District 11 leadership and PC wars heat up

Big dogs recruited to join the fight

Today’s daily newspaper’s Political Insider column includes this bit of inside politics: Scroll down to the item titled, Honey, the governor‘s on the phone….detailing the territorial wars between the elected District 11 conservative precinct committeemen and the liberal element misrepresenting itself by use of the genuine sounding name Grassroots Arizona.

Last week brought an intensification to the conflict with a national figure entering the fray. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, recorded a 30-second auto-dialer message that went to 5,000 district homes.  An additional 5,000 households are expected to receive the call Monday, the day before the primary election.

In the eye of this storm, along with the longstanding PCs whom the McCain surrogates want to oust, are party stalwarts, Maricopa County Chairman, Tom Husband and the District 11 Chairman Rob Haney. Refreshingly, neither of these men shrink from calling out the elephant in the room when need be.

Grassroots Arizona PAC already has flooded the district with mailers advocating on behalf of its slate of recruited and often unsuspecting PC candidates. Not all of their recruits were pleased with the inclusion on their suspect list. Former Sen. Tom Smith strongly denounced their practices at the August district meeting.

There is no doubt that this effort came directly from the McCain campaign. Haley Barbour is too high in the upper echelon of the GOP to accommodate low level PC requests.

Tom Husband, the Maricopa County Chairman, who resides in the district and is in the crosshairs of the Grassroots PAC, wryly noted, “I’m flattered. I’ve never had anyone that politically important pay so much attention to me before.”

John McCain also lives in the district and has been embarrassed in the past when the elected precinct committeemen objected to his liberal policies on various issues, most significantly the Comprehensive Immigration Reform/ Amnesty bill. Big money interests in the state that benefit from taxpayer subsidized low cost illegal labor seized the opportunity to silence the voices of the opposition.

As a presidential candidate, John McCain wants to ensure that a repeat of such displeasure with his policies doesn’t re-erupt. The means being employed by his surrogates is to shut down the conservative leadership within the party.

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Matching funds provision of Clean Elections law ruled unconstitutional

System “skewed toward candidates who accept taxpayer’s subsidies”

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver has ruled that a key provision of Arizona’s public campaign financing system violates constitutional free speech rights.

Judge Silver issued the ruling Friday in a suit filed last week by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of six Republican legislative candidates.

The suit asked the judge to bar the state Clean Elections Commission from paying so-called “matching funds” to candidates who are outspent by opponents who don’t sign up for state financing.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Judge Silver refused to grant a temporary restraining order blocking the state from issuing matching funds, which could affect Tuesday’s primary election. She wrote that the late challenge to the law hasn’t given either side time to present evidence.

Silver set a hearing for Wednesday to consider issuing a preliminary injunction or to hold further hearings.

Still, the ruling could have a major impact in November’s general election. If Silver issues a preliminary injunction, candidates who opted not to take public financing could spend as much as they want without worrying that their opponents would get a supplemental cash infusion from the state.

“We think yesterday’s ruling was a victory for free speech rights,” said Goldwater Institute attorney Clint Bolick. The so-called “Clean Elections” system creates a playing field that is skewed toward candidates that accept taxpayer’s subsidies and against those who raise voluntary contributions. We are cautiously optimistic that the matching funds provision will be invalidated in the near future,” Bolick said.

The heavy-handed system is plagued with inequities, and voices have rightfully been raised against it since its inception in 1998, when it was passed by Arizona voters.

However, there is a strange and unifying whiff emanating from some of the plaintiffs in the case. Those who sued include incumbent Republican state Reps. John McComish of Phoenix and Nancy McLain of Bullhead City.

But others are new GOP legislative candidates Frank Antenori, Tony Bouie, Kevin Gibbons, and Doug Sposito. At least some (check the links) of these candidates are on the receiving end of large donations from those who oppose Arizona’s Fair and Legal Employment Act, commonly referred to as the employer sanctions law.

The deep-pocket donors, business entities who rely on a steady stream of exploitable illegal laborers, clearly do not want conservative candidates enacting laws to secure the border. Neither do they want such candidates to benefit from their generous cash infusions into the campaign coffers of their business-as-usual hopefuls.

The Palin abode: A house divided

Palin’s family needs to get with the program

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, just selected as the GOP running mate for presidential candidate John McCain, has a political dissident or two under her own roof.

