Lunch with VP Cheney & Other Goings On

Lunch with the Vice-President

Okay, come on, who really doesn't want to have lunch with the Vice-President of the United States? The only problem is that it normally costs an arm and a leg to attend such a function, right? Well, for those of us on a bit of a budget crunch, the Arizona GOP is offering - for a limited time only - a chance to go to the AZGOP Luncheon on Tuesday, August 15th for Senator Jon Kyl, at which Vice-President Cheney will be speaking, for the amazing price of $50.00 for all people who also make 200 phone calls for the GOP by THIS SATURDAY!

Contact your local AZGOP Field Office for more information, or to sign up for a time to come in and make your 200 calls!

Political Rundown

In the past weeks, a lot has been going on across the country in the political realm.

In Arizona:

- Bill Montgomery continues to slam Terry Goddard for the Attorney General's seat - furthered only by Goddard's unwillingness to engage in a debate with Montgomery.

- Elise Townsend, Democratic candidate for CD-1 against incumbent Republican Congressman Rick Renzi has withdrawn from the race - but due to circumstances (namely that ballots go out tomorrow, and printing new early ballots would miss the deadline) her name will still appear on early ballots for the CD-1 race.

- In yet another round of incessant babble by Democrats, several CD-8 candidates released their newest endorsees: notably, the Tucson Weekly endorsed Gabrielle Giffords, citing her reception of a score of ZERO from the prestigious Center for Arizona Policy. What a great example of just how poor a legislator she would make for Arizona!

- Giffords was also questioned for her "Quorum Queen" ad on television, as it has been revealed that she never blocked votes on a bill she cited in her ad. In actuality, she completely MISSED the vote which would have killed the legislation.

- The AZGOP today again accurately predicted (within 1.52%) Jim Pederson's newest campaign bail-out contribution. The GOP's "Buck-o-Meter, viewable on www.azgop.org, has now accurately predicted the amount Pederson would finance himself in his last two reported contributions. In essence, Pederson is giving himself 43 cents every second to run a wholly unsuccessful campaign - incumbent Senator Jon Kyl's lead in the AZ Senate Race climbed to about 8% with about 51% for Kyl and only 42.4% for Pederson.

Nationally, Democratic incumbent Senator Joseph Lieberman lost his primary race to a newcomer, Lamont, in Tuesday's Connecticut primary. Lieberman, a supporter of the War in Iraq, and a center-left Connecticut Senator will now be running in the race for his seat as an Independent.

Other Blogs to Watch

Check out these other blogs for more news and info on Arizona and national politics:

- Arizona Congress Watch: www.azcongresswatch.com

- Politics 1: www.politics1.com

- Red State: www.redstate.com

- Espresso Pundit: www.espressopundit.com

- The Watchtower: azwatchtower.blogspot.com

Starstruck

Starstruck!

Calling all CRs! Ever wanted to be on TV? Now's your chance! The J.D. Hayworth campaign will be shooting a new commercial for airing from now until Election Day this Saturday up in the North Phoenix area. They're still looking for up to 25 people, and some will have speaking parts! It's not only fun to see yourself on the tube, but it would give the CRs some great exposure! Please contact ASU Chairman TJ Shope at asucr@arizonacr.com to sign up or for more details!

Banking on it...

Check out this week's phone banking efforts throughout the state. The College Republicans are a major factor in determining how many people will get out and vote, and phone banking is the number one key element in accomplishing that goal!

Go to www.azgop.org to locate a field office near you (Tucson, Pima, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Flagstaff). Also, UA Chairman Blake Rebling is hosting a phone banking party at his place on Tuesday, August 8th! Contact him at uacr@arizonacr.com for more info!

The Buck-O-Meter Stops Here

From the AZGOP today:

The Arizona Republican Party this week launched the Pederson Buck-O-Meter on its Web site (azgop.org) to track and also predict multi-millionaire strip mall developer Jim Pederson’s personal contributions to his Senate campaign. The Buck-O-Meter’s accuracy was verified when Pederson made his most recent contribution of $200,000 to his campaign on July 31st. The Buck-O-Meter predicted the total Pederson would have contributed to his campaign on that day within 3.8 percent.

The Pederson Buck-O-Meter comes at a time when the AZ GOP has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about the Pederson campaign’s failure, on several accounts, to report personal contributions accurately and on time. The campaign’s negligence has made it difficult for voters to track Pederson’s spending, making the Pederson Buck-O-Meter the only tracking device readily available to the public.

