Free Republic

Bluffton, S.C — The man who would be president answers his own phone on the campaign trail. His motorcade is a silver Toyota Prius driven by his wife. His choicest sound bite — "Had I had the time and some national media exposure, I believe I'd be right up there in the top flank" — is delivered over lunch at a Wendy's near the "active adult" residential community where he'll address an audience of a dozen people. He's here in a state bordering his own, because, well, his own won't have him. Anyone else might become discouraged, but not Georgia's...

Anyone who goes to vote in South Carolina's Jan. 19 Republican primary may see Cap Fendig's name on the ballot and wonder who is he? In fact, Fendig came to Charleston on Tuesday to try to get something that has largely eluded him since he declared as a Republican presidential candidate four months ago: a little attention. The Glenn County (Ga.) commissioner entered the presidential race Sept. 6, and South Carolina is one of the few states where he actually will appear on the ballot. Most other states, including his own, have left him off. While Fendig, 53, knows he...

As Mary Ellyse Fendig, a fourth-year biology student at the University of South Carolina, is preparing to graduate and embark on a "new frontier" in her life, her dad is embarking on a new frontier of his own. Her father, Cap Fendig, is running for president. "At first, everyone thought it was a joke because my dad's personality is so laid-back," Mary Ellyse said. "He's very fun-loving, but he's very serious about this." Cap, a Republican, has spent the past eight years as the county commissioner in St. Simons, Ga. Though he doesn't have much political experience, his daughter says...

Cap Fendig, a Republican candidate for president in 2008, was in Muscatine on Thursday. “We’re in the area and we’ll be back,” Fendig, a Georgia County commissioner, said of his and his wife Catherine’s travels in Iowa. During a brief visit to the Muscatine Journal Thursday, Fendig said he is on a “meet and greet” tour of Iowa this month and in December. According to his Web site, he began Thursday in Burlington before visiting Muscatine and ending the day in Davenport, where he will also spend today. Fendig is the owner of a small business and a 30-year U.S....

ST. SIMONS ISLAND - Glynn County Commissioner Cap Fendig announced Tuesday his formal withdrawal from the presidential race. A long-shot candidate, Fendig ran in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina but was kept off the ballot in his home state. "We entered this race realistic about the chance for success," Fendig said in a prepared release, "but for opportunity to happen, you have to place yourself in a position of opportunity." Every news article or online report about him mentioned his omission from the Georgia Republican ballot delivering "a very serious blow for credibility outside Georgia," he said. In spite...

Shunned at home, Fendig presses on Cap Fendig has been busy on the presidential campaign trail since announcing his lofty intention in September. The Glynn County Commissioner has spoken to groups and attended events in Georgia, Florida and Iowa. Getting out and talking to groups of people is a must for an unknown underdog with limited funds, who is trying to play on the same field as such Republican stalwarts as Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. "Ours is a grassroots campaign," Fendig said. "(Our) Web site is the main draw. People will e-mail me and ask what they can do...