Gubernatorial Candidate Flashes for Cash

Thanks to political columnist Bob Ingram, Loretta Nall is best known lately for two things -- both of them on her chest. "In 55 years of political writing," Ingram noted in a recent column about a photo of Nall, "that was a first for me -- a picture in my column of a woman displaying cleavage ... [my mother] wouldn't have approved of that picture."

Nall, a well-known medical marijuana activist and the Libertarian Party's 2006 candidate for governor of Alabama, isn't one to pass on an opportunity. "When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade," she says. "When God gives you melons ... well, let's not go there." But going there she is, with a new fundraising campaign designed to capitalize on Ingram's touting of her attributes. To raise money for ballot access, Nall is using Flash animations on her campaign web site. Contributors get a glimpse of the buxom beauty's cleavage or waistline -- and big donors are promised an uncensored view of "the biggest boobs in Alabama politics."

All's fair in love, war and politics, says Nall. "I had to go one of two ways -- don a burqa so that maybe people like Bob Ingram will be willing to talk about my actual platform instead of my anatomy, or go with the flow and use dismissive attacks to my advantage. I don't back down easily. This is, if you'll pardon the expression, tit for tat."

Nall faces Alabama's draconian ballot access restrictions -- "the Republicans and Democrats are scared to death of a fair fight," she says -- and must submit 42,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State by June 6th in order to appear on the ballot with the Democrat and GOP candidates (who face no such hurdle). Her "Flash for Cash" campaign is intended to raise the money required to gather those signatures.

The animations mentioned in this release may be viewed here.