The Herald-News - News Story

    Will Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, star of the recent Republican National Convention, be visiting Dayton in the near future? Dayton's Randall McGinnis hopes so and so do a lot of community leaders.
    Palin, a relative unknown before John McCain picked her as his vice-presidential running mate, became an overnight sensation in Republican circles with her convention speech last Wednesday.
    McGinnis, who used to live in Alaska, thought, "why not ask her to come speak in Dayton?"
    "This is essentially the buckle of the Bible Belt," McGinnis said last week. "Palin is going to be the candidate of evangelicals, so what better place to speak than on the steps of the Rhea County Courthouse where William Jennings Bryan so eloquently defended evangelical Christianity in 1925?"
    McGinnis broached the subject with friends at the American Legion hall in Dayton and found they were all in support of it, so he decided to take the ball and run with it.
    He contacted local officials and community groups and asked them to write letters of invitation. He has already collected letters from several local organizations, including Bryan College and The Family Church.
    Rhea County Executive Billy Ray Patton, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the Rhea County Republican Party and the Rhea County Veterans Committee have all promised to write letters this week, according to McGinnis, who asks that other local organizations draft letters of invitation as well.
    McGinnis plans to place all the letters in the hands of Congressman Zach Wamp as soon as possible, and Wamp has agreed to hand-deliver the letters to the McCain-Palin campaign staff in Washington, D.C.
    "We're 100 percent behind Mr. McGinnis's efforts," said Rhea County Road Supervisor Tommy Snyder who is a leader in the Rhea County Republican Party. "We'll do whatever we can to help."
    McGinnis said if Palin does accept his invitation, he would like to make it a regular election year event to host the presidential or vice presidential candidate wishing to address conservative Christians nationwide.
    "I'd like to see Dayton back on the national stage like it was in 1925 during the Scopes Trial, except now I'd like to be for a better reason," McGinnis said.
    John Carpenter can be contacted at john.carpenter@rheaheraldnews.com