Arizona Republican Party State Chairman Randy Pullen’s website has gone from “Under Construction” to “Up & Running”. Â It can be viewed here. Â While Pullen’s opponent, Lisa James, is listing each of her personal endorsements, Pullen is sticking with lists of State Senators and Party Officers who are supporting him. Â We’re told that his State Representative list will be out soon. Â Hopefully, Pullen’s folks will list state committeemen endorsements so that we can start to take measure of the status of the race. Â In the meantime, we’ll give the Best Website nod to Pullen in this race. Â It is a sharp looking site.
Of course you’d give the nod to Pullen. You’re blog is an unapologetically biased supporter of Randy’s. Just like the liberal news media – cannot report on anything without inserting your potent opinion.
AZGOPgal,
Have you looked at Lisa’s website? There is no competition on that question. Pullen by a lot.
Demonstrating the ability to organize, as does a well done website, is nothing to sneeze at. Give credit where it is due and figure out who has the possibility to get things done. Remember, past behavior is an indicator of future behavior, Lisa.
To set the record straight, I’m staying out of this race! After what happened last time, I don’t want to get entangled in the rhetoric going back and forth. I will decide at the last minute who I am voting for and I will do so in private.
With that said, I will let our blogger “AZ Insider” speak for themself. I have invited both camps to submit information about their campaigns and I will gladly post it.
As for “Sonoran Alliance” and “DSW” no endorsement has been made of either candidate for State GOP Chairman.
It is a shame you had to trivialize yourself by picking the best candidate predicated on your opinion of a web site. It would seem more appropriate if you would have addressed issues such as ability to raise money, a vision for the future of the AZ GOP, get the picture? Maybe it was just your backhanded way to announce Pullens web page?
I have known and worked with with Randy pullen and his devoted staff for the 2 years he has been Chairman. I consider him to be and unusual person in that he is one that ” says what he means and means what he says” and has always gone the extra yard for all Arizona Candidates for election. He does not play favorites, and he soes not work on a clock. Thank you Randy for being so honest and devoted to the GOP
I think that most of this small stuff is just that. Small stuff.
What matters is actually quite fundamental. I will vote for Randy Pullen because he is an effective, conservative leader for our Party. He puts the Party and our values first, and he has seen us through a very rough time for our Party, both nationally and here in Arizona. I don’t imagine any chairman is ever perfect, but we won when most expected us to lose and when a few of us were hoping we would lose.
Today, those who hoped we would lose do not get to challenge Pullen on the basis of those losses, so they’re dragging up a bunch of garbage in an effort to find an issue that works. These are not good or honest people, and their motives are unpure.
I will cast my vote for a good man and a great conservative. And I’ll consider myself fortunate that I have been given such an opportunity.
I don’t see what is so exceptional about the website, unless you just really like the multiple pictures of Randy talking on the phone.
I’m having a real hard time figuring out what world you Pullen supporters live in! His record is a train wreck, his behavior worse, and his abilities seem to be mostly around self-promotion. Apparently that has worked since so many of you still fall for his phoney baloney.
Goodyear GOP, what in the heck are you talking about? That guy is an empty suit with a bad inferiority complex that he hides by intimidation. He is a failure and he knows it but so many folks put their necks on the line for him to get him into this job that now, rather than just call it a bad job and move on, you are all making up an impressive record. He did not win races, he did not raise any money, and he did not register enough voters to keep us in control of the majority. The Democrats did. That is what he was elected to do, HE FAILED.
As for websites, talk about a blind squirrel finding an acorn now and then, hire a webmaster that puts up a flashy, ego promoting site and see the little folks ooooh and ahhhhh. Give them something to be proud of since his record won’t hold water. If this were a movie it would be called the Stepford Republicans. If you resort to a website or a very common grammatical error to support or denounce a candidate, then you have no business voting for such an important job.
Oscar,
It seems you didn’t bother to look at both websites in depth. While Pullen lists his accomplishments as Chairman (remember, if you going to saddle him with the losses, then he gets credit for the victories), he has also outlined a tangible plan for the future of the Party. Lisa’s website, on the other hand, lacks detail and a plan of action. It seems what Lisa wants to accomplish as chair, Pullen has already done. Folks, it seems the choice this year is between Pullen and Pullen lite. I’m sticking with the real thing.
