Finally someone writes a positive story about the future of the Republican Party. Kudos to Len Munsil for talking about a brighter tomorrow.

Wednesday 1-31-07, 7:40 am

What can one say about this photo snatched off the front page of Drudge?

     I know you are thinking; But Pullen won. Randy did not so much win as receive the responsibility of watching over the state party for 2 years, a big task to be sure. He should take a deep breath and pray for the party to come together, we all should. Early reports are that he is working closely with the executive committee and building consensus, a good sign.

     Sonoran Alliance would like to congratulate Lisa James on a well-run and hard fought campaign. We hope that Lisa and all of her supporters will stay involved and help move the party forward. We have some city council elections in 2007 but the main focus is getting Republicans elected in 2008.

     This was my first state convention. I did not realize how long the speeches went and how brief the voting was. The main attraction was the election for Chairman. Things were going fine for Randy until Trent Franks spoke for Lisa. For a conservative, leaving the auditorium and walking over to vote for Pullen after hearing Trent was like having lead weights around your ankles. It was tough to fill in the arrow for Randy with Trent’s words still fresh in my mind. Also tough was trying to remind others why they had planned on voting for Randy after Munsil and Franks spoke.  

     When they announced the final vote I was stunned. The party was split down the middle. I hope that some of the dire predictions made before the elections do not come true. I think some people will be surprised at how well Pullen actually does as chairman. We certainly wish him all the best.

The final vote count was:

Chairman
Pullen – 408
James – 404

Treasurer
Lee - 635
Kraus - 166

Members-at-Large (please correct my spelling if in error.)

CD 2
Phil Corbell
Debbie Lesko
(First Name) Rohn-Nelson

CD 3
Rob Haney
Marne Haney
Mark Zemel

CD 4
Milton Wheat
Constantin Querard
Charlotte Reed

CD 5
Chris Dahm
Tom Morrissey
Donna Reagan

CD 6
Web Crockett
Steve Johnson
Leo Mahoney 

CD 7
Gene Chewning
Phil Townson
C.R. Waters

CD 8
Cyndi Collins
Randy Graf
Stephanie Johnson

Sunday 1-28-07, 9:15 pm

I do apologize if this post is too reflective. If you need something a little stronger here is some real red meet to read (see Jury Still out on Shadegg, Jan. 28, 2007.)

Framer at Arizona 8th was not a voting delegate to the convention but he wrote a nice piece about what it was like to be there.

Over the last few weeks, Sonoran Alliance has received quite a bit of attention both here in Arizona and across the country. I originally conceived the blog as an opportunity for well-written conservatives in Arizona to report on news and to promote conservative thought and principles in our area of the country. The objective was to provide a forum for those who don’t have the resources to buy time and space in major media outlets. Every Arizona conservative knows that the Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star could care less about the conservative perspective let alone provide equal balance. Thus, in February of 2006, Sonoran Alliance arrived in the blogosphere.

In the beginning, there were only 2-3 of us posting as I sought out talented contributors to add more depth to the blog. My vision was to see the blog develop into one rivaling others around the country. Today, about a half dozen contributors write when they have time. While I am most identified and associated with the blog, others have asked to use pseudonyms in order to protect their privacy. Some are and have been very prominent in Republican politics and would prefer to avoid personal, professional and political assaults by being identified. I have respected their privacy and more importantly, given them my word that I would not reveal their identity even if we have a falling out. For me however, my identity is not an issue. After being the Executive Director or Arizona Right to Life for six years, I figured how much more controversial could I get? Yes, I did change my posting name to “DSW” but even the most amateur internet sleuth could figure out who I am.

So in the last two years, I have essentially fallen into the role of a “senior contributor, “senior editor” or whatever fancy or derrogatory name readers want to call me. And because of this, I have taken a lot of heat and barbs. I knew what I was getting into but also knew that my skin was thick and if I couldn’t take it, I should get out of the kitchen (excuse the mixed metaphor). I especially expected this after criticizing Senator McCain, but that is another long story that you can read up on throughout Sonoran Alliance.

