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To sign the online petition supporting Veterans, click here.

CD 8
Democratic – 130,645
Green – 808
Libertarian – 2,530
Republican – 156,361
Amercans Elect – 23
Other – 124,127 

For further information, see attached.

The latest statewide voter registration figures are available on the Secretary of State’s website, www.azsos.gov or by calling 1-877-THE-VOTE.

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Mr. Flake Pushed an Energy Tax that Republicans Opposed

In 2009, Flake Co-Sponsored A Bill to Raise Carbon Taxes

Career Politician Congressman Flake Claims to be a Conservative but His Colleagues on Capitol Hill Thought His Carbon Tax Was Anything But Conservative

“The bill puts the two lawmakers at odds with Republican congressional leaders, who’ve criticized the Democrats’ cap-and-trade plans as carbon taxes in disguise. ‘Cap and trade is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs and raising energy costs for consumers,’ House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said. ‘The so-called ‘cap and trade’ proposal amounts to a carbon tax, plain and simple.’” (James Rosen, “Republican Lawmakers Back Carbon Tax (Yes, That’s Right),” McClatchy Newspapers, 5/13/09; www.mcclatchydc.com/)

Flake’s Carbon Tax Would Cost an Arizona Family of 4 $1,000 a year

Jeff Flake Says He’s Watching Out for Arizona, but He’s Not

For documentation and to try to get an explanation call Congressman Flake at 602-845-0333.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

(Reposted with permission from the Arizona Daily Independent)

At last night’s debate, between congressional candidates Republican Jesse Kelly and Democrat Ron Barber, controversy arose over Barber’s failure to say that he supported President Obama’s reelection. Barber dodged the question during the debate, and later refused to answer the question again, when asked by reporters.

Now, Barber is scrambling to assure his fellow Democrats that he does in fact support his party’s nominee for the presidency. Barber’s campaign released a statement early this morning stating his support for Obama. The question now becomes, why did Barber feel the need to dodge the question?

The answer to that is in Barber’s answer, “My vote is my vote Mr. Kelly and I’m focused on beating you in June.” Open and gushing support for Obama and his policies will not get Ron Barber elected, so Barber’s response was an honest one. If he is focused on beating Kelly he can’t embrace Obama, unless of course he wants PAC monies, hence the embrace this morning.

At one point during the campaign, Barber accused Kelly of “pulling the wool over people’s eyes.” The time worn expression may describe Barber’s spin this morning, as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the clip, Sen. Kyl stated, “Steve gets along with people you can’t not like Steve Chucri, and it’s because he is a very genuine person who is sincere about solving problems.”

“Sen. Kyl has done so much for the great state of Arizona, and it’s an honor to have the endorsement of a true statesman,” said Chucri.

Sen. Kyl joins Congressman Jeff Flake, Congressman Ben Quayle, Congressman David Schweikert, Congressman Paul Gosar, Congressman Trent Franks, Senate President Steve Pierce, Maricopa County Supervisor Andy Kunasek, Gilbert Mayor John Lewis, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny, and Paradise Valley Mayor Scott LeMarr in endorsing Steve Chucri.

Chucri has served as the President & CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association (ARA) since 2002. Under his leadership and tireless work ethic, the ARA and restaurant industry has enjoyed a substantial growth in sales in what will amount to a ten billion dollar industry in Arizona this year alone.

As President and CEO of the ARA, Chucri represents business owners and sees firsthand how the actions of local, state, and federal governments can positively or negatively impact restaurants and other small businesses in Arizona. Chucri’s experiences as a businessman, husband, and father have given him invaluable insight into the needs of his community and ensure that, as County Supervisor, he will always put people before politics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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PHOENIX, AZ – Earlier this week, both Politico and the Associated Press published exhaustive reports detailing serious past allegations made against Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona.

These allegations outlined the abuse of taxpayer dollars, including billing the government for personal travel, while Carmona was Surgeon General— an issue backed up by internal government emails received by the Associated Press, as well as the Carmona campaign’s own acknowledgement that he was forced to personally repay at least $3,500 back to the federal treasury.

But perhaps the most serious allegation that has emerged came from previously-held secret testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by a well-respected and accomplished former female supervisor of Richard Carmona. Politico reported that Dr. Christine Beato testified that she felt physically threatened by Carmona on at least two separate occasions when he showed up outside her home banging on her door in the middle of the night.

Carmona, however, refused to be interviewed by either Politico or the Associated Press for their reports and has yet to directly deny any of these serious allegations.

To that end, Mrs. Sharon Giese, Arizona’s National Committeewoman for the RNC is sending the following letter to Dr. Carmona this afternoon:

Dear Dr. Carmona:

I write in regard to your refusal to comment on the story that appeared in Politico Monday, and the allegations against you that it contains.

This story makes clear that your former supervisor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Cristina Beato, in 2007 testified to Congress that on two separate occasions, both in the middle of the night, you came to her house and were “banging on [her] door.”

Dr. Beato testified that she felt threatened by your actions. She testified that your aggressive behavior made her fear for the safety of her two children. Moreover, she testified that this behavior was part of a pattern – one that demonstrated you had clear anger management issues and “serious problems” with women and problems with having a Hispanic female supervisor.

In summary, in her words, working with you was “a living nightmare.” Reading testimony about such behavior, most Arizonans will no doubt agree, is chilling.

Yet, you have chosen to respond to Dr. Beato’s testimony through your political campaign manager, who has attempted to marginalize Dr. Beato’s testimony by calling it a lie and a partisan political attack aimed at undermining your campaign for U.S. Senate.