Empty words from an empty suit. How much $ in the bank? How many new voters? How many seats LOST? Spin, twist, claim credit that isn’t yours. Give it up, he needs to go!
How much $ in the bank? Well let’s see, Matt Salmon left the party IN DEBT and facing FEC fines. Pullen has a positive bank balance. Is it huge? It better not be. The GOP raises money to spend by November, not to save for December. Still, a positive balance versus a negative balance is a favorable contrast for Pullen versus Salmon. Thanks for asking!
I couldn’t agree more with Oscar. The party is moving backwards and Pullen has helped that move by alienating voters. Heck, he turned me against the state party the minute he started undercutting our congressional delegation.
Oscar likes Lisa James. I have no problem with that. But his arguments are wierd. Like this one: “He did not win races, he did not raise any money, and he did not register enough voters to keep us in control of the majority. The Democrats did.”
Clearly the Republicans won races, and lots of them. Not just legislative races, but local and county races as well. Read the New Times and other rags to see how furious the Dems are with their leadership for losing in 2008.
Clearly the GOP raised money, and lots of it. DId they raise as much as the Democrats? I doubt it. But I doubt Republicans raised as much as the Democrats did anywhere. And the money raised in Arizona was actually a pretty big number if you consider how much was raised for GOP causes in total. Money doesn’t have to flow through the State Party to be effective. County parties like Pima and Maricopa raised record or near record amounts as well, and that helped a lot too.
Clearly the GOP registered enough people to “keep us in the majority”, although for some reason Oscar claims that the Democrats did. That’s just a really weird thing to say. Republicans were kept in the majority, not the Democrats. In fact, Republicans EXPANDED their majority.
Go ahead and vote for Lisa if you want to Oscar. At least, if you’re a state committeeman. I noticed that most of the folks on her endorsement list are NOT state committeemen in any case.
The rest of us are going to stick with the guy that got the job done. That’s Randy Pullen.
What am I hearing about James and Sproul making half a million dollars off of the state party? I assume that was before Pullen, but if its true, it would explain why they want to retake control.
Just to set the record straight. For the 2006 cycle the AZGOP raised over 3.6 million. In 2008, when our senior senator was the GOP nomniee for President? 1.2 million.
Thats a third of what the party normally raises. Is it really a surprise the Democrats now control the Congressional delegation, we lost the ACC, and the Realtors had to come in and bail out the party on leg races?
Well AZRed, all I have to say is…. tru dat!
Yeah…but a blind comparisons doesn’t tell the whole story:
How much of the 3.6 million was from the RNC, a blind comparison doesn’t reflect that.
How much of the 3.6 million was from NRSC (Arizona received no NRSC funds in ’08 because we didn’t have a Senate race)
How much of the 3.6 million was from the NRCC (Arizona received little to no funding from the NRCC this year because they had little money themselves and had to protect their incumbents first.)
A fair comparison is only after you account for those numbers, Salmon didn’t raise the RNC, NRCC, NRSC money, it was handed to him. Once those numbers are factored out, the the comparison becomes far more fair. A better comparison is using 2004 as a bench mark as that was a presidential election year.
Unfortunately, I don’t have that data, but it would be interesting to see and give a far more fair assessment of Pullen vs. Salmon vs. Fannin.
AZRed says the state party raised $3.6M in the 2006 election cycle and only $1.2M in the 2008 cycle.
In 2006, we lost seats in the legislature and, among the Republicans we did have, there were enough RINOs to deny conservative Republicans a working majority. We had a candidate for governor (supported by paid party staff during the PRIMARY) who lost by a landslide in the general election with under 40% of the vote. We lost 2 US House seats. Oh, we did win Kyl’s US Senate race. The only thing the party did with the huge sums available was to help Kyl’s campaign and get Len Munsil the Republican nomination (and left him high and dry in the general election).
