Swing State Florida

Posted by Paul Weiss on October 23, 2008 - 11:02pm
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Hi to all my friends in Batavia and Genesee County.   This is Paul Weiss.  Many of you may remember me from the City Council and Notre Dame High School.  I now live in New Smyrna Beach, FL and as many of you might guess, I have become involved in Democratic Party politics, especially the Obama campaign.  

Because Florida is a swing state and my county (Volusia) was one of the few counties to support John Kerry and Al Gore, the campaign is much more interesting that anything I have ever experienced. 

Barack Obama was in Daytona Beach a couple of weeks ago and John McCain was here today.   Tomorrow Joe Biden's wife will be here and many people believe Hillary Clinton will make a campaign stop bfore election day.

The major effort now is early voting.   There are five places you can go to in the County to vote any day between 8 am and 4 pm.   In just four days, more than 17,000 voters have already cast their ballots.   Democrats are out voting Republicans by 2 to 1 ratio in early voting.The Obama campaign is very organized to get out the early vote and they expect a big effort on Saturday.   The Obama campaign is independent of the Democratic Party and they have 10 paid staff members in the county along with hundreds of volunteers.   The McCain campaign runs through the local Republican party.   I'm not quite sure what they are doing as about all I see from them are lawn signs. 

I'll try to keep you posted.  

Remember--Go Bills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Lorie Longhany on October 24, 2008 - 8:48am
Paul, thanks for the report from the sunshine state! While it is relatively quiet here in "blue NY" (on the presidential front, at least) we have a few activists that are traveling from Genesee County to Ohio and Pennsylvania and they come back describing a ground game that is nothing less than incredible.

My son and his wife live in Orlando and they attended an Obama rally -- I believe it was Monday night. Hillary was there and my son described it as electric. They arrived many hours prior to the rally to insure that they got in and he called me several times as he waited in line to describe the tremendous crowd.

He also called home yesterday to say that the lines for early voting were too long for him to wait and that he would be going back to try again today. Two to five hour lines in early voting! Unbelievable.
Posted by Paul Weiss on October 24, 2008 - 10:13am
I waited in line for two hours to get a ticket for the Obama rally in Daytona Beach and then I waited in line for three hours just to get into the event. In both lines nobody complained.
Posted by Joe Hanel on December 6, 2008 - 9:48am
Mr Weiss,

Don't know if you'll remember me or not, but while a student at NDHS in the late 70's you encouraged me to go into accounting. Since I moved away from Batavia to Charlotte, NC the day I graduated, and only go back for occasional reunions and funerals, I didn't know your whereabouts.

Whenever asked, I've credited you with my decision to go into accounting. It turned out to be a very good career for me. I worked in Big 8/4 public, then moved into financial mgmt which ultimately led me into business ownership. I simply want to thank you for your spot on recommendation.

I hope you are enjoying retirement in FL.

Joe Hanel, CPA
704.374.0808 x210 automated attendant
jhanel@sherpallc.com