“The Arizona Republican Party is committed to fairness and transparency in elections,” Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Glenn Hamer said. “Since Pederson won’t comply with campaign finance laws, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter is the voters’ only option for tracking Pederson’s spending.”

The Buck-O-Meter uses a formula based on Pederson’s past contributions to predict his future contributions. For each second since July 20, 2006, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter added $0.43 to $4,184,098.00. This is based on FEC records, which show that Pederson contributed over $4 million of his own fortune in the period between his first personal contribution on March 30, 2006 and July 20, 2006. Over this period of 112 days, Pederson personally contributed to his campaign at an astonishing rate of $1,556.58 per hour (or $0.43 per second).

On July 31, 2006, Pederson wrote himself yet another check, this time for $200,000. This brings his total contributions to $4,384,098.00. Under the formula of $0.43 per second, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter predicted that on midnight of July 31, 2006, Pederson’s personal contributions would total $4,557,678.18, a margin of error of just 3.8%.

The Arizona Republican Party will continue the Pederson Buck-O-Meter to provide voters the transparency that Pederson will not. Each time Pederson pulls money from his multi-million dollar shopping mall fortune to fund his campaign, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter will be updated to reflect his new rate of personal contributions.

Saturday Events

Come and help support Arizona's great leaders by volunteering you time at one of the following three events, all scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday July 29, 2006:

- Senator Jon Kyl's Super CR Saturday!
This Super Saturday event for College Republicans and anyone else who wants to volunteer will be held at the Kyl Campaign office, 2200 E. Camelback Rd, Suite 217. Come help phone bank for the Senator and enjoy pizza and drinks!

- Walk for Colleen Clark
Colleen Clark is running for a seat on the MCC Board of Supervisors and she needs your help collecting signatures tomorrow! If interested, contact ASU College Republicans President T.J. Shope at asucr@arizonacr.com to sign up!

- Walk for Bob Gear
Bob Gear is a candidate for the state House of Representatives in District 15, and he needs CRs to help him collect signatures and $5 contributions for Clean Elections tomorrow! If interested, please contact Michael V. Potocnik at 480-529-2707 to sign up!

Also, watch for the new edition of the Arizona College Republicans Rundown coming soon! Go to www.arizonacr.com to sign up to receive important CR updates and the Rundown.

New Mesa Field Office

With the Arizona primary elections a mere seven weeks away, and the midterm elections only 15 weeks away, there is a lot of work to be done to ensure Republicans' victory in our state's races.

One of the best ways to help is to aid in phone-banking efforts with the Arizona Republican Party. The AZGOP needs many volunteers from now until November 7th to get the message out to Arizona citizens that they need to vote, and vote for Republicans on Election Day.

If you would like to help out, the Mesa GOP Field Office is finally opening this Friday, July 28th, and on Monday, July 31st, the office will be having a Grand Opening/"100 Days Remaining" Party. The party will celebrate the fact that on that day, there will only be 100 days left until election day! They are asking that you adopt a 100-minute shift and phone-bank the night away!

If interested, go to your local GOP Field Office, or come on down to the new Mesa Field Office located at

The Riviera Plaza
1900 E. University
Suite 16B
Mesa, AZ 85203

Available shifts are from 4:30PM-6:20PM and from 6:50PM-8:30PM! Contact Field Office Director Michelle Marini at mmarini@azgop.com for more details or to sign up!

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President Bush uses his First Veto

Last week, President Bush got out his rubber stamp for the first time in his presidency to veto H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. On the attempt to overturn the veto, 5 of Arizona's 8 representatives voted to sustain the veto, with Grijalva, Kolbe, and Pastor voting to overturn it.

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act would have provided for allowing research experiments to be conducted on embryos to harvest their stem cells, regardless of when the stem cells were derived from the embryos.

On the matter, Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ02) issued this response: "If Americans deny the reality that human life begins at a definitive point in time, conception, we wade into perilous waters that warn us of a nightmarish future filled with the unthinkable, such as human cloning, fetal farming, and abortion on demand."

Weekly Race Recap

CD-1 -
Congressman Rick Renzi continues to hold a generous lead over his Democratic challengers, who on Thursday night held a Democratic candidate forum in Winslow, Arizona. With the primaries fast approaching, it appears that Mike Caccioppoli will face Congressman Renzi in November's midterms.

CD-2 -
Congressman Trent Franks holds an active lead in fundraising over all of his opponents combined as of last week. With the congressman reporting in over $284,000 in funds raised, the nearest Democratic challenger is only at $19,000.