In 2008, we made gains in the state legislature and the Republicans there are more conservative. The state party helped achieve this victory by doing targeted voter registration to get more Republicans where we needed them for legislative victories. This was not done previously. We also did have some gains in local races. We did lose 1 US House seat because the Republican Party was tarnished by a corruption scandal involving the departing incumbent. We did lose 2 ACC seats because 2 of the 3 Republican candidates running were RINOs.
I think Randy Pullen has done a better job with less money. I don’t think Lisa James can offer more than Randy Pullen does for the Republican Party and is likely to weaken it like Matt Salmon did (in spite of all the money available).
I think we should keep Randy Pullen as the Arizona State Republican Chairman.
The Realtors…why didn’t they just give the money to the party? Could it be that they didn’t want to see another ad like the one Pullen did on masturbation?
AZRed and Oscar need to stop their back-slapping long enough to realize that the GOP didn’t lost the ACC like those two morons are claiming. The GOP still controls the ACC, albeit no thanks to the lousy races our candidates ran.
And Homie, the Realtors… They did give money to the party. Thanks for playing!
Just to understand the arguments correctly. Every race that the GOP won was due to Pullen’s genius for “doing more with less” but the losses were all the fault of RINO / lousy candidates.
I am confused one point though. It is true that, even though there were four highly competitive congressional races here, national Republicans refused to send the party money. They had no confidence that they would spend it wisely. Why are Pullen’s supporters touting this?
How do I find out how much the Realtors gave? Do I need to write a FOIA? Also, if the RNC didn’t send the party money to help the congressional candidates, did Pullen still help them? I’d like to know who Schweikert and Hay and Shadegg are supporting for Chairman, anyone know?
Pullen is very good at losing and spinning it his way. He has so much experience at it, that it has really paid off. His “groupies” need to snap out of it!
But then, what else does he have but a record of blow-out losses or by a nose wins (and then only with a little help from his friends, all 4 of them). Give up the attemtps to make him look good, it just can’t happen when there is nothing to base it on. At best, he didn’t hawk the building that is free and clear to pay the bills.
This has nothing to do with Lisa James and everything to do with this old man being sick and damn tired of this conceited piece of work thinking he is worthy of another shot. I’ve seen too much and learned my lessons, this guy is not worth the time it takes to write this BUT the party I’ve belonged to for more years than many of you have lived is. If it wasn’t James running, it would be someone else and unless they didn’t have a pulse, they would be better!
That Pullen kept the Party in the game at all after the McCain/Kyl/Kennedy shamnesty failure is a minor miracle.
Great work Chairman Pullen, you’ve earned our vote of confidence for another term.
If you want to make a case re: fundraising, it helps to compare ’06 to another midterm election, like ’02.
Could also adjust for inflation.
Oscar here’s a simple question for you, ready?
After her loss in 2006, what did Lisa James do to pull the party together and raise the funds and register voters?
Seems she took her toys and went home. Had she acted honorably and jumped in for the party – I for one would respect her a lot more.
Borders and Immigration, that’s the gulf between the sides. The bluebellies in our Senate delegation support open season on cheap labor and a NAFTA’esque border. The folks in gray want that line held.
We’re coming up on Lincoln’s Birthday – sense the irony here? Until both sides find common ground the party will continue to loose in our Congressional races.
Perhaps its time to replace McCain and change the line up on the Az Congressional bench?
Before Pullen didn’t we loose CD8 and CD5 and the Governor’s Office?
Oh, and lets not forget the track record of Lisa’s pick for Executive Director, Nathan Sproul. How many times does he have to loose before folks’ll figure him out?? I mean loosing the Marriage Initiative? Come on, give us a break! (have no idea why Bee hired him in the first place)
Uh excuse me Veritas. Where are you getting this information about Sproul being the Executive Director? He already served as ED for the party before going off on his own to form his own firm. Unless I’m missing something, did Lisa have something to do with Nathan being chosen back in circa 2000??
Hey – and what about the Al-Qaeda fundraiser James held? You people are unbelievable.
