Strike Everything

Republican Grant Woods, Democrat Fred DuVal

Even as 2010′s votes are being counted, Republican Grant Woods said he’s considering a possible 2014 gubernatorial run as an independent candidate.

The former state Attorney General and longtime adviser to U.S. Sen. John McCain, said he’s had conversations with Democratic operative Fred DuVal about Wood’s possible run for the state’s highest office.

And those talks included the possibility of DuVal running down-ticket as secretary of state, also as an independent candidate.

“Running with Fred would be a dream come true,” Woods told the Arizona Capitol Times of his Occidental (Calif.) College roommate. The two graduated from the Liberal Arts college in 1976. “That would be very exciting. Running as an independent would be exciting, as well.”

Woods was an adviser to McCain’s and Gov. Jan Brewer’s campaigns this election cycle – and he also made a controversial endorsement of Democratic attorney general candidate Felecia Rotellini, which drew the ire of the Maricopa County Republican Party.

Woods, an attorney and radio talk-show host, said he and Duval, who was the top aide during former Gov. Bruce Babbitt’s administrations and also served in the Clinton administration, have talked about their concern about Arizona’s future with the divisive nature of politics in the state, and that a remedy to that would be running as independents.

The talk of a Woods/Duval run apparently came up in at least one conversation with Wes Gullett, who was chatting up Woods about Gullett’s possible run for Phoenix mayor (Woods was once rumored to be on a short-list of big names to seek the Phoenix’s highest post, as well).

Woods said he doesn’t remember specifically whether the two discussed a gubernatorial/secretary of state run by Woods and DuVal.

As for now, Woods said he’s not changing his party affiliation and will be focused on helping McCain and Brewer in their respective terms.

As for the future: “I’m intrigued by the independent run by somebody, and I think there is a reasonable chance that the next governor in Arizona would be an independent. The timing would have to be right.”

Indeed, independents are gaining ground on the Democratic Party registration in the state, and Woods said he believes Dems will be surpassed within four years.

DuVal could not be reached for comment.

- Bill Bertolino

Jon Hulburd, Ben Quayle

Ben Quayle got the big name. Jon Hulburd got the bigger money.

At least that’s how it went according to the last-minute financial disclosures leading up to today’s election.

Quayle’s campaign reported to federal elections officials Monday (Nov. 1) that it received a $5,000 donation from SarahPAC, the political action committee of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Hulburd, meanwhile, reported six contributions totaling $11,500. Those donations mostly came from political action committees, such as a pro-choice group, United Mine Workers of America and two Democratic groups.

Of course these last-minute infusions pale in comparison to overall fundraising in the race for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District. Hulburd has dumped $500,000 of his own money into his war chest in recent weeks but still trails the well-oiled Quayle machine in fundraising.

Quayle has taken in more than $2.1 million, while Hulburd has raised about $1.3 million, according to the latest reports.

- Bill Bertolino

Many Democrats in the state are running to the middle. And many Republicans are running to the right.

So it’s interesting strategy that in an election cycle where the GOP is energized and on the attack, a political newcomer in Legislative District 11, Republican Eric West, appears to be embracing a Democrat.

In a mailer that arrived over the weekend in District 11, which takes in north-central Phoenix and Paradise Valley, West goes out of his way to tie his campaign to that of Democratic Rep. Eric Meyer.

The West mailer points to an Arizona Republic endorsement of the candidates with the headline “Meyer, West best of strong field.” It goes on to highlight several passages that not only give kudos to West, but also to Meyer.

“Neither Meyer nor West will support Sen. Russell Pearce’s poorly conceived effort to deny citizenship to children born of undocumented immigrants,” one passage reads. Much of the flier also talks about West decrying partisan politics.

While West appears to be cozying up to Meyer’s voters, the Democrat is doing just the opposite.

A separate mailer from the Meyer campaign tells voters to “single-shot” Meyer’s name on the ballot, thus increasing the Democrat’s chances of getting elected. Neither West nor the other Republican, Kate Brophy McGee, would receive votes with that strategy.

West was somewhat of a surprise victor in the Aug. 24 primary in the heavily Republican district. He beat out a well-funded Shawnna Bolick, wife of well-known Goldwater Institute attorney Clint Bolick.

Meyer, a Democrat who got the endorsement of both the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, was unopposed in the primary and seeks his second term.

- Bill Bertolino

Heading into the final stretch of the general election campaign, Democrat Jon Hulburd is making a last-ditch effort to court women voters in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District.

It’s clearly a group he’s appealed to before, as earlier Christian radio ads used a female moderator to attack his opponent, Republican Ben Quayle, for contributing to the predecessor of the sex-themed website TheDirty.com.

This time, though, Hulburd is veering away from the negative campaign tactics and is going positive.

