Years ago there was an award winning Broadway musical, later made into a movie and adapted more recently into a television production. “The Music Man” featured a con man posing as a noble boys’ band director, selling the naive townsfolk instruments and uniforms to keep the youth out of “trouble right here in River City,” by involving them in a marching band. The boys’ parents finally caught on to the fact they were being scammed.
Political insiders are abuzz that a similar con is taking place in AZ CD 9. Instead of band uniforms, trombones, and Professor Harold Hill, there is a hapless congressional candidate, Seth Leibsohn, who was sold a bill of goods by political operative / consultant Sean Noble.
Andrew McCarthy, writing for National Review begins his enthusiastic endorsement with, “Arizonans should send Leibsohn to the House of Representatives.”
The problem for Leibsohn, formerly an associate of Bill Bennett and most recently co-host of the “Seth and Chris”afternoon drive-time radio talk show, is Arizona voters won’t get the chance. His good friend, frequent radio guest and campaign consultant, Sean Noble, has fallen down on the job of ensuring the collection of the proper number of nominating petition signatures to place Leibsohn on the ballot. No kidding. Leibsohn didn’t qualify.
This is far worse than being swindled for uniforms and instruments for a non-existent band. This is an actual congressional district race, in need of a viable Republican candidate. The less than noble Noble not only fell down on this preliminary campaign duty, he is virtually hand-delivering the congressional seat to uber-liberal Democrat Greg Stanton, the well-funded, union-connected, former Phoenix Mayor. When Stanton was elected in Nov. 2011, he received a joint congratulatory call by none other than Barack Obama and then-Homeland Insecurity Chieftain Janet Napolitano, previously Arizona’s nightmare governor.
Chris Buskirk has been co-hosting with McCain ally and all-around slickster Robert Graham since Seth Leibsohn’s campaign related departure. Now that his pursuit has been deep-sixed, will Seth return to the airwaves? Self-promoter Graham is a frequent no-show.
We hear a lawsuit is in the works. Leibsohn is a lawyer, but won’t have a fool for a client.
“Oh,Yes. We got trouble,” right here in Arizona, with a capital “T” that rhymes with “D” and that stands for…
The 9th Congressional District candidate’s financial well being as of the March 31 filing could provide an explanation.
Liberal Greg Stanton raised $1,106,184, spent $223,767, and had $882,418 cash on hand. As usual, he’s funded by left-wing unions.
During that same filing period, Seth Leibsohn raised $129,007, spent $70,583, and had $58,424 left in the political kitty.
Steve Ferrara, MD, a political newcomer confidently identifies himself as a conservative Republican on his website, and is showing much better fund raising ability and money management skills than Leibsohn. Dr. Ferrara, a military veteran and medical doctor with a compelling personal story, raised $724,144, spent $196,203 and sits on a healthy start of $527,941 cash on hand, entering the next filing period where the expensive advertising wars heat up. He’ll still need donations to buy costly air time.
The Center for Responsive Politics bases its numbers on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on June 11, 2018.
Seeing Red AZ 
Unbelievable!! This is bad news for Republicans.
If it’s true that Noble wasn’t keeping track of the petitions, which is basic to any campaign, he should be held accountable. Getting the required signatures to qualify for the ballot in a congressional district is far easier than accomplishing that same task to make the ballot statewide. Ken Bennett, now running for governor, was able to accomplish that, with a hefty overage to counter challenges, in record time.
This lack of accountability is outrageous! But it also raises the question how Leibsohn could be so tied to Sean Noble, who has long been exposed as a shady operator. He was often a guest on the “Seth and Chris”show.
Noble has gotten used to the big bucks rolling in. My best guess is at this early date, the money wasn’t flowing in fast enough for him. The job of gathering petition signatures is frequently turned over to firms that do just that. The ones turned in by precinct committeemen are now considered a bonus, though that was the sole relied upon route in the past. Sean Noble wasn’t standing out in the sun with a clipboard. This never should have happened.
This might have happened in the past, but I’ve never heard of it. There are challenges to petitions, but smart campaigns have their bases covered.
