Free Republic

One-time moderate Arizona senator keeps step with the Tea Party and gets tough on illegal immigration. John Ladd points to the piles of empty water and Coke bottles, a yellow blanket and numerous other bits of debris abandoned on his cattle ranch in Cochise county, near Tombstone, Arizona. The sprawling estate, stretching 10 miles along the US-Mexico border, is a favoured route for those making the illegal, dangerous and often fatal, journey to what they hope is a bright new future. Ladd recalls waking up one morning in 2004 and finding about 900 Mexicans milling about on his land. "You...

Former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth turned in more than 11,000 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on April 26, putting an official stamp on his challenge to Sen. John McCain. Hayworth submitted about double the 5,609 signatures he needs to qualify for the Aug. 24 primary ballot. As he turned in his signatures, the 12-year congressman also reiterated his call for McCain to square off with him in 15 debates, one in each Arizona county. “There has been no formal response from Sen. McCain himself and just a statement from his campaign that they would wait until I...

The current debate in Arizona over illegal immigration, fueled by a new law that will make it a crime to be an illegal immigrant in the state, will propel the drive to unseat long-time senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, his Republican primary challenger predicted on Monday. J.D. Hayworth, who plans to submit a petition with 11,000 signatures later on Monday to get his name on the ballot for the Aug. 24 Republican primary for the Arizona Senate seat, said "the momentum is on my side." "Arizonans are telling John McCain, 'Thank you for your service, but it is...

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(snip) This is also an about-face on immigration reform for Graham because he has been pressing the White House to move forward on comprehensive reform on that issue as well. His move comes just one day after Obama called on both parties to pass immigration reform on the federal level in response to a new law in Arizona that will allow local police to stop individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants. Democrats privately charged Saturday that Graham was trying to scuttle immigration reform in order to protect his close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, from having to deal with a...

The real John McCain has been kidnapped and an impostor is running against J. D. Hayworth in the Arizona U.S. Senate primary. It does sound far-fetched, but stranger things have happened in American politics. It's actually quite clever when you think about it. John McCain realized quite early that he could not win re-election to the Senate if he campaigned on his actual record – that is, if he campaigned as who he is. So, he arranged to be kidnapped and secluded in a five-star resort in Fiji while a well-groomed look-alike, McCain 2.0, campaigns in his place. McCain 2.0...

PHOENIX - Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth welcomes the governor's signature on the new illegal immigration law. He released this statement to the media: "The Governor did the right thing by signing Senate Bill 1070 into law. It mirrors the 'Enforcement First Act' I authored five years ago in the United States House of Representatives. As John McCain and others serving in Washington have alternated between inaction and amnesty, Arizona acted decisively today to enforce the rule of law and truly secure our border." Hayworth is challenging Senator John McCain for McCain's U.S. Senate seat in the Republican primary. He has...

Arizona Daily Star This image provided Wednesday by the Cochise County Sheriff's Department shows Alejandro Chavez-Vasquez, who has been identified as a person of interest in several burglaries near Portal. The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a person of interest in connection with several burglaries that took place this year in the Portal area in Southeastern Arizona. They are looking for Alejandro Chavez-Vasquez, who has given authorities various birth dates and lives in Agua Prieta, Mexico. Officials say he has a criminal history with convictions that include sex crimes, auto theft and being an aggravated deported illegal...

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Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl have joined with others requesting troops on the border by unveiling a security plan that calls for more soldiers, federal agents, fencing and funding to help Arizona combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The Republican lawmakers called for the deployment of 3,000 National Guard soldiers to Arizona's international border as part of their 10-step border plan unveiled Monday in Washington, D.C. The senators also asked for troops in April 2009. The March 27 killing of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz has set off a flurry of requests for troops to the border, from the...

As we reported earlier, Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth released his much-anticipated list of donors to his Freedom in Truth trust -- something John McCain has been requesting for months -- but the McCain campaign says the list only contains half of the information it requested. "We appreciate the fact that after 45 days and constant pressure, Congressman Hayworth has finally taken one step toward disclosing the activities of his FIT Trust," says McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. "However, Congressman Hayworth has only revealed half of the pertinent information -- the money coming into the trust, but not the money going...

Arizonans oppose a federal mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance and agree more with the tea party movement than they do with President Barack Obama, according to a new poll of 500 Arizona voters. The Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday shows: • Sixty percent oppose individual health coverage mandates that are part of new federal health care reform laws; 36 percent back those mandates. • Fifty-two percent said their views are closer to the antitax, antigovernment tea party movement than they are to Obama’s views; 36 percent said they are more line with Obama. • Eighty-three percent said a...

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.

While understandable that Palin would support the man who put her on the national stage, other candidates who vouch for McCain's "conservative" credentials are doing a disservice to the movement. And it doesn't look like it's going to fly this time around. The groundswell of grassroots attitudes are embodied in the Tea Party movement, and McCain represents everything they are against. The Tea Party movement represents many themes. It began last year in response to the bailout and stimulus bills that showed the government is simply spending too much money. Much to the surprise of the left-wing elite, the Tea...

February 23, 2010 (MMD Newswire) -- Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee (ALIPAC) is endorsing JD Hayworth for U.S. Senate today in the hopes Hayworth can defeat John McCain, who is a notorious supporter of Amnesty for illegal aliens. John McCain refused to listen to over 80% of his constituents and the American public by co-sponsoring Amnesty legislation with Senator Kennedy in 2007 which would have turned millions of illegal aliens into US voters. McCain's Amnesty legislation failed after the Capitol Hill phone system collapsed under the pressure of angry calls ranging 50-100 to 1 against his bill. McCain...

Lawyers for the state Republican Party are huddling to try to find out how they can close their primary election. Republican leaders who attended a mandatory state meeting last month voted to put a halt to the state's quasi-open primary system. Voters in 1998 approved allowing independents and voters in minor parties to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary. The move is coming at a time of heightened interest in the Republican primary. The Democratic ballot will be relatively tame compared with the GOP, where voters will make picks in high-profile races, like the McCain-Hayworth Senate match, and the...