He will not win. The Columbus Dispatch ran an article on him today regarding his going to a town in Ohio called Hicksville (named after the founder, not the Appalacian's) and taking a photo. Lets just say the locals were not amused by the TV host.
I would link the article, but you have to sign up for the paper electronically to see it...Try it.
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2003/early/20030713-00202.html
Jerry Springer says the quote on his ad shows what Washington’s elite think of those who live in middle America. Mayor Janis Meyer says Hicksville has more culture than Springer’s TV show.
HICKSVILLE, Ohio — From the day land agent Henry W. Hicks gave this northwestern Ohio village his name in the 1830s, townsfolk proudly have defended it against the inevitable and tiresome jokes.
But they never envisioned their farming community becoming the punch line for a national political fund-raising campaign, effectively casting them as unwilling guests on a Jerry Springer show entitled "Slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnot."
Said Mayor Janis Meyer: "I’ve always thought it would be good to put Hicksville on the map, but not this way."
Springer, host of a popular television talk show that routinely features misfits and miscreants, is using Hicksville as a metaphorical rallying post for his Democratic U.S. Senate campaign for Ohio, selling autographed photos of himself pointing to a Hicksville corporation-limit sign.
Featured on Springer’s campaign Web site — runjerryrun-.com — the photos sell for $100 and are superimposed with words that Republican pundit Jonah Goldberg uttered on a CNN politics program this year: "If Jerry Springer shows up, he’ll bring all these new people to the polls. They will be slackjawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnot."
The photo was snapped after Springer delivered a speech May 5 at a fund-raising dinner in Hicksville for the Defiance County Democratic Party.
Dale Butland, political spokesman for Springer, said that, with Goldberg’s quote in mind, the campaign couldn’t resist the photo op. "We thought it was too good to be true," Butland said. "We were going to bring out the hicks, and here we are in Hicksville."
But the 3,600 residents of Hicksville do not appear to be amused, judging by interviews conducted in the town on Friday. "I’ve got a sense of humor, but this makes us look like a bunch of . . .," said Village Administrator Kent Miller, trailing off before the "H" word tumbled out.
"If Springer’s running for office, I don’t know why he’d want to tick off 3,600 people."
Studying the photo outside Village Hall, Councilman Mick Pocratsky and Clerk Diane Collins, both Republicans, expressed disgust.
"He obviously doesn’t know Hicksville," Collins said after reading the inscription.
"It’s rather offensive," Pocratsky said, "because we’re proud of who we are."
Contemplating the photo’s $100 price, Pocratsky mused, "What’s our cut? We have new sewer lines to put in."
Butland said he didn’t know how many of the photos have been sold or how much they’ve netted for the campaign. But rather than poking fun at Hicksville, he said, the photo is intended to show that Springer relates to hardworking everyday Americans and will be their champion against Washington’s "elitist" politicians who represent the special interests.
"He’s not calling them hicks," Butland said. "It’s the elitists, not Jerry Springer, who think everybody in middle America is a slack-jawed yokel hick. Jerry Springer doesn’t look down his nose at them. He went to Hicksville precisely to make sure that they have a voice. He’s talking to the people who don’t have their interests represented."
Defiance County Republican Chairman Jeffrey A. Strausbaugh said the photo renders the Springer defense disingenuous.
"I don’t blame the people of Hicksville for not appreciating this guy making fun of their town for his own personal gain," Strausbaugh said.
Springer, he added, probably won’t get many votes in the town anyway. Hicksville is a conservative GOP haven in reliably Republican Defiance County, Strausbaugh said. President Bush won the county by more than 20 points in 2000, and only one Democratic presidential candidate — Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 — has carried the county in the last 50 years.
Townspeople are accustomed to the jokes. "We tell people we’re from Hicksville and they say, ‘Yeah, where are you really from?’ " said Mary Slattery, 61, a retired nurse.
"I travel all over and I tell people where I live and they might forget my name but they never forget where I’m from," Collins said.
"We’re far from being what our name implies," Mayor Meyer said.
Hicksville is big enough for a McDonald’s but not a mall; big enough for a Chinese restaurant, yet small enough to have a Dollar General store anchor its clean and bustling downtown.
The town has "much more culture" than the Jerry Springer show, the mayor boasted, pointing to the refurbished downtown Huber Opera House, where Mike Smith of the original Dave Clark Five recently played, Mickey Rooney is scheduled to appear, and "Nancy Sinatra is considering it."
Jerry Springer airs at midnight and 2 a.m. on TV in Hicksville. Slattery, a rare Democrat in town, said Springer’s Senate bid will be hurt by the show.
While promising to "give him a hearing," Slattery said, "Right now, he would be hard for me to vote for. To me, your past follows you."
But her husband, Ed Hesselschwardt, 70, didn’t discount Springer’s populist appeal: "He could get people rattled up enough to come out and vote for him."
At the Uptown Barber Shop, barber Dave Martin, 53, didn’t mince words about Springer: "I think the guy’s an idiot. Maybe that’s a little strong, but I don’t think his politics would fit in with Hicksville. This is a conservative town."
Still, Martin, an independent, said he will give Springer "a chance to state his case," adding, "I can separate him as a politician from the show because the show is just a way to make a buck."
Waiting for a haircut, James R. Hane, 70, a Democrat and retired factory union member, said he’s supporting Springer.
"He’s not for the big money people or the big corporations," Hane said. "I think the show will help him, because he shows how some people really live and then gives his opinion about how they ought to live."
Mike Hurni, 30, who lives in Detroit but grew up in Hicksville, was in town visiting his parents. Crossing his legs in the barber chair, he listened to the banter quietly, waiting for a lull to make an observation:
"I didn’t know I was a slackjawed yokel."
