When 2018 arrived, Arizona Senator John Kavanaugh (R-Fountain Hills) was in the midst of his second two-year term in the State Senate for Legislative District 23 encompassing the majority of Scottsdale, all of Fountain Hills, Rio Verde and the Fort McDowell-Yavapai Tribal Nation. However, Arizona Representative Michelle Ugenti-Rita had just commenced the final year of her fourth term in the State House of Representatives, so legislative term limits loomed large over the former Tea Party Princess and Arizona poster for the #MeToo Movement. Given Rep. Ugenti-Rita’s close political ties to Senator Kavanaugh and his wife Linda, the current Mayor of Fountain Hills, a political establishment deal was cut such that Senator Kavanaugh would table his reelection bid for the State Senate and run for the Arizona House, so Rep. Ugenti-Rita would have a clear path to the State Senate. With the backroom deal cut, Kavanaugh and Ugenti-Rita commenced their aligned efforts to collect citizen signatures for what they both expected to be leisurely cakewalk elections for the Arizona House and Senate respectively.
Unfortunately for Rep. Ugenti-Rita, when April came around, not one but two high-energy, hard-working Republicans entered the State Senate race in LD23. First to crash Ugenti-Rita’s Senate coronation party was Kristina Kelly, a well-respected 2nd grade school teacher at Laguna Elementary School in Central Scottsdale, just south of where Ugenti-Rita says she lives. Though popular at her school and well-known in Scottsdale Ranch, Kelly entered the race with zero available search hits on Google.
Widespread speculation regarding a second candidate became reality when Timothy Jeffries, the populist former Director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) and well-respected member of Governor Doug Ducey’s senior cabinet, entered the race. Similar to Kelly, Jeffries entered the race in April. However, Jeffries entered the Senate race with money, volunteers and a proven ability to take a punch and throw a punch. He also entered the race with several pages of Google search hits. The massive volume of available information and fake news regarding Jeffries is due to his lighting rod tenure as DES Director, decades as a major company executive and extensive non-profit work, particularly for crime victims throughout the United States.
Chris Baker, the President of Blue Point, LLC, the political consulting firm representing Representative Ugenti, brashly remarked to some powerful Capitol lobbyists a couple months ago that “Ugenti would easily beat Jeffries by 30 points” in the Republican Primary Election on August 28, 2018. Unfortunately for Baker and Ugenti, this information was relayed to Jeffries which further solidified his American Patriot resolve to battle the self-aggrandizing political establishment and defeat the very political entitlement that fuels their societal arrogance and lack of accountability.
Fast forward to now, it’s been a little over four months since Kristina Kelly and Timothy Jeffries declared their Senate candidacies. It’s been less than three months since Ugenti, Kelly and Jeffries submitted their nominating petitions. During that compressed time period, Jeffries raised a little less than $180K and Kelly raised a little less than $70K. As of the most recent Arizona Secretary of State (SOS) financial reporting period ending August 11, Jeffries reported approximately $70K cash on hand and Kelly reported approximately $15K cash on hand. By comparison, multi-term elected Representative Ugenti-Rita required all of 2018 to essentially equal Kelly’s four month fundraising haul. Ugenti-Rita raised approximately $70K over 8 months and reported $30K cash on hand largely due to cash transfers from her other campaign account largely enriched by political lobbyists representing the very special interests she promised to battle when she originally ran as a “Teapublican” during her first run for the Arizona House of Representatives. In a recent press release, the Jeffries Campaign stated, “…it appears all three candidates possess suitable resources to finish the Republican Primary on August 28th yet it appears only Jeffries has the financial resources to decisively pivot to the General Election.”
As promised, Jeffries has drawn public policy contrasts with Ugenti-Rita in public appearances, social media and what’s reported to be an extensive mail operation. On the other hand, Jeffries has not challenged Kelly on any public policy issues other than some good-natured discussion and differences regarding education during the LD 23 Senate Debate hosted by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission. Ugenti-Rita did not see fit to attend to attend the only scheduled Senate Debate, a fact that Jeffries did not let go unnoticed during the otherwise cordial evening. In fact, aside from Jeffries’ verbal swipes at Ugenti-Rita for failing to show up to the debate, Ben Giles, the debate moderator and reporter with the Arizona Capitol Times, remarked it “was the most friendly debate” he had “ever attended.”
Any friendliness that might have existed between Ugenti-Rita and her constituent Jeffries ended approximately 10 days ago. On two successive days, Ugenti-Rita emailed two lengthy assaults on Jeffries’ personal character and DES service record to a who’s who list of prominent Arizonans. Over the past week, Ugenti-Rita continued her political assault on Jeffries with two high gloss 8×11 mailings stating “TIM JEFFRIES IS UNFIT FOR PUBLIC OFFICE” with the rabid liberal fake news as her supporting information. She did not limit her character assassination of Jeffries to the very fake news she often decries as an alleged conservative. It also included several defamatory allegations framed as “FACTS.” Jeffries has publicly labeled the defamation as “smear, lies and libel” which means Ugenti-Rita probably better have a great attorney since Jeffries has proven unafraid to challenge injustice in court.
Based on the Jeffries campaign posts this week to their social media accounts as well as numerous conservative Republican sites, it appears Jeffries has in hockey-speak “dropped gloves.” Jeffries posted what he purported was his campaign’s most recent mailer to high propensity voters in the conservative LD 23. Jeffries various social media posts were essentially identical and stated the following:
”For 4+ months, @MichelleUgenti has smeared, lied, defamed and libeled Tim Jeffries’ DES service record in Arizona, SO @Jeffries4Senate recently outlined JUST SOME OF THE FACTS about her multi-year record of #improper#unethical conduct at the Arizona Legislature instead of exclusively focusing on professionally conducting the people’s business. Rep. Ugenti-Rita is an unashamed HYPOCRITE. If you receive more smears, lies and libel from @MichelleUgenti regarding Timothy Jeffries for State Senate, please visit www.JeffriesFacts.com for the REAL TRUTH about “Director J” and his record.”
The mailer featured “HYPOCRISY” in bright red letters and starkly challenged Ugenti-Rita’s public claims that she is a “pro-family conservative.” The mailer briefly outlined what the Capitol chattering class has known for years and has been well reported. First, Ugenti-Rita is not afraid to use coarse and improper language even during public session. Second, she had “inappropriate relationship with a House staffer and lobbyist” that although not mentioned in the mailer led to a contentious divorce.
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This is a political donnybrook that should be followed closely, especially with Republican majority control of the State Senate in question.