The above sign currently sits in the front yard of the home of Bishop Eddie Long in Lithonia, Georgia meaning current gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes may have a not so welcome political supporter in Bishop Long. Upon further research, the former governor has known Bishop Long for more than 20 years, has had speaking engagements at his church and considers Long to be a friend. Beyond just a friendship, Bishop Long is on the finance committee for Barnes’ campaign for governor. Long actually co-hosted a fundraiser for Barnes during the primary, and has contributed $11,100 to the campaign. Before the allegations against Bishop Long arose, he was set to co-host another fundraiser for Barnes later this month. The gubernatorial candidate has since canceled the event and called the allegations against Long “troubling.” Barnes hasn’t cancelled ties with Bishop Long altogether, however, as Long still remains on Barnes’ campaign finance committee. Barnes told Channel 2 Action News, “the allegations are troubling, but there’s not been one deposition taken, not one thing. Let’s let the legal process work.” A spokesman for Long referred questions regarding the relationship between the two individuals back to Barnes’ campaign. The question now is will Barnes connection to Bishop Long have any impact on his political campaign?
I highly doubt it. Contrary to popular belief, Bishop Eddie Long's followers have not stopped supporting their pastor, and I'm 99% that most of those followers are Democrats, and are probably going to go straight-ticket this election. Now when it comes to the question of if their connection impacting his campaign, I'm going to go ahead and say: probably not. The link between the allegations of the pastor and the Barnes campaign is a very weak one, although I'm definitely expecting the media to harp on it, because it would be a juicy story. Remember the whole Reverend Jeremiah Wright debacle? Obama's pastor made a few controversial sermons, and one that was recorded in 2003 was brought up 5 years later to raise questions of Obama's moral character. But guess who won the election anyway. The media will create un-needed controversy, but something like this is definitely not impacting the Barnes campaign as much as some may want it to.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Bishop Eddie Long's friendship will have any effect on the election of Roy Barnes either. People know that regardless if Bishop Long is guilty or not that does not mean that Roy Barnes is not capable of being a governor. Roy Barnes is his friend and not his guardian and I am sure people will respect that. Bishop Eddie Long still has majority of his followers and that right there shows dedication. So, although this scandal will cause a media frenzy because of their connection I highly doubt that this will have any impact on Barnes campaign.
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