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Monday, July 21, 2008
Oops. You’re not supposed to print ‘Jones for Senate’ on county tickets?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you went to the DeKalb County Blues & Jazz Festival last weekend, maybe you looked closely at your ticket stub, and maybe you didn’t.
But a close examination of some small, near-subliminal type on the ticket, produced at county expense, would have offered you this bit of political advice: “VOTE Vernon Jones for GA Senate.”
See an enlarged version of one ticket by clicking here.
A phone call to DeKalb County produced a slightly chagrined spokeswoman, Kristie Swink, and this statement:
“DeKalb County nor the Chief Executive Officer authorized, gave permission or had any conversations regarding endorsement of any candidate through ticket sales during the DeKalb County Blues & Jazz Festival.”
In other words, they don’t know how that line got on tickets. “We understand that, as a government entity, we can’t endorse candidates,” Swink said.
But through a company attorney, the county-hired printer of the event’s tickets — Ticketannex.com — copped to inserting the political advertisement onto tickets for the jazz event.
“They thought they were doing [Jones] a favor. They didn’t know,” said attorney Marvin S. Arrington Jr., son of the judge. Arrington couldn’t say how many tickets carried the message, but thousands were printed.
More formally, Arrington said this on behalf of the ticket company:
“We wholeheartedly support Vernon Jones as the next U.S. senator from Georgia. We think he will make a great U.S. Senator. We apologize to Dekalb County and to Vernon Jones for any confusion that our actions may have caused.”
The company, by the way, has a vote-for-Jones banner on its web site, though it hasn’t yet been updated to reflect the August run-off.
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Traffic alert: With Bush coming, rethink that trip up or down I-75
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you travel the northwest Atlanta corridor of I-75 of an evening, plan on a late trip home Tuesday.
President Bush and all his entourage will be spending a couple hours in the area during the late afternoon. Bush is the headliner at a fund-raiser for 8th District congressional candidate Rick Goddard, who’s challenging Democratic incumbent Jim Marshall of Macon in November.
The White House is mum about the destination, but the location is well-known in Republican circles. Which means the Insider knows it, too. Pack a sleeping bag.
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‘The other guy’s worse:’ A kind word, in a back-handed sort of way, from a top evangelical leader
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Conservative Christian leader James Dobson softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Monday, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator despite the candidate’s support of embryonic stem cell research and opposition to a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
“Elections always involve imperfect candidates. You always have to choose between two flawed individuals,” Dobson said. “While I am not endorsing John McCain, the possibility is there that I might.”
The most positive thing that Dobson had to say about McCain was that the Arizona senator and he were on the same page when it came to the “Muslim threat.”
Dobson, founder of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, made his comments in a 28-minute program posted on the Internet today. Click here to listen.
The program was financed by Focus on the Family’s political action organization, and recorded in a studio at Southern Baptist Convention headquarters in Nashville.
Appearing with Dobson was Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dobson acknowledged previous statements that he would not vote for McCain.
“I’ve expressed my strong disagreement with Senator McCain on three or four occasions which continue to be reported regularly in the news, as though it was said yesterday,” Dobson said. “My disagreement involved some issues that are now generally known. One being I criticize his continuing support for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. That bothers me a lot. It leads to killing of babies, very tiny babies, but they are human beings, and cloning — and other things, [McCain’s] unwillingness to vote for the marriage protection amendment, and saying the states could protect the institution of marriage.”
That said, Dobson spoke of “the need to rethink some of my views regarding Senator McCain. And that thinking has taken place and continues to do so. This has been the most difficult moral dilemma for me…
But Dobson said McCain comes closer to his views than Obama “by a wide margin. There’s no doubt in my mind as to whose policy will result in more babies being killed….”
While Dobson spoke of Obama’s position on abortion, the evangelical leader gave more attention to the Democrat’s position on gay rights, accusing Obama of supporting “the full normalization of homosexuality.”
“It just takes my breath away that a presidential candidate could come along and be so far from the mainstream,” Dobson said.
Photo credit: Associated Press
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Nader comes to Georgia, looking for its treasure trove of left-of-Democrat votes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ralph Nader treads into the third-party territory of Bob Barr on Friday for a rally and press conference in Athens. It’s a 5 p.m. gig at Master’s Hall on the University of Georgia campus.
Those who attend the rally, as opposed to the press conference, will be guilted into a “suggested contribution” of $10, or $5 with a student ID.
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