Bob Worsley took full responsibility for the controversy he created when he removed – on the day he announced his LD25 candidacy – remarks that were harshly critical of SB1070 from his bio on the Church of Latter-Day Saints’ website.

Worsley’s campaign against Pearce has picked up some prominent East Valley support, according to a source close to the campaign. Wealthy Mesa developer Ross Farnsworth Sr. will be Worsley’s honorary campaign chairman, while developer Stacy Brimhall and activist Beth Coons will head up his finance committee.

Campaign teams in the Pearce/Worsley race are already taking shape. Though Pearce opted to have Arpaio consultant Chad Willems run his campaign during the recall last year, he will go with Constantin Querard this year. Querard ran Pearce’s 2010 campaign and was expected to handle the recall, but instead he formed an independent expenditure committee that took shots at Lewis.

As noted in yesterday’s report, Tobin’s basis for a constitutional challenge to the IRC’s legislative map will be that the panel impermissibly deviated from the ideal population for each district to pack Republicans in fewer districts and spread Dems into more districts.

The unusual display of loyalty isn’t surprising, said Pearce backer Constantin Querard. “He’s the real deal. We always talk about these people who are willing to step up no matter what the consequences are, but we speak of them as if they are hypothetical or historical figures. Russell is that guy. I don’t know if he’d be so popular with the base if he wasn’t so hated by the opposition,” he said.

Quayle said accusations that he stole a Dem congressman’s jobs bill are “absurd” and “ridiculous.” He said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes’ (D-CT) HR1965 and his own HRHR4088, also known as the Capital Expansion Act, which passed two weeks ago as part of the JOBS Act, are substantially different.

The Maricopa Monitor March 16 reported that Babeu said he is likely to sue ABC15 for its February report on Babeu’s tenure at a Massachusetts boarding school that was eventually shut down for allegations of abuse of students.

Yesterday, Miranda pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and attempted tax evasion for what federal prosecutors say was a three-year plot to rip off the nonprofit Centro Adelante Campesino.

The IRC’s deadline for filing a special action with the AZ Supreme Court over its FY12 funding keeps getting pushed back, and Executive Director Ray Bladine told our reporter today that the commission may not run out of money on Friday, as he previously estimated.

When Quayle cleared out of the CD9 race and opted instead to seek re-election in CD6, many observers thought the Republican field in the new urban district would fill out quickly, as potential GOP candidates had largely stayed on the sidelines until that point.