Wednesday, July 11th, 2007...10:31 pm
Another Entry in the “What’s Up With THAT?” File
It looks as though Bob Walkup won’t have much of a race this year. The Democrats have largely abandoned the field, leaving Walkup to run against Green Party candidate Dave Croteau. I like what I’ve heard from Croteau, and I might even vote for him. As it looks right now, however, I can’t think of a scenario where Croteau wins that doesn’t involve Walkup suddenly departing to Belgium and joining a Trappist monastery.
Walkup geared up and raised money for a race, however. Remember that up until March, the smart money was on a hard fought struggle between Walkup and Steve Leal. No Democratic big name emerged after Leal dropped out of the race. This means Walkup has money and even campaign staff, but probably not a heck to spent that money on or a lot for that staff to do.
But check out Walkup’s last finance report, submitted near the end of last month. A lot of money being thrown around there. Now some was spent before it became obvious that there would be no Democratic candidate. And I won’t begrudge him the money spent after that point, because he does need to run some sort of campaign if for no other reason than to bouy Lori Oien’s chances against juggernaut Rodney Glassman. However, there on page 35 is a $3000 payment to Nathan Sproul for “campaign consulting.” The payment was in early May, weeks after it became obvious that no major Democrat was going to be able to make a run of it.
Walkup has no race, but hires a big gun? A big gun out of Phoenix, even? And it was Sproul? What the heck is going on there?
Sproul, for those who don’t know, was one of the crew of consultants that was shown the door after Randy Pullen won the Republican Chairmanship. Sproul has also long been a bête noire of Democratic partisans, especially because of allegations of, well…let’s call them voter registration irregularities in the 2004 election. His management of the Protect Marriage Arizona campaign, which lost despite conservatives convincing themselves it was a slam dunk, has led some to question his abilities as a strategist.
So, given some of his baggage and the lack of a need to spend money on such things, why hire the guy? Despite being cut off from the State Republican party, Sproul still has powerful allies among Republican królewięta. The crew around Pullen are not folks that Walkup has ever had any use for (Pullen would have a hard time winning a Republican primary for most offices in Pima County, much less a general election), maybe a few bucks to Sproul keeps him in good favor with John McCain’s circle (such as it is these days) and the confederation of Republican consultants and lobyists at the capitol. Maybe this also helps Sproul out a bit; he can burnish his cred with moderate Republicans. Right now, Sproul only looks moderate because people compare him to Pullen.
All speculation, really. But, that’s why y’all read me.
6 Comments
July 12th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Nathan Sproul is not a conservative or moderate Republican—he’s an ESTABLISHMENT, SHOW-ME-THE-MONEY Republican.
You’ll see Nathan Sproul with Republicans across the ideological spectrum, because he’s attracted to money, not ideology. Also, Sproul has a history of working for the picks of the Pima GOP establishment. He’s even done Tucson city council races in the last few years.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
“His management of the Protect Marriage Arizona campaign, which lost despite conservatives convincing themselves it was a slam dunk, has led some to question his abilities as a strategist.”
That’s not the only work that has people questioning Nathan Sproul’s competence. Here are some other examples:
1. Sproul led Len Munsil to slaughter against Napolitano, who beat Sproul’s candidate by more than 30%. Sure, Napolitano was very likely to win, but not by such a dramatic margin.
2. Sproul mismanaged multiple attempts to repeal Clean Elections, wasting over a million dollars in Republican money in the process, money that would have gone to other GOP causes.
3. On the state legislative level, Sproul has been a disaster. In District 17 (Tempe), Sproul led Laura Knaperek to defeat against not only Ed Ableser, but also against the fellow twenty-something and newcomer to politics who Ableser recruited as a running mate (David Schapira). Granted, Knaperek is dumb, but she was a many-term legislative veteran in a district that had a slight GOP edge.
4. National GOP operatives are privately furious with Sproul for trying to get out of paying employees in Sproul’s GOP-sponsored “non-partisan” voter registration drives. Stiffed employees in turn disclosed that Sproul was tearing up Democrats’ voter registration forms.
Frankly, Democrats should be very happy that the Arizona GOP establishment keeps going back to Sproul for advice and campaign “management.”
July 13th, 2007 at 12:10 am
As someone who was pretty heavily involved in the LD 17 Democratic State House primary, I find it worth mentioning that nobody I know of is of the opinion that Ableser “recruited” Schapira as a running mate.
July 13th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Check out today’s “Sonoran Alliance.” Apparently the state GOP has hired Sproul to manage their legislative efforts. It seems he thinks that Rep. Jack Brown can be knocked off. Of course, we know he was holding his cards close to the vest, and was probably feeding this R. blogger a load of fertilizer.
July 13th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Maybe he is bringing in the big gun to help with Republicans in the Ward??? Perhaps Bob plans on using the big guy to assist with Ward 2 general election and knock off Glassman??
Just speculation
July 13th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Sam,
I believe that you are confusing Sproul with Querard. They are such polar opposites that they might as well be in different parties.
http://sonoranalliance.com/?p=1252
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