Dr. Beato, however, did not make her statements to the press, or in the context of a political campaign. She made them long before the current Senate campaign – and long before you had expressed any interest in running for public office. She made them in private, considered, testimony to a congressional committee. And as you may be aware, 18 U.S.C. § 1001 makes making knowingly false statements to Congress a federal crime, punishable by fines and imprisonment.

In short, your campaign manager is accusing Dr. Beato – a highly respected member of the medical profession – of lying to Congress and committing a federal crime. You yourself, however, have not denied Dr. Beato’s allegations. The distinction in those responses is neither subtle nor honorable.

It’s also noteworthy that Dr. Beato is far from the only former co-worker who has expressed serious concern with your temperament. As the Los Angeles Times reports on July 8, 2002, “[a] number of Carmona’s former co-worker and employees, however, describe a man whose instinct is to escalate hostilities rather than resolve them,” and that “court and hospital records show a history of conflicts between Carmona and other doctors.” In fact, the Times quoted another former female colleague Sylvia Campoy, the Pima County Health Care Commission Chairwoman, as recounting, “[w]hat I got from Dr. Carmona was antagonism and threats.”

But setting aside what appears to be a years-long pattern of abusive relationships with former co-workers, if you truly believe Dr. Beato to be lying, you should say so, and address the matter with the United States Department of Justice, which is charged with enforcing federal law. As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, you have a duty to inform law enforcement officials if a crime has been committed.

However if, as it appears by your responses to date, you do not deny Dr. Beato’s testimony that on two occasions you pounded on her door in the middle of the night making her fear for her and her children’s safety, then you should address the matter and explain your actions to the people of Arizona.

Not doing so, and continuing to hide behind your campaign while accusing a highly respected former Hispanic female supervisor of criminally lying, is only one more demonstration of the very pattern of hostile and sexist behavior exhibited by you toward women about which Dr. Beato testified.

Sincerely,

Sharon Giese

Arizona Republican Party/RNC National Committeewoman

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Dear Friends,

You may have seen an ad running on television from my opponent claiming that I want a massive energy tax and suggesting that I support cap and trade. This, of course, is untrue.

Let me give you, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

In 2009, President Obama and the Democratic Majority in Congress were pushing the cap-and-trade bill, which most Republicans and I opposed. During debate on the bill, there were a number of us that thought we needed a way to expose the Democrats’ awful plan for what it was — a revenue grab in the worst way.

So we put together a revenue-neutral tax swap designed to counter the Democrats’ bill. Unlike cap and trade, our proposal cut taxes and did not increase spending. The legislation stipulated that any carbon tax revenue raised by the government would go directly into the Social Security Trust Fund, and at the same time the payroll tax would be lowered by the same amount. This way, there was no incentive for politicians to raise the tax, since they wouldn’t get their hands on the money to spend. It was used as a way to call the Democrats’ bluff. I should note that in the end, we succeeded — cap and trade failed.

Many notable conservatives supported our proposal’s honest, market-driven approach, including Arthur Laffer, a noted economist and former economic policy advisor to President Reagan, who said: “The bill that Jeff Flake cosponsored was a smart, free market, conservative approach to expose the Democrat’s Cap and Trade bill for was it was — a massive tax increase.”

Laffer penned an op-ed in the New York Times in support of our approach, as did conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Weekly Standard.

Rest assured that I will, as I have in the past, lead the fight in Congress for lower taxes, limited government and less regulation.

Sincerely,

Jeff Flake

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Schweikert Campaign released the following statement this evening:

“We find it disappointing and frankly abhorrent that the Quayle campaign would disseminate the name and contact information of an underage Schweikert for Congress volunteer to the media.  We fully expected their campaign to engage in dirty tricks, but dragging an underage volunteer (who the Schweikert campaign will not name publicly due to her age) into their scheme represents a new low for even the Quayle campaign.”

PHOENIX – The Flake campaign renewed its call, first made last week, for millionaire self-funding Senate candidate Wil Cardon to release his response to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint, which could help clear the air over questions that he may be illegally funding his campaign with corporate contributions from his family’s fortune. 

“Cardon should release his response,” said Andrew Wilder, communications director for the Flake campaign. “As long as questions still linger over how his campaign is being funded, voters won’t trust him.”

In January, the Arizona Republic reported that Wil Cardon was the subject of a complaint filed with the FEC by Mesa resident Dave Smith, a plumbing contractor who is owed money by the Cardon family. The complaint questions whether he is illegally funding his campaign with corporate contributions.

Click here to view the entire FEC complaint against Wil Cardon.

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Tempe – Travis Grantham, candidate for Congress in Arizona’s 9th Congressional District released the following statment regarding his endorsement from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

“I am honored to have received the endorsement from NAIFA. For over twenty years NAIFA has represented over 200,000 agents and associates nationwide in both the insurance and financial advisory fields. During these times of increased uncertainty and burdensome regulation in our private sector, it is important that associations like NAIFA are able to work with members of Congress for the best interests of the people. Like many other industries, the insurance and financial sector job creators have suffered as a result of too much government regulation.”

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Travis Grantham is a candidate for Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District. He serves as the Chief Operations Officer at International Air Response based at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport. He is also a Captain and Pilot in the Arizona Air National Guard’s 161st Air Refueling Wing based out of Sky Harbor International Airport. Travis and his wife Patricia have two daughters.