Free Republic

One of the most disliked, liberal Republicans in the Senate used money from conservatives who can't stand him to win reelection against the far more conservative candidate. John McCain easily beat JD Hayworth in the Republican primary for Senate this year, but the reason why is disturbing. The vast majority of the money he spent, $18 million out of a total of almost $24 million, came from contributions to his prior presidential campaign, not this Senate campaign. Many people who contributed to his presidential campaign – including myself – contributed because of Sarah Palin, not McCain. To have our money...

John McCain holds a comfortable lead in the contentious Arizona Republican Senate primary, according to the most recent public polling, making him the strong favorite against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth on Tuesday. But it’s been a costly road to a fifth term for the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, and the experience is likely to leave a lasting and unsightly stain on his legacy. It’s not just the $20 million he’s spent already this election or the scorched earth campaign that he’s run. Rather, it’s the choices he’s made and the positions he’s embraced — and what it reveals about him...

Tuesday's primaries in Arizona and Florida appear likely to deliver a few surprises -- surprises, that is, for anyone who accepted the conventional wisdom of just a few months ago. Back then, Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) was considered in danger of becoming the next victim of a tea party uprising that was threatening Republican candidates who were seen as straying from conservative orthodoxy. In what was taken as a sign of his nervousness, he brought in his 2008 vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, who vouched for his conservative bona fides. Now he enjoys a double-digit lead in the...

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sen. John McCain hasn't always talked tough on immigration. That haunted his presidential ambitions, and now his political survival hinges on whether he can show that his conversion is genuine. It hasn't been easy. Boycotts, vigils and a legal fight over the state's attempted crackdown on illegal immigrants have kept voters attuned to each nuance in his run for re-election. "Since 2007, I've said we have to secure the border first. I said it in 2008 and 2009 and 2010," McCain told 120 people at a town hall meeting in suburban Phoenix. Leaning against the back wall...

U.S. Sen. John McCain has spent an unprecedented $16 million to date fending off a challenge from former U.S. Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth, so far, has spent $1.5 million, according to campaign finance reports filed July 15. Hayworth’s spokesman, Mark Sanders, said the expenditure proves Hayworth is such a strong candidate that McCain pulled out all the stops with phone banking, mailers, radio and TV. “I think that the senator was really fearful of losing this race and he decided to just dump as much as he could into it to buy it,” he said. While candidates are allowed to...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spent more than $10M on his primary battle against ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R), according to his 2ndQ campaign finance report, leaving him with a much narrower financial advantage in the GOP primary than he once enjoyed. McCain has spent a total of $15.7M this cycle, according to FEC reports, and he has just $1.78M left to spend before the Aug. 24 GOP primary. Hayworth had $922K in the bank, his reports showed. "Senator McCain takes every campaign seriously, and this race is no exception. Senator McCain is proud of the statewide support he's received from Arizonans,...

PHOENIX -- Senator John McCain, former U.S. Congressman J.D. Hayworth, and conservative hopeful Jim Deakin will face off in the first of two debates on July 16 in Phoenix. The three candidates are vying for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by McCain. The debate will take place at KTVK-3TV Studios in Phoenix on Friday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m and will be simulcast on KTTU in Tucson and azfamily.com. A second debate to be held in Tucson is planned for the following night at KUAT PBS-6.

Former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney has announced that he will campaign for Senator John McCain (R - Ariz.) next week. According to McCain's campaign website, Romney will join the senator in Mesa, Arizona for a town hall meeting on Friday, June 4th. McCain, a four-term senator, is leading former Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth in a close race in the Republican primary in Arizona. The primary will be held in August. The announcement may come as a surprise, as during the 2008 presidential race Romney and McCain, both seeking the Republican nomination, appeared to be bitter rivals.

TUCSON, AZ (KGUN - TV) - Arizona Senator John McCain now says soldiers sent to the border should be armed. This revelation comes one day after Senate democrats shot down McCain's border plan to send 6,000 soldiers to the border. At a town hall meeting in Tucson, McCain first told 60 of his supporters in attendance that President Obama's plan to send 1,200 soldiers would not work because the soldiers would only be assigned to "desk jobs." (snip) Nunez asked: "What do you say to the those who accuse you of throwing out numbers, sending 6,000 troops to the border,...