Actually, it’s his wife, Carrie, who is going positive with what is designed to look like a personalized, hand-written, “woman to woman” letter talking up her husband.

She’s even included a small glossy photo of the couple on their wedding day in 1984.

A wedding photo? That was a new one for me.

Hulburd’s campaign would not disclose the cost of the mailer nor would it reveal the number of female voters who received it. Josh Abner, Hulburd’s spokesman, would only say it was sent to “tens of thousands” of women voters of all political stripes. In the letter, Carrie discloses that she’s a lifelong Republican.

Even political veterans such as Democratic strategist Mario Diaz said he’s never seen a wedding photo dropped as an accompanying piece to a political mailer.

But overall, Diaz said it’s smart to go after independent and moderate Republican women, who might be more persuadable to the Democrat in the heavily Republican district. The mailer also did a good job of painting Hulburd as a candidate with character, without veering into a negative contrast piece that voters are, late in the campaign, growing tired of, he said.

“This is a great, in my opinion, closing argument for Hulburd’s campaign,” Diaz said. “If Quayle had not had the character issues, I would say it probably would be a piece that should have been sent out as an introductory piece at the beginning of the campaign.”

But will it work? Hulburd battles Quayle in a district that has 50,000 more registered Republicans than Dems. He’s also outmatched in fundraising and name ID.

An Oct. 18 poll by Public Policy Polling showed Hulburd faring slightly better among men than women, despite his attempts at courtship.

- Bill Bertolino

David Schweikert’s campaign appears to be falsely claiming that a Democratic activist and Harry Mitchell’s campaign conspired to damage Schweikert’s signs.

The claim, issued in a press release Oct. 26 with the headline “We Caught Them!,” stems from a dust-up between a Schweikert supporter and a man who allegedly pushed down two anti-Mitchell signs and was cited by police for doing it.

But the Oct. 23 altercation between the two men appears to be isolated and did not directly involve either campaign, according to both the Schweikert supporter who filed the police report over the incident and the man accused of damaging the signs.

The man accused of knocking down the anti-Mitchell signs, 73-year-old James Arnold Lucas of Tempe, told the Arizona Capitol Times that he has never worked or volunteered for the Mitchell campaign, nor has he ever been involved with the Arizona Democratic Party beyond being a registered Dem.

Both the Mitchell campaign and Democrats say they also have never heard of Lucas, and the Schweikert campaign also could not provide evidence that Lucas was a political operative.

Lucas said he was on a morning bike ride Oct. 23 in south Tempe when he saw what he believes were the illegally placed signs that were obstructing the view of a Mitchell sign. He also claimed that the signs did not have the required “paid for” disclosure, and he felt angry about the situation, but disputes a Tempe police report that he kicked one sign and ripped another from the ground.

When asked what he did, Lucas replied: “One of them was bent. You are asking me to admit to what may be a criminal action,” he said of the alleged bent sign.

“I wouldn’t have cared if it was a Republican or Democrat (sign). If you are attempting to stop to get someone’s message out, I am infuriated,” Lucas said. “My wife is a Republican. If anybody thinks I’m going to do something to have a major fight with my wife of 27 years, I don’t think so.”

The man who filed the police report was identified as Donald R. Sanders, who told police he has a sign company called Jet Media, which has done campaign sign work for Schweikert.

But Jet Media owner Jim Torgeson said that Sanders’ signs were not commissioned by the Schweikert campaign, and that they personally belonged to Sanders, not the company.

“That’s all Donny, all the time. This is not something that is billed to David Schweikert,” Torgeson said. “This is not a Jet Media promotion.”

Sanders said he witnessed Lucas bend over two signs that were placed by a Mitchell sign. One of them said, “Mitchell a part of the problem since 2006.” The other possibly said, “Voted for Obamacare,” Sanders said.

He said he plans to pursue prosecution of Lucas. He said his signs did not have the “paid for” disclosure because he spent only $220 on the signs, well below the $500 threshold that would have triggered disclosure under state law.

“If he thought I was wrong, then he should have called the authorities,” Sanders said. “I’m pretty offended that this guy seems to think he can step all over my First Amendment rights.”

Sanders also said he was working on his own behalf, not Jet Media’s.

Meanwhile, the Schweikert press release called the man a “Democrat activist” and went on to say that “Mitchell’s campaign team knows better,” and rehashed allegations from 2000, when Mitchell was accused, and later admitted to the Arizona Republic, of stealing an opponent’s signs.

Schweikert’s campaign manager, Oliver Schwab, defended the press release to reporter Jeremy Duda today.

“Who else would be ripping down political signs?” Schwab said. “If you are taking down signs you are clearly an activist.”

- Bill Bertolino

Jon Hulburd, Ben Quayle

The race for the open seat in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District didn’t take long to get, um, dirty. And ironically, it’s been all about who has staked out the moral high ground.

