ALEXANDER COUNTY — Alexander County board of commissioners Chairman Andy Clarke has political attack ads coming from an unusual source — a local pornography video store.
Clarke said for the past month the owners of Brown Bag Video Store in McClure have been slamming him in his campaign for re-election. He said current video store owner Richard Thompson, and Richard Brawley of McClure, who intends to turn the store into a country western bar, have been running full-page ads in the Cairo Citizen, Alexander County’s local paper, because they are angry the board declined to give them a liquor license earlier this year.
Clarke has responded with his own ads, spending between $700 and $800 a week to defend his reputation against the store owners.
“They’re running a really trashy campaign,” Clarke said. “Every campaign issue they’ve been taking and blowing it out of proportion.”
The Clarke campaign has put up signs that read, “Fight Porn, Re-elect Clarke,” in response to the ads.
Clarke said Brawley originally presented his business, at the intersection of Illinois 146 and Illinois 3 in McClure, as a family restaurant. Clarke said by the time the owner returned for a liquor license, the business had turned into a triple X video store/topless bar.
“I think there is a truly great number of people who don’t want this around,” Clarke said.
Brawley, however, said his intention is to set up a country western bar, but he is leaving it open as to whether he will set up an adult entertainment element in the future. He said when Thompson, who owns the real estate on the business, learned Clarke reneged on the liquor license, he set up the business as an adult video store. Brawley said Clarke understood his intentions from the beginning and promised him a liquor license if he would put the previous owner of the building, which was a massage and pornography parlor, out of business in March. Brawley said that was done to make Clarke look good for the primary election.
Brawley said Clarke is a “dirty politician,” who is attempting to avoid a number of outstanding issues by giving the impression he is cleaning up the community of adult entertainment.
Clarke said Brawley has done everything he can to drag his name through the mud. Clarke said he is spending a good deal of extra money, just to defend his reputation.