CD-3 -
Similarly to CD-2, Congressman John Shadegg holds a $600,000 fundraising lead over his closest opponents in District 3. Shadegg also received a perfect 100 score from the conservative PAC Club for Growth last week.

CD-4 -
Democrat Ed Pastor is being challenged by Republican candidate Don Karg.

CD-5 -
Congressman J.D. Hayworth maintains his significant lead over opponent Harold Mitchell. Mitchell was blasted over the weekend by Hayworth's campaign for refusing to apologize for his past treatment of Hispanics in the district. "Either Harry Mitchell knew about the discrimination and did nothing to stop it; or he didn't know what was going on in his own city," said Hayworth campaign manager Todd Sommers. See www.jdhayworth.com for more details.

CD-6 -
With Congressman Flake running virtually unopposed for the midterm elections, he has focused his attention to remaining fiscally conservative in Congress and is now voting against any bill with wasteful pork in it until Congress stops funding projects that are frivolous. Visit www.azcongresswatch.com and click on CD-6 Jeff Flake for more details.

CD-7 -
Democrat Raul Grijalva is being challenged by Republican and ex-Avondale mayor Ron Drake.

CD-8 -
As one of the hottest races this midterm season, the CD-8 race for retiring Senator Jim Kolbe's seat continues to rage like a wildfire. Republicans Frank Antenori, Randy Graf, Mike Hellon, Steve Huffman, and Mike Jenkins are going to be voted upon in the September primaries. Currently, Huffman leads the fundraising race with over $500,000, followed closely by Graf. Both are slightly behind Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who is reported to have just over $550,000 as of two weeks ago.

Kyl/Pederson -
In the Senator Kyl versus Jim Pederson race, Kyl continues to improve upon his competitor, with USASurvey polls showing him with a 12-point lead in the Senate race. Despite Pederson's negative advertising, he is continuing to come across as being "not anybody's Senator." The National Journal has also reported that Pederson was Quarter 2's "biggest spender, by far" with over $4,2 MILLION of his own money pumped into his campaign - so much for fiscal restraint!

Taxpayer Superheroes!

Senator Jon Kyl was named a Taxpayer Superhero by the Citizens against Government Waste with a 100% ranking this week, the only Senator in the nation to receive such a ranking, and only one of four members of Congress.

In Arizona, every Republican member of Congress except Rick Renzi and Jim Kolbe made "Taxpayer Hero" status, and nationally, the top 20 House members and Senators were all Republicans.

Arizona's stats:
Rick Renzi - 68%
Trent Franks - 91%
John Shadegg - 94%
Jeff Flake - 94%
JD Hayworth - 82%
Jim Kolbe - 79%
John McCain - 91%
Jon Kyl - 100%

Liberal Bias At Its Most Obvious!

Madison, WI Lawmakers Condemn Professor, Urge His Dismissal
Lawmakers in Madison, Wisconsin have condemned University of Wisconsin - Madison professor Kevin Barrett and are urging his immediate dismissal from teaching after the professor suggested to classes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by President George W. Bush's administration in order to spark conflict in the Middle East.

The university's provost, Pat Farrell, supports Barrett in teaching this to his classes, saying that Barrett is a qualified instructor who is able to present his views as one perspective on the attacks and "I still have every expectation that this will be a positive educational experience for our students."

This incident comes just after Professor Ward Churchill was recommended for dismissal from the University of Colorado for "academic misconduct" after suggesting that white-collar 9/11 victims were alike to Nazi German officials, such as Adolf Eichmann.

CR Events & News

In the coming weeks, the Jon Kyl for Senate campaign will be holding "CR Days" for phone banking to help the Senator. The next event will be Super Saturday! July 29th, 2006 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Kyl Campaign Headquarters (2200 E. Camelback Rd., Suite 217 in Scottsdale). Pizza and drinks will be provided, so come hungry, and help get Senator Kyl re-elected!

Additionally, CRs who make calls for Senator Kyl have the opportunity to win great prizes. Make 500 calls and get a Kyl Crew T-Shirt; 750 and get a Kyl Crew Hat. If you make 1,000 calls, you can receive a VIP ticket to a Jon Kyl event, and making 2,500 calls gets you an invitation to a private reception and a photo with the Senator and Mrs. Kyl!

Welcome

Welcome to the Official Arizona Federation of College Republicans' blog - your source for news and information updates, events listings, and after-action reports. As we are just getting this site up and running, please check back often for new posts on exciting campaign info, upcoming events, and official Arizona College Republicans releases!