While most

political candidates these days are looking for "face time"

on television, Bob Irvin is looking for "face-to-face" time

with voters.

"I'm going

to campaign in person as much as I possibly can," said Irvin last

week as he prepared to meet with voters in Fayette County to ask them

to help put him in the U.S. Senate.

"Everybody

knows a TV ad is spun," said the Republican state representative

from north Fulton County. "Plus it's a one-way connection you can't

ask any questions."

Though admitting

he won't eschew advertising entirely, Irvin said he is setting up meetings

in every county in the state to talk to, and listen to, local voters.

At every stop, he said, he is asking one question: "What would you

like your U.S. senator to work on?"

Fayette is

his third stop, but already Irvin said a pattern is emerging in the answers

he is getting to that question.

"Taxes,

transportation especially in metro Atlanta and economic development outside

metro Atlanta," he said, adding, "There's also a lot of concern

about education."

Irvin is taking

on Max Cleland, Georgia's affable, popular senator and Vietnam War hero.

Democrat Cleland has been targeted by Georgia Republicans as vulnerable

in the 2002 elections.

"I think

Max is vulnerable," Irvin said, "simply because his voting record

is too liberal for Georgia." In earlier campaigns, Irvin said, Cleland

"told people he would be like Sam Nunn."

But Cleland's

"party unity score," assigned by the magazine Congressional

Quarterly, "runs 80 percent or higher every year," said Irvin.

That's compared

with Nunn's score of 60, and junior Sen. Zell Miller's 25, he added.

But before

he can challenge Cleland, Irvin must defeat south Georgia U.S. Rep. Saxby

Chambliss for the Republican nomination.

His criticism

of his Republican opponent is similar to his criticism of Cleland. "He

has a party unity score even higher than Max's," said Irvin. "I

really think what the people of the state want is someone who makes up

his own mind ... someone who is independent."

Irvin said

he decided to run for the Senate to try and do something about federal

interference in Georgia affairs.

Having served

in the state House for three terms in the '70s, and then again from 1993

to the present, Irvin said he is all too familiar with the problem.

"Every

issue I've been interested in, sooner or later you run up against a federal

wall," he said.

Metro Atlanta's

current transportation problems are a perfect example, he said. "We're

spending $50 billion on a long range transportation plan, and everybody

involved in it knows that when it's completed traffic congestion is going

to be 50 percent worse than today," he said.

"The reason,"

he added, "is you've got federal bureaucrats trying to design a plan

in Washington, and that's true on a lot of issues."

While admitting

he can't single-handedly solve all the problems, Irvin said what's most

important is to have a senator who will push hard. "Other states

have gotten them [federal agencies] to back off," he said. "What

you need is an elected official who will take an interest in the issue

and work on it every day."

Irvin grew

up in Roswell, the son of a veterinarian. He is a graduate and valedictorian

of the Lovett School, and a graduate of the College of William and Mary.

He has a law degree from Emory University and practiced in Atlanta for

five years.

He then went

to Harvard Business School and earned a masters in business administration,

and for 21 years has been in management consulting.

He and wife,

Lynn, live in Atlanta.