First, “Chewie” would like to clarify a couple of things.

1) This site is for anonymous contributors. There is no one “Chewie” but rather it permits various people protection to provide information they might not normally be able to provide without retaliation. The liberal-leaning newspapers won’t print this kind of information.  So attacking “Chewie” doesn’t really make any sense, since it’s really attacking multiple contributors.

2) We strongly suspect that certain people written about in the posts or their close associates are the ones writing many of the most critical comments about Chewie and Sonoran Alliance. Which is fine, you are entitled to your anonymity just as much as we are, but attacking us personally instead of substantively (“Chewie is dragging down the reputation of this site”) shows you’ve lost the argument.

It is incredibly hypocritical for Coughlin to call for party unity and try to hide under the mantra of “we’re all Republicans, let’s play nice.” No one will forget the incredible smear ad Coughlin ran in the Attorney General race several years ago. With no real backing Coughlin ran an ad showing the other Republican candidate Tom McGovern behind bars. His basis? McGovern was arrested once briefly as a juvenile for allegedly smoking marijuana but nothing ever came of it, charges were never pressed. It backfired badly as Coughlin’s poorly served client John Kaites was crushed. And let’s not forget that a weakened McGovern lost narrowly to Janet Napolitano in the general election race for AG, and after that she became Governor, and…well, you know the rest of the story.

Anyone who led Governor Napolitano’s tax hike initiative is NOT much of a Republican anymore. Sorry. It’s one thing to be a squishy or moderate Republican. But if you’re a Sen Carolyn Allen kind of Republican and your views are just as liberal as the average Democrat, you should be called out. Coughlin’s response sounds more like a Democrat plan to “save” bloated government programs than a Republican plan.

Coughlin claims he’s not working for the governor in a “government” capacity but admits he works for her in a campaign capacity.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference here with Coughlin directing the governor to push for a sales tax on the ballot. This is why we’re concerned. A political lobbyist should not be running the governor’s office. Much less a liberal-leaning political lobbyist when a Republican governor is the one who’s been elected.

Coughlin touting party unity? Give us a break!