Democrat Jon Hulburd took the first swing last week in Christian radio ads criticizing his opponent, Republican Ben Quayle, for his ties to the tawdry website DirtyScottsdale.com, now called TheDirty.com.

It took a full week, but Quayle responded in ads of his own, airing this week in Phoenix on Christian and conservative radio, juxtaposing his stances with what he describes as Hulburd’s liberal positions on social issues. One of the more fiery claims in the ad was that Hulburd “uses his massive wealth to fund abortion lobbies.”

Hulburd’s campaign almost immediately sent out this jaw-dropping response: “Ben Quayle founded a sex-steeped website that refers to women as ‘sperm catchers’ and to Asians as ‘noodles,’ then he tried to lie about it and got caught,” said Josh Abner, Hulburd communications director.

Talk about dirty; we don’t know whether Quayle has ever actually used those descriptions.

“You can see the sleight of hand in the statement he put out today. Now he puts out quotes that he’s not even attributing to Ben Quayle,” said Jay Heiler, Quayle communications director. “Now he’s apparently going to pull whatever he wants from this website and put it out in press statements.”

The statement went on to say: “Remember, it’s Ben Quayle himself who wrote, ‘my moral compass is so broken I can’t even find the parking lot.’” Abner was referring to a post written by a “Brock Landers,” the name of the fictional porn star in the movie “Boogie Nights,” and the pseudonym that the DirtyScottsdale.com founder alleges Quayle used to write for the site.

After first denying any ties to the salacious website, Quayle changed his story to say he did in fact contribute to the site and did so under a pseudonym, but doesn’t remember which one, or which ones, he used. He has always said he “is not Brock Landers,” a crafty defense because he isn’t Brock Landers. Nobody is Brock Landers.

But it’s a stretch to say Quayle founded the website, as his name appears nowhere on the original incorporation paperwork filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission. Quayle did, however, say he introduced the founder of the site, Hooman Karamian, to an intellectual property attorney and wrote commentaries to help drive traffic.

As for Hulburd’s ties to the abortion lobby, Quayle’s campaign was referring to what they said was Hulburd’s political contributions to Arizona List, which promotes the election of pro-choice, female Democratic candidates.

“Jon has never shied from his position that he is pro-choice,” Abner said, who confirmed that Hulburd contributed $5,025 to Arizona List in 2009 and this year.

Abner added it’s fair game to go after Quayle for his ties to the website.

“Until we get a straight answer from Mr. Quayle, I don’t see how we can think any differently – that he supports the views of that site,” he said.

Hulburd, an attorney and former small-business owner, seems to be staking out a position that he is the more qualified candidate based on longevity and ties to the central Phoenix district, saying he’s lived there for more than 20 years, raised his five children there and sits on the board of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Quayle, also an attorney, is running on his conservative stances against President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He famously made the TV ad calling Obama the worst president in history.

- Bill Bertolino

Republican congressional candidate Ben Quayle has issued a stinging rebuke to rival Vernon Parker for his statement that Quayle “rented a family” in campaign mailers that depict him with two young girls.

Quayle called Parker a “flawed” candidate and took a shot of his own in a press statement, dredging up a 2008 U.S. Small Business Administration investigation that alleged Parker falsified documents to obtain a $1.2 million federal government contract for his consulting business.

“This one for Mr. Parker was something that has been in the paper and it’s all public knowledge, and yet we haven’t heard one thing about it during this campaign, and I think the voters are owed that,” Quayle told the Arizona Capitol Times Aug. 6.

The SBA suspended Parker’s consulting firm from receiving government contracts in a program known as 8(a), which is geared toward small businesses owned and operated by economically and socially disadvantaged people.

Parker filed suit against the feds July 2, seeking $2 million in damages over what he claims was a malicious and partisan investigation over a contract his consulting firm got to conduct training for the SBA.

“It’s really sad and that’s one of the reasons quite frankly why I chose to run for Congress because when your own federal government instead of your protector becomes the aggressor and goes after you for politically motivated things, it just makes my blood boil,” he said. “It’s awful.”

The war of words between the candidates started after the Arizona Capitol Times published a blog piece about a Quayle campaign mailer that showed the 33-year-old lawyer with two toddler-aged girls and the text below that read, in part, “Tiffany (his wife) and I live in this district and we are going to raise our family here.”

The blog said it’s reasonable that a voter scanning such mailers could assume Quayle was attempting to portray himself as a “family man” with what appeared to be his daughters in a playful scene. Quayle is recently married and has no kids.

The campaign initially said the girls were daughters of a campaign staffer who were photographed at a campaign event. A day later, it changed its story to say that the girls are Quayle’s nieces.

National media jumped on the piece – mostly before the campaign corrected its misinformation – and slammed Quayle for what many said was a misleading image.

