Ditch Mitch KY’s very own Shawn Dixon has been up to much good lately and is receiving some good press for the John Edward’s campaign, his hometown of Columbus, Kentucky, and himself (and he deserves it).
The Paducah Sun ran a frontpage article on Friday of Shawn’s effort, and now the Louisville Courier-Journal’s political blog, The Arena, has picked up on it, and now the Lexington Herald-Leaderhas featured the Associated Press article, too.
Three of us on this blog (Shawn, Terri, and me) hail from western Kentucky, and — in fact — none of us still lives there (Shawn and I are both in and around NYC, and Terri’s now in Louisville), but technology is changing not only how all of us network and form new digital communities, but also how we interact with the more traditional “bricks-and-mortar” places we grew up in.
From a thousand miles away from his native Hickman County on the Mississippi River, Shawn’s been able to organize a campaign that may well bring together one of the most rural communities in the state — the town of Columbus and its 200 plus residents — with the presidential candidate with the best articulated message for rural America.
You can help Shawn make this happen by voting for Columbus in the contest. Shawn has conveniently set up a website to do so: www.ComeToColumbusKY.com
I’m not really sure how many supporters John Edwards had in Lexington on Friday morning, but I know that he has a lot more now. The line on John Edwards that is making the rounds is that his best asset in the campaign to win the presidency is not his humble Southern background, health-care platform or charm, but his wife, Elizabeth Edwards. After watching her performance during Friday’s Small Change for Big Change event in Lexington, I think that statement isn’t too far off base.
Elizabeth Edwards performed a rather spectacular hour+ Q & A session with over 200 contributors, fans, and potential voters. And due to the online outreach efforts of the Edwards campaign (thanks to Tracy and Amy, via DMKY’s Shawn Dixon) and the southern charm of DMKY’s own Jim Pence, Jim and I were able speak with Elizabeth face to face for roughly 10 minutes before her public Q & A session.
Though the Edwards staff thought we had a decent chance of chatting with her for a couple of minutes, shortly after we entered the venue and set up our cameras (Jim and fellow film guru Erica), we were told that there was no time for an interview. After Jim disappeared for a few minutes to chat up the Edwards folks, he came back saying that she might be doing a short “meet and greet” with some people.
“What’s a meet and greet?”
“I’m not sure”
“I’ve never been to a meet and greet”
“Yea, me neither”
Ten minutes later, Jim pulled me backstage and one of the staff stopped us and asked if we were the guys from DitchMitchKY and told us that we could speak with Mrs. Edwards in a few minutes, but not on camera or on tape. So while all of the slick, dolled up TV reporters waited for Elizabeth to come out for the Q & A, the blogger in ratty Chuck Taylors and ripped pants, and the hillbilly with the Acapulco shirt were whisked upstairs to meet her.
I had a face to face conversation with Elizabeth Edwards and I found her to be a daughter any father would be proud of, a woman any husband would be lucky to have and a mother with more than enough love for any child.
Elizabeth Edwards will be coming to Lexington tomorrow night to talk with Kentucky voters in what the Edwards’ campaign is calling its Small Change for Big Change series. This series of small-dollar fundraisers is designed for everyday Americans to get face time with Mrs. Edwards–and tickets are only $15. This is a huge departure from the high-dollar fundraisers that most candidates hold where tickets can run into the thousands of dollars.
This is important and symbolic because it shows that the campaign thinks–and I agree with them–that Kentucky will be in play next fall all the way up to the Presidential level.
The event is going to be tomorrow night at the Downtown Arts Center: 161 North Mill Street, in Lexington, at 5 P.M.
I just wanted to give you a heads up because Ditch Mitch’s very own Joe Sonka is going to be at the event and hopefully will get some face time with Mrs. Edwards. Joe will report back to us after the event!
