The Georgia Petroleum

Council then followed, with some newsletter trying to

educate me about the wonderful accomplishments of

Chevron, Amoco, BP, Exxon, and others.

The Atlanta paper called to

ask for two photos of me. The Clayton Citizens Coalition

(whoever they are) sent its questionnaire next. Their

first question was whether I believed Roe v. Wade was

decided correctly (as if I could do anything about it).

I heard from both the

Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) and

the Georgia Association of Educators PAC (GAE). These

seem to be competing teachers' unions which want to

expand their membership by obtaining annual contracts for

the secretarial and janitorial staff of schools, but they

seemed to be at odds with one another.

The GAE sent me a

23-question survey where I could check either the box

that said "agree with GAE's position" or the

box that said "disagree with GAE's position."

They also wanted to give me an interview at a pre-set

place, date and time of their choosing. I had to be in

Savannah that day, so I wrote them a four-page letter

analyzing every one of their questions, one by one, and

giving them as thoughtful and intelligent an answer as

each deserved. I never heard further from them.

Of course I heard also from

the NRA. Yes, the famed National Rifle Association. I

replied with a thoughtful letter to the Washington, D.C.,

address they gave me. I should have told them my campaign

motto was "a chicken in every pot, a gun rack in

every truck." (Didn't think of it.)

The ecologically-minded

Atlanta Greens' survey had 64 questions. Question 63 was

"what are people for?" Question 64 was

"what is your vision for the future?" I told

them.

The next letter was from

CANDID, or Citizens Against Nude Dancing In DeKalb. They

had eight questions, none of which (thankfully!) asked me

if I was willing to form a chapter for their organization

in Fayette. The Georgia Council on Aging sent me nice

brochures on problems of the elderly. Georgians Against

Smoking Pollution (GASP) sent me some statistics and a

nine-question survey, soon to be followed by a

questionnaire from Jonesboro Smokers' Rights (whoever

they are). The Miller beer people sent me a brochure on

how to host a "responsible event." And someone

offered to distribute colorful last-minute campaign

flyers for me, for a fee.

If the Atlanta Greens had

had a question 65, reading "who are people

for?," I could have told them, after the votes were

counted, "not for me." As it turned out, I had

last-minute competition in the Democratic primary from a

lady who must have had better luck with her

questionnaires. Nobody invited either one of us to debate

anything, anywhere.

The local Democratic Party

invited then Attorney General Mike Bowers (who was later

to defect to the Republicans) to speak, instead of

affording us an opportunity to debate. When the primary

votes for the Democrat side were counted, as few as they

were, I had 25 percent of them. Funny thing is, we still

got our state court. It just took a little longer.

I must candidly report I

never had a "responsible event," sobering as my

election experience was. The CANDID people would have

been proud. In all this time, nobody ever asked me, or

cared, whether I loved SPLOST. At least you know the

answer to that one by now.

I will leave it to others

to pontificate on the sad state of our political system.

Folks who tell you to get involved are right if they

intend for you to learn a lot. I did. I am sharing my

learning with you, which might help you save the 400

bucks and avoid lots of surveys. And, by the way, the

Georgia Petroleum Council must have cut me off its

mailing list: I haven't heard from them since the 1992

primary election.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

[email protected]