A. J. LaFaro, Chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee testified at the 2013 hearings before the Arizona State Legislature regarding election reforms that eventually became HB-2305. At the time of its passage, opponents claimed the law would suppress the vote and disenfranchise the mostly Hispanic community.
For months, there has been speculation that the Republican’s establishment candidate in the CD2 Republican Primary, Martha McSally, had funded a lawsuit against political newcomer Chuck Wooten. The suit, filed by lawyers with the firm of Snell and Wilmer, was heard by Judge Gus Aragon in the Pima County Superior Court on June 18, 2014.
Judge Aragon dismissed the challenge to Wooten’s nominating petitions filed for nominal plaintiffs; Shaun McClusky and Lori Oien. The two are McSally supporters and failed Republican candidates for Tucson City Council seats.
At the time of the filing, there was widespread speculation that McClusky, a property rental manager and Oien, a single mother of two, could not easily afford to hire such expensive attorneys and frivolously sue Wooten.
Recent FEC records have fueled speculation that began at the time of the filing that the suit was funded by the McSally campaign. According to the FEC filing for the period, 01/01/2013 to 06/30/2014, the McSally campaign paid Snell and Wilmer $1,890 for unspecified legal expenses on June 5, 2014.
Jack Wilenchik, Wooten’s well-respected Phoenix attorney, on June 19, 2014 wrote on his website of the “nominal” plaintiffs, “Mr. Wooten and his attorney believe that they were selected by Mrs. McSally’s campaign to be Plaintiffs because Mrs. McSally did not want to put her name on the lawsuit. The Plaintiffs were represented by five attorneys, four of whom were from Snell and Wilmer, a costly Phoenix law firm.”
Wooten was represented by a single attorney, Wilenchik of Wilenchik & Bartness, throughout the proceedings. Wilenchik said of the frivolous challenge that “100 out of 100 attorneys would agree that the lawsuit was groundless and should not have been filed.”
Wilenchik also noted that he “also found it unusual that Mr. McClusky – who appeared in court wearing shorts, sneakers and a T-shirt–and Mrs. Dzuban-Øien, who did not even appear in court, would be represented by five attorneys from a large and expensive firm, indicating that Martha McSally’s campaign funded the lawsuit.”
After the win, Wilenchik expressed his concerns that the taxpayers ultimately had to pick up the tab for the Court’s time, and the various county elections staff that were required to appear in court. Wilenchik estimated the cost to be over $100,000 to the taxpayers.
Across the country, the GOP establishment has played dirty tricks on grassroots challengers. They moved from hardball to rockball last week in the case of Chris McDaniel when the Mississippi’s Republican Party refused to consider McDaniel’s effort to overturn his June 24 GOP runoff loss to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, according to Huffpo.
In that race, GOP establishment member Haley Barbour resorted to the ugliest kind of politics – the kind democrats usually play; race baiting.
According to the Daily Mail, “A series of three racially charged radio ads that ran in rural Mississippi on Election Day played a role in driving black Democrats to vote in a Republican primary run-off election. They were broadcast 48 times in a 12-hour period Tuesday on WMGO-AM radio in the town of Canton, and urged black Mississippians to cross party lines and support GOP Sen. Thad Cochran in his smash-mouth contest against tea party insurgent Chris McDaniel.”
McDaniel issued a statement after the Mississippi’s Republican Party denial saying he was “very disappointed” with decision to deny him an opportunity to present his election challenge before the state Executive Committee, “especially in light of the fact that we delivered a physical copy of the challenge to all fifty-two members of the committee.” McDaniel lawyer Mitch Tyner said in the statement. “The party was the perfect venue in which to hear the challenge since it was responsible for the election, but we will move forward with a judicial review as provided for under Mississippi code.”
Despite the Goliath GOP’s desperation tactics against David-like challenger s, miracles do happen according to Eric Cantor challenger Dave Brat. “If you go door to door knocking, the American people know the country is headed in the wrong direction,” Brat, a college professor, said at the time of his win. “I attribute [the win] to God… God acted through the people on my behalf.”
Brat was not supposed to make it out of the primary against the powerful Cantor, who was expected to win a wide margin. Cantor, like McSally with Wooten had outraised Brat by a huge margin.
“The good news is dollars don’t vote, people do,” Brat told Sean Hannity after the win. “I think the people are just ready for some major changes in this country.”
Change has not come to the residents of southern Arizona. This is not Martha McSally’s first rodeo; she lost the Republican Primary to Jesse Kelly in 2010, and lost to blue dog democrat Ron Barber in 2012.
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