Thursday, November 30th, 2006...7:03 am
Chairman Folies: the Republicans
The Republicans are gearing up for a fight for State Chairman. They lost two US House seats and more legislative seats than any observer would have expected even a few months ago. At least judging from the blogs, I don’t hear as much grousing about the governor’s race as I do about the legislative and congressional races. I guess in retrospect they realize that Janet Napolitano’s popularity would have given any candidate trouble no matter who was running the party. This is what kept higher profile candidates out of the race after all.
The candidates at this time seem to be conservative activist Randy Pullen and Lisa James, who works for Gordon C. James Public Relations as a financial officer. It is already being touted as a battle between the ins and outs, as well as possibly a proxy war against John McCain. Other candidates that have been talked about are Senator Ken Bennett and former Governor Fife Symington. Symington played down such talk while he was running a race for District 11 chair. His loss in that race may either free him up to run for State Chair, or it could tell him that it is a losing cause, who knows? The talk about Bennett seems to be wishful thinking.
The arguments from Pullen’s crowd are not just the typical “Our candidates would have won if they would have just been more conservative.” I wonder about those arguments, because I don’t know if you can fault losing candidates like Al Melvin, Doug Quelland or Randy Graf for a lack of conservatism. Pullen’s folks are also arguing that the crew that currently runs the State party is incompetent to win an election. They may have a point there. Many of us on our side got a laugh out of silliness like Republican Staffer Garrick Taylor’s claim of Karnack like abilities during the whole “Janet stole our stuff” incident. This incident and others were indicative to many of the Keystone Cops operation that seemed to be afoot at the headquarters. It is easy to see why folks wouldn’t be too excited about James, who can only really promise more of the same. James is also apparently an associate of not-quite-corrupt-enough-to-get-arrested consultant Nathan Sproul, who many activists are blaming for Republican losses and the defeat of the so-called “Protect Marriage Arizona” ammendment. I have no love for Sproul, but it is hard to see how Len Munsil or Bill Montgomery were going to win, even if Matt Salmon had managed to resurect Mark Hanna.
Me? I don’t care either way. Someone buy me a hot dog so I can watch the fun.
NB - Connections between James, the firm she works for and some of Sproul’s activities are detailed here.
6 Comments
November 30th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
It looks like Lisa might be having a little trouble on her way to being Chairman.
November 30th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Phx kid -
More than a “little” trouble.
She did run for Rep state committee in LD8; out of 82 candidates for 72 spots, she came in
82nd.
http://www.d8azgop.org/
November 30th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Are you sure there were only 82 candidates running? I suspect there may have been more, and the district only listed 10 alternates.
Still doesn’t answer the ultimate question, however.
November 30th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
The problem with the linked article is that although Sproul & Associates used to be located in the same office building as Lisa & Gordon C. James Public Relations, the article confuses the Meghan Rose who worked for Gordon James with Meghan Cox who still works for Sproul.
P.S. For anyone who’s still wondering why Munsil did not do better against Napolitano, look how few votes he got for State Committeeman in his own district. He made it, but his drop-off in support among his fellow Republicans is obvious even in a district election.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Joe Baby -
No, I’m not sure there were only 82 running, but Donna Reagan (outgoing district chair) and Michele Reagan (her daughter and incumbent state rep) got 89 votes each.
If anyone in the LD8 Rep organization was going to get 100% support (or close to it), it would be those two. Since 89 is close to 82, and not every PC wants to be on the state committee, I figured it was close enough to say that 82 candidates ran.
If you have info that more ran, great.
P.S. - it must have ticked off Colette Rosati to once again finish behind Carolyn Allen after Sen. Allen thumped her in the primary.
December 1st, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I think State Senator Karen Johnson would make a most excellent State GOP Chairman.
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