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AGAINST THE ODDS
Bobby Saxon thought he was finished with
military service when he pulled off the uniform
back in 1990. After graduating from Georgia
Southern University, he had served eight years
with the U.S. Army and Georgia National Guard
as an artillery officer. He was ready to move on
with the rest of his life, going back to Northeast
Georgia to start a technology consulting business.
That life was put on hold after Saxon, like
millions of Americans, watched the shocking
events of Sept. 11, 2001 unfold on TV. "9/11
drastically changed the way I looked at a lot of
things," he says. Saxon rejoined the National
Guard and was sent to Iraq with the 3rd Infantry
Division in 2005, where he was awarded a
Bronze Star. After working a few months at the
Pentagon, he re-entered civilian life and is run
ning his software consulting business again.
He is one of many Iraq War veterans who have
decided to give politics a try, announc
ing a few weeks ago from his home
in Nicholson that he will run in the
Democratic primary next year for the
10th Congressional District seat.
A few of the Iraq War veterans
have won their congressional
elections, but Saxon faces longer
odds than most. He is running in
a Northeast Georgia district that's
staunchly Republican and will have
not one but two strong GOP candi
dates competing for the seat.
Saxon, a former chairman of the
Jackson County Democratic Party, argues that his
latest mission is not impossible. "There has not
been a tremendous amount of effort over here by
a Democratic candidate to get to the entire dis
trict and attempt to convince them that we can
indeed make a difference," he says. "I think I
can do it better and I can do it differently. We're
going to run a 21-county campaign—go out and
talk to our neighbors about truly making a differ
ence in this district."
Saxon disagrees with George Bush's deci
sion to escalate the war by deploying 30,000
additional troops to Iraq as part of a "surge"
that was supposed to have brought about more
political progress. "I don't think that continuing
the surge is the right thing to do and I'm glad
the president said we're going stop the surge,
because we're going to move 30 or 40,000 troops
out of harm's way," Saxon says. "However, I'm
disappointed the president didn't say we're go
ing to go a lot farther. We'll be at the same point
[next year] that we were in January, 2007."
As an Iraq War veteran, Saxon is in a posi
tion to make the war an issue throughout the
congressional campaign. It's difficult to know
how much good that will do him, however.
When Charlie Norwood died earlier this year and
a special election was called to fill the 10th
District seat, James Marlow ran as a Democrat
and emphasized his support for ending the war
and redeploying the troops. Marlow only pulled
20 percent of the vote. Saxon notes that next
year will be a different election, and he says he
is hearing from both sides of the partisan divide
that we need to do something about Iraq.
"I grew up in Oconee County and I still have
plenty of friends there, Republicans, and when I
have conversations with them, they tell me,
'Bobby, we've got to fix this and get out
of there,'" Saxon says. "They all want
a solution that ends our involvement
in Iraq as soon as possible. Everyone
in this country wants to get out of
Iraq as soon as possible—the devil
is in the details."
The political realities still in
dicate that a Republican is likely
to retain this seat. That could be
incumbent congressman Paul Broun,
the physidan who won the spedal elec
tion. It could be state Rep. Barry Fleming,
a savvy lawyer from Columbia County who has an
nounced he will run in the GOP primary and will
have the backing of much of the party leadership.
The political experts say that either Broun
or Fleming is a dnch to win this seat, and they
will likely be proved right. But then, those same
so-called experts—and that group would include
me—were convinced that state legislator Jim
Whitehead was a sure bet to win the spedal
election to replace Charlie Norwood. We were all
wrong on that one. Bobby Saxon, at least, thinks
we could be wrong again.
Tom Crawford
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia
Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com that
covers government and politics in Georgia.
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