Strike Everything

U.S. Rep. David Schweikert says he won’t get the committee assignment he wanted most, but he is still holding out for an assignment that “has something to do with numbers.”

Schweikert made an appearance, along with U.S. Reps. Ben Quayle and Paul Gosar, at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s “Welcome to Washington” breakfast today at the Hyatt. The three Republican freshmen said they had moved into their offices in D.C., and are expecting to receive their committee assignments by Friday.

Prime committee assignments will be even more valuable this year, and harder for freshmen to attain, because House leaders have decided to reduce the number of members serving on the committees.

Gosar, who represents the mostly rural 1st Congressional District, used a very unfortunate pun by saying he would be a ”natural” choice for a seat on the Natural Resources Committee, though he didn’t sound very optimistic that he’d get it. 

By the way, Gosar, a dentist by trade, used a toothbrush as a visual aid during his speech. It was part of an analogy about brushing away the plaque in Washington.

Quayle didn’t say which committees he was lobbying for. He said he plans to stand tall for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District in whatever capacity is chosen for him, later taking a tone reminiscent of Ringo Starr when he told the crowd that he is just “really happy” to be serving in Congress.

Schweikert, who knocked off Harry Mitchell in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, said he has been told that he won’t get his first choice of committee assignments: Financial Services. Instead, the former Maricopa County Treasurer said he is still in the running for a different committee where his skills with accounting and statistics would be useful.

Schweikert didn’t get into specifics, but all of his talk about numbers probably means he put in for Ways and Means or the Budget Committee. As a test of boldness, he may have requested a spot on Appropriations, though seats on that committee are extremely valuable commodities and usually off limits to freshmen.

“My gift is creating spreadsheets,” he said after the breakfast event.

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