Sproul wouldn’t work as ED, he wants lots more money that that. I hear he made several HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars going get out the vote work with James in 2006. Can someone from the party please confirm this?
So yes, you’re right that Sproul helped recruit James and yes, he’ll make good (great!) money from her winning. But no, she won’t be hiring him as Executive Director.
And yes Veritas, we lost CD5 and CD8 in 2006, before Pullen. Oh yes, and the lady who ran our GOTV operations? Yup, Lisa James!
All the people who write stuff like “I hear”, “I was told”, or “could someone confirm this” are desperate and trying to avoid being called a liar but getting the lie out there just the same.
Grow a set and while you’re at it, grow a conscience.
If the list of Lisa’s accomplishments filled the pages of this blog with records and accounting for all that she has done in the last 2 years, someone would start with..”I heard all those voters she registered are RINOS” or “I was told she only gets money from people she promises favors too…wink, wink” or “Did you hear…she wears white AFTER Labor Day!”
NO…she was not recruited by Nathan Sproul. I understand it is a hard concept to comprehend but, some people actually think for themselves and are driven to service. Oh yea, there is no monster under your bed!
No…she did not take her ball and go home. She worked on several campaigns, raised money for them, and has been recruiting hard working conservatives into the party. Does she draw attention to herself while doing it? No, it isn’t all about “herâ€.
But here’s a real scoop…maybe you can use this one, I heard from someone who was told by a person who is next door neighbors to the guy who used to cut her hair….she is not that blonde naturally…yep, gray is in there, too! What a sham! At least Randy is man enough to let his gray show.
There you have it, the real scandalous behavior that sets them apart.
Now, can we please stick to the reality of both candidates and how our party can best be served?
Home Town Gal,
Here’s a direct; Jon Kyl is squarely behind Lisa James. Jon’s vision of what the state party is all about has been clearly articulated by Nathan Sproul on more than one occasion.
Part two; GCJPR has earned a shiny penney from the present Administration and those politicans close to it. GCJPR was also very much involved in the effort this last Primary to change the complexion of Legislative District 11 – for the direct benefit of Senator McCain (who share’s Kyl’s vision of the ideal state party).
Now here’s the $64,000 question: If as Kyl maintains (and James supports), the state party exists to simply raise funds, register new Republicans and support anyone with an “R” after their name; What is the point of having a Party Platform??
If our platform is fluid and is public opinion driven, what does that say about the Republican brand and why should the consumer/voter buy it???
The platform (right there in the preface) does not demand conformity. Pullen demands conformity (conservatives only). Therefore, Pullen is not a platform Republican.
Based on Pullen’s attitude alone of purging the party of non-conservatives, it is enough reason to scare conservatives and in fact ALL Republicans.
It is not the job of the party leadership to be the de facto voter. If you want that sort of mentality, go to the party of the super-delegate. Where they do not believe the average Joe is as as smart or as capable, and they have a safety net in case the vote doesn’t go their way.
Before we get overcome with the self-righteousness of Pullen’s supporters, let me just say that this is not a conservative vs. moderate race. I am a staunch conservative supporting Lisa James.
This is about competence, plain and simple. Do we want a chairman who attacks his own party and nominees more than Democrats? Who gets whipped in fundraising, voter registration, and early ballots? Who puts out TV ads accusing Dan Saban of masturbating?
Not me. This guy has had his chance and has embarassed the Republican Party long enough.
I thought Pullen had his chance when he ran for PHX mayor the first time. Then he did the same thing and lost again. Then he ran for GOP chair and won. More power to him, but what does that say about his supporters?
Aside from all the good reasons, I think the masturbation ad alone is enough reason to show him the door.
Lisa’s problem seems to be that Randy has made quite a few in roads with people who supported her last go around. This isn’t the 2007 showdown. This is a simple math problem and I don’t think the math is in Lisa’s favor.
Being very basic, one candidate represents Jon Kyls’s vision of the ideal state party and that vision doesn’t involve party members being involved in policy or platform –
Kyl sells the packaging to the voter and doesn’t want the voter to examine the contents too closely.
Very nice information. Thanks for this.