Campaign rewind: How Southerland’s ‘lingerie’ comment happened
November 9, 2014 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
When a candidate loses by a couple of thousand votes, any one of a dozen factors can be blamed for the result. Some people think U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland’s re-election hopes ended the day of his “lingerie shower” quip about Democratic rival Gwen Graham.
As the lone reporter who got that quote — almost by accident — the story is worth telling. It was Friday, Sept. 12, and Southerland was part of a posse on a Panhandle campaign swing with Gov. Rick Scott, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others. They decided to stop for lunch at a Sonny’s BBQ in Lynn Haven near Panama City.
In an attempt to counter the Republican message of the day, the Democrats hastily set up a conference call with their party chair, Allison Tant, at 11:30 on a Friday morning. Tant’s voice was barely audible in a noisy restaurant, but reporters could hear her bashing Southerland as a sexist whose supporters organized an all-male fund-raiser and who had a bad voting record on women’s issues.
When the call ended, I went to the back of the restaurant to take pictures of Scott and Christie eating lunch. Southerland was nearby, and on instinct, I decided to get his reaction to Tant’s statements. He laughed out loud when I told him Tant has bashed him and said: “I live with five women. I live with five women.” I asked Southerland, “Does that send a negative message to women voters, in your opinion?” His reply: “Has Gwen Graham ever been to a lingerie shower? Ask her. Ask her. And how many men were there?”
