James Call
Voters in the 2nd Congressional District are still coming to terms with U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham’s campaign theme “The North Florida Way.”
To help the process along, Graham on Wednesday announced she will hold regular mobile office hours in the 12 rural counties she represents in addition to Tallahassee and Panama City.
Her defeat of tea party favorite Steve Southerland proved the lone bright spot for Florida Democrats in November. Since then, however, she has drawn fire from the left for votes in favor of the Keystone pipeline, rolling back Wall Street reforms, and not sufficiently supporting the Affordable Care Act. And the GOP has lambasted her for being too loyal to President Barack Obama.
The North Florida Way can be confusing even in a state where a tourism campaign once boast “The Rules are Different Here.”
Graham, though, confidently campaigned in the small rural counties of the district stretching from the Emerald Coast to the Big Bend region explaining herself directly to the people and telling reporters she would focus on constituent services. She said the mobile office hours just illustrates what she talked about on the campaign trial.
“It doesn’t matter if you live in one of North Florida’s big cities or on a farm,” Graham said. “I’m honored to be in a position to help people.”
If her first two months in office is any indicator, the mobile office idea also puts Graham in position to field criticism about how she is too much of a liberal-conservative walking lockstep with the President while abandoning him.
The thing about rural North Florida counties is that politicians can break out of the political media bubble and talk directly with people. Southerland often held random “mobile” office hours, showing up at a feed store or country diner and just talking to people. The habit may help explain why he consistently carried the farming, logging, and fishing communities by nearly two-thirds margins.
Graham will start employing the strategy next week with a Tuesday visit to Jackson County, followed by Jefferson County on the March 17, Gulf on March 24, and Taylor and Madison counties on March 25.
