First-Time Candidate, 82, On Ballot for Clermont, Georgia Town Council

CLERMONT, Ga. -- She sums up the town she loves:

"Everybody's friends and everybody's like family."

And now everybody has a decision to make -- all 495 voters in this jewel of a crossroads, Clermont, in north Hall County.

Mary Ellen Rogers, a Clermont native, is on the ballot -- for the first time, for any office -- for Town Council.

She's Clermont's autumn bloom.

"Has anybody made an issue of the fact that you're 82?"

"No."

Except, she says on the porch of her home of 82 years, she's heard some good-natured kidding.

"Everybody's excited and it's been a lot of laughs about it, you know, that I'm 82 years old, running for office for the first time.... I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm proud of, but it wasn't like running for office or anything like that."

She laughs easily, and patiently answers a reporter's questions.

"So how do you go about campaigning?"

"I don't campaign. I just prayed about it and if I'm supposed to have it, well, I'll get it. And if I don't, why, I'll be happy about that, too."

Mary Ellen Rogers is serious about serving on the Town Council, about protecting the character, the history, of Clermont -- as new, huge subdivisions transform the town and threaten to wipe away history.

"I would like to keep it as near like it used to be as it is, and I'm not foolish enough to think that it could even be like it was when I grew up.... It's just that I care. I'm not in there to try to make anybody mad or go against anybody. I just care for the town, and it's very important to me to keep it that way."

She grew up, married young, had six children, eight grandchildren and, so far, 10 great-grandchildren.

Her father served on the Town Council in the 1930s; her older brother served on the Town Council in the 1970s.

She is an avid historian of Clermont, collecting photos of the town from before it was chartered in 1913 until now, and displaying them on large poster boards.

She thinks she has a good shot at winning.

There are three candidates in all, for two open seats on the five-member Town Council. The top, two voter-getters will win the two open seats.

The other two candidates are Lynn Adams, 48, another first-time candidate; and the incumbent, Sonny Helton, 71.

They were not available to comment for this story.

Early voting began in Clermont on October 13.

Mary Ellen Rogers is happy just to have her name on the ballot. She smiles and chuckles as she reveals how she is not running for the seat she wants.

"You don't have any campaign budget? No ads?"

"No."

"No mailings?"

"No."

"No brochures?"

"No."

"No signs?"

"No."

"No stickers?"

"No."

"No expenditures?"

"No, I don't like spending." She laughs.

So, she's a fiscal conservative, who was a mere 57 years old in 1984 when she heard people say President Reagan was too old to run for re-election.

His famous response, during a debate with his challenger, Sen. Walter Mondale:

"I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Even Mondale laughed at that line.

And if Mary Ellen Rogers wins on November 3rd, she says she just might run for re-election in four years.