Spoiler could hurt Hayworth in GOP primary

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 7/23/2010 7:00:00 AMBookmark and Share

Arizona2An immigration enforcement political action committee that has endorsed a Republican primary challenger to Arizona Senator John McCain says the third GOP candidate in the race for U.S. Senate could be play a spoiler role that favors the incumbent.



In February, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) officially endorsed former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth in his primary challenge against McCain.

William Gheen, president of ALIPAC, has been a longtime critic of McCain because he believes the former presidential candidate has been weak on border enforcement. But Gheen fears Hayworth's challenge could be thwarted by the presence of the third GOP challenger, Jim Deakin, who has mirrored Hayworth on the issues but has no chance of winning.

William Gheen (ALIPAC)"The basic facts are that no one in the country can find any campaign in American history that has ever risen from Jim Deakin's current polling position in the single digits to win," Gheen explains. "So therefore, we can mathematically say that Jim Deakin's chances of winning are either zero or close to it. Most candidates with zero chance of winning or close to it don't stay in the race."

The ALIPAC president thinks McCain likes the idea of Deakin being in the race. "Recently John McCain refused to participate in the series of public debates unless Deakin, who would usually not be included because usually they don't put single-digit candidates on the stage, [would] be included," Gheen reports.

He adds that when ALIPAC sent a polite and respectful request for Deakin to withdraw from the race, the candidate responded by saying he would not throw his support to either of the other two candidates. The primary elections take place on August 24 in The Grand Canyon State.

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