Posted on 09/22/2002 4:44:09 AM PDT by GailA
Head games: Tennessee Dems taunt GOP with foam Sundquist head
By KARIN MILLER Associated Press Writer September 21, 2002
NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist doesn't make it to many Republican campaign events these days because his push for a state income tax has made him so unpopular in his party.
But Democrats want to make sure he isn't forgotten.
They often send in the "Titular Head," a party activist who dons a 3-foot plastic foam head with a toothy grin and huge eyeglasses that bears a remarkable likeness to the GOP's lame-duck governor.
"It's part publicity stunt and part psychological warfare," said Will Pinkston, who does opposition research for the state Democrats. "They can run, but they can't hide from the titular head of the Republican party."
During President Bush's visit to Tennessee this past week, the mock Sundquist stood on a sidewalk in downtown Nashville blowing kisses and waving to the motorcade.
"I don't know if the president saw him, but I think the Secret Service guy in the front waved," joked Tom Alexander, a Democratic activist who held an umbrella over the head to prevent it from getting too wet in a drizzling rain.
The grinning head usually shadows Republican gubernatorial candidate Van Hilleary, even popping up at the window of a Waffle House during an unscheduled late-night stop in Athens. Hilleary ignored it, calling the effort juvenile.
"We are at a crossroads in Tennessee and this is no time for childish antics," added Hilleary spokeswoman Jennifer Coxe.
She said if Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen "wants to act like a fifth-grader he can do it, but I think Tennesseans want a mature debate about the issues."
Bredesen says he has nothing to do with it; otherwise, he won't talk about it.
Democrat Robert Benton McDonough, who also does opposition research for the Democrats, wore a red plaid shirt along with the caricature head when Bush arrived at a $1,000-per-person fund-raising luncheon for Lamar Alexander, a U.S. Senate candidate and former Bush rival.
Alexander wore a red-and-black checked shirt in the '80s when he trekked across the state to win the governorship, and in the first of his two unsuccessful presidential races. Democrats accompanying the head held a sign that said "Alexander for President," with the word "President" crossed out and "Senate" written in.
Alexander, who was riding in Bush's motorcade, didn't see the head or he would have waved back, said campaign spokesman Kevin Phillips.
"We welcome the Titular Head at events, it sure beats another bad Elvis impersonator," Phillips joked. "When people find out it's Al Gore under that mask, they'll forget all about his stiff image."
The state Democratic party first talked about putting a man in a chicken suit to attend GOP events.
A giant chicken followed Hilleary around during the primary, taunting him for failing to debate Republican opponent Jim Henry.
But that was too expensive and the Democrats wanted something a little more personal.
Bob Corney, who heads the Democrats' coordinated campaign for November elections, mused that it would be fun to create a giant Sundquist similar to the figures he had seen in Mardi Gras parades.
Tom Horton, creative director for the Democrats' coordinated campaign, mentioned that his nephew had sculpted figures for animatronic shows and children's rides. The nephew, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed to do it for the cost of materials, about $500.
Horton said his nephew worked from a sketch of the governor's Web site portrait. He carved the head from a 4-foot cube of plastic foam, hollowed it out, smoothed it with sandpaper, applied a resin coating for durability and painted it with an airbrush.
The glasses were made of armature wire with plexiglass lenses, and white faux fur was used to duplicate Sundquist's full head of hair.
The head is so large that it is transported by SUV and then attached via a harness strapped to the wearer's torso.
Kept in a special room at the Democrats' coordinated campaign headquarters, the head is beginning to show wear and tear, particularly around the ears.
"I think it's held up remarkably well considering what it's been through," Horton said. The head has traveled all over the state and banged into a few doorways, but appears to get better treatment than the governor, who has been booed at public events.
"Women and children love it," Pinkston said.
Sundquist staffers don't think the head looks like the governor and call it "a bunch of silliness."
"It would be better to have debates and hear real thoughts in these people's heads rather than talk about a fake head running around," said Sunquist spokeswoman Kriste Goad.
___
On the Net:
Tennessee Democratic Party: http://www.tndp.org/
Tennessee Republican Party: http://www.tngop.org/
Gov. Don Sundquist: http://www.state.tn.us/governor/
And the Dem alternative to that is...?
Exactly
What is it about the income tax democrats so love? I mean it's downright dysfunctional... They love one. You can't be in a predomimantly democrat state that don't have one and they are wangling constantly to get one in the states that don't have one. The biggest secret is RINO's love them too.
I'm so far to the right now, I'm afraid I'll fall off something. You know what, I hav'nt moved a bit. The Republican Party has and is moveing to the left, quickly. Republicans in Alaska have formed another party......
MODerate Republican... thats in a predominately Republican State.
Republican politicians are flirting with treason IMO
"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." -George Orwell
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