Practicing His Lines

Eugene Jorissen left the Republican National Convention fired up about the McCain-Palin ticket, ready to spread the news about what a strong team the GOP put together in St. Paul, Minn. If the convention‘s aim was to motivate the party base, sending it on a mission for victory, it hit a bull’s-eye with first-time attendee Jorissen.

“This has been a wonderful experience,” the alternate delegate from Michigan says. “It’s an inspiration, it’s uplifting.

“This is something I want to be working on and something I want to share with others,” he says.

Jorissen tried out his lines on the server at a restaurant in Bloomington, a Twin Cities suburb where the Michigan delegation is staying. Although she didn’t really know much about politics, she promised to look into the Republican ticket.

Jorissen also plans to campaign more for the ticket when he gets home to Ludington, where he’s the supervisor of Pere Marquette township. “I talked to my wife, and she’s already gotten calls about getting [McCain-Palin] yard signs,” he says.

Indicating Michigan’s importance to the Republican ticket, John McCain scheduled a Friday stop in Jorissen’s home state—just one day after Republicans formally nominated him. In 2004 President Bush carried Jorissen’s Mason County by 1,791 votes, 56 percent to 43 percent, over Democrat John Kerry. Jorissen knows the Republican candidate faces an uphill battle there this time around.

Many Mason County voters strongly oppose the war in Iraq, which McCain supports, though he wants to bring American troops home if the situation permits. On the other hand, Jorissen predicts McCain’s calls for change in Washington will play well in his area.

In St. Paul, Jorissen chatted up U.S. Senate candidate Jack Hoogendyk, inviting him to attend an upcoming Mason County Republicans picnic. Jorissen’s not sure if Hoogendyk, a state representative currently challenging incumbent Sen. Carl Levin, will attend, but the convention allowed him to get close enough to ask.

Jorissen is also trying his hand at the art of “free media”–a publicity skill McCain honed during his campaign’s lean early days when he lagged far behind in the polls. Jorissen arranged to have his picture taken holding up his hometown newspaper, the Ludington Daily News, to show that he had been at the convention. He hopes the newspaper will publish it.

Just another drop in the bucket for what Jorissen hopes will be an overflowing McCain-Palin victory in the fall.