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By Scott Nicholson, in the Watauga
Democrat, Dec. 16, 2009:
Old-school politics usually involved lots of backroom maneuvering
of candidates, with a small party core deciding which candidates to put forth
in coming elections.
That grooming process has been tossed out like punch-card ballots and
train-whistle stops by Democrats who are lining up behind their favored
candidate to take on incumbent Republican Virginia Foxx for the Fifth District
U.S. Congressional seat next year.
A public campaign is underway called "Draft Billy Kennedy," with
party faithful hoping to gently pressure Kennedy into entering the race. What
makes the draft attempt different is that the momentum is gathering in the
virtual world, driven by a younger pool of voters.
Jesse Presnell, vice chairman of the Watauga County Young Democrats who
administers the Facebook social networking page, said a few people had heard
Kennedy was thinking about running, and he started the Facebook
group "Draft Billy Kennedy" to garner support.
"It wasn't just creating the page, it was how many people instantly got
behind it that was exciting," Presnell said. During the first week of
launch, the group was getting about 60 new members a day, and he said Google
searches on the Internet had shown 300,000 people in a six-day period had
searched for the names "Kennedy" and "Foxx" together.
"A lot of the hits were from Washington,
D.C.," Presnell said.
"People are really interested in this race. I've been wanting to draft him
for a long time, and a lot of other people have wanted to create the
groundswell support to get him to run."
Kennedy said he was grateful for the attention and support and is seriously
considering running. He said he would make a decision after the holidays.
Kennedy is a carpenter and farmer in Bethel,
having lived in the county for 30 years. He's served as a party precinct chair
and with the party's state executive committee, though he's never run for
public office. He is also host of the "Watauga Talks" radio show that
airs Friday mornings on 1450 AM WATA.
Kennedy sent Presnell a letter to post on the blog as he makes up his mind:
"I've been overwhelmed and honored by so many people asking me to run for
the 5th district Congressional seat. Our district needs representation in Washington that is
serious about the needs of people in our area, most especially jobs and future
opportunities for ourselves and our children. In light of these hard times, it
is not acceptable that our current legislator, Virginia Foxx, says 'no' to
every proposed solution while at the same time taking advantage of limited
taxpayer dollars for her own needs.
"As for now, I am seriously considering my options. This is not something
I can suddenly rush into without a lot of homework and planning, not to mention
the support of my family and closest friends. I hope to have a concrete
decision in the coming weeks and will certainly let all you good people know as
soon as possible what my plans are. In the meantime, keep the faith that
positive change can indeed come to our district."
Presnell noted that the draft campaign was picked up by Beltway Blitz, Blue NC,
Swing State Project and other prominent political blogs. "He definitely
got a ton of attention really quickly," Presnell said. "Most people
know he's the radio host from Boone." …
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