Lawmaker accused of faking military orders qualifies for guv’s race

A former lawmaker whose single term in office was marred by allegations that he faked a Naval Reserve deployment to the war-torn Balkans has qualified for the ballot in the governor’s race.

Former Rep. Tom Gordon, who was elected in 1998 from the northeastern Arizona town of Peach Springs, submitted nearly 7,700 signatures for the Republican primary. He is one of six Republicans to qualify for the ballot.

Gordon’s claim to fame was in 1999, when he went to the Balkans on an allegedly false deployment order. According to ~Arizona Capitol Times~ archives, Gordon, then a naval reservist, told his House colleagues in May 1999 that he’d gotten orders to deploy to Kosovo. Then-U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, for whom Gordon did part-time constituent services work, arranged a congressional travel order.

But when Hayworth started getting letters complaining about Gordon’s activities, he said he contacted the U.S. Navy and learned that Gordon was not acting on official orders. Hayworth sent letters to House Speaker Jeff Groscost and Rep. Marilyn Jarrett, who chaired the House Ethics Committee, asking for an investigation.

When Gordon returned a couple of months later, Groscost asked him to explain his actions. Gordon said he had been on legitimate military business and issued a statement that said he had been attempting to catch up with his unit to serve his obligatory time. Though he was not called up on official orders, he wrote, he had been informed by superiors that his “services would be well used in Europe” and flew off to join his unit.

“For a variety of reasons I do not feel appropriate to discuss now, I was unable to join that unit, and eventually returned to the United States this past week,” according to Gordon’s statement. “Most of the work in my naval career has fit into the category of ‘intelligence and special operations,’ and because of that I am constrained by law from discussing the details.’”

The FBI investigated the allegations, though Jarrett later decided the issue was not a matter for the House to investigate.

Gordon would not provide any details of the incident or his campaign, telling the ~Arizona Capitol Times~ on May 27 that he was keeping a low profile until the June 10 deadline for challenging petition signatures. But he said details would be forthcoming once the deadline had passed.

“I’ve told nobody what happened,” he said. “It was all for a good cause.”

Gordon said he is running for governor because he feels he can do a better job than the other Republican candidates of protecting Arizona from the federal government’s overreaching and encroachment on states’ rights.

“I think I could lead that effort better than anybody,” he said.

Gordon is running a publicly funded campaign, and said he is about three-fourths of the way toward collecting the 4,410 contributions of $5 that he needs to qualify for Clean Elections funding.

The former lawmaker has been out of the political spotlight for more than a decade, but he is still flying off to foreign trouble spots. He said he does contract work with the U.S. State Department and returned last month from Iraq, where he helped oversee elections in the war-torn country.