Thread: Jim Deakin may play spoiler in GOP Senate

Nowicki: Jim Deakin may play spoiler in GOP Senate race


by Dan Nowicki, columnist - Jul. 18, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/ ... z0u30CVbAW


Is Jim Deakin helping U.S. Sen. John McCain save his job by refusing to withdraw from Arizona's Republican Senate race and throw his support to rival GOP challenger J.D. Hayworth?

Deakin is a little-known and little-funded "tea party" conservative running third behind McCain, who leads in the polls, and Hayworth, who has been stuck in second place.


Supporters of Hayworth, a former Arizona congressman and radio talk-show host, have long clamored for Deakin to step aside so as not to split the anti-McCain vote. On Thursday,William Gheen, president of the national group Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, or ALIPAC, stepped up the pressure, publicly calling on Deakin to drop out or else risk becoming known as the "political spoiler" who helped McCain win the Aug. 24 primary. ALIPAC, which opposes illegal immigration, has endorsed Hayworth and donated money to his campaign.

The question came up Friday night during the Republican Senate debate on Channel 3 (KTVK), a forum that gave Deakin his best opportunity so far to pitch his vision of constitutionally limited government to voters. Deakin tried to characterize McCain and Hayworth as two largely indistinguishable career Washington politicians.

"I don't care whether anybody tells me to drop out of this race or not," Deakin said. "I have a constitutional right to be on this ballot, and if either one of my opponents had stuck to the Constitution in their voting records, I would not be in this position today. I will stand by the Constitution."

Hayworth acknowledged that Deakin "has the right to run, as do we all," but did suggest that Deakin's candidacy was benefiting McCain.

"Intentional or not, there is a form of collusion, or coordination, because every vote that goes to Jim Deakin will be one less vote to retire John McCain," Hayworth said.

Not surprisingly, McCain sided with Deakin, a fellow Navy veteran.

"Well, maybe every vote that goes to J.D. Hayworth would detract from the chance of Mr. Deakin being elected, after all," McCain said. "By the way Jim, I respect your service to the country, and I respect your passion. Obviously, you qualified for the ballot - you deserve it."

In a pre-debate written response to Gheen's call for him to get out of the race, Deakin defiantly said he "would not consider withdrawing, much less suggest to anyone to support Hayworth's campaign."

Gheen told The Arizona Republic that McCain's insistence that Deakin participate in the two televised Senate debates is proof that the two campaigns are working together. He said his group will be taking measures "to properly inform Arizona voters across the state to make sure that they don't get deceived by this dirty campaign trick between the McCain-Deakin campaigns."

www.azcentral.com

Boom! This one is going to sting McCain Deakin 2010!

W

added to the homepage
http://www.alipac.us/article5477.html

Whoooaaa! Get a grip and stay on target. Stay focused on issues and not on old politicians. Sounds to me like JD is more concerned with not winning a coveted seat than he is in who the right person is for the position. Deakin is a strong contender, IMO, and has no reason to step down. The voters are not stupid--they are perfectly capable of looking at the facts and making the right decision.

He may not have a lot of money to play the same old political game of negativity, but it just could be that Deakin is the right candidate to have in office. In which case, perhaps the other 2 contenders are the ones who should step aside.

Originally Posted by Megajo

The voters are not stupid--they are perfectly capable of looking at the facts and making the right decision.

LOL, the last presidential election candidate debates for the Dem and Repub nominations PROVED THAT'S A LIE! Americans were led by the MSM to endorse two candidates of the exact same ilk thereby negating actual choice. Ron Paul spoke of the storm to come and not only did his fellow candidates laugh at him but so did most of the moderators of each debate.

Who's laughing now?

Ratbstard: Who's laughing now? Hopefully we all are.

Then, we were sound asleep or so close to lala land, we heard and saw nothing that interferred with a belief that when all was said and done, our elected representatives knew what was best for us. Take illegal immigration, for example: when Regan authorized amnesty to millions, most average Americans found it extremely difficult to accept the fact that so many folks were in our country illegally! We had laws! How could this happen? Well, somebody knew and there were some who rumbled about it, but for the most part, few truly "heard." Amnesty was accepted because "Regan knew best." And no one listened during this saga despite all of the warning signals and the "voices crying in the wilderness."

Now--that has changed. We are listening and seeing and learning. We may not be totally awake, but we aren't asleep anymore and everyday, we wake up more. IMO, if we stay on focus and don't let ourselves get sucked into the same old political tactics, we are perfectly capable of making the right decision. However, that means the truly informed must raise their voices and hammer out the TRUTH regardless of any backlash. Or loss of votes. Am I wrong?

Gheen told The Arizona Republic that McCain's insistence that Deakin participate in the two televised Senate debates is proof that the two campaigns are working together."

Wouldn't it make sense that if Deakin were running on the Republican ballot that he would already be included in the debate without McCain's insistence?

Arizona Republican Debate VIDEOS:

LIVE STREAM: http://www.azfamily.com/live-stream/

FRIDAY NIGHT MCCAIN-HAYWORTH-DEAKIN DEBATE VIDEOS

PART 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIHWRKWW ... r_embedded

PART 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ-_pVnG ... r_embedded

PART 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgVbhSCx ... r_embedded

PART 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R9mZhpZ ... r_embedded

PART 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjroY-1e ... r_embedded

PART 6 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgYmR4DL ... r_embedded

PART 7 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_lIewB ... r_embedded

Originally Posted by Hugh

No, if you understand how the Republican Party is operating this election cycle you would know that they have been pushing for a plan to keep politics as usual. They have been fighting every citizen candidate, including Deakin.

That makes sense - Thanks