Steve Forbes

It’s a war of endorsements in the 5th District today.

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett’s (R-Wantage) campaign just rolled out its second big name election eve endorsement:  publishing tycoon Steve Forbes. 

Forbes, a New Jersey native, kept his endorsement brief.

“I’ve known Scott for years.  He’s a fiscal conservative who puts taxpayers before big government,” he said in a statement.  “Congress needs more common-sense leaders like him.”

The Committee for Small Government said Tuesday that Steve Forbes has endorsed its effort to abolish the state income tax with Question 1 on the November ballot.

Steve ForbesIn an editorial set to run in Forbes magazine next Monday, Forbes, a wealthy businessman and publisher of the magazine, said the measure will serve as a necessary wake-up call to the Democratic establishment in the Bay State.

"The reason the measure stands even a chance of passing is not that Bay State citizens are selfish (even though each would enjoy on average an additional $3,700 of income) but that they are angry," Forbes writes, according to an email sent by the Committee for Small Government obtained by PolitickerMA.com. "This is an attack on political establishments there and throughout the U.S. that routinely put their own interests above those of their constituents: lavish government pensions with payouts that would bankrupt private companies; resistance to genuine reform in Medicaid spending, which has become the biggest item on virtually every state's budget; ever more pork-barrel spending; and ever more obsequiousness to rapacious special interests."

The Arizona Democratic Party is trying to capitalize on a planned visit by Pres. Bush on behalf of state Sen. Pres. and 8th Congressional District candidate Tim Bee (R-Tucson) with a new video on their Republican-lampooning website, crAZyspace.org.

The follow-up to their "Friends in Low Places" video, which catalogued Bee fundraisers such as anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove (who the Bee campaign says doesn't belong in the lineup), shows Bush dancing in front of the White House, and is set to "Limbo Rock."

TUCSON - U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao came to Tucson today to help drum up support for state Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson) - help he needs in his quest to unseat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-8), the well-funded freshman Democrat.Chao spoke before a roundtable of business leaders about the strength of the U.S. economy,and the need to contribute to Bee's campaign. According to Chao, media bias makes it imperative that Bee "bypass" news outlets and appeal directly to voters. 

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is the latest GOP star to lend her support to State Senate Pres. Tim Bee's congressional run. The labor secretary and wife of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will appear tomorrow with Bee at a breakfast fundraiser in Phoenix.

Chao joins a growing list of name brand Republicans to get behind Bee in his fight to unseat freshman Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-8). The race is drawing extensive focus by both Democrats and Republicans, and today's announcement of the Chao event was instantly met with scorn from the Arizona Democratic Party, which seeks to portray Bee as a loyal Bushite and associate him with Social Security privatization. 

A new video put out by the Arizona Democratic Party today is attempting to use fundraising allies of State Senate President Tim Bee (R-Tucson) against him. The new addition to "crAZyspace," the MySpace-esque website Dems have set up to lampoon who they dub "the right-wing wackos who put the AZ in crAZy," is a video that plays up Bee's associations with Grover Norquist, Steve Forbes and Karl Rove, set to the Garth Brooks classic "Friends in Low Places."

Rep. Giffords addresses NASA grant studentsLast Friday saw the Eighth Congressional District race take flight with two aeronautically themed events for the contenders. While State Senate President Tim Bee showed former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes around a Tucson plant that makes, among other things, parts for the International Space Station, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the incumbent and wife of an astronaut, spoke to college students who received NASA grants.