Parker also issued a statement denouncing Quayle for “renting a family” to score political points. And Quayle shot back, saying Parker attacked him for merely appearing in an ad with his nieces, and blasted Parker for the SBA sanction. Quayle said if Parker wins the primary election he would be a “national poster boy” for the Democratic Party, paving the way for a Democrat, presumably Jon Hulburd, to win the general election.

That’s when things got dirty.

Parker spokesman Jason Rose issued a press release saying Quayle called Parker “boy,” a racially charged word against African Americans.

“To have the 33-year-old son of one of the wealthiest families in America refer to a leading Republican African American as ‘boy’ is over the top,” Rose said.

The only thing “over the top” is Rose issuing that statement.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. ‘Poster boy’ has absolutely no racial content to it. It was just to say that if elected in the primary then he would be somebody who was emblematic of bad ethical behavior,” Quayle said.

For his part, Parker said he wanted to move on from the “poster boy” issue, but did tell the Capitol Times that “where I grew up, you don’t refer to grown men as boys.”

Parker, who served in both Bush administrations, grew up poor in a Long Beach, Calif. neighborhood surrounded by drugs and violence.

“It was the totality of where that statement came from because it was obvious he was trying to insinuate that I was relying on minority contracts, and let’s call him a ‘poster boy,’ too,’” Parker said.

Parker described the phrase as “unfortunate” and said he hopes that next week debate can be a “healthy one.”

Let’s hope so.

- Bill Bertolino

Two recent mailers sent by the Ben Quayle campaign contain some curious images and statements by the 33-year-old lawyer and flush-with-cash candidate in Arizona’s crowded 3rd Congressional District primary.

Quayle is depicted in playful scenes with two toddler-aged girls. Underneath one image, the text reads, in part: “Tiffany and I live in this district and we are going to raise our family here.”

It’s not a stretch to make the assumption that the cute tots – one sitting on his lap; the other sitting next to him – are his daughters. But that’s not the case. The recently married Quayle doesn’t have kids.

It’s not until you flip the mailer over to read that Quayle and his wife live in Phoenix with their dog, Louie. No mention of kids.

The second mailer, a pro-life piece that explains his staunch opposition to abortion and support of traditional marriage, contains the same image of the girls. But this time, there’s no disclaimer about Quayle not yet having kids of his own.

So is Quayle intentionally trying to leave voters with the impression that he’s a “family man”? It’s plausible.

He’s been a frequent target of many of his nine opponents – all of whom are older than him and have children – for what they call his thin resume and lack of life experience.

“I think you guys have got a lot of time on your hands,” said Quayle campaign spokesman Damon Moley. “They’re just terribly cute kids.”

The girls, he said, are relatives of a staff member and happened to be at a campaign event. Besides, images of kids and family are often used in campaign ads as a sort of short-hand way to illustrate pro-family and pro-life stances, Moley said.

UPDATE (Aug. 4): The Quayle campaign informed the Arizona Capitol Times that it initially provided inaccurate information about the kids. The girls are actually Quayle’s nieces, said spokeswoman Megan Rose, which she added is further evidence that Quayle was not intending to mislead voters about his family status. Incidentally, insiders who recognize the “Rose” name will probably note this interesting twist in the CD3 race: Rose is the sister-in-law of public-relations mogul Jason Rose, who happens to be helping to run the campaign of rival candidate Vernon Parker.

“We are presenting Ben as a pro-family candidate because he is a pro-family candidate,” Moley said. “We are presenting him as a traditional-values candidate because he is a traditional values candidate.”

To be sure, having kids is not a requirement of office. And there are plenty of candidates out there who have children yet are probably unfit to serve. But it’s reasonable that time-crunched voters could scan these mailers and walk away with the impression that Quayle has more life experience than he actually does.

Finally, Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, makes the statement that he has “hands-on” experience bringing jobs to Arizona. Perhaps the mailer should say Quayle opened a business that employs about 13 people, give or take, depending on contracts with companies.

Quayle co-owns Tynwald Capital. That investment company opened an Arizona office of New England-based APG Security. The security company’s website says Quayle and his brother, Tucker, are managing partners in the security venture.

Moley said it currently employs 13 people, but that pending contracts could make that number go higher.

“It’s not Standard Oil,” he said. “But to the people that have those jobs, it’s very important to them.”

- Bill Bertolino

UPDATE (AUG. 5): In addition to attracting coverage from national media outlets, the popular conservative blog, RedState, has opined twice about the mailers.

The first was a broader piece by contributor Mike Paranzino, who said Quayle is not the right choice for CD3.

The second piece, also written by Paranzino, who once worked for such Republicans as U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl and former Congressman Matt Salmon, follows up on the reaction of the Quayle campaign to the mailers and has some new revelations involving Quayle’s Facebook page.