Sound familiar? NARAL Members Barred From McCain Town Hall

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/Naral_Prochoice_tshirtwearers_barred_from_McCain_event.html

Naral: Pro-choice t-shirt-wearers barred from McCain event



The McCain campaign is sharply disputing a claim by the New Mexico arm of NARAL Pro-Choice that it had three of the group's members barred from the Arizona Senator's event in Albuquerque yesterday.

A McCain aide, Jeff Sadosky, said hotel security and the Albuquerque police asked the abortion rights activists to leave the event after McCain's campaign had given them passes to enter.

Here's part of a release from the New Mexico arm of NARAL Pro-Choice, the abortion rights group:

Heather Brewer, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico, said today that three pro-choice New Mexicans wearing NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico T-shirts were denied access to Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting at the Hotel Albuquerque on Tuesday even though they had tickets to the event.

Several security officers confronted the pro-choice attendees, but gave no explanation for ejecting them as they waited in line with the other nearly 500 participants. Instead the pro-choice ticketholders were simply told that they were trespassing and the officers threatened them with arrest....

"Our folks had tickets, followed the rules and were waiting in line just like everyone else," Brewer said. "I can only assume that it was their NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico T-shirts that inspired security to single them out from the hundreds of other people there and to threaten them with arrest. If Sen. McCain has a problem with women accessing birth control, he should state that publicly. His voting record makes it clear that he does not support access to birth control, so why is he ducking the issue at his own town hall meeting?"

...After being confronted by security officers, all three pro-choice ticketholders left the building without incident.

Sadosky, however, said the activists had first drawn the attention of hotel security when they were protesting in a parking lot, and were asked to move off the private property. When the security officers saw them on line to enter the event, they reiterated that they'd already been asked to leave, Sadosky said. A hotel security official, Lucas Garcia, didn't immediately return a call for comment.

"We gave these folks tickets," Sadosky said. He declined to comment on the decision to remove them.

ME: THIS IS MCSAME'S CAMPAIGN RESPONSE???
One note: The local press, a McCain aide said, had been aware of, and didn't cover, the story yesterday -- often a useful sign of how meaningful an incident is.

[mediaman007]

1. I hope at some point, the Obama campaign indicates that Obama

meets with all Americans and wants to be president for all Americans. McCain, like Bush*/Cheney only want to be president of 50% + 1.