On Sunday, The Arizona Republic ran a profile puff piece on Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. Bill Montgomery: The son of a smuggler becomes Maricopa County’s controversial prosecutor.
I found the timing of this puff piece curious: why is the mouthpiece of the Arizona Republican Party suddenly promoting Bill Montgomery? I had heard a rumor circulating that Montgomery was under consideration for appointment to John McCain’s Senate seat after Jon Kyl resigns in the coming weeks to return to his more lucrative lobbyist career, but no one could confirm this rumor for me.
Well, that changed on Tuesday. The muckraking Phoenix New Times reported Arizona Supreme Court Justice Urged Governor to Tap Bill Montgomery for Senate:
Arizona Supreme Court Associate Justice Clint Bolick urged Governor Doug Ducey to appoint Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery to the U.S. Senate two days after the death of John McCain.
In text messages obtained by Phoenix New Times under state public records law, Bolick wrote to Ducey on August 27, asking him to tap the polarizing Republican prosecutor for McCain’s Senate seat.
“I hope you will consider Bill Montgomery, one of the few who could fill Sen. McCain’s shoes,” Bolick wrote. “He is respected by everyone, supported by all parts of the GOP, yet unfailingly conservative. Wicked smart, principled, West Point, very modest beginnings, young enough to be there for a long time. Can work across the aisle.”
“Bill has not asked me to do this; to the contrary it would require an appeal to his sense of duty,” Bolick added.
Bolick described Montgomery as “conservative to my libertarian yet there are few I respect more, very much in the mold of [former U.S. Senator] Jon Kyl.”