There is something magical about a county fair in Central PA, the rusty ill-repaired rides, the rather un-nutritious food sold at outrageous prices, the sounds and smells of a demolition derby, (you know the pop and crunkle of a spray can painted fender, the smell of burnt oil), the midway games where grown men seem to fail miserably but attractive young girls and small children seem to experience uncanny success, ya gotta love it! It's small town, all-American fun at it's most pure and basic and wholesome.
It's the perfect environment for politics!
As a volunteer for the Tony Barr for Congress campaign, it's my pleasure to man the booth and accompany the candidate as he grips and grins his way through the day, talking to people about who he is and why he's running. The usual way it works is this, the kids see the free candy the booth is giving away and drag Mom and Dad(Sometimes it's Grandma and Grandpap, but you get the point) over to the booth and while I give away the candy,Tony talks politics. It's been pretty effective.
It's funny, the Democrats booth was actually a bit over-staffed. Dems from 3 Counties came to support Tony, here at the Bedford County fair, it looked to anyone who might not have known better that there was something going on at that booth, it had a buzz about it, in contrast, the GOP booth down the aisle was a desolate place, only the old ladies from the County GOP Committee were there with their needlepoint.
There was something old school about the happenings at the Bedford County Fair. It was American politics but there was something different about it. This isn't the mass media, cost per thousand, poll numbers kind of political work that seems to garner so much attention in our discussion of issues on the web. This is retail politics, it's grip and grin politics, old school politics, where a man looks you in the eye and talks about the issues as they apply to him and his. It might not be as efficient a way to get out a campaign message as the 21st century mass media method but it's damn effective. Tony Barr is getting really good at it.
Tony entered the milk drinking contest, and while statistics might tell you that Bedford County PA is a highly red area, there were no Republicans to challenge him. Like all, such contests, it wasn't quite as simple as you might think. Contestants were to drink as much milk as possible from a 12 ounce glass in 60 seconds using one of those small straws one uses to stir coffee. While I sometimes worry that someone is gonna talk my candidate into riding a goat or something at one of these things, (I can see the paper now...ugh!), it's hard not to like Tony, he's genuine and friendly and a good sport. Tony lost the great Bedford County milk drink off, so did I, we were out-slurped by a 15 year old girl (keep our minds out of the gutter...shame on you!). After the contest, I watched a large number of people practically line up to shake Tony's hand and tell him that he had their support, they were tired of Bill Shuster and tired of what's been happening to this region and that they were grateful to have choice this year. We've been hearing a lot of that.
Back at the campaign office, of course, today, we are doing the usual things, discussing the latest, NBC/WSJ poll Chris Mathews talked about last night on "Hardball", making phone calls and talking to various members of the county committees in the 15 counties that make up the PA-09th. We were talking about advertising and fundraising and fundraising for advertising, a few bucks for bumper stickers here, a few more for radio there. We could always use more, of course; http://www.tonybarr2006.com will help you contribute to the campaign.
There are more than a few County fairs and festivals between now and November 7th, we plan to make most, if not all, of them. That old school, grip and grin, politics is going somewhere and we're getting pretty good at it. If we can keep it up, we're gonna win this thing.
Learn more at:
http://www.tonybarr2006.com