Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Tuesday that he has not endorsed DeKalb CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones, despite a Jones' campaign flier that shows the two men's photos beneath the caption "Yes We Can."

"I do not endorse him; I have not endorsed him," Obama said Tuesday in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He put my picture on his literature, without asking me.

(ENLARGE)

Literature mailed by Vernon Jones' campaign for U.S. Senate seems to imply has been endorsed by presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, critics say.

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"Now I will tell you in the southside of Chicago, and I'm assuming here in Georgia, those kinds of things aren't uncommon. It's a little less common to do when you're a U.S. Senate candidate when presumably the scrutiny is a little higher."

Obama, who was in metro Atlanta for two fund-raisers and a town hall meeting in Powder Springs said he thinks he met Jones at a previous campaign event.

"I think he may have come to an event of ours a while back," Obama said. "The reason I think I may have met him is I know somebody told me as I was shaking his hand that he had taken pride in voting for George Bush twice."

Jones, through a spokeswoman for his campaign, reiterated his support for Obama's candidacy after Obama's remarks.

"Vernon Jones is a conservative Democrat who holds views consistent with mainstream Georgians, and like Vernon Jones Senator Barack Obama kicked off his Georgia campaign in Cobb County," Jones said Tuesday afternoon. Jones last week created a stir when he mailed thousands of fliers bearing what appeared to be a photo of himself standing next to Obama in front of a campaign crowd. The photo was a digital compilation of two or more images. Jones said he wasn't trying to mislead anyone with the mailer, but his opponents accused him of implying he is being endorsed by Obama, an idea quickly dismissed by Obama's campaign.

Jones, former WSB television reporter Dale Cardwell, Atlanta businessman Rand Knight, former state legislator Jim Martin and retired businessman Josh Lanier of Statesboro are seeking the Democratic nod in the July 15 primary for the right to take on incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Libertarian Allen Buckley in November.

Jones said the flier has become a campaign "keepsake piece" and he has been asked to autograph it at campaign stops across the state.

"The only complaints I have received are from my liberal opponents backed by the liberal media," he said Monday.

Jones said he "wholeheartedly" endorses Obama's run for the presidency and said his campaign and Obama's will benefit each other in Georgia. "For Sen. Obama to win Georgia, he will need conservative Democrats like myself," Jones said.