FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 3, 2006
CONTACT: Ryan Banfill (850) 222-1996
Jacksonville, Fla. - VoteJacksonville.com is launching a new television advertisement in its campaign to return the Navy Master Jet Base to Cecil Field as Election 2006 enters its final weekend. The 30-second television spot dismantles arguments made by opponents of the Navy's return who say the Navy doesn't want to come back to Cecil Field - demonstrating how the opposition's main argument is misleading, deceptive and dishonest.
The ad features clips from two developer-sponsored ads making the misleading assertion about the Navy. The VoteJacksonville.com ad uses quotes from an official U.S. Navy spokesperson to set the record straight - raising serious concerns that the leading opponents of the Navy's return to Cecil Field may be either intentionally confusing voters or grossly misinformed.
The quotes in the new VoteJacksonville.com television spot came from a conversation a VoteJacksonville.com volunteer had on this week with Cmdr. John Kirby, personal spokesperson for the Chief Naval Officer (CNO) - the U.S. Navy's top admiral.
The conversation, printed in VoteJacksonville.com's pro-Cecil Field op-ed on the opinion page of Friday's Florida Times-Union, went like this:
VoteJacksonville.com supporter: "Commander Kirby, we have read and heard that the CNO does not want to come back to Cecil Field. Is that true?"
Kirby: "Absolutely, not. The CNO has never uttered those words."
VJ supporter: "In a recent Times-Union article, the reporter quoted the CNO as not wanting to come back."
Kirby: "The CNO's quote by (Times-Union columnist) Ron Littlepage was in response to the CNO being asked about Oceana, not Cecil. The CNO has never been asked publicly about Cecil. In fact, the CNO has never been asked if he wanted to come to Cecil."
VJ supporter: "Please sir, go ahead, I want to know your thoughts and what is really going on in the Navy."
Kirby: "One key fact that is lacking is that it is not up to the Navy. It is the responsibility of the office of the Department of Defense Inspector General to see if Cecil meets the requirements. If in fact, it does, and Oceana has failed, which I believe it has, then the law dictates that the Navy will go to Cecil."
VJ supporter: "So just that I know I have the facts straight, the CNO has never said he did not want to bring the jets to Cecil."
Kirby: "Never, the Navy has not, nor can it take a position."
This is the latest evidence that the developer-sponsored opponents of the Navy's return to Cecil Field are using faulty and misleading reasoning to make their case to voters.
Cecil Field was an active airbase and coexisted with the surrounding area from 1943 to 1999. Today, according to Federal Aviation Administration data, the base is still home to more than 60,000 military flight operations a year - an average of 170 a day.
According to a 2005 report commissioned by Enterprise Florida, the Navy's return to Cecil Field would bring more than 31,000 new jobs to North Florida and boost the region's economy by $2.6 billion a year. 38,000 concerned Jacksonville voters placed the Cecil Field referendum, supported earlier this week by U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, on the ballot.
Pd. Pol. Adv. paid for by VoteJacksonville.com, 14286 Beach Blvd Ste 19 #224, Jacksonville, FL 32250
Ryan Banfill
Senior Account Manager
Ron Sachs Communications
(850) 222-1996
(850) 224-2882 fax
james@ronsachs.com