Gainesville attorney is national co-chair of Paul's 'Build America'

ATLANTA - Just before the ice storm hit this past week, a potential Republican presidential candidate made his way to Atlanta to talk to industry leaders about their concerns on America's economy and other issues.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was in Georgia to kick off his "Build America" project, an effort being spearheaded in part by Gainesville attorney Ashley Bell.

"These are people from various industries that help to maybe give me a perspective outside of Washington," said Paul. "I think part of the problem is Washington doesn't know much about the rest of America."

He said most of his fellow Senators have no idea what it's like to own a small business or manage a company, and he wants to set himself apart from the Washington standard.

"This will give me a chance to connect with people who are in business, to hear about what are the struggles, what are the things going on right now that people are trying to overcome to try to stay in business," said Paul.

While Atlanta was the first stop on Paul's "Build America" road trip, he said he has been speaking to others about his desire to "stay connected" with those who live and work outside of Washington.

Bell, a former Hall County Commissioner, and Elroy Sailor, the CEO of the J.C. Watts Companies, are the national co-chairs for "Build America."

Paul stopped short of saying that "Build America" was a pre-cursor to a presidential run, but Bell hinted that the effort can help lay the groundwork for Paul.

"We agree on that - that this party has to become bigger, it has to become more diverse if we're going to have a chance of taking conservative values to the White House," said Bell.

"The diversity that we're talking about is putting in the room people from all walks of life and people from every sector of our economy. We want to make sure we have people who own restaurant franchises to people who are in the transportation industry to people who are in education and information technology."

Bell said the goal behind "Build America" is not just to help Sen. Paul, however; the goal is to give Americans more of a voice in Washington.

"Hopefully out of this [Atlanta meeting], we'll have that 'thought leadership' and these people can have a direct line of communication with someone like Sen. Paul who's making decisions in D.C. and helping create policy without the need of a lobbyist, without having to pay someone to have a voice."

Bell said despite the impending ice storm Monday night, there was still a good group ready and willing to talk with Paul about their concerns and ideas. He said most of them were from outside I-285.

"We had the right folks here with the right ideas, and we think this will be a great springboard to take 'Build America' across the country," said Bell.