Obama list of GOP support has mistakes

By Ray Reed

Published: September 4, 2008

The state headquarters of Barack Obama’s campaign sent out a list Thursday of nearly 50 Virginians, including three from Lynchburg, who it said were Republi-cans supporting the Democratic presidential candidate.

The Obama staffers failed to check closely enough with Steve Bozeman, whose name was on the list. Bozeman said he plans to vote for John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent.

“No one got my permission” to list his name among Obama supporters, said Bozeman, a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran who led the Pledge of Allegiance at Obama’s Lynchburg rally Aug. 20.

“I was honored to do that,” Bozeman said. “Unfortunately, my allegiance and vote are going to go for McCain.”

Clark Stevens, communications director for Obama’s Virginia campaign, acknowledged a miscommunication had occurred about Bozeman’s support.

Other Lynchburg residents named in a news release, which listed members of the “Republicans for Obama Grassroots Leadership Committee,” were James Ackley and Sanford R. Wilson.

Ackley, a teacher at E.C. Glass High School, said the list didn’t portray him exactly right, either.

“I’m not a Republican, and I am voting for Obama,” Ackley said.

Wilson, a property owner, said he is, indeed, a Republican who supports Obama, but he was surprised that his name appeared on Obama’s list.

“I don’t know how they got that,” Wilson said, but he added that he’d like to put up Obama yard signs on three sites he owns.

“I got a call from somebody who said he’d heard that I was a Republican voting Democratic,” Wilson said. “I said, ‘How did you get that information?’ and he wouldn’t tell me,” Wilson said.

Stevens, the Obama spokesman, said the mistake concerning Bozeman involved “a miscommunication on behalf of our staff.”

Bozeman said, “I told the guy that night at the event that I was there to do the Pledge of Allegiance, which I was honored to do, and that was it.”

“I’m an independent, one of those voters they’re trying to get,” Bozeman said. “McCain, of course, has a lot of support from veterans like myself.”

Bozeman didn’t seem too upset about the mix-up.

“This is politics,” he said. “It’s getting interesting.”