My point in exercising a point of personal privlege is to stand in the middle and take a few bullets from both sides as we ready to elect a new chairman. No, I don’t claim to be a wise old elder in the party, but I think I have learned some things watching the comments go back and forth on this blog and I’d like to issue a reality check.

1) While it is a very good thing that conservatives have this means to exercise their First Amendment Right to say whatever they want, their is a price to pay by making irresponsible or volatile postings. I learned this when I got angry with a certain Republican consultant over an endorsement in a certain legislative race. It’s always best (but very challenging) to wait and sit on a posting or comment until after your passion subsides. My request to the readers is to refrain from name-calling and try to stick to the facts.

2) While anyone can find just about anything on the Internet about others, my strong advice is to be careful what you post. It only takes one false or sloppy reference to a third-party source to bring doubt and discredit on the entire blogsite. The individuals who post on Sonoran Alliance at one time have all asked me if they can refer to specific sources. My answer has always been that if it is in the public domain from a credible source, they can use it. News or stories on other website are fine. Official documents with government entities are great. I prefer not to use liberal websites as a source because can we really believe everything liberals say? I will also say that I won’t let this blog turn into a conspiracy theory blog with discussions about the New World Order, aliens or Halliburton. I’ve heard it many times already and I’m pretty sure no one else wants to hear it either.

3) We have an election this Saturday and there are two imperfect but willing and qualified candidates running. The good news for pro-lifers like me is that both candidates have asserted their dedication to the party platform. Neither candidate embraces the pro-abortion anti-family agenda. Each has offered their vision for the party and we’ll all have to face the reality that whoever wins, we are going to have to get along with each other. I noted in an earlier blog that this is really the first time that the AZ GOP Chairman’s race has been taken to the internet. That means a lot more time and information has allowed everyone to throw roses and mud. I hope that when the election is called Saturday afternoon, something good will grow out of it. I have a lot of friends on both sides of this race and my desire is that we walk away from this stronger and better prepared to win city council races this year and state and national elections in 2008.

Does this “can’t we all just get along” tone mean I am compromising on principle or the platform? Absolutely not! There are those of us in the party and who write for this blog that need to play the role of North Star and keep the party true to its course. I believe like others, that this is my purpose in the party. Our party will always need “North Star” Republicans because without them, it will turn into what the Democrats have become – coalitions of liberal special interest groups.

With all that said, I hope I’ve cleared the air to the point we can all go back to our political jousting only doing so in a much more chivalrous manner.

DSW

Early this morning, I received the following response from Nathan Sproul. Unfortunately, I did not have time to post it until this evening and only after I confirmed with Nathan that he still wanted his response presented.

After I post this, I will have more to say…

DSW

==================================================== 

Shane,

Your website is not posting my comments. They may be too long for what you guys have set up to accept, but I expect this posted in its entirety.

Nathan 

I have to say that this is a new low. For the record, all three stories that you cite are false. I appreciate my defenders as well, but I think the explanation below is adequate. So, please refrain from defending me. I don’t want this to get out of hand, which clearly it has the potential to do.

Here are the facts about the sources you cite:

Mark Crispin Miller wrote the article for the Baltimore Chronicle. Tucson’s parallel liberal magazine would be the Tucson Weekly. He is a professor of Cultural Studies at NYU. He also wrote a book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election. You guessed it. I get 20 some pages. With the exception of Arianna Huffington and now Sonoran Alliance, just about everyone has dismissed his book as wild-eyed conspiracy theories. Not exactly the type of person a conservative blog should use as a credibility source. His book did influence Robert Kennedy Jr. to write a large article for Rolling Stone magazine. I am currently in the process of having the magazine framed. We get mentioned early and often.

