Arizona Politics for Conservatives: Sonoran Alliance
Arizona Politics, News, Commentary and Information with a Blatantly Conservative Worldview Presented by an Alliance of Writers, Activists, Consultants and Government Insiders.
Here are my predictions on several races:
CD-1: Rusty Bowers
CD-2: Trent Franks
CD-3: Too close to call!
CD-4: Janet Contreras
CD-5: David Schweikert
CD-6: Jeff Flake*
CD-7: Ruth McClung
CD-8: Jesse Kelly
Attorney General: Andrew Thomas
Superintendent of Public Instructions: Too close to call
State Treasurer: Thayer Verschoor
County Attorney: Bill Montgomery
*This race will hinge on whether the TEA Party movement can get their people to the polls!
Last night on Roundtable Politics, Rachel Alexander and I discussed the statewide and legislative races. We made our picks and predicted the winners in every race.
Link to pre-primary Roundtable Politics
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Monday, August 23, 2010
|
|||||
|
By Sylvia Allen
In Response to Bill Konopnicki’s Last-Minute Publicity Stunt
It is quite clear that the stress of masquerading as a conservative has finally taken both a physical and mental toll on Bill Konopnicki. Our first indications were his accusations that our campaign consultant had been kicked out of his country of birth (the USA) where a warrant was out for his arrest. Or that he had been banned from Colorado (where apparently Bill thinks the medieval practice of banishment is still practiced.)
Today, Konopnicki’s Hail-Mary pass was a bogus complaint alleging campaign finance violations that are not supported by any facts, and that was presented to the world in the form of a press release, the hallmark of any serious legal complaint, no doubt.
Those of us who have watched Bill Konopnicki craft debt-laden state budgets are not surprised to see him having trouble with budget numbers and mathematics. He also ignores a number of other facts, including the fact that he is speaking about a number of expenditures that occurred after the last finance report and yet is complaining that they have not yet been reported. He is also making assumptions on quantities and timing that are nothing more than guesses.
Even stranger was his complaint that any mis-filing was “depriving candidate Bill Konopnicki of a fair election process. There will not be a meaningful opportunity for Mr. Konopnicki to timely respond in kind to these flyers.” Of course, thanks to his Maricopa County special interest buddies, Mr. Konopnicki will spend between two and three times as much as Senator Allen will, and he has produced a substantially greater number of flyers, as well as ads, billboards, radio ads, television ads, etc. For him to complain that he has been denied the opportunity to communicate with the voters in any way is a complete joke.
No, what Bill Konopnicki is doing here is trying to get some desperately needed publicity. Perhaps his polling is predicting an outcome that is prompting this desperate behavior?
Whatever the case, we are going to continue to campaign hard until the final bell rings, undistracted by Mr. Konopnicki’s and his legal team’s bizarre complaint.
In the meantime, we would recommend that Mr. Konopnicki respond to the campaign finance complaint that was filed inquiring where the expenditures were on his own reports for the radio ads, billboards and other expenses that have been running since March.
Kelly Townsend, candidate for LD22 GOP legislator, as well as owner and founder of Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots has been the focus of some troubling ethical questions due in part, to her website. Kelly, along with the 912 Tea Party Project Pinal County co-owners with Sassia Niederste-Hollenberg , Stephen (a candidate for Casa Grande School Board)and Melinda Kohut, have acted in ways that contradict the Glenn Beck’s 9 Principles and 12 Values prominently featured on the Pinal County website.
On these two websites, some of the most incredible blogging activity has occurred over the past six months since JD Hayworth announced his candidacy for Arizona’s US Senate seat in Congress. It has culminated over the past three weeks with some phenomenal attacks on numerous tea parties in our state, a blog post by a Senate candidate’s wife calling an avowed racist JD Hayworth’s “best friend’ and discovery that one of Jim Deakin’s strongest supporters, and wife of the co-owner of a Pinal County TPP website, pretending to be interested in endorsing a candidate. Lastly we’ve discovered the completely duplicitous and hypocritical actions by two Tea Party websites and their owners.
