“Lyin’ John” Munger’s bogus excuse for quitting the governor’s race

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republican gubernatorial candidate "Lyin' John" Munger just up and quit running for governor on Tuesday.

On the one hand, we should all be grateful that this consummate liar will never be governor. On the other hand, for those of us in Tucson, it is only a matter of time until John Munger replaces Bruce Ash again on Arizona Illustrated (PBS). Bill Buckmaster should boot both of these guys off the show, but you know he won't.

True to form, "Lyin' John" Munger fabricated a lie for his being a quitter: because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene to block matching funds under Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections, he is at a "competitive disadvantage," i.e., a financial disadvantage, because Clean Elections candidates will receive a dollar-for-dollar match up to three times the original disbursement when a traditional candidate outspends them. In other words, he can't outspend his opponents into oblivion.

Munger never counted on Buz Mills, a millionaire self-funded candidate who is willing to blow through his personal fortune. This will allow Clean Elections candidates like the Accidental Governor and Dean Martin to receive matching funds in the GOP primary and to offset Munger's ability to outspend them.

"Lyin' John" Munger made a strategic decision early in this campaign to trash Clean Elections and to disparage anyone who participates in this "public welfare" system to run for political office. He made the decision to run as a traditionally funded candidate. He got into the race before "Richie Rich" Buz Mills, whom no one had ever heard of, got into the race. He never saw it coming.

Munger can't compete with a millionaire self-funded candidate willing to blow through his
personal fortune. According to the Arizona Daily Star, Munger has only $325,000 in his campaign account.

But the ultimate reason for his being a quitter is Munger's lack of support among registered Republican voters. He has never risen above more than 17% support in any poll that I can recall seeing this year. The most recent Rasmussen Reports survey (a highly dubious poll) shows Munger running fourth among Republicans, the choice of just 3 percent of likely registered GOP voters. He has been losing support.

More importantly, in the same poll Munger is seen Very Favorably by just four percent (4%) and Very Unfavorably by 15%. Ouch! That's gotta hurt. Where's the love?

I suspect that it is only a matter of time until we see Munger's name attached to an independent expenditure committee raising unlimited amounts of corporate cash, thanks to the conservative activist Roberts' Court Citizens United v. FEC decision, to attack Terry Goddard and other Democratic candidates in the general election. Now there's the real problem of money distorting our politics.