Arizona Republicans say GOP Sen. John McCain’s recent staff shake-up is an acknowledgment of the seriousness of his Aug. 24 primary challenge — a contest in which he remains a clear — but nervous — front-runner. While recent polls have shown McCain with a double-digit lead over former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, in an election year in which one Senate incumbent has already been taken down and several others are facing stiff primary opposition, the departure of two top campaign officials — campaign manager Shiree Verdone and deputy manager Mike Hellon — is being viewed as proof that McCain recognizes that...

Senator John McCain continues to lead Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary contest but his level of support is stuck in a narrow range between 47% and 53%. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Arizona finds McCain with 52% of the vote to challenger J.D. Hayworth’s 40%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. Any incumbent who earns less 50% support is considered potentially vulnerable and McCain has been hovering around that mark all year. The 2008 Republican Presidential nominee cannot be comforted by the fact that his...

There goes Senator John McCain, battling mightily for re-election in Arizona, buzzing off into the desert heat to another rally, another news conference, another television sound bite. Wait, you forgot your principles! He’s telling the world he’ll never support immigration reform until the border is sealed. Now he’s praising Arizona’s Legislature for passing a bill that makes every Latino — citizen or not — a potential criminal defendant. It obligates the police to stop people who look like illegal immigrants and arrest them if they don’t have papers on them. And here he is warning Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly that...

Incumbent John McCain now earns just 47% support to challenger J.D. Hayworth’s 42% in Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely primary voters.

Sen. John McCain's campaign is calling on his primary challenger to disavow the backing of an anti-illegal immigration group that permits the use of terms such as "wetbacks" and "pepper bellies" – derisive epithets sometimes used for immigrants – on its website. "Let's be clear: Congressman [J.D.] Hayworth's continued flirtation with extreme groups that condone racism only opens the door for liberals to falsely paint all opponents of illegal immigration as bigots. Congressman Hayworth should immediately disavow this group’s support and commit to never again associating himself with groups that accept this kind of hateful and counterproductive rhetoric," McCain campaign...

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) – Arizona Senator John McCain wants President Obama to start health care reform all over again. He argues polls suggest Americans want a clean start and he says it needs more bipartisan support. "This bill was written by Democrats for Democrats and then they tried and I understand power. What they try to do is peel off a couple of Republicans as they did with the stimulus bill and call it bipartisan," McCain said.

Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are jumping on the spending freeze bandwagon, calling on Congress to flatline discretionary spending—and they issued a challenge to the president the day after the White House proposed its own three-year budget freeze. "If the president is serious—and I believe he is—he should also say tomorrow night he will veto the first appropriations bill that comes to his desk that has an earmark on it," McCain said. The Fiscal Freeze Act of 2010, which Bayh and McCain hope to introduce to the Senate later this week, includes provisions to install a spending...

Enclosed are some excerpts from Senator John McCain's letter that he E-Mailed to his followers today. I'm pleased to see someone on Capital Hill who is standing up to Obama and the Democrats and their outrageous wasteful spending..... "My Friend, I have spent much of my career fighting against wasteful spending in Washington. I'm not afraid to speak out when I see taxpayer dollars wasted. And in all my years in public office, I have never seen spending as out of control as it is under the current Democratic leadership. Our national debt has reached an all-time high of $12.4...

Presidential nominee in 2008 faces GOP primary fight. BY JOSEPH WEBER Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, said in an interview Monday that his planned primary challenge to Sen. John McCain will portray the four-term incumbent as a not-so-conservative Republican who has "enabled" President Obama and his failed economic and security policies. "I'm giving Arizona Republicans a clear choice between a consistent, common-sense conservative . . . or someone who describes himself as a maverick but is a moderate," the outspoken Mr. Hayworth told The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show. Mr. Hayworth, 51, quit his job Friday as...

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is unlikely to run in a GOP primary against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), let alone win, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects the former congressman, who's been mulling a primary challenge to McCain's right next year, to carry on his activities as host of a radio show, and not as a candidate.