BJ Lawson Announces Candidacy

I got a message today from a friend that BJ Lawson was considering a run again and I thought about whether I thought that was a good idea or not. Well, it is 3:04 am and I can't sleep because I am so excited about BJ's decision to run again. As many know, I have been a fan of BJ since meeting him in the summer of 2008, while I was tabling for (then) Sen. Hillary Clinton in Hillsborough, NC. When I think back to that summer, and the subsequent fall, on all of the reasons that I campaigned for BJ Lawson I am still convinced that he is a great candidate who can take real solutions to Washington.

Democrats for Lawson support BJ because he is principled, beholden to the Constitution alone and brings fresh perspective. Dr. Lawson proves to be a man who will not simply be an obstructionist who can only say, "no" without offering real solutions that will help the real folks who are hurting. We know that he will be a voice of reason, principle and most importantly, a voice for the people and not the special interest groups that David Price has represented for far too long.

The decision to support BJ again, while not a hard choice from a personal perspective (Kelly and I consider JoLynn and BJ to be friends) but, as a Democrat, it is difficult, considering the volatile predicament we are in these days. But even with that, I know that BJ is the right person to partner with the President and other members of Congress to move our country forward. I know that he is the right person to help to bring down deficit spending which, even for me--a fiscal liberal--is ridiculous. I really believe that BJ has the ability to walk across the aisle, like Congressmans Kucinich and Paul and find areas of agreement.

I am excited to see all that will happen this time around.

For Peace, Prosperity and Liberty,


Ray McKinnon
Democrats for Lawson

David's Price

Can we afford the price? Check out www.davidsprice.com

Don't Give Up...Don't Ever, Ever Give Up

BJ Lawson, candidate for US House (NC-4)

Powell Endorses Obama

This is not in any way connected with BJ Lawson, but it does have to do with my pick for President, Barack Obama. I am so excited that General Colin Powell endorsed for President Barack Obama.

I was so impressed with this endorsement. I especially liked when he said that the right response to the accusation that Barack Obama is a terrorist is not to simply point out the Barack Obama is a Christian and has been his entire life. No, according the Gen. Powell is to say, "So what?" I could not agree more.

Here is the clip:

Gail Marold Responds to N&O Endorsement

Gail Marold, the Media Coordinator for BJ Lawson's Congressional Campaign submitted the following letter to the N&O Editorial Board:

Dear N&O Editorial Board:

While the Lawson for Congress campaign is not at all surprised that you have endorsed B.J. Lawson's opponent, 20-year Rep. David Price, I think the N&O readers would be interested to know that:



1.) The N&O editorial board refused to have a meeting with Dr. Lawson,



2.) You have barely written a word about Dr. Lawson, his campaign, and anything he stands for but every little event that Rep. Price shows up for gets ink,



3.) A campaign staffer expressed her concerns to Public Editor Ted Vaden about the lack of attention given to the campaign, who assured her that he would look into it and get back to her but he never did, and



4.) The first time that Dr. Lawson was granted an interview by anyone from the N&O staff was yesterday, Oct. 15th, when your very nice and professional colleague in your D.C. bureau, Barb Barrett, spoke to him. Dr. Lawson and Ms. Barrett had a great conversation.



The turmoil that has been occurring in the N&O newsroom is unfortunate, but that is no excuse for poor journalism and blatant dodging of a strong and legitimate candidate in a very important race. One of the inherent problems in our political system and the very inept Congress is that new candidates – especially those who have never previously held a public office – barely get a chance to prove themselves because of the biased media.



N&O readers would also be interested to know that Dr. Lawson has raised nearly $500,000 – more than $250,000 of that was raised in the past two weeks from people all over the state and the country. We are talking about an average donation amount of $25 as opposed to large corporate donations given to Rep. Price's campaign. You reference Rep. Price's position as head of the subcommittee responsible for homeland security spending – it is no coincidence that his second largest donor group is the defense industry.



It's clear to many voters of all political belief systems and party affiliations that Dr. Lawson's message of principled leadership based on the Constitution is resonating. This election seems to be all about change and change is definitely needed in North Carolina's Fourth Congressional District.



Sincerely,

Gail Marold

Lawson for Congress

Oh, oh, oh, N & O

Wow! That seems to be the way that I open my blogs these days when it comes to the "Editorials" from the tools of the establishment. It really is no surprise to me that the News and Observer Editorial Board endorsed, yet again, David Price.

What ticks me off most is the fact that these sheeple did not even have the decency to really be objective here. What is the criteria that is used to decide who this supposed paper chooses to endorse? I can tell you that according Gail Marold, the campaign's Media Coordinator, "...they REFUSED an editorial board meeting with B.J. and have not reached out to speak to him until yesterday and it was their DC correspondent." I think that the young Mr. Barzilai must be a student of the sheeple who comprise the N&O's Editorial Board.

