[CNI News thanks Rebecca Keith for forwarding this item, which was distributed by the Associated Press on April 19, 1998.]
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A news release circulating in Alabama's 5th congressional district claims Republican candidate Gil Aust is "actually a Martian."
"Aust, along with several other Martians, accidentally crash landed in a swamp in Louisiana in the late '70s," the news release reads. "These Martians were able to successfully adapt and blend into American society."
The release urges a vote for Aust's GOP challenger Herb Dixon in the June 2 primary election. It claims to be a paid political announcement from the Dixon campaign, although Dixon's name is misspelled as "Dixion" at the bottom of the pamphlet.
Dixon denies putting out the news release and believes it actually was distributed to make his campaign look bad.
"To us, it's a direct slap in the face to the intelligence of the people of North Alabama," Dixon said. "It shows the character and integrity of the campaign."
Aust's campaign manager, Ken Hutcheson, said he doubts anyone in Dixon's campaign was involved and said nobody in the Aust campaign was responsible.
The release had been distributed to at least 10 members of the Madison County GOP Executive Committee.
It claims Aust moved to North Alabama to infiltrate the Marshall Space Flight Center and steal space technology to get his people back to Mars and bring other Martians to Earth. "This plot is known and classified Top Secret by NASA, the CIA and the United Nations," it reads.
Original file name: CNI - Candidate a Martian
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