Does The Republican Party Hate Ted Downing? Yep.

FINAL UPDATE: The State GOP has admitted paying for the robocalls and Downing recieved matching funds that he is using for a robocall of his own to set the record straight. Looks like Ted stepped on some sensitive GOP toes while in the legislature. My money is on Jan Brewer as the source of this ‘get Ted’ initiative.

Robocalls. Don’t you love them? They’re like spam that the figures out a way to ring your alarm clock and the blare its pitch from the speakers when you hit snooze.

My wife got a really unusual one today (seems she always gets the interesting calls, I need to rig a recording system for her) that totally slammed Ted Downing. The call had a ‘paid for’ by the Arizona Republican Party. She couldn’t recall all the details (if you have some, please comment), but the main thrust was that they claim Ted voted for a the biggest tax increase in the history of the universe (or some such hypervenilation). UPDATE: The call claims several times that the Democratic Party is angry with Ted and taking sides in the primary because of Ted’s support for a tax increase and ‘hurting veterans’ somehow (I thought we Democrats were godless atheists who spit on our veterans, in the view of the GOP?) And the ‘paid for’ came only after several loops of the hit, so that most people would have hung up long before.

Beyond mere curiousity about the full content of the call, I’m posting about it because I can’t for the life of my figure out what the hell the Republican Party would care which candidate wins the LD 28 Senate seat. There is no general election; so? What? They prefer Paula Aboud? I find that hard to swallow. Anyone have any idea what the hell the Arizona Republican Party is so worked up about that they’ll spend good money to robocall against Downing?

Is he just that much of a pain in their asses? Are they afraid of him? Did he piss in Matt Salmon’s Diet Pepsi? In any case, I guess all I can say to that is, "Way to go, Ted!"

UPDATE: Excerpts from Donna Branch-Gilby’s press release about the calls:

“This is an outrageous set of distortions
and outright lies issued under the name of the Arizona Republican Party
and it’s no wonder that people are tired and dissatisfied with Republicans
being in charge,” said Donna Branch-Gilby, Chair of the Pima County
Democratic Party.  “The message misrepresents the position of
the Arizona Democratic Party regarding Representative Downing, and his
voting record, and falsely implies that the Party is taking sides in
a primary race between Democrats.” 

“The timing
and content of this automated message are repugnant to any responsible
political entity.  It insults the integrity of the political process. 
The Republicans may be used to eating their own,” said Donna Branch-Gilby,
apparently referring to recent TV attack ads by the Republican National
Congressional Committee against Republicans in Congressional District
8, “but we Democrats believe that there should be integrity in politics
and our government.”

UPDATE 2: Non-Ted Elves have whispered two possible motives for the Republican Party to pay for this 11th hour hit on Downing.

Option 1: Defeated City Councilwoman Kathleen Dunbar wants to run for State Senate in 2 years in LD 28 and thinks that a newly-elected Paula Aboud will be an easier take-down than an entrenched chamber-flipper like Ted Downing. I think this displays a bit more long-term thinking than the GOP can usually muster, and a bit more pull than the disgraced Dunbar really has, whose litiginous exit from city politics was a real embarrassment and whose attempt to kill Rio Nuevo (for real, unlike Downing) didn’t sit well with city business leaders.

Option 2: Diebold, Secretary of State Jan Brewer, and/or GOP senior legislative leadership are bent about Ted Downing’s successful 3 year+ campaign to get serious election reforms in place, and his relentless opposition to use of Diebold machines. The GOP leadership hates nothing worse than someone who effectively exploits splits in their party to get things done, or to make fools of them – as Ted did with election reform and more. I think this explanation, that certain corporate interests and the current GOP legislative leadership (especially Jan Brewer, who is the highest elected GOP official in AZ) are fed up with Downing outwitting them, is the most solid idea I’ve heard yet.

Still listening for the best ideas…

UPDATE 3: Just a historical note: this is the first time in
anyone’s memory that the GOP has injected themselves into a Democratic
primary without a general election. Of course, Ted also got hammered
with an independent expenditure from the left in the form of a push
poll a few weeks ago. If Ted is pissing off both sides of the aisle, my
guess is he’s ding something right. Now Ted just needs to figure out
what to do with the Clean Elections matching funds that will be coming
his way from this hit. I’m sure he’ll think of something appropriately
imaginative…

UPDATE 4: On the matter of the push poll attack from the left, I found I had failed to spread this tidbit around…

"
While I know the CD8 Congressional primary is on everybody’s mind, I’d
like to remind you that the State Senate seat in District 28 will be
decided on Tuesday, as there is no Republican opponent running in
November.

The District 28 race between Ted Downing and Paula Aboud has been
marred by negative campaigning and a nasty push poll that shamelessly
demonized Downing.   Arizona List, an organization that promotes female
candidates, endorsed Aboud and has been very vocal in her campaign and
in the continued mis-representation of Downing’s record.

Some extremely disturbing news has come out in the last few days,
and I want to be sure that you caught it among all the campaign news
being reported in the media. 

I accordance with the Clean Elections process, Downing asked the Clean
Elections Commission to reimburse him for the push poll expenditure,
which Aboud claimed no knowledge of.   Pam Sutherland, speaking for
Arizona List, also denied any knowledge of the push poll in the
press.   The Commission awarded Downing about $8000, which Downing used
to fund a mailer to voters in the district.

Aboud then filed a complaint with Clean Elections, stating that the
cost of the poll was actually far less than $8000.   Of course, Downing
asked the logical question:  "how do you know?"

After an investigation by the Clean Elections folks it turns out that
the poll was conducted by a Phoenix polling operation, paid for by a
group formed a few weeks ago called "Protect Tucson Women." According
to Bridgette Ricecci, the director of Protect Tucson Women, the sole
purpose of the organization is to elect Paula Aboud.   Funding for the
push poll came from two sources – an elderly couple that lives in
Florida, and Arizona List.   The ties between Protect Tucson Women and
Arizona List go further – the address registered for PTW is a house
owned by Sutherland, the Arizona List spokesperson and vocal Aboud
supporter.

The ties between Protect Tucson Women, Arizona List and the push poll
are very clear. By filing a complain with Clean Elections Aboud
obviously admitted that after Downing got the award she was aware of
the actual cost of the push poll. I will leave it to you to decide
if you think Aboud had any prior knowledge of this tawdry affair."