Beginning last April there was growing group Tea Party groups who started working together to form a coalition of Tea Parties for creating resources, sharing ideas and providing a stronger voice in Arizona. While there was considerable difference as to the shape and form of this coalition, there was complete unanimity in recognizing the need for such an organization. One of the key issues that developed was the recognition to determine a legal way to endorse candidates. This culminated on August 2nd, with a group of 16 statewide and national groups endorsing JD Hayworth for US Senate as the Tea Party candidate. You would have thought all hell broke loose among Jim Deakin’s supporters, both on the blogs and in Deakin’s campaign. Jim and his wife Adonia began making posts, attacking all this coalition, calling them “Fake Tea Parties”. Also Deakin sycophants began making accusations of law violations and threats to file complaints with the Federal Elections Commission.
One such supporter, Stephen Kohut, co-owner of the 912 Tea Party Project of Pinal County website, has been extremely vociferous, threatening to file complaints with the FEC. So outspoken has Stephen been speaking out, that you’d almost forget that, at least according to his own words, Kohut did not ‘make up my mind’ until after the July 16-17th, debates. Stephen claimed on various Tea Party websites and in his voluminous comments on Sonoran Alliance that he was “undecided” as to his choice for the US Senate. Kohut EVEN claimed that while his wife Melinda had decided to support Deakin, even contributing $500 to his campaign, he remained “undecided”. Yes, and I have oceanfront property in Quartzite, Arizona for bargain prices!
With Deakin’s utter failure to garner any Tea Party endorsements, Jim has taken to condemning those Tea Parties who have endorsed JD Hayworth. This is where it gets interesting. Kelly Townsend’s Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots is a 501(c)4 organization, hence cannot endorse any candidates. Also, Sassia Niederste-Hollenberg and Stephen Kohut’s 912 Project Pinal County Tea Party Patriots “claims” to be a 501(c)4 group. ‘Claims’ is the operative word; for last March when I questioned them about a video of some Massachusetts independent ‘endorsing’ Jim Deakin prominently on their front page, and I then repeated my concerns with another question, they suspended me from the website! Stephen recently called my questioning, “cyber-intimidation”. Yet, since they weren’t even a 501(c)4 group, my question was irrelevant, EXCEPT they claimed then and now to be a 501(c)4 group! Why would they make such false statements?
Here are the facts: when I recently checked the AZ Corporation Commission’s listing of corporations, there was nothing for Kohut’s group at the time. NOT until May 7th did a reservation for a group, “Pinal County Tea Party Patriots” appear, reserved by Melinda “Mindy” Kohut. The reservation expires on September 5th and to date there appears that no corporation exists. Then on June 8th, Kelly Townsend filed for a registration of trade name for “Pinal 912 Tea Party Patriots”; thereby intertwining the two Tea Party groups completely together. Yet they use their websites to take a cheap shot at the Tea Party groups that endorse candidates.
Both websites and the Tea Party groups’ leaders, Townsend, Sassia and the Kohuts have been solidly supporting Jim Deakin. So imagine my surprise last week to find out that Mindy Kohut asked two months ago to join this coalition of Tea Parties. For the last two months Stephen’s wife, Mindy a contributor to Deakin’s campaign, has been a member of the website, but failed to acknowledge her support for Deakin by joining the Jim Deakin group. So, while being a member of the Association that was seeking legitimate avenues for endorsing candidates, Melinda’s Pinal County Tea Party Patriots is strongly opposed to endorsements of candidates. She pretended to support the concept of endorsing a candidate, which WAS an option for Tea Party leaders for ANY candidate, as a result of the Association. Needless to say, her membership has been terminated. Here’s the link to their page look for their statement on endorsing candidates: http://thepinalcounty912project.ning.com.
It’s interesting that Kelly, the Kohuts and Sassia, along with Jim Deakin, want the exclusive right to define WHAT CONSTITUTES A TEA PARTY! THEN they dare to condemn anyone or group that doesn’t fit THEIR definition!!
Now with Kelly Townsend working with and closely allied to the Pinal County group, it’s not too surprising to find that her actions also clearly violate the 912 standards. For example, over the past eight months numerous groups formerly affiliated with Kelly left her organization. In most every case she refused to let them keep their name, since SHE was the registered owner. The key reason for leaving was simply that Kelly concentrated the control and authority in the hands of herself and the members of the board, Les White, Charles McCain, and Chris Rossiter. For example, after a national group, Tax Day Tea Party, endorsed JD Hayworth, Kelly immediately contacted Robert Mayer, Roger Boone and Patrick Beck of the Tucson, Flagstaff and Bullhead City “Tea Party” groups and issued a press release claiming to be the four largest Tea Parties and that they were NOT endorsing JD Hayworth for the Senate seat. This press release garnered widespread press attention, thanks to John McCain’s powerful influence.
