Pictures of Andy

On Friday night I was one of about 6,000 folks who got the opportunity to shake hands with and maybe briefly discuss an issue with Congressional candidate Andy Harris. Here’s just one example.

Congressional candidate Andy Harris (center, in yellow) talks issues with interested voters at the Delmarva Shorebirds game, July 25, 2008.

I’ve been around politics long enough that these gatherings aren’t totally foreign to me, but as a peripheral member of the media it still intrigues me how much attention is drawn when the campaign comes to town. It’s an especially telling part of media coverage that there’s strength in numbers – we have a very hard time trying to get coverage for WCRC events but something on the order of the Tawes Crab Bake or Friday night’s Shorebirds game drew media like flies, as you can see in my pictures below.

Prior to an interview, Congressional candidate Andy Harris engages in some joviality with the FOX 21 reporter and crew.

It’s also worth mentioning that Andy had a special guest in former (and maybe future?) Governor Bob Ehrlich. One of the two Harris palm cards available at the game showed Harris and Ehrlich side by side, and you can look for more of the same in future literature.

A small army of media was present to picture Congressional candidate Andy Harris and former Governor Bob Ehrlich together.

From what I gathered, during the day a film crew had followed Andy around in his travels, and one of the tasks they were trying to accomplish was a new campaign commercial, part of which featured a number of supporters in the background. This shot was taken while they were filming the spot so there will be a number of familiar faces to me in the commercial whenever I see it. (Maybe someone will send it to me so I can embed it in a post, assuming I can get that to work! That’s called dropping a hint.)

Andy Harris and a few of his friends taping a commercial during the Shorebirds game.

Finally, I have to ask the question: can Shorebirds vote, and is Sherman old enough to do so? I know a dog ages 7 human years for each year in its lifespan, so what about big orange birds? At least he has a voting residence in the district since the Bird Pen is up beyond the third base-side bleachers.

Even Sherman the Shorebird got into the Harris spirit. Can Shorebirds vote though?

I have no idea what Andy spent on the evening’s fireworks and festivities but he did have a pretty good attendance Friday night of just over 6,700 folks. They got to see a well-done and on-point 90 second commercial just before the fireworks show, so it was definitely a captive audience. The only thing I didn’t enjoy about it was the Shorebirds laying goose eggs offensively and losing to Lexington 5-0. With only 20 home games remaining, it’s doubtful Frank Kratovil can put together a similar event but we’ll see.

This is also the debut of another new category called “mainstream media.” It’ll cover posts which pertain to the “dead tree” or “drive-by” media coverage of a person or event. I suspect it will be a frequently-used category as Campaign 2008 continues into its last 3 months.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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