Neither her husband Todd, nor their 19-year-old son, Track, are registered as Republicans. Both are registered as “party undeclared.”

Alaska’s Republican Party allows those registered undeclared and “nonpartisan” to vote in the party’s primaries.

Republic endorsement omits factual information on candidate Bouie

Newspaper calls their own misdirection play

The daily has made its endorsement in the District 6 state legislative race. Although the newspaper gets it right with strong conservative Rep. Sam Crump, it falls far short on assessing candidates for the open seat, Carl Seel and his ethically challenged opponent, Tony Bouie.

The paper, in attempting to malign Carl Seel’s involvement with the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, actually reveals how in sync Seel is with 75% of voters who passed restrictive illegal immigration legislation.

Seel, immediate past chairman of the conservative PAChyderm Coalition, is in good company, since the monthly meetings are routinely attended by a large number of state Republican legislators. Congressman Trent Franks was a recent guest, as was Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb, who just addressed the August meeting.

The daily refers to Seel as a “political newcomer in the sense that he has never been elected to office…” This is an inane assertion, considering Seel currently serves as an officer of the Arizona Republican Party and is an elected state and precinct committeeman. A tireless grassroots GOP worker, Seel has personally recruited over one-third of the entire membership of the precinct committeemen in his legislative district.

Tony Bouie, as a lifelong Democrat has only recently attended two Republican district meetings. First, in June, where he astonishingly announced his intention to run for a House seat and again last week where he was pressured to participate in a candidate forum at which he was ill-prepared to address fundamental Republican principles. A former football player, he constantly referred to his familiarity with the game to draw political analogies.

Bouie refused to attend the Clean Elections debate in which Rep. Sam Crump and Carl Seel participated. Bouie did attend one community debate at which he lied to the voters and withheld other pertinent information.

It is preposterous that the Republic makes this questionable endorsement after having documented his many lies during his interview with them and the Capitol Times.

With today’s endorsement the daily newspaper excuses Bouie’s foreclosure, quarter million dollar bankruptcy and run-ins with the law.

“Traditional Republican values” has comically now become a concern of the left-leaning Arizona Republic.

Arizona Civil Rights initiative will not be on November ballot

The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative campaign led by former California educator Ward Connerly announced it was abandoning its lawsuit to overturn the state’s decertification of Proposition 104.

The campaign issued a statement saying it still believed it collected enough valid petition signatures to put the initiative on the November 4, 2008 ballot but said it couldn’t review all the signatures rejected by election officials in time, according to a report in the daily.

The proposed Amendment was classic in its simplicity.

“The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting. ”

A new effort to amend the Arizona Constitution will be readied for the 2010 ballot, the campaign said. “Arizona voters will have a chance to vote on this important issue.

Read Michelle Malkin’s take on Connerly and his efforts here.

Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute is a “national civil rights organization created to educate the public on the harms of racial and gender preferences.”

What say you, Mr. Bouie?

Seeing Red AZ has received a copy of the cancellation of notice of trustee’s sale on property owned by Carl Seel, despite a misleading mailing sent out by Tony Bouie to the contrary. 

This document clearly indicates the Seel matter has been resolved. Mr. Bouie has yet to publicly address his own problems.

 

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Sonoran News examines the myriad lies of legislative candidate Tony Bouie

Recruited candidate, rife with problems, becomes political hot potato

Seeing Red AZ appreciates the corroborating coverage of the bizarre state legislative campaign in District 6 by the Sonoran News. Investigative reporter Linda Bentley details how lifelong Democrat, Tony Bouie, perfected a quick registration switch to become an instant Republican and found himself the beneficiary of adoration by the open borders crowd and even a congressman or two.

The Sonoran News reports that when Tony Bouie’s lies became unmanageable, he authorized his wife to send out a vicious email in which she attempted to deflect his knotty problems by calling the elected precinct committeemen “white supremacists, racists and crazy people…who were out to crucify…and beat the living daylights out of Tony’s character.”

Bouie’s finger-pointing at challenger Carl Seel, turned out to be a nearly masterful means of deflecting scrutiny of his own travails. Bouie’s numerous difficulties include bankruptcy, foreclosure, and vehicular recklessness, including Criminal Felony Speeding and driving on a suspended driver’s license. The bankruptcy left his creditors holding the bag with losses n excess of a quarter million dollars

This would read like a Grade B farce, except for the serious, real life implications. Many of the district voters have already cast their early ballots, unaware of the charade that Tony Bouie has set out to perpetrate upon them.

