Vice president Cheney campaigns for congressional candidate
Vice President Dick Cheney came to Middle Georgia for a couple of hours Monday, raising more than $100,000 for congressional hopeful and retired Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Commander Rick Goddard.
The vice president appeared at a private fundraiser in Perry, where couples paid as much as $2,300 a couple for a picture with Cheney. Then he was quickly gone, stepping back onto Air Force Two about two hours after he arrived.
Goddard, who hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Macon, in the 8th Congressional District this year, called the visit "a great honor." Goddard said that Cheney, in remarks at the fundraiser, talked about "the issues that we face - the challenges with energy."
For Goddard, those challenges call for drilling for oil off the United States' coastline, drilling in Alaska, building new refineries, developing new nuclear power options "as quickly as we can" and finding a new power source for transportation, whether it be hydrogen, electric batteries or biofuels.
A campaign spokesman said slightly more than 200 people attended the fundraiser Monday and that the campaign hit its goal of raising $115,000. The event was closed to the media, but the vice president waved in the general direction of a bank of local news cameras covering his departure from Middle Georgia Regional Airport. Goddard didn't meet Cheney at the airport, though, and there was no opportunity for the press to photograph him with the vice president, who has not fared well in popularity polls.
Goddard said not to read anything into that. He said he didn't meet Cheney at the airport, in part, because he needed to be at the fundraiser early. Among other Republicans, Gov. Sonny Perdue attended, he said.
Goddard added that he is "very pleased and proud that (Cheney) has given us such strong and vocal support."
Several Middle Georgia Republicans did meet Cheney at the airport, shaking his hand and exchanging brief remarks as the vice president exited his plane and got into a waiting government limousine.
"He just asked a name," Bill Paschall said of the encounter. "I told him I was retired Navy, 34 years service, and he thanked me for that. I think he was secretary of defense (while I was in the Navy).
"He's a good guy," Paschall said. "I think he's smart. He makes decent, rational decisions."
As he did when President Bush visited Middle Georgia twice for congressional challenger Mac Collins in 2006, Doug Moore, Marshall's press secretary, complained of the cost to bring such a high-ranking official to town for a fundraiser.
Presidential and vice presidential travel costs are significant but difficult to nail down. But at least seven local law enforcement agencies, in addition to the Georgia State Patrol and U.S. Secret Service, provided security for Monday's visit. The vice president's motorcade from the airport consisted of 18 vehicles, plus a helicopter hovering overhead.
"Why should the taxpayers bear any burden for Rick Goddard's campaign?" Moore said.
Goddard spokesman Tim Baker said the campaign "will fully reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the political portion of the trip." Asked how much that will be, Baker said things are still being added up and totals will be available when the campaign files its next campaign finance report, which is due early next month.
The vice president's press office said it doesn't provide travel cost breakdowns and referred the question back to the Goddard campaign. Goddard said a larger concern is "the enormous cost that it takes to run any campaign." In 2006, Marshall and his opponent both raised about $2 million for their hard-fought race, and this race may prove similarly expensive.
"I think that's the thing that bothers me most," Goddard said.
