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A flier for Jim Davis, who may run for governor, includes the instructions for making a flier.
By BILL ADAIR
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 23, 2001
WASHINGTON -- If U.S. Rep. Jim Davis becomes Florida's governor, his first act in office might be to hire a copy editor.
The Davis for Governor Exploratory Campaign on Wednesday sent the "Jim Davis Digest" to dozens of journalists and supporters with an embarrassing mistake.
The back three pages of the e-mailed document were from a Microsoft template for a newsletter. Instead of stories or photographs about the Tampa Democrat, readers got a color drawing of a tomato and a radish ("Caption describing picture or graphic," said the caption) and a headline that said, "Inside Story Headline."
Inside a box on page 2 was this message: "To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here."
The back page said the document was paid for by the Davis campaign, but it had a story that said, "You can also use this space to remind readers to mark their calendars for a regular event, such as a breakfast meeting for vendors every third Tuesday of the month, or a biannual charity auction. If space is available, this is a good place to insert a clip art image or some other graphic."
It was accompanied by a drawing of a peach.
Brian Edwards, a spokesman for the campaign, joked that "page 2 and 3 of the newsletter have Jim Davis' new agricultural policy for the state -- radishes, tomatoes and peaches for everybody."
The front page was for real. It contained stories saying Davis was "one step closer" to a decision about whether to run and quoted Miami Herald executive editor Tom Fiedler saying Davis "might be the sleeper that comes forward for the Democrats here."
Edwards said the other pages were not supposed to be sent. "It's a good old-fashioned mistake by a campaign volunteer."