DeKalb CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones said Monday that his Senate campaign can help Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama win Georgia.

Speaking at an afternoon press conference where he invoked the name of former conservative Democratic U.S. Sens. Zell Miller and Sam Nunn, Jones said he can deliver conservative Democratic votes in a state where Democrats have lost touch with mainstream Georgians.

(ENLARGE)

Campaign literature mailed by Vernon Jones' campaign seemed to imply Barack Obama had endorsed the DeKalb CEO's bid for the U.S. Senate.

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"That's why this campaign can give his campaign a boost," Jones said on the same day Obama was scheduled to arrive for two fund-raisers and a Tuesday town hall meeting in Powder Springs. "For Sen. Obama to win Georgia, he will need conservative Democrats like myself."

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

Jones said he "wholeheartedly" supports Obama, but was unsure if he would attend either of the Altanta fund-raisers.

"We welcome him to Georgia," Jones said. "His campaign will get a boost, and my campaign will get a boost."

Jones last week created a stir when he mailed a flyer bearing what appeared to be a photo of himself standing next to Obama in front of a campaign crowd with the headline: "Yes We Can!"

The photo was a digital compilation of two or more images. Jones said he wasn't trying to mislead anyone with the flyer, but his opponents accused him of implying he is being endorsed by Obama, an idea quickly dismissed by Obama's campaign.

"The Obama campaign was not involved with the use the Senator Obama's picture in this mailer, and despite what this mailer inaccurately suggests, Senator Obama will not endorse a candidate in the U.S. Senate primary in Georgia," Amy Brundage, a Chicao-based Obama spokeswoman, said Thursday.

Jones on Monday said the flyer has become a big hit with potential voters, who have asked him to autograph it as a campaign "keepsake piece." He passed out the flyer at recent campaign events, including one in Valdosta, stopping occasionally to add his autograph. The flyers were in abundance at his Peachtree Street headqarters Monday — one was attached to the front door, they were several stacks on a table with other campaign material and there were boxes of the mailers stacked in a corner with the label "Athens" attached to once stack.

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