Graves to maintain office in Rome

Calhoun Times: Graves to maintain office in Rome 

By Diane Wagner - Calhoun Times
August 19th, 2012

The Ranger Republican is the incumbent in the new Northwest Georgia Congressional district that includes Gordon County

U.S. Rep. Tom Graves said he’s made plans to keep the Rome constitutent services office of U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, including some of his staff.

“The offices they maintain, we will still maintain in the district. Same location (Rome Federal Building), same services” Graves said Monday. “Linda Liles will be staying. Travis (Loudermilk) is in Dalton. Janet Byington is going to follow Phil.”

Gingrey has represented Floyd County for 10 years, but his district was shifted east — to Bartow, Cherokee and part of Cobb County — in the reapportionment that followed the 2010 census.

Graves is the incumbent in the newly created 14th District, and Floyd is one of the 12 Northwest Georgia counties it covers.

He is being challenged in the Nov. 6 election by Democrat Danny Grant, a political novice from Fort Oglethorpe who has raised $5,580 to Graves’ $925,397, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The Ranger Republican is touring the new 14th District in the run-up to the election.

“The next 90 days are a good time for America,” Graves said. “This is a choice time. Americans are going to make a decision: ‘Do we like the direction we’re going in, or do we want to try another?’”

Graves said constituents have expressed frustration with partisan gridlock in Washington, and he traced it to Democrats’ 2009-11 “aggressive agenda” when they controlled both Congress and the presidency.

He’s not willing to budge much, he said, but he noted that actions such as the debt ceiling increase and reauthorization of the Transportation Bill were done with bipartisan support.

“What I want to do is fix things, change the trajectory we’re on…but all these things that have to get done, are getting done,” Graves said.