Todd Brand of Meridian, who is vying for the Democratic nomination for auditor, said Monday he believes automated phone calls from an unknown source might have influenced his election and others in the Democratic primary….He said some of his supporters had affidavits from African-American voters saying they received automated phone calls near the election with the message that Sumrall was the black candidate in the race.
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The "black" candidate in the race.
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Brand said the company doing the calls was "Grassroots Out of Virginia." On Republican Gov. Haley Barbour's campaign finance report is a $50,000 expenditure to Grassroots Targeting/Microtargeting of Alexandria, Va.
Ryan Annison, a spokesman for the Barbour campaign, said automated phone calls "is not what that company does. Like all campaigns, we did some polling with them."
The Daily Journal Article
Don't I remember you claiming you were voting for Mike Sumrall because he was the "most qualified?" Have you been bought by Brand, or do you just bite on every single conspiracy theory you hear. I guess it is just impossible to believe that Sumrall did this for himself. This reeks of "why I got beat way worse than I thought" spin.
ReplyDelete"There can't possibly be a way that I got beat other than those terrible black helicopter/phone tapping tactics by the people who despise me for being an amazing candidate."
Any proof of these calls? I've heard this before.
I did say I was voting for Sumrall and I will vote for him again in the runoff. He is the most qualified.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to know if you will actually be voting for Pickering who has almost no qualifications in comparison to Sumrall?
I'm simply happy to point out Republican dirty tricks especially from the folks who love to yammer on about voter fraud and the red herring "immigrants from voting."
The proof is sworn legal statements.
I don't know what the truth is, but I would think Brand would have carefully considered the fallout when going to the press about this. No candidate in his right mind would want to be seen as "whining". He obviously has the courage of his convictions about it or he would have kept quiet. I truly don't doubt it at all. If you look at a few other down ticket races, similar strange things happened that defy all logic. In one race I was particularly interested in a candidate that raised zero dollars, spent zero dollars and wasn't even a blip on anyone's radar wound up getting over 51,000 votes. I'm still scratching my head over that one. If nothing fishy was going on, I bet that candidate is too. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm confused. Why would the GOP want to smear Sumrall now? Wouldn't it be wise to wait after the 2nd primary? I hope Mike wins the runoff and the general election. I just wrote on my blog encouraging others to vote for him. One thing is for certain: Sumrall isn't the type of guy to pull dirty tricks.
ReplyDeleteBy your argument Sumrall would be the last person to Pickering would want to run against.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't Republican or Democrat. This is election year rumors that make it all so fun.
Who says "sworn legal statements?" Brand? Don't mistake my skepticism for support either way, but you could see why the Brand folks would need to do some damage control.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCitizens for Civil Discourse, a non partisan non profit (501 C3), is starting a National Political Do Not Contact Registry to combat political robo calls.
Learn more
http://www.StopPoliticalRobocalls.org/
Shaun Dakin – CEO & Founder
Citizens For Civil Discourse
Read about CCD at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07221/808039-28.stm
eBio @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaundakin
info AT citizensforcivildiscourse.org