Posted on 09/06/2006 6:21:44 AM PDT by Spiff
Republican congressional candidate Steve Huffman's primary opponents said Tuesday morning that a flurry of recent advertisements paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee supporting him have interfered with the election process. It was reported last week that the committee had decided to spend more than $122,000 on television advertisements, now airing, in support of Huffman.
"I have never seen such an attempt to fix an election," said Mike Hellon, who is seeking the District 8 Republican nomination along with Randy Graf, Mike Jenkins and Frank Antenori. "Huffman's campaign is bought and paid for."
Each of the other candidates expressed similar sentiments at a press conference at the Doubletree Hotel.
Huffman has been under criticism not only from his Republican rivals but also from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which began airing attack ads against him this past weekend.
"Steve Huffman is the anointed candidate of the Republican Party," said Kate Bedingfield, regional press secretary for the Democratic committee on why it chose to attack Huffman. She would not comment on the timing of the ads.
Each of Huffman's rivals characterized the Democratic advertisements as an outgrowth of the GOP committee ads. However, they also said they did not see the Democratic ads as interfering with the primary process. The chief concern among the candidates is that Republican leadership based in Washington, D.C., could dictate the outcome of the race and, should Huffman lose, undermine the credibility of another candidate.
While they said they would support one another in the general election, none said he would support Huffman if he wins. They asked the GOP committee to stop the media blitz until after the primary. They also said they had received assurances from Republican committee officials "during private meetings" with some candidates in the race.
Ed Patru, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, admitted it's "rare" for the committee to support a candidate in the primary. However, he would not comment on whether the committee would stop airing the commercials or why it had chosen to run advertisements supporting Huffman.
"We don't comment on strategy," he said. He said the committee had offered no assurances of staying out of the race.
Huffman, the most moderate of the five Republicans, was not at the press conference. However, in a telephone interview later in the day, his campaign manager, Dave Stuempfle, used the attacks to validate Huffman's candidacy.
"Steve Huffman is the best candidate in the race, and the Republicans and Democrats have identified him as the best candidate," he said.
He also likened Huffman's moderate views as an alternative to the more conservative platform of Graf and "the liberal agenda" of the Democrats.
Graf and the other candidates agreed there is a split in the party between moderates and conservatives. But the issue, Graf said, isn't so much the political differences of the candidates, but rather national interference in a primary decided by local
voters. "This is something we have to overcome," he said of the perceived split between moderates and conservative Republicans. "We need to pull the party together."
œ Contact reporter Josh Brodesky at 434-4086 or jbrodesky@azstarnet.com.
Randy Graf is the conservative frontrunner who is being outspent and attacked by liberal Steve Huffman. Randy Graf can use all of the help he can get. Go to www.votegraf.com or call (520)287-2984 to send him a few dollars to help him out.
Thanks for the post, Spiff.
I think that the Republican leadership is losing this election. They are pouring money into supporting Chaffee in RI (who is nonetheless headed for elimination), and continuing to back Kean in NJ even after young Tom attacked Rumsfeld.
We need better candidates, and we need to support the good ones, like Santorum. The only rational thng is for conservatives to donate straight to the candidates, not through the NRCC.
The second problem is that the leadership is not engaging on some of the key issues (border control), and not even running on the best successes (like the economy). They act as if they have already lost, and they are going to ensure that prophecy. It is frustrating to watch this happen.
I talked to Graf HQ yesterday. They say that the phone has been ringing off the hook. They announced at the press conference that they've set up a Hotline for voters to call to get the truth about the NRCC interference and about Steve Huffman's lies and smears that he's stepped up as election day approaches. People are absolutely livid at Huffman's lies and about the NRCC's inappropriate interference and they're seeing an increase in donations in response. And they're getting calls from all over the United States as this story gets out nationally. Conservative Republicans are rightfully angry about what's going on in this race.
Exactly!
And they send us fundraising letters talking about how dangerous the "liberals" are and they turn around to support a liberal Republican in a primary, no less.
Go Randy!!
I sent a letter to RNC (in their postage paid envelope) specically stating that actions like this cost my support.
Keep in mind that it is the NRCC - the National Republican Congressional Congress - who is inappropriately interfering in this race and running ads supporting the liberal smear artist against the conservative frontrunner. Although, the NRCC should be riding herd over what their Senate and House counterparts are doing.
I am starting to think Speaker Pelosi wouldn't be such a bad thing. There can't be any other reasons to diss Graf except he is for strong borders. This shows no matter what the NRCC says, they want unlimited illegal immigration and they'll do anything to get it. I am so angry over this!
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