I don’t blame him one bit.  It seems Day’s attack ads are factually deficient.  I’ve blogged Day’s ads before, but here is the Reader’s Digest version.  A gas station owned by Orr’s family was sued for price gouging by Troy King.  Orr doesn’t work for, or receive a paycheck from, the gas station in question.  End of story.

Day, however, asserts in his ads (link to one of Day’s mailers) that Orr “takes a paycheck” from the gas station.  Orr is understandably peeved and he has demanded an apology from Day.  I hope he isn’t holding his breath.

State Senate District 3 candidate Arthur Orr wants an apology from his opponent, Bobby Day, who says Orr profited from a family business involved in a gasoline price-gouging suit.

Republican Orr said Democrat Day is lying when he says that Orr receives financial benefits from Petroleum Sales Inc. Orr is corporate secretary of PSI, a family business, but he denied getting a salary, dividends or other financial compensation.

In a letter hand-delivered to Day on Sunday morning, Orr called for a written apology and retraction and made other demands. All had a noon Monday deadline.

Update: There was another wrinkle to Orr’s complaints described in a Times article this morning.

Orr said Day slumped to a new low in suggesting a gasoline tank leak at an Orr family gas station seven years ago may have caused cancer in a young girl who lived nearby.

Orr said Tuesday he was overseas working for Habitat for Humanity International when the leak, referred to in a Day commercial, occurred.  The campaign ad says the young girl’s family questions if exposure to that leak caused her leukemia and it questions why Orr should be trusted.

Orr called the charge “absolutely absurd” and said he has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of the family business. His full-time job is as general counsel for Cook’s Pest Control.

Day really has slumped quite low on this point.  I’ll try to summarize the “connection.”  A girl with cancer has, at best, a questionable link to a gas leak at a station that Orr doesn’t work for that occurred while Orr was helping impoverished families in Bangladesh.  I hope the other voters in District 3 see through Day’s potentially libelous attacks.

Update 2: Here is a copy of Day’s gas leak mailer.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 1:31 am and is filed under Alabama, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.