Campaign hits pay dirt

I did it for you, Gary.

Yep, I drove the 6.3 miles from my home to the Pope’s Ferry fire station in Monroe County just to vote for you Tuesday morning.

It was 7:15 a.m. when I pulled in. Parking was plentiful. No one else was at the polling precinct.
In fact, I was the only one in the place. I nudged the three poll workers awake and requested a Republican ballot. It took all of 22.7 seconds to vote in the only two races on the screen – secretary of state and commissioner of agriculture.

As I was leaving, two more people came in. “We’re having a rush,’’ someone said, sarcastically.

I flipped a coin on the secretary of state race, but I was there to vote for you for the agriculture post, Gary Black.

Normally, I wouldn’t give two hoots about the agriculture commissioner. I’m not a farmer. The extent of my farming is limited to four tomato plants out on the patio. I don’t pay much attention to crop rotation.

But I drove 12 miles out of my way and invested 20 minutes of my Tuesday morning just to vote for you in the Republican primary run-off because I met you five months ago when you were campaigning in Macon. That made a real difference with me.

You had come down to work some of the crowd at the Cherry Blossom Festival, and we talked for a long time. You were a perfect gentleman. I watched the way you pressed flesh and did more listening than talking.

And, when you did talk, there wasn’t a lot of rhetoric. You were genuine and trustworthy. It’s not often when we can use those two adjectives in the same sentence to describe someone running for political office.

You ran a squeaky clean campaign against your primary opponent, Brian Kemp. And since you won by more than 33,000 votes, one could argue my vote didn’t mean much. But it did. You worked hard to earn the confidence of the electorate. You truly did get out the “Black” vote.

Now comes your toughest test. You will face Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin in November. He’s 77 years old and has been elected nine straight times. It’s safe to say he’s been around since dirt, no pun intended.

But, on Tuesday, I did it for you, Gary. Yep, I have never followed anything with the word “agriculture” in it this closely.

If you beat the dinosaur in November, maybe you can come over and take a look at my “back 40.’’ We’ll discuss soybeans. Then we’ll go inside and have us a tomato sandwich.