Last week, A.J. LaFaro, a precinct committeeman and popular former chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, announced a proposed resolution entitled “AZGOP State Committeemen Endorse Anyone BUT Senator John McCain,” to be considered a vote at the party’s annual meeting in January.
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McCain has lost Republican Party support across the board, but it is his war on grassroots Republicans that has captured national attention time and time again over the years. Despite the establishment’s effort to squash opposition to McCain, in 2014, party members voted to censure the senator for his “long and terrible record.”
The “resolution is exactly 250 words and is being submitted at least 45 days before the Arizona Republican Party’s (AZGOP) Annual Meeting being held on January 23, 2016. I expect the resolution be immediately forwarded to the AZGOP Resolutions Committee Chairman and Committee Members no later than December 7, 2015,” according to an email from LaFaro.
In making his announcement, LaFaro advised the media: “Given “Robert Graham’s and the AZGOP’s repeated track record of deceit and obstructionism, I have blind copied several conservative Republican leaders as “witnesses” in hopes this resolution isn’t sabotaged like resolutions were in 2014 and 2015.”
LaFaro called on “individuals to volunteer to be the Chairman and Committee Members of the AZGOP Resolutions Committee so the chicanery Robert Graham and Chad Heywood pulled in 2014 and especially 2015 doesn’t happen again.”
LaFaro is referring to a staged moment during the party’s 2015 meeting in which Graham had arranged for members of Phoenix’s Vietnamese community to rally in support of McCain. In what was described as “creepy,” and “choreographed” moment, McCain was brought into the meeting hall after party members were sent outside for a lunch break. When they returned they were greeted with a speech from McCain to which the Vietnamese participants responded on cue.
At the same time, the majority of participants booed, hissed and turned their backs on the senator.
At the time, popular conservative radio show host, James T. Harris described the scene as it unfolded, “At the instructions of a man, who appeared to be a Party operative, the group pulled out homemade signs and Vietnamese flags.” Harris said, “John McCain stacked the deck. It was highly orchestrated and very disturbing.”
According to the popular Republican blog, Seeingredaz.com, after McCain’s speech, Graham did offer “a pedantic lecture,” but it “fell on deaf ears as he chastised the McCain-weary delegates. This appalling ruse was put in place by AZ GOP Chairman Graham, who can no longer deny his close association with Team McCain. Had he foisted the “surprise” of McCain and Flake on the delegates before the ballots were voted, his slate likely would have failed.”
After the incident garnered unwanted national attention, it was discovered that a proxy war was being waged against the grassroots of the Party by the Senator John McCain political machine.
According to the Arizona Freedom Alliance, Graham’s operatives collected hundreds of proxies from across the state, using party resources his challengers were denied.
As noted by the Arizona Freedom Alliance (AFA), proxies are important “because some candidates or advocates will always have an advantage in collecting proxies. Many of these important issues are settled by “Proxy wars.” One side will do a better job in the proxy war than the other. Remember, it’s precisely BECAUSE of the proxies that McCain spent so much money to purge conservatives from the party voting system and replaced them with Proxy PCs who would give their proxy to a McCain guy to vote on their behalf.”
Since then, the war has escalated resulting in an assault on an older woman at Maricopa County Republican headquarters among other nasty episodes.
Many had hoped Graham would see the writing on the wall and accept LaFaro’s most recent resolution without ramping up the bad feelings. Instead, former executive director of the Arizona GOP, Chad Heywood, engaged in another personal attack on LaFaro. Ironically Heywood told the Arizona Republic said in a statement that LaFaro is “skilled at negativity but is not skilled at building people up.”
Heywood took it further and called the hyperbolic but popular LaFaro “a crazy narcissist in search of attention.”
Observers say that with no shortage of crazy narcissists in politics, Heywood’s attack will likely heat up the war within the Republican Party at a time when the independent ranks are growing, both parties are shrinking almost as quickly as McCain’s support is dwindling.
For the first time in years, McCain has a credible primary challenger. Not only is State Senator Dr. Kelli Ward, an emergency room physician, she is popular with women; a demographic republicans must have going into the 2016 Presidential Election.
Ward’s success flies in the face of the narrative that the party is made up of angry white men, who have no time for the little people. With the recent decision by Ward’s colleague State Senator Carlyle Begay, a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, to join the Republican Party, Graham has a unique opportunity to change people’s impression of Arizona – thanks to McCain – as the home of angry, aging hawks.
Although many have hoped that Graham’s strong armed tactics could quell McCain opposition, a resolution very similar to LaFaro’s, co-sponsored by well over 50 Precinct Committeemen, has also been submitted to the MCRC Resolutions Committee.
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McCain shunned by majority of Maricopa County PCs