Sen. David Baria responds to new false attack ad from Dorothy Wilcox

Yet again, Dorothy Wilcox is attacking David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis) falsely through the mail. Here's Baria's response:

In her latest mailer Dorothy Wilcox hits a new low with a trifecta of misrepresentations regarding my business and legal careers, and campaign fundraising. In fact, aside from getting my name right there is little else in the mail piece that is true.

She alleges that I "profited" from Katrina. Like everyone, I was overwhelmed by the devastation of Katrina and wanted to help us get back on our feet as quickly as possible. I did start two companies in the months following Katrina, and like any small business owner I wanted these businesses to be successful. However, I can assure you that I made significantly less money during the four years that I ran a demolition company than I would have made practicing law--and, contrary to Mrs. Wilcox's insinuations, I have never made millions practicing law.

Dorothy Wilcox says that I "gouged" a client in my legal practice. The legal case Dorothy references in her mail piece was one in which I represented a Minister who had been denied workers compensation for an on-the-job injury. Surely Dorothy didn't even bother to read the case or she would have known that she has misrepresented the entire matter. I assure you that Reverend Cook had no complaints about my representation in his case.

Mrs. Wilcox also says that I spent $14,000 playing golf at "ritzy golf clubs" (like the Bridges in Bay St. Louis). Everyone knows that I have held a golf tournament for the last three years at a local course. I have been blessed to have over 200 golfers play in those tournaments. Each year I receive a bill for the rounds of golf and the food we serve to the golfers. Because of the great participation we have had, I have been able to give $8,000 to local charities from tournament proceeds. As all of my friends who have ever played golf with me can attest, I am way too bad a golfer to be accused of having spent that kind of money on my own golf game.

Finally, in a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Dorothy Wilcox has raised 99.9% of her campaign cash from PACS, but says it's wrong for me to have taken PAC money over the last 4 years. In fact, her mailer is paid for by a PAC! More importantly, most of my contributors are local individuals and businesses. Whereas, Mrs. Wilcox has only a single contributor from Hancock County. I am very thankful that I was fortunate enough to have raised a decent amount of money over the last four years. If I had not it would have been impossible to have run this campaign against someone as well-financed as Dorothy Wilcox.

For whatever reason, Mrs. Wilcox has chosen to campaign in the way that she has. That is her choice, but she does not offer solutions to the issues affecting Hancock County or a plan to better the problems we face. I assure you that I am focused on bettering Hancock County and dealing with the issues that matter to us.

Wilcox's approach is the lowest form of campaigning. (Here's another post on ANOTHER negative mailer Wilcox has sent.)

Republican lookalike mailers appear

Some folks on the other side have been having fun pointing out the similarities between Democratic legislative candidates' mailers.  Well, take a look at these mailers from Dorothy Wilcox (running against David Baria in Bay St. Louis) and Charles Busby (the Alabama businessman running against Rep. Brandon Jones in Pascagoula):

Here's Busby's:

And now Wilcox's:

Interesting, huh?

Republican dirty tricks being used against Sen. David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis)

Sen. David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis), is running to replace retiring Rep. J.P. Compretta in District 122. Compretta has endorsed Baria as his replacement.  Dorothy Wilcox, Baria's Republican opponent, recently sent out a mailer with a doctored photograph of Baria and his son.

Here's the original picture of Baria with his son, Max, at the local Christmas parade:

And here's the edited mailer:

Notice that Baria's son has been cropped out of the picture, and that the color tone of the photo in the mailer is different.

Here is Sen. Baria's response:

The Dorothy Wilcox negative mail campaign continues, and this time she and the big insurance companies and corporations funding her campaign have crossed the line. Mrs. Wilcox is letting her backers call the shots now, just like she would if she was elected. Big insurance and corporations don't need more representation in Jackson, but the citizens of Hancock County do.

As for her recent mailing, she claims my votes in the Legislature have led to higher health care costs. This is an outright lie. The truth is that I was the leader in working to kill the administration's $200 million hospital bed tax during the 2009 Session. This is why the Mississippi Hospital Association is supporting me and not Mrs. Wilcox. You've got to wonder about a candidate who is willing to say or do anything to win.

Attacking me with falsehoods and misrepresentations on behalf of her insurance company backers is one thing. However, when she manipulates a family picture of me and my 3-year old son at a Christmas parade for political gain she has crossed the line. See attached.

Billion dollar corporations and insurance companies will stop at nothing to put the person in office who will do their bidding. The same kind of shameful tactics Mrs. Wilcox and her insurance buddies are using in this campaign remind me of how low they stooped in the days following Katrina. If you want a man who will stand up to them, I need your help on November 8th.

Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you in the Mississippi Legislature. Please do not hesitate to contact me at 228.466.3346 if you have any questions about the allegations contained in Mrs. Wilcox's mailer.

Looks like Wilcox fits right in with the slime show the Mississippi Republican Party is calling its election efforts this fall.

David Baria is endorsed by retiring Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. J.P. Compretta

Sen. David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis) is moving over to the House to replace retiring Rep. J.P. Compretta (D-Bay St. Louis), who is currently the Speaker Pro Tempore (2nd highest ranking member of the House).  Compretta is a beloved figure in District 122, which is why it was so important for Baria to get Compretta's endorsement.  Here's Compretta's letter endorsing Baria, which makes excellent points:

David Baria responds to false negative attack from special interests

Sen. David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis) is running for retiring Rep. J.P. Compretta's seat in Bay St. Louis, and the special interests from Jackson are funding his opponent, Dorothy Wilcox.  Wilcox sent out a repugnant mailer the other day, accusing Sen. Baria of attempting to "roll back" tort reform.  Baria responded with the following:

For the Voters of House District 122:

I wanted to take a minute to respond to the personal attack my opponent recently sent out against me.

I ran for the legislature in 2007 in the wake of Katrina to work on issues important to us and our recovery. Those issues related to Katrina recovery have been my priority for the last four years and, if elected, will continue to be my priority. Working on behalf of Hancock County residents in the Legislature has required me to take on the insurance companies and other out of state corporations who have not done their part to aid in our recovery. My opponent's campaign is being funded by the very corporations I have fought for the last four years. In her last mailer, Mrs. Wilcox attacked my career as a lawyer. Earlier this month I traveled to Jackson to argue a case before the state Supreme Court. I represented a family who had lost everything in Katrina and who was told by their insurance carrier, wrongly in my opinion, that their loss would not be covered. Does my opponent prefer this family not have legal representation in this matter?

I have been proud to represent families in their time of need as well as businesses when they were sued. My opponent cannot point to one bill I introduced over the last four years that would roll back any of the tort reform measures the Legislature adopted in 2004. "Tort reform" has been passed and will remain in place. It is not a front--burner issue with respect to moving Hancock County forward. It has not been a focus for me, nor will it be. However, I promise you that I will never stop trying to bring justice to the thousands of Gulf Coast residents who were treated unfairly and unjustly by the insurance industry following Hurricane Katrina.

Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you in the Mississippi Legislature. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the allegations contained in Mrs. Wilcox's mailer.

While David Baria's been fighting for Gulf Coast families, Wilcox has been taking money from the insurance companies that make recovery on the Coast so very hard.

Did Rep. Lester "Bubba" Carpenter teach this at the training?

In an effort to become more familiar with legislative races around the state, I decided to look at candidates I had yet to hear a lot about. When I came to Republican candidate Jerrerico Chambers I found that he has been a guest on SuperTalk's Paul Gallo Show and that he says he is a conservative Republican by choice, albeit one who doesn't always toe the party line.

I also learned that Mr. Chambers was an attendee at a recent Tea Party training event, at which Rep. Bubba Carpenter (R - Burnsville), among others, taught candidates like Chambers, Charles Busby, Jay Mathis, and Dorothy Wilcox.

But that wasn't all I learned.

To begin with, Chambers has quite a presence on both MySpace and Facebook. It's not your typical campaign stuff, however. Chambers decides to let us really see who he is. Literally.

I can't find a way to adequately describe what I found in words, so I'll just use screen shots:

To begin with, here's the front of his MySpace page.

Now, on to the pictures.  First, his "Republican Presidential Attire."  Next, Mr. Chambers shares with us his thoughts on the hot topic of "sagging."  (I agree with his sentiment, if not his delivery.)  Next, he decides to let us see a bit more of himself.  And then a bit more.  And finally, an invitation.  (And if you doubt that this Jerrerico Chambers and the candidate are one in the same, I refer you to this comment on his MySpace page.)

So how about Facebook?  Well, he has a campaign page up.  Nothing out of the ordinary there.  So what about his pictures on Facebook?  A click on the "campaign button" picture reveals a blue and white logo that's fairly nondescript.  But that's photo number 9 out of 26, so there's more to see here.  I'm a read-things-backwards type of guy sometimes, so let's click back....WHAT THE HOLY HELL?!? (I edited this heavily in order to keep you, dear reader, from seeing what I saw on Mr. Chambers' publicly available Facebook page.)