Good Riddance Bob Barr!
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #253 Wed. August 21, 2002
The stunning and overwhelming defeat of Bob Barr (R-GA) in the Georgia
primaries yesterday bodes very well for those who are working towards
more rational and sensible drug policies. Barr was targeted for defeat
by the Libertarian Party and other drug reform advocates as one of the
most rabid and irrational supporters of our failed drug policy. For a
drug war Zealot to be so soundly defeated may begin to send the
message to the rest of Congress that supporting the drug war may
result in more politicians becoming unemployed.
Unfortunately the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Barr's primary local
newspaper, completely missed what was the likely a key reason for
Barr's defeat. Over the past two weeks, Barr's Libertarian opponent,
Carole Ann Rand, flooded Georgia's 7th District with more than 4,000
TV spots. The ads feature a multiple sclerosis victim who lashes out
against the Congressman for his crusade against medical marijuana.
Please write a letter to the AJC expressing your views on Bob Barr,
his drug war Zealotry, and the lack of coverage on the drug policy
reform groups opposing him and who likely led to his defeat.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It's not what others do it's what YOU do
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CONTACT INFO
Atlanta Journal Constitution
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Newshawk: Cheryl Miller's cherylheart website www.cherylheart.com>
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Pubdate: Aug 21,2002
Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Address: 72 Marietta Street, NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303
Contact:
Copyright: 2002 Cox Interactive Media.
Forum: http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/issues/
Author: MELANIE EVERSLEY
Republicans pick low-key candidate
U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a conservative Republican perhaps best known for
his attempts to drive President Clinton out of the White House,
conceded shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday to fellow Republican Rep. John
Linder in their primary election contest to represent the 7th
Congressional District.
The Associated Press declared Linder the winner shortly after 10
p.m.
The lopsided results marked the end of a sometimes slapstick race
characterized by insults, one-liners, a controversy over a cartoon
character and the accidental shooting of a gun. The district is
heavily Republican, but Linder will face Democrat Michael Berlon in
the November general election.
With eyes misting and his wife, Jeri, by his side, Barr hugged and
thanked supporters who crowded into the 1818 Club in Duluth.
"We've been watching the numbers, and they don't look nearly as good
as we would have hoped," the 53-year-old congressman told a somber
crowd of 300, many with tears in their eyes.
Barr congratulated Linder, pledged his support and paid homage to
hundreds of campaign workers who went door to door, made telephone
calls and hung Bob Barr literature on doorknobs in the heated,
sometimes nasty campaign.
"We've accomplished as a team more than any other congressman
accomplishes in an entire lifetime and I appreciate that," Barr said.
Linder, a low-key lawmaker known for working behind the scenes,
expressed his gratitude to supporters next door at the Gwinnett Civic
and Cultural Center.
"He ran a good campaign. We ran a better one," said Linder,
59.
Barr, the sober-faced and outspoken congressman often depicted as a
bulldog, watched results come in privately, holed up in a Duluth hotel
room, and later conceded to supporters quietly.
Linder, a soft-spoken policy expert who almost seems to avoid the
public eye, laughed with about 200 supporters in the civic center ballroom.
Both incumbents, Linder in office for 10 years and Barr for eight,
came to do battle after the redistricting process Democrats controlled
in 2000 pitted them against each other.
At first, both kept to their promise to run a clean campaign. But as
time passed and opinion polls showed the two in a virtual dead heat,
the nastiness emerged.
Barr made fun of the fact that Linder often declines to give an
opinion on issues, saying he has no right to insert himself into
people's lives. A Barr commercial portrayed Barr as a bulldog and
Linder as a whining, whimpering dachshund. Linder touted himself as a
family man, married to his wife, Lynne, for 39 years, while he spoke
of Barr's three marriages.
Linder teased Barr about an incident in which an antique gun
accidentally fired in the home of a Barr supporter while Barr and
another person were handling it. Days later, a Linder supporter
dressed as the cartoon character Yosemite Sam, known for shooting off
pistols, mingled at a pro-Barr event, touting himself as Barr's
"personal gun safety trainer." Adding steam to the fracas was a video
on an Internet Web site that showed Barr's adult son, Derek, shoving
the man dressed as Yosemite Sam.
Late Tuesday night, Linder supporters -- mingling in the ballroom and
surrounded by red, white and blue balloons imprinted with "Linder" --
said they believe the negative campaigning hurt Barr. They also said
Barr was perceived as an outsider.
"The reality is that Bob Barr appeals to a small number of people who
believe you get things done by yelling and screaming," said B.J. Van
Gundy, Linder's campaign manager in Gwinnett County. "John Linder
thinks like the majority. You work with people to get things done."
Linder's approval ratings were high before the race started, added Ed
Brookover, a Linder campaign consultant. "In the end, what came
through was that John was a solid leader," Brookover said.
The contest would have been disappointing to Georgia Republicans no
matter what the outcome, said U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson, a Republican.
"We had two good men and we lost one," Isakson said. "Redistricting is
a process which sometimes has unfortunate results. This time and in
this case, it resulted in two incumbents having to challenge one
another. It's just disappointing."
Staff writers Brian Feagans, Paul Donsky, Rhonda Cook and Bill Torpy
contributed to this report
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts See:
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EXTRA CREDIT
Unfortunately the New York Times also failed to acknowledge the
importance of the drug policy reform movement in playing an important
role in Barr's defeat.
Please send a copy your letter to the New York Times. At this writing
the article was not in the MAP archive but you can use this
information for reference:
New York Times
Contact:
August 21, 2002
A Bush Foe and a Clinton One Are Ousted in Georgia Primaries By STEVEN
A. HOLMES
Please write your local newspapers on this subject as
well.
To find the Letter to the Editor email addresses for your area
newspapers go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm Use the "List by
Area" dropdown to select and display your area. Then click on
"contact" to obtain the contact information for each newspaper.
SAMPLE LETTER
Good Riddance Bob Barr!
Dear Editor:
I find it quite perplexing that your coverage on the landslide defeat
of drug war Zealot Bob Barr (Republicans Pick Low-Key Candidate AJC
8/21) made no mention whatever of the one factor that may have been
the most important in bringing about Barr's historic loss.
Over the past two weeks, Barr's Libertarian opponent, Carole Ann Rand,
flooded Georgia's 7th District with more than 4,000 TV spots. The ads
feature a multiple sclerosis victim who lashes out against the
Congressman for his crusade against medical marijuana.
There can be little question that the American public is far ahead of
the curve in realizing that the drug war has failed miserably and that
support for the drug war has dwindled significantly in recent years.
Barr's defeat would seem to verify this theory quite
convincingly.
Barr is but the first political casualty of many to come if our
elected representatives continually fail to grasp that the drug war is
no longer supported by their constituents. Bringing a sensible end to
our failed and very expensive "war on drugs" is becoming a major
consideration amongst voters.
Among Barr's most egregious actions was his un Constitutional blocking
of the will of the voters when Washington D.C. overwhelmingly passed
an initiative to allow sick and dying patients access to the medicinal
use of cannabis and Barr subsequently blocked the implementation of
this initiative.
Good Riddance Bob Barr!
Mark Greer [address and phone number]
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it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous
copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives
credit for his/her work.
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