Monday night in Gulf Shores, seven congressional hopefuls looking to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, convened in a candidates’ forum co-hosted by Yellowhammer News and the Baldwin County Young Republicans.
Most of the perceived “top tier” candidates were there, however one was conspicuously absent.
While the rest of the field was debating the future of Mobile, Wells Griffith instead chose to attend the Southern League AA baseball matchup between the Mobile BayBears and the Jackson Generals at Hank Aaron Stadium.
Griffith, 30, is a former Republican National Committee aide, where he had worked two years prior to making this run for Congress. Prior to his stint at the RNC, he worked in Mississippi Republican politics and served as campaign manager for State Sen. Bryan Taylor, R-Prattville.
Noticeably missing from Griffith’s résumé is anything that would indicate he is familiar with the issues and the constituents of Alabama’s First Congressional District.
To be sure, the Griffith name is a well-known staple of the Mobile community — thanks to the Griffith family owned and operated Shell Gas Station on Government Street — however, Griffith has spent most of the last decade living outside of the District, only returning recently to run for Congress.
Griffith had a prime opportunity on Monday to share with a packed room of voters and members of the press his knowledge of the issues impacting the First Congressional District and prove that he was ready to stand up and fight as their representative in Congress.
Instead he squandered that opportunity to go to a baseball game.
After some confusion regarding the format of Monday’s event, an email was circulated to all the candidates announcing the addition of a new round of questions to the debate. During this new round, each candidate would be assigned one other candidate to ask a question. Businessman Dean Young was slated to ask Griffith his question.
Upon learning this, Griffith campaign spokesman Rob Lockwood emailed to notify the Baldwin County Young Republicans that Griffith would no longer participate.
“We were considering this debate because it was designed as an opportunity to promote an agenda and vision, not insert the campaign into a format that champions Republicans fighting against each other on stage,” Lockwood said. “The 2012 elections proved that debates designed to pit candidates against each other – like this new format does – caters to too much negativity.”
Yellowhammer immediately sent Lockwood an email apologizing for the miscommunication leading up to the event and reassuring him that the forum would be a positive event for all the participants — which all of the candidates would now certainly attest to.
The campaign’s mind was unchanged.
Ironically, the question Dean Young asked Rep. Chad Fincher during the candidate-to-candidate round was, “What have you most enjoyed about the campaign to this point?”
If this were the first time Griffith had backed out twenty-four hours before a forum or debate, it might not be notable — but it is not.
Griffith also opted out at the last minute of a similar forum hosted by the Baldwin County Republican Party’s Coffee Club in Robertsdale last Saturday.
In the final email exchange between Yellowhammer and Lockwood, Yellowhammer said, “It’s hard not to think you’re concerned your candidate isn’t ready to answer questions that aren’t softballs in front of the voters.”
“That assumption is incorrect,” Lockwood replied.
Woody Allen is widely credited with noting that 80 percent of success is just showing up. As of Monday night, Griffith finds himself with a wide gap to make up early in this race.
And that baseball game he opted for over his appearance in Gulf Shores — it ended up being rained out.
