Nashua Telegraph picks up RidleyReport story

[Dave Ridley]

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/NEWS08/310120091/-1/news08

Clinton, Obama staff booted from festival
Published: Friday, October 12, 2007

By JOSEPH G. COTE
Telegraph Staff

NASHUA – Organizers of FireFest forced campaign staffers for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama to leave the fair when they wouldn't contribute a $100 booth fee to the arts fair last weekend.

Ross Ellis, husband of FireFest creator Amethyst Wyldfyre, is shown on a video by Dave Ridley, a NHLiberty.org member and Rep. Ron Paul supporter, explaining why Ellis asked the staffers to leave.

Clinton, of New York, and Obama, of Illinois, are both Democratic candidates for president. Paul, of Texas, is a Republican candidate.

According to Ellis, fair organizers invited all the candidates to the event. All of them declined, except the Paul campaign. It paid $100 and had supporters handing out literature at a booth Sunday.

The Clinton and Obama campaigns didn't have a booth, but their supporters were strolling around East Pearl Street collecting signatures and handing out buttons.

Ellis said he asked them to contribute the $100 – even though neither campaign had a booth – because they were benefiting from the crowd the fair had attracted.

Workers from both campaignsaid they would call a supervisor about the fee, Ellis said. But when he checked in with them again over a period of a couple of hours, they still didn't have an answer.

Eventually he asked them to put away their petitions and buttons or leave, and they left, he said.

"Fair is fair," Ellis said. "They could have at least been a supporter of the event. It's hard to earn money for something like that, and there's a lot of costs. They just didn't get it. It was rude that they pushed it so far."

Ellis said he doesn't consider himself a Paul supporter.

The video is posted on YouTube and was linked to Digg.com earlier this week.

"It's for such a good cause," Ellis, who described himself as a trustee of the event, said on the video. "They chose not to (contribute) and they had to be asked to leave. It was a shame it had to get to that point."

Obama's New Hampshire press secretary Reid Cherlin declined to comment.

Kathleen Strand, Clinton's New Hampshire press contact, said it was misunderstanding and the campaign will "gladly pay the fee" now that it knows about it.

"Sen. Clinton has a long record of commitment to the arts community, and that will continue when she is president," Strand said.

On the video, Ellis also praised the Paul campaign for supporting the arts in the city and the Lil' Iguana's Children's Safety Foundation.

Part of the proceeds from the event is donated to the foundation and the Nashua Area Arts Association, according to the fair's Web site, www.firefest.us.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com.

[Puke]

Way to get the scoop Dave!
The news folks seem to be coming to us lately.