Besides, no one can find the number

Secretary of State Nancy Worley wanted to spend more than $560,000 in Alabama tax money on pre-election voter education advertising campaigns, but a legislative committee temporarily blocked the plan Thursday.

Oddly enough, the committee didn't reject the idea because Worley would appear personally in state-funded radio and television ads just before she sought renomination in a contested Democratic primary race. Instead, it was because a Republican member objected that the ads would be "the biggest waste of money" considering that Worley spent $700,000 on a voter education campaign two years ago. Worley, as you might expect, cited "partisan political reasons" for the committee's move.

Now for the good stuff. The committee had power to withhold approval only because Worley sought to use an ad agency's services instead of purchasing the ads directly. In other words, if she thinks the ad campaign is that important, she could run the entire thing as planned simply by picking up the phone and calling radio and TV stations herself. If that's too much trouble, she could tell an employee to do it for her. Surely the stations' ad reps would be glad to help her office do whatever was necessary for them to collect the state's money.

So let's check with The Associated Press for Worley's response to that idea: "Worley said Thursday that is a possibility, but she doesn't have anyone on her staff trained in buying advertising."

Ed Packard. June 6. Please.