Rob Zeller didn’t just miss last week’s campaign forums. He missed three days of work and a piece of his son’s first birthday cake.
The sick feeling hit the candidate for the City Commission’s 3rd District around 11 a.m. last Sunday, just as his son, Rex, was winding up his birthday.
The first city election forum was set to start at 4 p.m., but the candidate’s face was getting greener by the minute. His thermometer was reading 101 degrees. He didn’t know what to do.
He phoned Ed Braddy, his campaign manager, for advice.
“If that’s the case, then you need to rest up,” Braddy said.
Zeller spent the next 72 hours inside fighting what turned out to be a case of pneumonia, missing the second candidate forum that Monday.
He and Braddy said missing the forums were the least of his worries.
“I just didn’t feel it was very considerate or very responsible to go,” Zeller said.
But now, he’s back.
With a cough, sore throat and runny nose, he made the Tuesday meeting of the Business Community Coalition.
Even after Zeller’s first two absences, Braddy said he’s not worried about the candidate’s standings.
“Missing a day or two of walking neighborhoods and attending forums shouldn’t set him back,” Braddy said.
Zeller is still leading the pack with $12,093.56 in contributions. He said he’s feeling “80 percent.”
He said he will be at the League of Women Voters Forum on Sunday and the Gainesville Tea Party Forum on Tuesday.
“I gotta work, and I gotta campaign, and I gotta do what I gotta do,” Zeller said.
