No Regrets!

Well folks, we tried. Lowndes County was close (45.4% to 54.6%; that poll didn't lie). Unfortunately, Bill lost every county (33.4% to 66.6%), except one:

Bill Gillespie, who challenged Kingston said, “We won Liberty County! That felt goo. Since I am a 3rd ID veteran and still work there. We had great support in Liberty.

“As for the First Congressional District, it was unfortunately, very similar again to 2006. We thought there would be more incumbent angst and Obama coat-tails, but no. The district wasn't ready for Obama. However, I want to make it clear that I was! I am very excited about our future.

As for my campaign, I have no regrets. I think we ran the best small campaign we could. The experiences, causes advanced and friends made were well worth it. We helped the Democratic Party in the district continue its positive growth. It is now time to come together as Americans to fix these tough obstacles.

Thanks to all of you who helped.

Last Call! Vote Today

There will be no House race runoff, so if you want Bill Gillespie to be our next U.S. Representative from Georgia's First District, and you haven't voted yet, vote today!

The VDT was confused about the runoff, but they weren't confused about Jack Kingston being in a precarious position. Help oust Jack and elect Bill.

If you have already voted, go on down to the Tybee Island office and help get the vote out.

Or go to your local Obama Campaign for Change office (such as 102 East Adair St., Valdosta) and help call to remind people to vote, join door-to-door canvassing to remind people to vote, or volunteer to give rides to get people to the polls.

These people waited 45 minutes to 2 hours Friday in Lowndes County to vote. People in Atlanta stood in line up to 8 hours. Are we in the 1st District going to let Atlanta outdo us? I didn't think so. Get out the vote!

Veterans' issues in WSVH radio interview

The intro says "long-shot candidate" but the audio interview includes snippets like a veteran wearing a McCain hat recognizing Gillespie, calling him by name, engaging in conversation, and later saying he may vote for him. Lots of material about Bill Gillespie's Iraq experience, disabilities, and knowledge of veterans' health care. Also economy, taxes, and Iraq. Well worth listening to.

Poll: Jack Kingston in Precarious Position

The Valdosta Daily Times says:

The position of Jack Kingston is equally precarious. Kingston’s support is exactly 50 percent with almost one in four registered voters undecided, according to the survey, making a runoff in Georgia’s First Congressional District with challenger Bill Gillespie a possibility.

This is from a telephone survey of 453 random phone numbers (margin of error 4.6%) in Lowndes County on 16-26 October by the Center for Applied Research (CAR) at Valdosta State University (VSU), Professor James LaPlant.

Update: The VDT was confused about runoffs. While a runoff is quite possible for the Senate race, which has three candidates, a runoff is extremely unlikely for the House race, which has only two candidates. So if Jack Kingston is to plummet from his precarious perch, it will happen today, and, if so, Bill Gillespie will win today.

The Valdosta Daily Times previously relegated a story on massive new voter registrations to the inside pages and put a story about Lowndes County supposedly always being Republican on the front page of the same issue. The VDT later declined to endorse anyone, because they didn't expect so much early voting! If even the VDT says Kingston's position is precarious, Kingston is perched on a precipice indeed. Bill Gillespie can win!

I have the whole poll, and among respondents who said they'd already voted, Kingston was below 50%. This is ignominious for Kingston, who in 2006 got 59% against 41% for Democrat Jim Nelson in Lowndes County.

This figure shows early voters vs. likely voters:



Chris Prine (D) and Freddie Taylor (R) are running for sheriff, Ashley Paulk (D) and G. Norman Bennett (R) for county commission chair, Bill Gillespie (D) and Jack Kingston (R) for U.S. House GA-01, Jim Martin (D) and Saxby Chambliss (R) for U.S. Senate GA-Sen, and Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) for U.S. president GA-Pres. As you can see, the local races are not even close; the Democrat is way ahead in each of those. The national races show the Democrat trailing, but much closer in early voting. In GA-01, Jack Kingston (R) fell below 50% in early voting, and Bill Gillespie (D) is catching up. The poll showed 28% early voters at a time when more than 20% had voted early. The last day of early voting was packed in Lowndes County. Final early voting was about 22,000 out of about 57,000 registered voters, or about 38%. So if the trend shown in this survey continued, the Democrats are even closer in the national races now.

The professor who organized the survey, Jim LaPlant, tells me:

I should also note that the survey found that Democrats outnumber Republicans in our sample of Lowndes County registered voters. Our sample was 36% Democrat, 34% Republican, 26% Independent and 4% no
response. In 2004, Republicans outnumbered Democrats and the numbers were roughly equivalent in the 2006 survey.

The survey also shows 53% of voters chose the economy as their biggest issue, with terrorism coming in a distant second at 12%. Bill Gillespie's top issue is the economy, and on terrorism Bill is a decorated Iraq veteran and Jack is not.

The poll summary says 2008 has:

...a presidential election that has the potential to generate the highest voter turnout since the 1960 presidential election.

This turnout, especially of the massive number of newly registered voters, will favor Bill Gillespie, especially in Lowndes County, where the local Obama office has handed out thousands of Bill Gillespie flyers and has mentioned his name at every opportunity.

So, if you haven't voted for Bill yet, get out and vote Tuesday!