Newscoma

Yesterday, in an event in Union City that wasn’t publicized very much (aka at all and I only found the information on one local blog), Roy Herron and Mike McWherter met to stump at a fundraiser for the Obion County Democrats at a local park.

I’ve seen these guys over time and I was interested to see if their speeches had changed any since the last time I saw them.

To set the scene, the event wasn’t highly attended and I can only believe that happened due to the lack of publicity. We’ve seen a great deal of statewide discussion regarding both candidates regarding their financial disclosures this week but on a local level, I would say there was nil. I checked all the local websites and other than a radio station mentioning it yesterday morning (which someone else told me about as I didn’t hear it) there just wasn’t anything out there.

The people that did attend to watch them stump was basically local folks like Rep. Judy Barker, a few local elected democrats and then the thing that I think might have been missed.

Union folks from the local United Steelworkers Association were wearing shirts and I counted quite a few. To translate this, this were people who either worked at Goodyear or were retired from the tire plant. I can only surmise that folks wanted to hear about jobs although before hand there was some discussion that topics that would be highlighted would also concern healthcare.

McWherter took the mic first and spoke for a few minutes. His speech was more about treating the state as a business when it comes to trying to recover lost jobs and creating new ones. One comment he made that resonated with the crowd was regarding a story about how he had gotten lost in Oak Ridge and how a man (a geologist) at a hotel helped him find where he was going recently by taking him where he needed to be. “I went back to thank that man the next day and he was already out in the field,” McWherter said. “I don’t know if he was a republican or a democrat, but I do know that we are Tennesseans at heart.”

Remember, this is blue dog country so speaking of overcoming partisan lines (although sometimes tiresome) does grab the attention here. And party lines are shifting a bit in the land of Hoots and the outlying area due to the recession.

It was a good move on McWherter’s part.

McWherter is getting more comfortable in speaking in public in my opinion.It appears he read the crowd seeing the union clad observers and so he pushed jobs with most of the discussion pinpointing his business management skills and how that can translate to the running of the state.

From a completely unscientific method of watching the clock, which means I didn’t really pay attention, I’d say that he spoke for roughly 10 minutes.

Herron followed and immediately focused on health care. He recalled the birth of his sons for several minutes and then moved into talking about unemployment in the state even bringing up Perry County. Herron uses a lot of anecdotes in his stumping, and I think many of the union folks who weren’t traditional party people were waiting on what he was going to say about the economic condition of the area. I’m not politician, but I would have gone with bringing up jobs first as the health care issue is highly important but, in many ways, will be more of a talking point this campaign season where solutions will be set outside of the state. Herron is also an emotional speaker (the preacher coming out in him) and when it came down to it, he spoke twice as long as McWherter relaying stories from Cotton Ivy and Frank Clement.

I don’t know and it may just be me, but I think by the T-shirts folks just wanted to hear about the economy.

McWherter was more business with a bit of folksy that Tennesseans love and Herron was more emotion. Ironically, McWherter never mentioned his dad. Herron did several times.

After the event, my bromance Maxey, Squirrel Queen and I processed what we had seen. I think every candidate needs to follow the Kathy Griffin method. If you ever watch her show, she makes sure to go out and talk to the locals to see what’s on their minds. Not handlers or public relations people who are promoting her show, but people in the community. And she adjusts her show to reflect her audience.

The USW T-Shirts were key that there was an agenda in the crowd seeking specific information.

And, candidates, use those websites to promote your speaking events. When I have to spend 20 minutes looking for where you are going to be, then other folks are doing it too. Or they may not know at all.  I found information on one blog and that was about it. You want to be seen and heard. I wouldn’t have known about the event if Kim McMillan’s campaign manager hadn’t sent me an email about it asking if I was going to attend. She wasn’t there due to a prior commitment, but I think that is significant.

Let voters know where you are going to be. People make a connection with face time and might remember to pull the lever in the voting booth because of that ten minutes they may have seen when candidates stump.

Just saying.