DISCLOSURE: I am not employed for any campaign in the House District 21 Special election, nor am I employed for any company working on any campaign in the race. I do not live in Cherokee county and cannot vote for any of the candidates. The following blog post is based solely on personal interactions and in no way reflects any other campaign.

On Facebook, there is a ‘group’ titled “Cherokee Young Republicans”. Because it is a group, notifications are sent out whenever posts are made. On New Years Eve, I received posts because candidate Brian Laurens had posted in the group. He posted about his being the ‘right man for the job’ to which I questioned why he waited until the incumbent stepped down if he was the right man for the job. You can see the interaction below:

So, I missed the screen shot on my entire comment, but, basically I was drawing attention to the fact that if this seat is so important because of the ISSUES affecting Cherokee county, it wouldn’t matter if there was an incumbent or not. It would be solely about the people of Cherokee. We can see by Mr. Laurens comments that he could care less that I’m not a constituent, but only because I’m not donating money. He also attempted to discredit me by associating me with another campaign based upon previous work experience, which is also false.  You can check where Laurens received his out-of-district donations by visiting here, but I think it’s obvious that Mr. Laurens couldn’t care less about citizen input unless there is money involved. Instead of responding, Mr. Laurens deleted the post. (I knew he would…thus the screen shots.)

Mr. Laurens also posted about pledging the Fair Tax. As a campaign consultant and as a Georgia taxpayer, I can’t stand when candidates make empty promises that they cannot single-handedly uphold. You can pledge to refuse lobby donations and you can pledge to host town hall meetings, heck, you can pledge to only wear black suits. You cannot pledge to champion legislation. Sorry. It just doesn’t work that way. He included a picture of his mailer and of course, I called him out. He responded as seen below.

Now- it seems to me that Mr. Laurens has forgotten that while he may be the direct representative of the residents in Cherokee county, he has the ability to affect every citizen in Georgia. To break it down for you on a very basic level, Brian, it means your actions are part of a greater body that works toward all kinds of people from all parts of the state. Therefore, I have every right to an opinion about what you ‘pledge’ to do.

It’s no secret that Mr. Laurens doesn’t care for me as a blogger (as he has made quite clear during interactions with me and an employer) and he didn’t appreciate my lack of brown-nosing to former Senator Chip Rogers. Is that really cause for public dismissal?

MORE CONTRADICTIONS:
Mr. Laurens shows his “outpouring of support” from the community and leaders across Cherokee…

Yet, just a few days later, Mr. Laurens posted on his Facebook page that he doesn’t care about any endorsements. Just the people.
BUT!  This was just days after a series of Georgia Right to Life endorsement pushes and posts, and likely mailers.

So which one is it, Brian? Do you care about the leaders in Cherokee or do you care about the voters? According to your posts, it can’t be both. And please don’t go all John Kerry on us.
I think we are all tired of dismissive and condescending males who think they have a shoe-in to public office because of who they know.  I think it’s clear that Mr. Laurens is not cut out for this office at this time. Maybe after a little growing and a little humility, things will be different.

Also, you can’t put your own kid on the Georgia- Right to Life endorsement. That’s cheating.