Vestavia Hills candidate forum

[Below is what I said at today's Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce candidate forum luncheon]

I am running in district 6 because I believe there is not government of, by and for the people in Washington DC, and that Congress is kaput and has stopped functioning for the American people.

I have an idea for fixing this

Voters should vote for me instead of any of the other candidates because the other candidates have not recognized the importance of what I am talking about, and they are not understanding other matters of substance and/or they are dishing out political hokum.

Those are strong words,  and I need to be able to back them up. I cannot do that in the three and a half minutes allotted to me. What I want to do is tell you about some events in this campaign, which should be suggestive of there being validity to the assertions I have made. You will then have to decide whether you want to investigate further to decide for yourself the validity of my assertions.

First, I knew I was going to have a difficult time in getting voters informed about my campaign. When these forums were being scheduled, I requested whether the forum sponsors could send emails to its members in which the candidates could give information about their candidacies. This was not taken up by forum sponsors, so here I am three weeks before election day, and many of you probably have no idea what my candidacy is about.

In February I posted on the Internet an open letter to the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington indicating the issues I was raising in my campaign and soliciting whether the delegation had any comment to make which could be helpful to the other candidates and the voters in deciding whether I was raising significant issues. A staffer in Senator Shelby's office telephoned me and gave me a non-response response. I eventually got a non-response letter from Representative Bachus. I never heard from Senator Session.

Throughout this campaign I have pressed the other candidates to respond to my contentions, and they have steadfastly refused to give any response.

Next consider that, in mid-April, I copied from the other candidates' campaign websites their statements of issues and their positions, and I pasted those on my own campaign website.  I made extensive commentary about the other candidates' issues and positions, which commentary I think demonstrated the lack of understanding the other candidates have and/or  the political hokum they are putting out to the voters.

Next, at the meeting of the Editorial Board of AL.com with the candidates on April 21st, one of the questions asked was for the targets of alleged negative TV advertising to comment on the same. I don't remember what was said about that by the targets. I said I had no TV ads, but that on my website I had named two candidates by name and identified a third candidate. I said that I was interested in a reaction from the candidates in question to what I said. I believe two of the candidates said nothing, and the third said that there was nothing I said that called for a response from him.

Next consider that AL.com had a forum in which each candidate was asked a question related to things the candidate had said at the editorial board meeting and was asked to submit a 600 word response for posting on AL.com, with a view to reader interaction. Before the essays of the other candidates were published, I posted commentary based on what I expected the essays to say, and I believe this commentary of mine also revealed the lack of understanding of substance and/or the hokum the other candidates were putting out. [Note: I did not have time to include this paragraph in my actual talk.]

If you are interested in investigating the validity of my assertions, and deciding yourself about them, all of the foregoing, and much more, is readily accessible on my campaign website.

Further, I am available if anyone wants to discuss with me, in person or by telephone, my assertions and why I believe my assertions are true.

I hope you will inform yourself before June 3rd, and I ask for your vote on June 3rd.