Well, the Athens-Clarke mayoral race is officially on.
It’s no longer the province of those blessed few who are actively involved with local politics, nor the even fewer who are paid to watch them, such as myself. Spencer Frye is going on the radio, taking his campaign to the masses. From Team Frye:
Spencer Frye’s campaign for Mayor will be airing a radio ad this week touting his experience.
As Executive Director of the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity, Spencer Frye interacts with several major departments in the Athens-Clarke County government: planning, inspections, public works, and human and economic development. Spencer manages the budget of one of the largest non-profits in Athens and manages a staff of 13 employees on a daily basis. It is a difficult job, indicated by the fact that there were five executive directors in the preceding six years before Spencer became director.
During his time as director, Habitat has added over a million dollars in assets, cut its debt in half, almost quadrupled sales in the ReStore, and founded the ReNew Athens initiative, a process that required approval by the Mayor, Commissioners, and ACC staff.
Before Habitat, Spencer was a teacher, an entrepreneur, founder of a medical export company, consultant for Saudia Arabia’s ministry of Health, and founder of an international environmental company.
The buy is a small one on local Cox affiliates that is intended to prove to listeners that he has the necessary experience to be mayor, Frye said.
Running against three long-time activists and politicians – Charlie Maddox, Gwen O’Looney and Nancy Denson – Frye, a relative newcomer to the community, badly needs to up his name ID. But I’d question whether, more than three months before the election, radio is the way to do it. Maddox accomplished a similar goal by leasing billboards early in the 2006 race. Denson yard signs have been sprouting up like kudzu for a month. Once a candidate takes to the airwaves, he’d better stay there, and it’s not yet clear whether Frye will have the money to do so.
The more important question, though, is whether voters buy into his message.
- Blake Aued's blog
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24 years in Athens is a
24 years in Athens is a relative newcomer?
Compared to Denson and
Compared to Denson and O'Looney, who've been here 40 years, and Maddox, who was born here, yes. The point is, all three are better-known, and Frye has to change that to have a chance at winning.
Squeeze him in between the Martha White ads.
Isn't the radio just so Twentieth Century?
Nope
Radio is still the best way for a politician in Athens to get the word out. But once you get on the air, you have to stay on the air, or it doesn't work. People forget. That's why you see more billboards and yardsigns early on to get your name out there, and more radio and newspaper ads that carry a more detailed message as Election Day approaches.
I get it now
I get it now. Kind of like how Strom Thurmond didn't serve in Congress long..... compared to Robert Byrd. I always knew there was something wrong with Spencer. Turns out he's one of those carpet baggers who moves to town only 24 years before an election. Damn newcomer.
Come on
Are you seriously trying to argue that A) Charlie, Nancy and Gwen haven't lived here longer than Spencer, and B) As many people know who Spencer is as Charlie, Nancy and Gwen? Get real.
I neither argued A nor B. I
I neither argued A nor B. I simply was pointing out how misleading it is to refer to a 24 year resident as a newcomer, whether or not you put the word relative in front of it. I think pretty much everyone would agree with that and I assume you do to, hence you pretending I was arguing something absurd like A or B. Please don't straw man me.