Republicans Scare Voters With Dirty Trick on Halloween

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Shaun McClusky saved his biggest lie for last, after the local media has gone into its "black out" of election coverage on the Friday preceding election day. We don't have such a stupid policy here. You have the right to know.

This latest action is directed by the GOP "brain trust" of Bill Arnold, Bruce Ash and Jim Click (who spoke to volunteers walking for McClusky on Saturday, according to his campaign web site). This has their brand of Roger Ailes/Lee Atwater/Karl Rove "politics of personal destruction" fingerprints all over it. The kid really doesn't like this.

I received two large glossy attack mail pieces on Saturday from the McClusky campaign (despite having already voted), one with a big, bold headline screaming that "Fimbres even had 'secret bank accounts,'" citing an Arizona Daily Star article and an East Valley Tribune article — selectively quoted and taken entirely out of context to once again suggest in the minds of voters that Richard Fimbres was somehow engaged in illegal conduct while he was an officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), to make the scary Halloween claim that "we can't trust Richard Hombres with public money."

Since the typical voter does not fact check any of the crap that slimeball politicians like McClusky send them in the mail, I'll fact check this Halloween dirty trick.

Here is the Arizona Daily Star article Ward 5: Political newcomer taking on governmental insider (10/18/09) with the relevant passage in its entirety for context:

Those who aren't fans of Fimbres, meanwhile, are circulating a Mesa Tribune investigative report showing he was caught up in a battle that started in 2003 when the LULAC state chapter elected a new executive director. The director said Fimbres and his wife, Mary, a council aide for Leal, were withholding access to secret bank accounts. Although an audit done by a financial officer from the national branch found no improprieties in the account records, the director continued to push for independent financial audits.

The storyline played out until 2005 when the national board stripped the director of his position.

Fimbres said the flap is a non-issue. "It was a political hit," he said. He is still actively involved in the association, he said, which shows the concerns were unfounded. And, he said, Napolitano wouldn't have hired him if there was any impropriety.

That's right. Our GOP puppet Shaun McClusky lifted only the words "secret bank accounts" from a report that exonerated Richard Fimbres from a politically motivated charge. Karl Rove shed a tear of joy over the GOP "brain trust" emulating his black arts handiwork.

The East Valley Tribune article provides more detail about the internal divisions in LULAC earlier this decade involving Sam Esquivel East Valley Tribune: LULAC muzzles Arizona director (03/06/05). Here is the relevant passage pertaining to Richard Fimbres in its entirety for context:

Brent Wilkes, executive director of the national organization, said Esquivel’s efforts to get a full accounting of the money was not behind the attempted ouster. Instead, Wilkes said, he was suspended for the sour relations within LULAC that Esquivel and his supporters created with suggestions of financial irregularities.

The reason for the multiple accounts is that the old leadership from Tucson put the state’s account under the same tax identification number as their local chapter, Wilkes said. While local councils are supposed to maintain separate tax numbers, it was not unusual in the past for them to share the same tax number with the state, he said.

"He was suspended because of the negative, poisoned atmosphere that has occurred in the state between the councils and his failure to try to pull people back together," Wilkes said. "If you are elected as the state director, your duty is to try to unify the organization. It’s not to go and try to find things that might possibly be wrong with a council and make a big fuss about it, and then drag them over the coals in the press. That’s what Sam’s doing."

Esquivel has battled for control of state LULAC financial records since he was elected state director in May 2003. Initially he tried to get records of the single known account that remained under the control of his predecessors, Richard and Mary Fimbres, a politically connected couple who also rose through a Tucson LULAC chapter.

Richard Fimbres is now director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Fimbres was western regional vice president of the national organization before he was hired to the state job by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2003.

Mary Fimbres, Esquivel’s predecessor as state director, is an assistant to a Tucson city councilman.

Richard and Mary Fimbres did not return phone calls seeking comment.

When Esquivel, armed with a resolution from the state membership, attempted to get the financial records of what he thought was the single state account, the old guard from Tucson refused to turn over records.

After the Tribune reported on the flap, account records were given to Esquivel by the Tucson-based faction. A "cursory audit" done by a financial officer from the national organization found no improprieties in the account.

You read that right. The audit done by the financial officer from the national organization "found no improprieties in the account." Our GOP puppet Shaun McClusky lifted only the words "Fimbres did not return calls seeking comment" from this detailed report that exonerated Richard Fimbres from a politically motivated charge.

LULAC has had its share of problems without a doubt, but Richard Fimbres is not implicated in any financial impropriety as this false and malicious attack piece tries to suggest. Nothing ever came of the various investigations into the LULAC financial accounts to the best of my recollection, certainly not involving Richard Fimbres.

The concern of the GOP "brain trust" for LULAC is all the more suspicious given Bruce Ash's recent patronizing, if not subtly racist comment about "brown people" living on Tucson's South Side, as Tedski has documented at R-Cubed. Bruce Ash Has Pity for the Poor Brown Man The GOP "brain trust" is engaged in character assassination of an Hispanic politician who happens to be a Democrat. This will not sit well with Tucson's Hispanic voters regardless of how they feel about the internal divisions at LULAC.

The second glossy mailer's flip-slide repeats the malicious personal attacks against Richard Fimbres from the past week: "Disappearing money" from the Highway Safety Office, debunked here Shaun McClusky pulls a Dunbar, campaign circles the drain, and again repeating the above "secret bank accounts" mail piece, debunked above. There is also a throw-away line about Rio Nuevo for good measure.

This is character assassination of the worst kind that only Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove could love. That Shaun McClusky would engage in false and malicious personal attacks against his opponent speaks volumes as to his lack of judgment and character. Voters should reject this destructive brand of politics by handing Shaun McClusky a resounding defeat on election day.

More importantly, this community should punish the GOP "brain trust" puppet masters: Bill Arnold, Bruce Ash and Jim Click, who year after year self-fund "independent" political committees with their personal fortunes and engage in the worst kind of destructive politics with false and malicious personal attacks and character assassination.

This community should shun these evil bastards. Do not frequent their businesses nor buy their products or services. The local news media should cease treating them as credible and respectable public citizens. They are not, and you all know it. They are political hacks who are practitioners of the black arts of Roger Ailes/Lee Atwater/Karl Rove, and they have poisoned politics in this community for decades. Enough is Enough! They should be called out for what they really are and shunned by any civilized society.

Any candidate or political issue that has the name of Bill Arnold, Bruce Ash or Jim Click attached to it in any way should be considered radioactive toxic poison. It is a red flag that tells voters they should vote the opposite way. If enough voters followed this simple rule of thumb, the influence of these evil bastards would be greatly diminished.