Two interesting facts about this press release: 1. one members of Kelly’s Board at the time was NOT even informed about the press release, let alone involving her, leading up to the press release! 2. While Kelly’s and Roger’s groups could NOT endorse ANYONE due to their status, the Tucson group had made the decision NOT to endorse any candidate for any race, not just JD Hayworth for the US Senate. Lastly, Patrick Beck did not EVEN HAVE a Tea Party group! Sure, he had organized a rally for April 15th last year that attracted 400 attendees in Bullhead City. However, there were NO meetings, until he set up an ‘association’ last May, and THEN only ONE! This was a concerted effort to mute the impact of any endorsements for JD Hayworth.
Lastly, Kelly Townsend shows complete hypocrisy on her website in what she allows or censors in the discussion groups. Specifically, when there were very heated discussions regarding the Senate race, in the West Valley and the Greater Scottsdale groups, causing several members to complain and leave the discussion pages. Kelly rightfully set up a Senate discussion group on June 10th, and after she complained to me about ‘strong language’ (not foul, just forceful) she told me in a phone call that in the new group, “almost anything goes”. Then on June 14th, I used the term “Deakinistas” in reference to the more rabid supporters, given to insults and personal attacks. Kelly suspended me, and another person who used the term “Deakinasses” for 30 days. BY contrast, Adonia Deakin post the MOST despicable of blogs, claiming that JD Hayworth asked his “best friend” David Duke to get his friends to call on his behalf!! She also posted this on Smart Girl Politics and it was quickly deleted! Kelly simply asked Adonia to ‘revise’ the post. SO, Kelly doesn’t mind blatantly false and despicable posts in a completely disgusting display by the wife of Jim Deakin. Yet she is “offended” by the term “Deakinista”!?
You have to wonder, DO the Kohuts believe it proper to make false claims of support for the Association, or being “neutral” and criticize all Tea Parties who do not agree with them calling them “Fake”? Does Kelly Townsend believe that it’s proper to control over 3-5,000 Tea Party members in over a dozen groups, with just 3-5 board members, not giving the leaders of the various groups say in thei leadership? Further, does she possibly believe that no one can see through the flimsy claim that they don’t really moderate the blogs? One thing is for certain: the voters in LD 22 and the Casa Grande School District need to take a very close look at these candidates’ ethics. BOTH should be subject to a MUCH closer scrutiny, based on their actions over the past six months.
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Monday, August 23, 2010
Doubled money spent on Executive Personnel to hire “Special Assistants” (aka campaign staff), and used government staff for campaign work including website photos
|
|
|
|
|
|
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Sunday, August 22, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arizona Although a number of Arizona citizens decided to fight back against San Diego’s boycott of Arizona, Rick Romley chose to spend a few days at the posh Hotel del Coronado in San Diego for a lawyer’s lovefest from July 14 – 17th last month. Romley is now stonewalling records requests from several media outlets seeking to scrutinize whether Romley attended “CLE by the Sea” on the dime of the Maricopa County taxpayer. If Romley drove, the cost to taxpayers is $360 in travel mileage per diem (720 miles @ .50 per). If he flew, air travel is about $150. The room was anywhere from $885 – $1775 in room rates, and then there’s the $659 program cost. All told, Romley’s high falutin’ ways total up to anywhere from $1694 to $2774 at a time when county officials seem to have a hard time watching how they spend our tax dollars.
What makes the situation worse is that Romley could have attended a training conference hosted by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council (APAAC) for a fraction of the cost with virtually no expense to Maricopa County taxpayers. The Arizona option was held at the Westin La Paloma resort in Tucson from August 4 – 6. While maybe not as cool or posh as the Hotel Del, Romley would have paid only $60 in the program fee and APAAC would have picked up the rest!
Show us the records Rick. After all: “character matters.”