The headline should read, “Sean Noble drops the ball on Seth Leibsohn’s head.” What a testtament to incompetence.
Maybe it was not “incompetence” that led Sean No-noble man to drop the ball.
Perhaps the man in the cornfield dangled some $$$$ or dangled something else to the guy who dropped the ball.
THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Please stay vigilant. Possible false flag events relating to “the weather”. worldwide alert. They are desperate.
Trump “leaving the meeting early” in Singapore. It was a movie. (not anything like a Robert deNiro movie)
The deal was done in Nov. Real meeting happened during Asia trip.
Why has Robert deNiro publicly gone insane?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/con-artist-son-of-a-bitch-unhinged-robert-deniro-blasts-trump-in-profane-laced-speech-to-high-school-students/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/f-trump-robert-deniro-curses-president-at-tony-awards-as-trump-tries-to-prevent-nuclear-war/
Those who shout the loudest (against Trump) are the ones with the most to lose. Their “supplies” are cut off.
Here we go. The establishment must have seen Leibsohn as a threat. One of their candidates is probably in the shadows just waiting for this opportunity. Or maybe, Leibsohn was not taking it seriously. Assumed he would win. Too bad, need to fight against all comers if you want the job.
Leibsohn should have known better than to trust the ignoble Noble. This petition debacle is not only ensuring a Democrat win, it will potentially be seen as a cataclysmic campaign albatross, too weighty to escape if he has any future aspirations.
He was ideally set for this race, co-hosting a popular radio show that had a conservative voter base audience. That may be impossible to replicate down the line, and by then the incumbent will already be entrenched.
I hope Seth Leibsohn has hired a good lawyer.
This is preposterous! I hope Leibsohn didn’t give Noble an advance payment. Collecting and filing petitions is basic Elections 101. At the very least, this should cook Noble’s career.
Maybe he was paid to fail.
No doubt has been promised some shiny bauble.
The smell of McStench.
Thanks for the “update.”
I just checked out Dr. Ferrara’s website and found him to be impressive. I never heard his name until seeing it here. The others in that race appear to be also-rans who won’t be able to effectively campaign for this crucial congressional seat.
Divide and conquer seems to be the ego-driven mantra we’ve seen so often,. Those who engage in this practice ultimately give us Democrats or RINOs. Two such fools come to mind, both of whom helped McCain get elected. One was Jimmie Lee Deakin and the other a perpetually losing, ancient candidate known as “Van the Radio Man,” a guy named Claire Van Steenwyk.
I met Mr. Ferrara at the LD18 meeting. I liked him and his ideas and hence it will be easy for me to vote for him. Unless it turns out he is Lines long lost brother from different mothers.
The AZ GOP establishment stays far away from the word “conservative.” Dr. Ferrara doesn’t shy away from it. That gives me hope. The problem as I see it, is the leftward lurching district, which elected Kyrsten Sinema. She has successfully transformed herself into a soft spoken caring person, who omits any party reference on her ads or website. She no longer brags about her bisexuality or atheism. Now, she loves the military, which she previously derided. She hides her Commie roots as successfully as the dark ones on her head. Now she’s running for the US Senate, so we can ALL vote against her. Primaries are crucial. Don’t leave this one to chance. We’ll all live to regret such inaction on the part of the disconnected.
Wasn’t Robert McGraham trying to recruit a Never Trumper to take on Ward after Flake dropped out what a fake Trumper!
I am in that district and we were gerrymander last time due to republicans on the committee taking a nap when all the under the table crap was going on.
I was out in the hot sun with a clipboard collecting signatures for Seth – or at least trying to. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was on the last day of signature gathering, to knock on a door listing 4 or 5 “Strong Republicans,” only to have them tell me that they weren’t interested, or that they didn’t know enough about Seth to sign his petition…
“You got Senema because there wasn’t a strong Republican on the ballot that could beat her.”
“Well I’m not going to sign, but good luck.”
On that one, final day of gathering, I spoke with over 40 registered Republicans – many with other R’s in the home at the time – and ended the day with a mere 17 signatures.
That’s pretty frustrating.