Speaking of a non-credible source, let’s talk about Blog For Arizona for a moment  http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2006/07/nathan_sprouls_.html. According to them, I run the Franklin Charter Schools. They get Ben Franklin charter schools and Franklin Arts Academy mixed up but why should we worry about little details like that? For your information, I don’t run any charter schools. The rest of the story gets some things right. I did make the political contributions they report although those are now out-dated. I did work for Voyager and I did work with the RNC to do voter registration work. There conclusions on every single subject are simply false.

Finally, the Pittsburgh Gazette story gets into the whole question of whether Nathan Sproul committed voter fraud. These allegations were first made by non other than Ted Kennedy and Terry McAuliffe three weeks from a Presidential election that everyone expected to be decided by a very thin margin. They were trying to create a paper trail for contesting a NATIONAL election. Do you have any idea what stunts they were willing to pull to do that? For starters, my wife and I received death threats. Yes, death threats. Robert Kennedy Jr. gave out my office phone number on national radio and encouraged his readers to call my office. Needless to say, they didn’t say nice things. Daily Kos plastered it everywhere. They called it the “Smoking Gun.” Moveon.org started holding press conferences in states where we didn’t even work claiming that we did it. I have the web page from a Democrat in Minnesota who infiltrated our operation after hearing the first story about it. He bragged that even though we gave him meticulous rules to follow that he lied to the newspaper reporter and the reporter believed him.

Three different states investigated the accusations of Kennedy. Two of them, including Arizona, were conducted by Democrat AG’s. the Department of Justice opened an inquiry. ALL and I mean ALL of those investigations were found to be without substance and have been dismissed.

Those are the facts surrounding the three links you maliciously posted. On the other hand, I have posted the letter that I first wrote to Randy Pullen and later sent to State Committeemen. Unlike the writers of this blog, I put my name on it. Randy Pullen in a public forum claimed that he “helped raise over $2 million for the AZGOP.” I was Executive Director of the AZGOP in 2000. Randy volunteered to be Co-Chair of the Finance Committee, attended two meetings and wrote a check for $1,000. All of those things were helpful. However, he did nothing more. In his email reply to me which I have included with this post, he admits to playing a minor role in the fundraising. He claims he made calls to help. I don’t remember him making any calls and if he did, he was remarkeably unsuccessful.

I would not have written to disagree with him if he had simply said that he helped raise money or that he volunteered to be Co-Chair. That isn’t what he said. He said he “helped raise over $2 million…” By any reasonable understanding, he was claiming to be very involved in raising a significant amount of money. He wasn’t. I pointed that out in a very factual way.

If someone came to work for me and greatly exaggerated their resume to get the job, they would be fired. By inserting the $2 million figure, he was clearly trying to demonstrate fundraising prowess that he does not have. He has never been successful at raising money, so he wanted to make his accomplishment sound much much better than it really was.

Below is the correspondence. Frankly, you should all be more than a little ashamed. This is unseemly and irresponsible of you. If you keep this post up, you are now keeping on your website information that you know to be false.

=============================================================
Dear State Committee Member:

I believe it is important to share with you an email correspondence I have had with Randy Pullen. This email is one of the many reasons why I can’t support Randy Pullen for AZGOP Chairman. For those of you who don’t know me, I served as Executive Director of the Arizona Republican Party from 1999-2002. I have run my own political consulting company since 2003 and have worked for well over 100 clients in 23 states. My consulting company is 100% Republican. I have had the distinct honor of working on the campaigns of many good Republicans including Trent Franks, Andy Thomas, and Len Munsil.

I was troubled this morning when I read www.espressopundit.com and saw Randy Pullen’s response to a simple question. He was asked why he financially supported Democrat candidates Harry Mitchell and Paul Johnson against two Republican candidates in a partisan race. One race was for State Senate and one was Governor. Instead of admitting that he made a mistake, he used two excuses to minimize the contributions.

1) He was a lobbyist and that is just the way it is done.

2) He has raised so much for Republicans that these contributions “pale in comparison.”