The FEC has issued a press release stating that CD 4 “Republican” candidate Jose Penalosa, a Scottsdale pro-illegal immigration attorney that defends illegals from being deported on a daily basis, has failed to file the required pre-primary report. Penalosa is one of only EIGHT candidates NATIONWIDE to fail to file the pre-primary report (Andy Goss dropped out of the CD 8 race) and is the ONLY candidate in Arizona to fail to file. This is not the first time Penalosa has flouted the law. He has consistently filed his FEC reports late. Apparently he not only opposes our immigration laws, but doesn’t think FEC rules apply to him either. Any other laws he thinks shouldn’t be enforced? Penalosa is simply not a candidate ANY district needs to send to Congress.
Exactly who does this guy think he is? He lives in Scottsdale, is on court record for ardently defending living outside the district, has supported Democrat Harry Mitchell, campaigns outside the district with the jet-set Scottsdale elite, and is a fervent proponent of amnesty. Penalosa couldn’t be more out-of-touch with the district.
Don’t be fooled by this pretender, CD 4. Vote for a real TEA party conservative, Janet Contreras.
“Constitutional Conservative” RINO David Fitzgerald, a Republican candidate for the Arizona House in Legislative District 6, proclaims himself a “Constitutional Conservative” but this suppose constitutional conservative gave $250.00 to Hillary Clinton in 2005. Don’t believe me? This link has the gory details and also raises some interesting questions if David has been truthful about his support for Hillary Clinton.
Personally, I don’t know any other “constitutional conservatives” who are also donors to Hilary Clinton. I wonder which of Hillary Clinton’s positions motivated David to contribute? Could it have been her support of abortion-on-demand? Her support for raising taxes? Her support for cap and trade? Her support for a single government payer health care system? Maybe, it was just her general loathing for the Constitution and free-markets that inspired David to make his first ever reported political donation.
The term RINO is used on this site regularly to label Republican that don’t hold true to the conservative principle on all issues. I can’t think of an act that earns you the title RINO better than supporting and giving your hard earned dollars to Hillary Clinton (well, maybe giving to Obama would worse but that is debatable).
Updated 08/21: link fixed.
Last night on Grassroots Interviews I interviewed Howard Sprague a House candidate in LD 7. There are seven people running for two House seats.
Largely, I agree with Howard Levine’s analysis of the LD 7 House candidates. I part with Howard on his analysis of David Burnell Smith. First, as I’ve said multiple times, Ray Barnes scores slightly to the left of Sanctuary Six Nancy Barto according to Goldwater and other conservative scoring organizations. David Smith scored considerably to the left of Ray. Mr. Smith has also been removed from office due to Clean Elections violations. Smith is, to say the least, a colorful character who claims he’s not going to engage in any “sign pollution.” If he’s not going to use one of the most visible means of campaigning, I’d like to know exactly what his campaign strategy is. Finally, Mr. Smith is one of only two candidates that stood me up on Grassroots Interviews without even a courtesy phone call or e-mail. For those reasons I have serious concerns about Mr. Smith holding office.
I had ONE concern with Howard Sprague before the interview: that he was touting having been Dean Martin’s campaign manager the first time Dean ran for the Senate in 2000. Howard was absentee. However, Howard gave me an answer I agreed with 100%: Dean didn’t need a campaign manager. Dean was just that astute of a campaigner. He new how to do his own bulk mail and could design his own mail pieces. Dean, a political newcomer at the time, defeated the RINO House member Tom Horne in that race. Too bad it wasn’t Horne’s political obituary for eternity.
During the interview, Howard’s support for Jim Waring for Congress in CD 3 made me uneasy since Waring is a McCain staffer and because of that past, he will be all too willing to help McCain if both should be elected. If you look at the Roundtable Politics show I just posted, I predicted that Jim would win the CD 3 race since he has long been considered a frontrunner, Waring has tirelessly been knocking on doors, and Quayle may suffer from his involvement with dirty.com. Be that as it may, I will not be voting for Waring since he is not the most conservative candidate in the race and with so many people in the race, a candidate needs fewer and fewer votes to win. Additionally, Jim refused to come on my show even after I clearly stated that I would be willing to change my schedule to accommodate him. I may be critical of Jim, but I have given EVERY candidate a chance to respond, uninterrupted, to any concerns I may have. I might have disclosed who I am voting for in the aforementioned Roundtable Politics episode. My choice has always been between Gorman and Crump. I worry about their ability to fundraise. While Crump apparently supported a tax increase for a road in California, Gorman has supported moderate candidates Tony Bouie (I do like Tony on a personal level and I truly do appreciate the fact that he came on the show and I do want to remain friends with him. Luckily, I’m not in LD 4 and don’t have to cast a vote in that race!) and Peggy Neely. In my opinion, conservative candidates should NEVER support moderates. Moderates are a poison that lead to minority status.