It is, however, refreshing to know that Lisa Sorg, and the writers at The Independent Weekly are still a truly independent voice! I was interviewed by Lisa Sorg for an article that she has been working on for some weeks now about BJ. Her article, aptly titled, "BJ Lawson, the hybrid candidate" is a great piece of journalism. It shows BJ's diversity, positions and his challenges. This is the type of journalism that is really needed these days. I am happy to say that the staff at the Indy are certainly not sheeple. Take a bow, Indy; take note, N&O and DTH.

The Comments Say It All...

Man, oh man! The debate last night was incredible! Dr. Lawson completely and utterly pummeled Dr. Price with the fist of his tongue.

I don't think that the Congressman knew what hit him. On question after question Dr. Lawson proved that he was no hack. The Congressman could really not pin much on Dr. Lawson so he decided (or should I say that his staffer(s) decided) that the best thing to do was to incessantly make references to BJ's party. He would say things like, "My opponent's party" or "Dr. Lawson's party" has done "x" and voted in "x" manner. Never really laying anything at BJ's feet because BJ has been clear in his opposition to some of the things that his party does.

I tell you what, there was some coverage about this debate that had some errors. Ms. Putterman, the Assistant State and National Editor of the Daily Tar Heel, and I were in contact today; she was very responsive and apologized profusely for the error. The error was attributing to Dr. Lawson an error that was made by one of the debate's moderator. They said that the correction would occur on the website immediately (which, as of 8:45 pm has not occurred). She also said that the correction to the print addition would be made on Monday or Tuesday. Then there was the Editorial Piece that was reported.

My goodness! I think that Mr. Yaniv Barzilai--the Editorial Board Member for the Daily Tar Heel--was at an altogether different debate than was I and the hundreds of other who were at Carroll Hall last night. This fellow says that David Price won the debate! What an absolute joke!

I got a call this morning from one of the campaign volunteers asking me if I had read the opinion piece in the Daily Tar Heel; I had not. Once I read the opinion in the DTH I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was not believing my eyes; I remember being on cloud nine after leaving Carroll Hall last night. On the drive home from the debate I called up Bonnie Hauser, the Grassroots Coordinator for Orange County (who could not make the debate). I told her that we should be so proud to be affiliated with this campaign right now and that BJ had done so well in the debate. Then, when I got home, my wife asked me how was the debate and I could not stop talking; I told her all of the ways that BJ simply owned in the debate and I also told her about the one thing that Price seemed to fall back on; BJ is a Republican.


So, imagine my disgust when the first thing that I read was, "The doors closed, the campaign pins came out, and the night’s battle for North Carolina’s 4th District begun. But through the debate, as incumbent Democratic Representative David Price faced off against Republican B.J. Lawson, Price came out on top."! I was most annoyed because this really personifies the political bigotry that I spoke of the other day here on the blog. This young man already had made up his mind before he even entered Carroll Hall last night. He already knew that BJ was a Republican and David was a Democrat. He knew what were his presuppositions of Republicans (albeit well founded at times) so he did not even give BJ a chance. Seriously, from the start of the day that guy was all over the Congressman.

I know that this was an opinion piece, but seriously, Mr. Barzilai, you could have at least gotten the facts straight at the rare instance when you gave facts. He said, "Lawson claimed that Price voted for the initial two-page bailout that would authorize Henry Paulson to use his discretion. But Price reminded us of his actual voting record, including his vote against the initial plan....Foul ball, Dr. Lawson." Actually, buddy, that was more like a home run! The congressman voted yes for the initial plan as well as the "tweaked plan". So, buddy, get the facts straight before you start to do this for a living. There was some good that came of this, however. There were some people who wrote to comment and set the young lad straight on the DTH website. My personal favorite was written by Eddie Beasley:

Oh Yaniv, I don't even know where to begin. First, I asked myself if you were even at this event. However this notion dissipated as I recalled seeing you hanging onto Price's coattail before and after the debate. Obviously you had made your decision before you arrive last night. But I must ask, did you have the outline of this little piece as well?

As for the debate, you cleverly failed to mention the monstrous applause and standing ovation for Dr. Lawson at the debate's conclusion, not to mention numerous applauses along the way. And as for vague comments, I must direct your attention to the responses of David Price. No matter what the question, he ranted about Lawson's political affiliation. I was unable to keep count of the occasions on which Price said he was supporting Obama. No one cares, this was a debate on the issues, not who were voting for next month. It was a cheap trick to appeal to students at the UNC. I for one am offended that he would think we as students would be dumb enough to fall for such tricks.

To conclude I would like to thank Yaniv for his diligence and unbiased opinion in his work. I just hope you wiped your nose after all the pathetic brown nosing you did last night!

I think that Mr. Beasley said it best. I will finish with that.

Oh, wait, Martin Avila, the Campaign Manager did some fact checking of his own; check it out:

http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com/2008/10/15/fact-check/