Arizona Democratic Party

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen credits his party's success in the state's legislative races with pure hard work, he said in comments release by the Arizona GOP - taunting the Arizona Democratic Party at the same time.

"Our Republican candidates and our party were outspent in excess of 5 to 1 by the Democrats," said Pullen, "but they campaigned hard and with real ideas about how to address the challenges our state faces."

As of the latest results, it seems at least 35 Republicans will form the majority in the Arizona House when it reconvenes in January - a net gain of two. The Arizona Senate will likely keep its previous balance, 17 Republicans to 13 Democrats.

"While Democrats were trying desperately to buy this election, we simply out-worked them, making hundreds of thousands of phone calls and providing the training and support our candidates needed to be successful," Pullen said.

The election lawyer who will be reviewing a complaint against the Arizona Democratic Party from the re-election campaign of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has yet to see the letter, he told PolitickerAZ.com Friday.

Jeffrey Messing is the outside counsel to whom the complaint, filed with Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne on Wednesday, has been referred. Messing, however, is yet to see it.

"I'd like to talk about it, but I haven't received it yet," said Messing. He said he was told he'd be handling the case but the documents haven't arrived.

Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer had set Friday as the deadline for the Arizona Republican Party to respond to a complaint the Arizona Democratic Party filed against it over alleged campaign finance violations, but while it is not known whether the Arizona GOP met the deadline, indications from the Secretary of State's office are that it might not matter.

On Oct. 14, The Arizona Democratic Party filed a complaint against its counterpart over a large contribution from a group then-known as SCA, now known to stand for the Sheriffs Command Association, whose membership was not revealed, and which had not filed as a political committee with the Arizona Secretary of State or the Maricopa County Recorder's Office. 

Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer said she wanted a response to the complaint from the Arizona Republican Party by Friday - including the names of SCA's membership - but as of midday none had arrived. A call put in to the Secretary of State's office at day's end was not returned.

However, it is questionable whether the matter will go anywhere, with or without a timely response from the Arizona GOP.

David Schweikert

David Schweikert, Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District seat, is calling a mail piece sent out by the Arizona Democratic Party "shameful," saying it unfairly attacks Schweikert for his pro-life stance.

"David Schweikert if out of step with mainstream Arizona," reads the mailer. "He would overturn Roe v. Wade and opposes a woman's right to choose even in cases of rape and incest.

"It's time to tell politicians with extreme positions like David Schweikert that women want and deserve control over their own bodies," the ad concludes.

"It just shows how desperate the Democrats are in district five," wrote Schweikert communications director J.P. Twist.

Twist went on to say that due to Schweikert's personal history, the ad crosses a line. Schweikert was put up for adoption by a young mother who was counseled against having an abortion.

David Schweikert, Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District seat, is calling a mail piece sent out by the Arizona Democratic Party "shameful," saying it unfairly attacks Schweikert for his pro-life stance.

"David Schweikert if out of step with mainstream Arizona," reads the mailer. "He would overturn Roe v. Wade and opposes a woman's right to choose even in cases of rape and incest.

"It's time to tell politicians with extreme positions like David Schweikert that women want and deserve control over their own bodies," the ad concludes.

"It just shows how desperate the Democrats are in district five," wrote Schweikert communications director J.P. Twist.

Twist went on to say that due to Schweikert's personal history, the ad crosses a line. Schweikert was put up for adoption by a young mother who was counseled against having an abortion.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is calling for Arizona elections director Karen Osborne to investigate the connection between the Arizona Democratic Party, a group known as Arizona Wins and Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement, which produced a radio spot against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who is running for re-election against Democrat Tim Nelson.

"The Arizona Democratic Party has engaged in an apparent scheme intended to hide their involvement in the funding of a so-called independent expenditure by an organization named 'Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement,'" read the letter from Barnett Lotstein, writing on behalf of Thomas, to Osborne.

"It has come to our attention that the Arizona Democratic Party transferred campaign funds to an organization called 'Arizona Wins,' which in turn transferred campaign funds to 'Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement,' which produced a campaign commercial containing false and scurrilous accusations against County Attorney Thomas," continued Lotstein. "This commercial, which is presently being broadcast on numerous radio stations, does not reveal that the original source of the funding is the Arizona Democratic Party."

Maricopa County attorney candidate Tim Nelson kept up his call for the release of records related to the arrest of New Times publishers Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, holding a press conference at Arizona Democratic Party headquarters Thursday to demand the office of incumbent county attorney Andrew Thomas reveal the records.

The county attorney's office has said that Dennis Wilenchik, who was hired to handle the case, was the authority in the investigation and arrest, and that the arrest was conducted on the authority of a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy, Dave Hendershott, without consultation with the county attorney's office.

Barnett Lotstein of the county attorney's office referred to an affidavit from Henderschott, where the deputy claims to have been solely responsible for signing the arrest warrant.

That explanation wasn't good enough for Nelson. Referring to the affidavit, Nelson said at the event, "After years of standing with the Sheriff’s Office on a host of abusive investigations, Andrew Thomas has belatedly thrown them under the bus to try to deflect criticism against himself just one week before the election," according to remarks released by the campaign.

The Arizona Democratic Party is demanding that Ryan Anderson, deputy campaign manager for U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix), be fired, after they say he gave false information on a contribution form when he visited Democratic Party headquarters to buy an Obama bumper sticker.

Democrats believe Anderson was responsible for leaving a Shadegg campaign credit card at Democratic Party headquarters, which was discovered Monday. A police report was filed and the Shadegg campaign was notified, but the mystery of how it got there remained. The Arizona Democratic Party thinks it has found the answer. 

"Records show that a person with the name 'Bryan Anderson' filled out a contribution form, which is a legal document that the Arizona Democratic Party uses to report contributions to elections officials," read a release from the Arizona Democratic Party. "'Bryan Anderson's' address is a near-match to Ryan Anderson's. Every number in the street line of the address is one digit off."

The Arizona Democratic Party has filed a multi-part complaint against the Arizona Republican Party over $105,000 in donations the state GOP received from a Mesa group called SCA.

According to the latest campaign filing from the Arizona Republican Party, SCA, which is listed as an "unincorporated association of individuals," gave $80,000 to the party on Aug. 21 and another $25,000 on Sep. 10. SCA is the sole entity listed under "individual contributions" in the party's post-primary filing for its state account.

The Democrats allege in a complaint filed Tuesday with Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer that Republicans have violated campaign finance laws by taking money from SCA without obtaining a list of its donors. The Democrats claim this constitutes taking funds from an individual in the name of another individual, which they say is a class 6 felony.

Both the campaign of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Tucson) and the Arizona Democratic Party accused state Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson) of religious intolerance Tuesday for criticizing Giffords's return to Arizona during the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Bee put out a statement earlier Tuesday in which he decried Giffords's return to Tucson Monday night. In the statement, he urged her to "follow her own advice and rush back to Washington, put politics aside and develop solutions as quickly as she rushed to Arizona to campaign against me."

However, Giffords, who is Jewish, plans to stay in Arizona throughout Rosh Hashanah, which doesn't end until Wednesday at sundown. According to her congressional spokesman C.J. Karamargin, Giffords plans to fly back to Washington, D.C. either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, after the Jewish New Year is over.

"For anyone to criticize someone for their religious beliefs, it's unconscionable," said Karamargin. "If that is indeed the basis of the criticism then it is a sorry statement on the state of his campaign and the depths that he's sunk to. To be criticized for celebrating a religious holiday is completely out of bounds."