Posted on 09/07/2006 5:38:28 PM PDT by axes_of_weezles
Ads grow vitriolic in pivotal race
Roughly a week after the National Republican Congressional Committee announced that it would be running more than $122,000 worth of ads supporting moderate Republican candidate Steve Huffman, who's locked in a competitive primary race in Arizona District 8, the Democratic Congressional Committee has also leapt into the advertising fray with an ad lambasting Huffman's eight-year record in the State Legislature. p>"When it came time to secure our borders, Steve Huffman was missing," says the Democratic ad, citing Huffman's absence during votes to fund border security technology and fix the immigration system. "If we can't trust Huffman to show up for work, how can we trust him to protect us?"
The ad is contributing to the particularly vitriolic tone of the race less than one week before the September 12 primary. Some analysts also say the ad might be evidence that Democrats believe Huffman will be harder to defeat than Randy Graf, a solidly conservative candidate who leads Huffman by more than 12 points, according to a recent Tucson Business/Wick Communications Poll. It's unclear whether Huffman will get a boost from the RNCC ads, which began running last week.
Other Republican candidates, meanwhile, have also continued their attacks on Huffman and the RNCC, which usually does not endorse a specific Republican candidate in a primary election. On Tuesday, Graf and three other candidates vying for the Republican nomination issued a joint letter skewering the RNCC's behavior. They called on RNCC Chairman Ken Mehlman to "immediately stop using Republican fundraising dollars to defeat fellow Republicans."
"Stay the hell out of southern Arizona," Mike Hellon, a former state GOP chairman, told reporters after a joint news conference focused on the letter. Hellon is also running in the Republican primary and consistently polls among the top three candidates.
Graf campaign manager R.T. Gregg also told U.S. News Wednesday that the Minutemen have now descended on the district and bought $50,000 of advertising supporting Graf. An immigration hawk, Graf has emphasized throughout the campaign that he was a founding member of the Minutemen.
Hellon, meanwhile, thinks the Republican sniping is only helping the Democratic candidates for the seat, a field currently led by former state Sen. Gabrielle Giffords.
"It's the granddaddy of unintended consequences," Hellon said Tuesday. Of the RNCC, he said, "They're idiots."
I'm no socialite, or tycoon. I have met Randy Graf by chance at a White Elephant parade in Green Valley, when my daughter was marching in a parade. Twice.
Randy is an accessible person, not asking for quid pro quo for supporting him.
What is upsetting is these primaries are supposed to be about political concepts and positions, not attack ads that cloud positions and upset folks. These ads are being financed by donors of the RNC who may not know how their campaign cash is being used.
Im not concerned about how the media portrays Randy, just give him fair access in the marketplace of ideas; which he was shutout from last time. As a result of him being a credible political threat, Kolbe resigned.
The candidates (not Huffman) are good, but have little estiblished track record or little legislative track record. Prior to the NRCC funding attack ads they also had a chance in this primary.
The Tucson socialites and tycoons that persuaded the NRCC to enter this race and fund attack ads have the same opinions as the WSJ, which is not bounded in ground truth or reality, but business interests that collide with my interests. They are wrong IMHO. The NRCC violated their own May 06 promises to the candidates. Not a peep about that in the article. They are going to have a hard time buying support in the general election if Huffman wins. The other candidates may not support Huffman in the General election in November if he wins, and rightly so.
The Rats have a newsreader, daughter of a local tycoon and assorted dwarves running on their side with full support and cover from the local media, and support from their national fundraising and tycoon philanthropy. This district is not all urban leftist moonbats. There are two military bases and not much other than light industry, mines, construction, schools and a somewhat developed service sector in this district. There are more voters in rural or fringe suburbs than the Rat's think, since this area has grown so much in the past few years. The influx is mostly retirees, Florida and Katrina refugees, and Californians who do vote and are more conservative than they expect.
This race is still for the Liberals and RINO's to lose. Too bad the NRCC and RINO Republicans pulled this crap.
Yep, I'm extreme.
http://www.votegraf.com/downloads/Grafextreme60.mp3
Southern Arizona Ping
Ping!
We had our LD 26 meeting today. Huffman didn't show up; what else is new...he never does. People are very upset with the local Republican chair as well as the state chair for not intervening to stop the dirty campaigning by Huffman, and of course, VERY angry about the NRCC.
BTW, whoever wrote the article is an idiot. Ken Mehlman is not the head of the NRCC; he's the RNC Chairman.
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