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Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

A friend suggested to me recently that I write about what life is like on the campaign trail.

“It would be neat for people who don’t know what goes on inside a campaign to find out what it’s really like,” was how he pitched the idea to me.

My retort: “They don’t give tours of sausage factories for a reason.”

Actually, that’s overstating it by half.

Wanna know what goes on inside a campaign?

I spent half of one of my days this week stuffing envelopes.

Sounds like a load of fun, doesn’t it?

I can’t imagine that George W. Bush or Mark Warner ever had to spend half a day stuffing envelopes.

They had people to do that for them.

I spent a few hours late one night (and early the next morning, technically) the other night/morning reading up on the local and state economy.

I want to know where things are going, you know, and the only way to know is to look at all the numbers that are out there and then try to make sense of them.

Again, I can imagine that if you’re a president or governor or Senate candidate, people do that for you.

I had a talk the other day with a friend who had already pledged to support one of my opponents before I got into the race.

He spent half our talk saying he didn’t want there to be any bad feelings.

I spent the other half telling him that there weren’t, that I would only want him to be able to honor his pledge of support.

Don’t know how interesting that is to you, but it’s part of the job.

I go to at least four or five local events a week to shake hands and talk with potential voters.

This is my favorite part of the campaign, because that’s what this is supposed to be all about.

I’ve learned a lot from talking with folks about the issues of the day, and the good thing is, we’re only getting started with this.

Looking back on it, I think it was a good suggestion, this bit about having me share a slice of what life is like inside a political campaign.

I might even make a habit of it …

  

Chris Graham is the executive editor of The Augusta Free Press.

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