Smith Was Against It Before She Was For It
Country Crossing in a proposed project in Houston County designed to have electronic bingo.
State Sen. Harri Anne Smith (R - Slocomb) introduced legislation less than two weeks ago to allow voters to decide in November whether they want electronic bingo in the county. Electronic bingo is allowed under current law.
Today, she holds a press conference in which she reads a prepared statement.
Since I introduced this bill, I have heard from hundreds of people from all walks of life. In the newspaper, on the internet, by phone, on radio and TV and on the street, the good, solid citizens of our community have let me know in no uncertain terms how strongly they feel about this issue.
The consensus is obvious to me. A majority of the people of Houston County clearly want the Country Crossing development to move forward because of what they believe it will mean to this area in terms of jobs and economic development.
For that reason, I have today contacted the Senate committee chairman and asked that my bill be stopped, permanently.
And she took no questions.
Her handling of this will not be her finest moment in the campaign for the 2nd Congressional District seat. The introduction of the bill and its withdrawal suggest that she wanted to sail in the flagship position on the issue but had difficulty knowing which way the wind was blowing.
http://www.rickystokesnews.com/cgi-bin/MyWeb/article_proc.pl?object=9808&category=26
You guys have got to watch this. This is what we have trying to represent us in Congress????????
Comment by helenoftroy — April 14, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
No wonder she is the ONLY candidate that will not agree to all three WSFA debates. I wouldn’t either if I was her.
Comment by GOPer — April 14, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
That was painful to watch. Some of y’all may have hitched your wagon to the wrong horse.
Comment by Fo-Fiver — April 14, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
At least she did admit she was wrong.
Comment by walt moffett — April 14, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Yeah, but too bad she acted and sounded like a five year old when she admitted she was wrong. After watching that video, I can’t imagine her making a speech on the floor of Congress.
Comment by Anonymous — April 14, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
How nice to see she has stuck by her polls….oh, I mean principles. Sorry, we don’t need that in Congress.
Comment by Jboner — April 14, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
Which was gaudier: The crudely placed American flags or the massive cross she was wearing?
Sorry to all the Wiregrass nationalists, but I get the sinking suspicion that Senator Smith will not be going anywhere near the Beltway in the near future.
Comment by Will — April 14, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
Listen, its not about admitting being wrong about a decision, its about taking a stand for what you truly believed was a right decision to make from the jump start.
Can’t just awake one morning and say, think I’ll introduce legislation to ban bingo. Then, days later awake again to decide that it may not have been the most popular decision to make therefore, I should change my mind and request the bill be removed forever!
Come on people and get real! This definitely sends a wrong message to the people that will be voting in District 02 in November!
Comment by Evaluator — April 14, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
Evaluator - you just figured out how Senator Smith operates and votes on legislation. Run a poll or stick your finger to the wind. She has done it for years and this is just a very public airing of her latest attempt to run (and vote) wherever public opinion may be. Hillary Anne Smith sounds about right. She is done in this race.
Comment by VoiceofReason — April 14, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
WOW…i loved it when she almost could not pronounce country, ha.
Comment by JJ — April 14, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
That was better than a Saturday Night Live skit. Whoh is she awful or what! I have seen first graders do a better job of speaking in public. How about the no questions, “have to run” comment. Every time I see the video is gets worse. MH, where are you? Are you drinking tonight? If you are not you should be. Your candidate embarassed herself today. Are you still in her corner? Also, the average person doesn’t understand but her and Rep. Lewis’ bills were dead on arrival. Neither of them could pass a bill and that is what is so comical about this. Had Harri Anne been drinking today. Whoh that was really bad!
Comment by Seriously — April 14, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
It’s right out of Claire Austins’ playbook, she violates all the fundraising laws that get in her way so she can raise enough money from places that people don’ want money to come from and buys herself a seat at the table where she can do real damage. This John Kerry windsurfing move that Harri Anne just pulled came straight from Claire Austin. So if Harri Ann loses under Claire’s strategic call then who wins? Of course, uncle Milton who is her biggest client at the statehouse where she is lobbying to expand Milton Style gambling to every county in Alabama. And if you don’t like it, she will pop you upside your head with an iron skillet Ouch. I remember the good ole days, when they only allowed Claire to wander around after dark partially clothed in gauze .
Comment by tommy cotton — April 14, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
Folks it comes down to one thing…a lack of conviction. I don’t want that in my representative to congress. she lost my vote today.
Comment by David J. — April 14, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
This is a simple matter of money. There are some folks with deep pockets down here that are against Country Crossing. She saw an opportunity to score some points with them. The regular folks are overwhelmingly for Country Crossing. Harri Anne sees that it doesn’t matter how much money these guys give her campaign, she doesn’t have a chance of getting the votes if she throws up obstacles to this development.
Comment by cdub — April 15, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Who’s Claire Austin?
Comment by Margaret — April 15, 2008 @ 11:04 am
Can anyone say HILLARY ANNE SMITH?????????????
Comment by 02VOTER — April 15, 2008 @ 11:09 am
Didn’t realize Jack Campbell was on the Smith team.
That doesn’t bode well for her. He’s an old Hooper family hack. If he’s handling her press, then that explains a lot about the statement, the setting and the execution of the event—bushleague.
OH, and one other thing Smith Campaign: LEARN HOW TO PROPERLY DISPLAY THE AMERICAN FLAG!!!
When hanging a flag vertically from the podium, the Union should be on the observer’s left, not right, you nitwits.
Comment by Scorpius — April 15, 2008 @ 11:56 am
That whole press event looked like it originated in some teenager’s garage! Way to go Jack!!! Vote Hillary Anne Smith for Dog Catcher…I mean Congress!!!
Comment by BBB — April 15, 2008 @ 12:18 pm
[…] The polling was done after Smith skipped the television debate and fumbled the Country Crossing issue. We can probably agree that those episodes didn’t register in the minds of most voters though many people here certainly took note. In an early poll in October before the field was settled, Smith was at 24%. […]
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