DING DONG: It’s District 3 at the door

Columbia’s District 3 City Council race is starting to heat up in the compressed campaign season before April’s city elections.

“People have just now started to get engaged in this race,” said Jenny Isgett, an attorney and one of four candidates running for the seat being vacated by Belinda Gergel. “People are starting to take an interest and are asking some good questions.”

Three seats are open in the April 3 election: District 2, District 3 and a citywide seat. The District 3 seat has the most crowded field, with candidates jockeying for name recognition and early voter commitments.

Isgett, who has been knocking on doors and attending neighborhood meetings since October, said she was only now starting to get yard signs out in greater numbers.

“It’s been a busy week,” she said. “We’re staying busy 24-7.”

She’s not alone. In fact, all of the candidates have been busy knocking on doors, getting signs out and making sure to be seen at last week’s “One Book, One Columbia” panel discussion on the Midlands’ rivers.

“I got up at 5 a.m. this morning to finish reading the book,” law school student Daniel Coble, another District 3 candidate, said Thursday. When not studying for school, Coble said he tries to balance work — he’s a law clerk for the S.C. House Judiciary Committee — with running for office.

Name recognition is something the 25-year-old son of former Mayor Bob Coble admits may be a little easier for him. “But you can’t run on your last name,” he said. “What people really care about are the issues and what you stand for.”

Coble says his No. 1 tactic has been to get out, knock on doors and meet people “face to face.”

“It’s about that personal touch,” he said. “I go to all the neighborhood meetings. Each is unique.”

Like Coble, well-known restaurant owner Moe Baddourah says name recognition doesn’t hurt, but he, too, is working on “old-fashioned” campaigning.

“I’ve knocked on 4,500 doors and have about 1,000 more to go,” he said.

And while a recent count of area neighborhoods seemed to suggest he was winning the yard-sign war with his brightly lettered “MOE!” signs, Baddourah plans to go back and revisit with some of the people he met earlier.

“I am sticking with my plan that I started five months ago, which is to meet as many people as I can,” he said. “We’re trying to stay on top of social media, but at the same time we’re still doing it the old-fashioned way.”

In fact, each candidate cited the importance of social media in helping to get his or her message out.

“It’s a pretty major tool even for a campaign this small,” said Michael Miller, a freelance writer and the only Rosewood resident in the race with three Shandon residents.

While Miller said he will be using a mix of social networking and face-to-face meetings, he would not be spending as much money as his opponents. In fact, he said he had not spent much time on yard signs. “Everyone will tell you they won’t get you one single vote, but you’ve got to have them,” he said.

In fact, his campaign, he said, would be taking a more grassroots tactic.

“That might be an overused word, but we’re going to be trying some interesting things over the next few weeks,” he said. “But we’ll still be taking a one-on-one approach.”

Whatever the strategy, all four candidates will have multiple opportunities over the next six weeks to get their message out at various community meetings and forums.

The Five Points Merchants Association will hold a Merchants Forum Feb. 28 in which candidates will meet one at a time with several groups of business owners from the area. The candidates plan to attend the Shandon Neighborhood Council’s annual meeting, its largest of the year, coming up March 12.

Council president Tina Cundari said she thought Shandon residents would ask tough questions of each candidate. “So much of our lives or our quality of life depends on the city,” she said. “... So (if we ask questions), it’s just that we are dependent on the city.”

The race may come down to constituent service.

“I feel like we’ve been spoiled with Belinda Gergel,” Cundari said. “We’ve had someone we could call on anytime, day or night. And whether we agreed with City Council or didn’t, we always knew we had that line of communication. I think I can speak for the council when I say that is important.”