Tuesday, April 29, 1997
Candidate uses "pigs" to get her
campaign message across
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
Bobbie Hotchkiss' assault on City Hall pork has taken a hammy
turn.
Hotchkiss is passing out pink, pig-shaped jar openers that
tout her candidacy for the Abilene City Council's Place 2 seat.
Though the political pigs aren't exactly mud-slingers, they don't
stray from Hotchkiss' bullish assessment of city governance.
The advertisements include a rhyme that, in part, reads, "This
little piggy went to council/This little piggy was shown/So much
waste at City Hall/My mind was really blown!"
The pig is a fitting symbol for Hotchkiss' campaign; she claims
to have rooted out wasteful spending that's breaking taxpayers'
banks.
"If you listen to me, I'm more clever than you think,"
she said Monday. "I see what's going on down there and it's
just sick."
Hotchkiss settled on jar openers for two reasons.
First, they're useful.
"They won't be wasted," Hotchkiss said. "That's
the way I am."
Second, and more importantly, they're inexpensive. While most
gimme items were outside her price range, she got 250 rubber hogs
for $164.
"I was looking for something cheap - very cheap,"
she said.
Hotchkiss revels in her thriftiness. In her last campaign finance
report, she noted a $69 expenditure for wooden stakes with the
exclamation "Best Price in town!" Still, she's spent
$1,574 more than frugal incumbent Don Drennan, who's spending
nothing on his campaign.
Drennan says the media has reported enough of his record for
voters to decide whether to re-elect him.
But he praised his opponent's piggy ploy.
"I love that," he laughed as he examined one of the
ads. "It's one of the neatest campaign pieces I've seen.
I disagree with the wording, but the idea is top-drawer."
Reportedly, the piglets are impressing others. Still, the challenger's
unsure whether the jar openers can loosen the incumbent's hold
on his seat.
"I don't do things like everybody else," Hotchkiss
said. "I hope this pays off."
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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