Clinton backers have ties to media firms

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Two more black South Carolina lawmakers endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have ties to a media consulting firm hired by the White House hopeful.

However, both the lawmakers and the campaign said Thursday their support has nothing to do with any business dealings.

Clinton's campaign announced this week that state Reps. David J. Mack III of North Charleston and Terry Alexander of Florence, along with several other black politicians, had endorsed Clinton for president.

"I believe that she has the best chance to bring a Democrat in the White House," Mack said Thursday. "That's where my focus is: Who has the best chance to take back the White House."

Mack and Alexander operate offshoots of Sunrise Communication of Columbia, which is owned by influential state Sen. Darrell Jackson. The connection was first reported by The (Columbia) State in Thursday's newspapers.

Jackson said last week he would endorse Clinton, and then revealed that his firm was being paid $10,000 a month to help her South Carolina operation. Both Jackson and the Clinton campaign have denied a connection between his endorsement and the contract.

Mack and Alexander said Thursday that their endorsements have nothing to do with a contract between Jackson's firm and the Clinton campaign. All three men said Thursday that the spinoff companies operate independently of Jackson's outfit.

"I have been following her a long time," Alexander said. "I think she's for what's best for the country."

The black vote is considered key to winning the Democratic nomination in South Carolina. Nearly half the voters in the 2004 primary were black. South Carolina is holding the first-in-the-South Democratic presidential primary next year.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record) on Thursday named his South Carolina advisers, including one who boasted about telling an illegal immigrant worried about an abused child to "get back to Mexico."

At a news conference at the Statehouse, Horry County Auditor Lois Eargle talked up her hard-line stance on illegal immigrants. The former county GOP chairwoman said an illegal immigrant with three children came to her office this week asking for free legal help for an abused child.

"I told her the best thing for her to do was to get back to Mexico," Eargle said.

Hunter, a California congressman who is considered a long-shot to win the White House, said if a fence was not built along the Mexican border by 2009, as president he would ensure it was "built start to finish in six months."

Hunter also named former state Rep. Tom Marchant and Dr. Henry Jordan campaign co-chairmen. Jordan made headlines nearly a decade ago for his disparaging comments about Muslims and Buddhists.

Jordan, an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1996 and last year, said in May that science does not support Darwin's theory that man evolved from monkeys. He said students should learn "intelligent design" along with evolution.

"I mean you've got to be stupid to believe in evolution, I mean really," he told The Associated Press then.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Who says Democrats have a lock on Hollywood?

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) was in Los Angeles on Thursday to attend a screening of the new movie "Amazing Grace," about legendary British lawmaker William Wilberforce who led the fight to abolish slavery in England in 1807.

Wilberforce happens to be one of the Kansas senator's "personal heroes," said Brownback spokesman Brian Hart. After the movie, Brownback will take part in a panel discussion with the film's producers to discuss human trafficking and slavery.

"He is hopeful that this movie will have a positive impact on the world and shed some light on the tragedy of modern-day slavery and sex trafficking," Hart said.

Brownback's commitment to human rights is bound with his religious faith; he was an evangelical Protestant who converted to Catholicism. He identifies with Wilberforce, who was a leading evangelical in British Parliament.

Brownback has played a key role in enacting legislation to combat human trafficking, curb disease in Africa and fight genocide in Sudan. Last week, he introduced a Senate resolution to honor Wilberforce and commemorate 200 years since the end of the slave trade in the British Empire.

The movie, starring Ioan Gruffudd and Albert Finney, is being released in U.S. theaters this week.

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson is betting it all on Iowa.

Thompson, who was elected to four terms as Wisconsin governor before leaving office to serve as President Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services in 2001, has formed a presidential exploratory committee. He has not yet formally declared his candidacy.

But he has been making weekly visits to Iowa, which holds the first caucuses. This weekend, Thompson will meet with college Republicans and visit voters at their homes.

Thompson said he has laid the groundwork for his campaign and is raising money. He figures he'll need $2.5 million to be viable in Iowa. His focus is a straw poll of Iowa Republicans in August, and if he wins that, he'll consider launching a full bid.

"If I don't win in Iowa, there's no chance," he told reporters at Marquette University Law School, after taking questions from students for about an hour.

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Associated Press Writer Sam Hananel in Washington, Emily Fredrix in Milwaukee and Seanna Adcox in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail [link]