In the end, Rep. Sam Crump, running for reelection, has endorsed Carl Seel and called upon Bouie to end his race:

“For some bizarre reason, Mr. Bouie has attempted to start his political career by lying to the voters. This demonstrates a serious character flaw that is unacceptable and I call on Mr. Bouie to immediately withdraw from this campaign,” said Crump.

VP Sweepstakes: McCain’s conservative selection could neutralize the Obamadrama

Gov. Sarah Palin, former Miss Alaska runner-up, wins a more significant second place

In 2006, Sarah Palin won the Alaska governor’s race, first beating the incumbent governor in the primary and then taking out former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, with 48.33 % to his 40.97, (four others were on the ballot).

Of significant and timely importance is her stated support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Her letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and key congressional members is accessible here. WorldNetDaily has more here.

She is pro-life, choosing to give birth to a Down’s Syndrome son after tests revealed his condition during her pregnancy.

And although opposed to same-sex marriage, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order, signing same-sex benefits into law. After a public vote on the issue, Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage,” in 1998.

Yet, Palin’s first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to gay state employees and their partners, granting State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples.

Athletic and a lifelong hunter, Palin worked for a time as a sports reporter. Her husband, Todd, a native Alaskan, works in an oilfield for BP, and is a four-time champion Iron Dog 2000 mile racer. They are the parents of five children, one of whom is serving in the U.S. Army and is about to be deployed to Iraq.

The fact that she was named Miss Congeniality in that beauty contest could be a real plus in dealing with the rigidly stubborn John McCain.

Finally, the Republican ticket has some glam and slam.

Cindy McCain’s half-sister is voting for Barack Obama

“I wouldn’t vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat.”

“I’m not voting for McCain,” Kathleen Hensley Portalski tells Us Magazine. “I have a different political standpoint.

“I’m voting for Obama,” the Phoenix resident says. “I think his proposals to improve the country are more positive and I’m not a big war believer.”

National Public Radio (NPR) earlier interviewed Cindy on her philanthropic endeavors. The program later aired the response from Kathleen and her son Nicholas, on their back-of-the-hand treatment, as Cindy declares herself to be an only child. Prior to their marriage to each other, Jim Hensley and Cindy’s mother, Marguerite, each had a child from their pervious marriages.

Portalski’s son, a 45-year-old aerospace machinist, is also backing Obama.

“I wouldn’t vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat,” he tells the magazine. “I would not vote at all before I’d vote for him.

“I question whether Cindy is someone I’d want to see in the White House as first lady,” he added.

GOP Platform committee engages in heated debate

And, the pro-life plank?

Members of the GOP platform committee meeting in Minneapolis appear to be putting John McCain’s campaign priorities above some of their pet issues, including drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants as reported by AP.

Sparks reportedly were flying as the committee members endeavored to iron out divisive wrinkles and put a unified face on a Republican party led by a moderate who has inflamed the conservative base of his party. McCain’s leadership role in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform debacle, from which he is, for the time being, attempting to distance himself, has driven a wedge through his home state. A border state, Arizona is ground zero in illegal immigration woes, as it struggles to deal with the skyrocketing costs of educating the estimated 140,000 non-English speaking students, the enormous impact on the criminal justice system and spiraling health care costs, encumbering the taxpaying citizens.

Although the debate was filled with words such as a “friendly debate” and “respectful disagreement” it was clear that behind the affable terminology there was real dispute among the members, especially when dealing with the thorny issue of illegal immigration, according to this FOX News report.

Some delegates wanted the words “We oppose amnesty” included in the party platform, while others targeted the phrase “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” seeing it as code words for amnesty. This sparked a heated discussion between members who said that the Republican Party is a “not a xenophobic party, not an intolerant party. We are a compassionate party that insists on the rule of law and endorses federal law.”

Delegates debated embryonic stem cells – another area where many differ with McCain, who supports relaxing federal restrictions on the funding of such research. They voted to ban human cloning and “the creation of or experimentation on human embryos for research purposes.”

McCain has unequivocally stated that he “wants to go back to the platform of 1980 – 84,” which was prior to the Pro-Life plank inserted during the Reagan years.

The platform goes before the full Republican National Convention in St. Paul on Monday.