Mary Squires has the right message, but can she win enough votes?

[flaminbats]

From today's AJC...

Squires says she is keeping her message simple.

"It's jobs It's remained jobs. It's still jobs," she said. "Georgia has lost a massive number of jobs."

Squires, a paralegal who works as a real estate title searcher, is proposing a new federal-state program to help startup businesses. Her plan calls for the creation of a network of local offices to help new business owners steer through the myriad of local regulations, tax problems and unforseen costs that doom many companies. Squires says 75% of Georgians work for small businesses.

She is also proposing that workers without health insurance be able to contribute directly to Medicaid for coverage under the federal health care program, and that the government pay for undereducated employees to receive additional training through existing institutions.

<http://marysquires.us/index/articles/20040613134223?sec=2>

[vetwife]

1. I met Mary Squires at the Cathedral when Kerry was here

She is a vet and way cool ! If we help, she can win !

[flaminbats]

4. Squires served as a captain in the Georgia Army National Guard...

from Sunday's article on Squires written by [e-mail]

<snip> Hodges, "a firm believer in the band of brothers," said he also likes Squires' military past.

Supporters say it is just part of her populist appeal that makes a liberal candidate such as Squires palatable to rural Georgians. When Squires says, "We all know that Bush lied about getting us in the Iraq war," she speaks as a former captain of the Army National Guard who served in the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare Corps, backers say.

Squires says she believes the United States has been left vulnerable by the overdeployment in Iraq of Reserve and Guard troops, who provide a vital function during natural disasters, "We need to wrap this up," she says. <snip>

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. She can do it

From what research I've done into the candidates, she's running a very aggressive grassroots campaign. Out knocking on doors every day, stumping at all kinds of events. She's building up a following.
She seems like the only one that can appeal to all types of democratic voters.

Check her out:
www.marysquires.us

[flaminbats]

3. I'm not sure which candidate to support or even which primary to vote in..

But if I voted in Georgia today, she would be the one I would probably vote for. At least Georgia Democrats have over a month to make this decision. I admire the way she is running this campaign. She reminds me of a north Georgia Congressional candidate in 96 who ran his campaign the same way, only losing because he ran against an incumbent. Squires does not have that as a disadvantage.

In a part of Sunday's AJC article on Mary Squires <snip> "This is how I've always run my campaigns: targeting voters and going door to door," Squires said. "It worked for Jimmy Carter It worked for Lawton Chiles," the late former governor of Florida.

While better-funded rivals prepare to launch their media campaigns, Squires is crisscrossing the state in a 2001 Dodge Neon knocking on doors and shaking as many hands as possible. It's a campaign that blends old fashioned politicking with modern vote-targeting know-how.

Squires used the same method in her first try for elected office in 1998 to oust incumbent GOP legislator Ron Crews in heavily Republican Gwinnett County. <snip>