So, as a conservative that believes moderates are responsible for our minority status, I have to vote for who I believe is the most conservative candidate that has at least a snowball’s chance. Also, since no one will agree with any candidate 100%, you have to choose the least flawed candidates. As I state in this interview with Howard, as an individual, I am endorsing Howard Sprague and Mike Farrar for the two LD 7 House seats. I strongly urge all LD 7 voters to go to the polls and cast their two votes for Mike Farrar and Howard Sprague.
Crank up your volume. The sound quality on this recording is awful.
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Friday, August 20, 2010
|
|
| Reprinted from Lighthouse Blog
Of the two viable candidates running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona, only one is worthy of a vote from true pro-life voters. That candidate is J.D Hayworth. The other candidate, John McCain, has a spotty pro-life record and has not been an advocate for pro-life causes. For instance, McCain supports experimenting on baby embryos, which of course kills them. McCain also supports using federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. J.D. Hayworth opposes both. As far as ratings from pro-life groups, JD Hayworth has a 100% rating from ProLife Arizona, and a 100% rating from National Right to Life. Even Arizona Right to Life said, “AZRTL PAC acknowledges that J.D. Hayworth had a perfect pro-life voting record during his service in the U.S. House of Representatives.” It does NOT say the same about McCain. John McCain, on the other hand, received a 0% rating from ProLife Arizona for not completing its survey. He has only a 75% rating from National Right to Life. Though controversially endorsed by Arizona Right to Life this year, he was passed over in 2008 for his support of embryonic stem cell research, a position he still holds. Arizona Right to Life has taken a public relations thrashing for its endorsement of McCain. National Right to Life endorsed Fred Thompson in 2008 over John McCain because of McCain’s support for testing embryos, in addition to McCain’s support of McCain-Feingold, legislation which heavily restricted the 1st Amendment rights of pro-life groups. As recently as 1999, John McCain is quoted as saying about abortion, “I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.” San Francisco Chronicle & CNN, August 1999 Arizona pro-lifer voters have a clear choice on Tuesday to protect and advance the sanctity of life, and that choice is J.D. Hayworth. |
|
|
|
|
|
I was honored to have the Majority Whip, Andy Tobin, agree to appear on Grassroots Interviews. He is facing a contested primary for a House seat in Legislative District 1. I wish him luck.
At the beginning of the week on Roundtable Politics, James Allen, Rachel Alexander and I interviewed Chris Cook of ModernConservative.com. After talking to Chris about the site, we made our predictions in the Congressional races.
Correction regarding the Following Post:
“McCain and his Mini-Me, Deakin, Try to Fool Arizonans with Disingenuous Reform Rhetoric” as written by Susan Bradford, August 4, 2010
About two weeks ago, I posted the above mentioned article. In it there was a link to a website which showed numerous government contracts with various Defense Department agencies such as the Army and Navy. The links showed these contracts held by Detek, Inc. and Liberty Fire Protection, Inc., which are the names of Jim Deakin’s companies here in Arizona. Unfortunately, as I performed my own due diligence I discovered that, while the names of the company with these contracts are certainly Detek, Inc. and Liberty Fire Protection, Inc., they were NOT Jim Deakin’s companies. In fact, the corporations were defense contractors in Maryland and South Carolina. There was no ill intent in the error, just a failure to completely research the sources for this article.
I drew inferences from this article, that now appear to be incorrect. I have deleted the article and I sincerely apologize to Jim Deakin and his campaign for its posting and the erroneous statements that I made. I will work much more diligently of confirming the accuracy of future posts.
Steven Robinson, Radical American Patriot
