There was a poll on the Gil Report website (talk radio host out of Nashville) for four of the candidates for congress. Van Irion won the poll with over 50% of the vote, with the other three hovering around 10% - 15%. On his show, Steve Gil pointed out that most of the votes for Mr. Irion were from outside of District 3, which made it very questionable.
In response, Mr. Irion sent out the following:
"Steve Gill ran an online poll this weekend for the 3rd District. Once again we won the poll thanks to your support! Steve has reported that several votes came from outside the district and is questioning the poll. What Mr. Gill doesn't take into account is that members of our honored Cleveland-based 252nd Military Police Company currently serving in Iraq voted in the poll, so no doubt their IP addresses registered as outside the district. Mr. Gill doesn't believe our campaign has that much support within the district simply because we don't lead the money race. We have been pounding the pavement in every county for a year, getting our Constitutional message out, and that is the source of the massive grassroots support we have. If you would like to let Mr. Gill know about how much support we really do have in the district, please contact him at steve@gillreport.com or 615-778-8767."
I emailed Steve about this, and received a breakdown of the votes. Not only were there only a couple of votes from Iraq, there were over a hundred out of Texas. Doing a little more research (via Google) I found that emails were sent out, and this poll was posted on many "Campaign For Liberty" forums. Instead of acknowldging that this was a possibility, Mr. Irion claimed that this was votes from our military in Iraq.
Not only is this shocking, but it is just plain offensive. Mr. Irion, is this the kind of Congressman you would be? We see enough twisting of the facts...this is exactly what the Tea Party movement is about. We are tired of politicians like you.
Sylvia Gainer
sylviagainer@gmail.com
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Sylvia,
Let me get this straight. A poll is taken in Nashville. Van sends out an email to his supporters and asks for their votes. He wins the poll with a landslide. Van is then questioned about why votes came from out of the district.
Knowing that he has a lot of active duty military personnel on his email list, he mentions that the votes could have come from Iraq. Steve Gill then confirms that votes did indeed come from Iraq.
All the while a Republican group out of Texas posts his email on their website, and he gets votes from their readers.
And you are mad? Are you mad that Van probably got votes from Afghanistan as well?
How this has you mad is beyond me. You know, Sylvia, what you should be mad about is the fact that Robin gladly took an endorsement this week from a group that supports amnesty and the TARP bailout. That has me mad, and it should have you mad as well.
David Gidcumb
Big Ridge
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Sylvia,
The son of a family on the Van Irion for Congress campaign staff is currently serving in Iraq. He and many of his friends voted for Van on the online poll run by Steve Gill, this is the truth - we talked with him this morning on the phone and he confirmed it.
Were there votes outside of the 3rd district - of course, it's an internet poll - they are never accurate as they get stuffed by every candidate that is named. All campaigns send out an email to their supporters to vote so they look good - but know that it is meaningless.
In addition, Mr. Gill's poll allowed people to vote several times. That being said, the Van Irion campaign never asked C4L or Ron Paul to have people vote - if that had happened, Van would have received thousands of votes from everywhere in the country and beaten everyone by a far wider margin.
Van Irion is strongly supported by the Tea Party people everywhere in the 3rd District because of his Constitutional views and his commitment to taking power away from the federal government and giving it back to the people where it belongs.
And finally, I wish no one would run these internet polls as they are meaningless (but fun). They get everyone worked up so they can win and look good. I won one 75% to 25% over my opponent and lost the election and the reason was simple - my supporters read the Chattanoogan - her supporters did not.
Gregg Juster
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Sylvia,
Maybe, just maybe we should let the real votes speak for themselves. Trust in the fact that he isn't the same as the other big government loving candidates. Look into what he stands for and read up on the constitution before you count him out due to an on-line poll.
The election is right around the corner and Ron Paul has stated his endorsement for Irion. Campaign for Liberty members need no invite to vote for Van on-line, they just will.
Obviously you are feeding to the main stream media propaganda with the rude remark about the TEA party. Get to know some of these people before spouting judgment. You don't have a grasp on what their core principles are or you wouldn't have that generalized stance. These are folks just like you that have a voice on the current state of affairs, should we "Sylvia" bash? That would be pointless, right? Right.
Carrie McGaffic
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Van Irion exemplifies what we have come to expect from those currently holding political office. In this case, doing whatever it takes, using those outside the district to bolster his numbers that on the surface appear to be from within the district.
One of the three C's he is running on is character. I have seen yet another side to him related to character. While in Cleveland speaking to the Pachyderm he spoke inaccurate information on several occasions. There was one candidate who corrected those inaccuracies and mind you in a professional courteous manner.
Subsequent to this at a public forum sponsored by the Roan County Republican Women, Van took the opportunity to show the petty side of his character by taking to task this one particular candidate (none of the others) on just about every question even though his own questions were different.
To me, when a leader is shown that he is wrong, he admits it and makes adjustments as necessary. Someone who is petty and vindictive in response is not a leader and certainly not someone I would want to represent me in Congress.
Sonya Jacobson
Ooltewah
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Ms. Gainer,
First of all, I actually contacted Van Irion’s campaign before posting this response. That is an approach that I would suggest to you before making groundless accusations. The campaign told me in no uncertain terms that the e-mail with Steve Gill’s poll only went to 3rd District residents on their supporter list, with the exception of some immediate family members who live outside the district.
What you refer to as “duplicity” is little more than an acknowledgment that Van’s campaign is running circles around the other TN-03 campaigns in terms of his presence on the web. His website receives more hits than any other campaign site in the state, including the gubernatorial sites. This is partly due to the national media exposure that he received for the lawsuit he filed against the Obamacare lawsuit.
The poll was not posted on the website, and no e-mail was sent beyond the 3rd District. I have no doubt that some votes came from outside the district, but these votes were not directly solicited by the campaign.
Van does have more name recognition outside of the 3rd District than any of the other candidates. His campaign deliberately did not solicit those supporters. The fact that he did not speaks volumes on the kind of integrity that Van will bring to Washington.
If you have any factual evidence to the contrary, why not make that available so the voters in the 3rd District can make up their own minds? Otherwise it is you who are twisting the facts.
Millard Ramsey Jr.