Georgia for Obama.
We certainly don’t have the campaign entrenchment to rival Edwards or (is he running?) Gingrich, but it is still VERY early in the process… just can’t contain the excitement and love for Barack! ;)
- Earl