I guess the Republicans who endorsed Janet Napolitano over Len Munsil could have said that their endorsement of Napolitano “pales in comparison” to all the endorsements they have made for Republicans.

However, the fact that was most troubling to me was his claim that he “helped raise over $2,000,000” for the AZGOP in 2000 as Co-Chair of the Finance Committee. I was Executive Director for the AZGOP in 2000, so I knew from first-hand experience that his claim was demonstrably false. I have attached our email correspondence from today. Randy Pullen’s response is stunning. He admits that he played a very minor role in fundraising in 2000. Yet, in his public response on espressopundit and in many emails that I have seen, he claims that he “helped raise over $2,000,000” for the AZGOP. By that logic, Al Gore helped invent the internet and Janet Napolitano helped cut taxes and secure the border.

It is true that Randy Pullen volunteered to become Co-Finance Chairman. It is also true that he attended two meetings and wrote a $1,000 check. Beyond that, I don’t know of one dollar that came into the State Party because of Randy Pullen. But, in his public comments he wants people to believe that he was a central figure in raising $2,000,000. He simply didn’t do what he claims.

I know from working at the Party for three years that you don’t “help” raise money. You either do it or you don’t.

Randy Pullen doesn’t have a track record of raising money. That is troubling enough. But, what is far more troubling is that Randy Pullen seems willing to mislead the State Committee into believing that he is something that he isn’t. How many more misrepresentations from Randy Pullen are out there?

The job of State Chairman is too important. Please don’t vote for someone who appears willing to misrepresent himself. As I said in my letter to Randy, if we can’t trust him to shoot straight with us now, how can we trust him to shoot straight with us if he becomes Chairman?

Nathan Sproul
Sproul and Associates

     Just got this letter from Jim Click in the mail today. I was trying to lay low and not write any more about the race for state chairman but these letter keep coming. This one reminds me of the time in 2004 when John Kerry talked about all the world leaders that he had met with who told him they did not support Bush. If they felt strongly about that then they could have said it in public or maybe Kerry could have given us some of the names. Same goes for Click and his reference to people who will not donate if Randy is chairman.

     This letter is less of an attack and more about extortion. I think it is likely to backfire on Lisa more than anything. Graf may have lost the election but a lot of his supporters are state delegates. They remember the last time Click really got behind a candidate.

On Saturday, January 27th, our Arizona Republican Party will be faced with a very important decision. We will be electing a new Chairman. This is one of the most important Chairman elections in quite some time. In my opinion, the choice is clear. Lisa James has the experience and know-how to be an excellent Chairman. I am thriller that we have someone of her caliber willing to run.

Some have said that it doesn’t really matter who the Chairman is. Contributions will continue to flow into the Party. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it is not easy raising money for the Republican Party. Over the years, I have raised millions of dollars for the Republican Party and Republican candidates. When I raise money for the Party, it is important that the Chairman is someone donors trust to make good decisions with their money.

While I will support the Republican Party no matter who wins on January 27th, I feel obligated to tell you that most of the donors I am talking to won’t. It will be dramatically more difficult to raise money if Randy Pullen is elected as Chairman. Many of his public comments have donors worried. For example, he wrote a guest column for the Arizona Republic on March 7, 2004 where he said President Bush and Congressman Jeff Flake were making “deliberate attempts to mislead the American public.” That kind of comment does not fill potential donors with confidence in his leadership.

When you cast your vote for Chairman, please vote for the person who has the ability to bring the grassroots and donor communities together. We need both to have a successful State Party. Thank you for everything you do to make our state and nation great.

Sincerely, Jim Click

It is official now, Nathan Sproul has been unleashed. If you receive a letter from Nathan attacking a fellow Republican please consider the source.

Here is some information on who Nathan is.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/070505Miller-Irmus.shtml

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04294/398767.stm

http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2006/07/nathan_sprouls_.html

Turns out that Timothy Lee does have a site for his campaign for treasurer.