Giuliani's media team has strong record

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani has a new team of media consultants with a strong record of electing GOP candidates, sometimes using controversial ads. The team is led by Heath Thompson and his Dallas-based firm, Scott Howell & Company. Thompson, as director of President Bush's 2000 campaign in South Carolina, helped Bush to an 11-point victory in that state.

Last year, a commercial made by Thompson's firm for Tennessee's U.S. Senate race was criticized for what the NAACP and others said were racial overtones.

Run by the Republican National Committee against Democrat Harold Ford, who is black, the ad showed a white woman saying she had met Ford at a Playboy-sponsored party. As the ad ended, the woman, her shoulders bared, whispered into the camera, "Harold, call me."

The NAACP said the commercial played to prejudices about black men and white women, and Republican Bob Corker, who won the Senate seat, called the ad tacky. The RNC denied any racial subtext but asked TV stations to stop running the commercial.

The firm's client roster has included Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Clients who lost 2006 Senate races include former Rep. Mark Kennedy of Minnesota, former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard in Michigan.

Also on the Giuliani team are Chris Mottola and Associates, BrabenderCox and Crossroads Media, a media services firm. Chris Mottola was a consultant to former New York Gov. George Pataki; John Brabender advised former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Giuliani adviser Chris Henick said: "This group will be instrumental in communicating Mayor Giuliani's strong leadership, proven record as an experienced executive and optimistic vision to Americans."

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DILLON, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama toured a dilapidated school in rural South Carolina Thursday and said children educated in run-down facilities are being shortchanged.

"Let's face it, money does make a difference," the Illinois senator said after walking around J.V. Martin Junior High School, which was built in 1896. "Here's a federal and a state and a local responsibility that's not being met."

The school of 600 seventh- and eighth-graders has needed new floors and wiring, and the auditorium is in such bad shape that it's closed. Because of a lack of space, students take classes amid drill presses and saws in a room once used for shop class.

The aging gymnasium doesn't have air conditioning, though that apparently didn't bother Obama when he sank a shot on the basketball court.

Obama praised the idea behind the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and South Carolina's tough school performance standards.

"Unfortunately, we don't' always put our money where our mouth is," Obama said. "Children are left behind."

The school has failed to meet South Carolina's standards, and principal Amanda Burnette was hired in July by the state Education Department to make progress.

Burnette said a penny added to the local sales taxes has helped repair the floors and install new wiring.

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MIAMI (AP) — If national Democratic leaders take away some of Florida's delegates as punishment for holding a super-early primary, lawmakers from the state intend to fight back.

In a letter to party chairman Howard Dean, Florida representatives said they would request a probe into the legality of such a penalty, which they say "assaults" the basic right to vote.

The lawmakers cited media reports that the DNC may sanction Florida for scheduling its presidential nominating contest before Feb. 5, in conflict with national party rules, unless the Sunshine State renders its primary a nonbinding straw poll.

"If true — and, if the DNC strips Florida of all or some of its delegates to the national convention — we would ask the appropriate legal offices to determine whether this could violate any state or federal laws governing and protecting individual voting rights," said the letter, dated Wednesday and signed by Sen. Bill Nelson, among others.

The DNC's rules committee is to meet Saturday to decide what to do about leapfrogging states. Dean has said he expects the committee to enforce party rules.

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Associated Press writers Jim Davenport in South Carolina and Rasha Madkour contributed to this report.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_el_pr/giuliani_media [link]