Brian Hummell

David Schweikert is hammering back against an attack by his 5th Congressional District Republican primary rival, Susan Bitter Smith, after Bitter Smith put out a mailer attacking Schweikert's record as Maricopa County treasurer.

Tuesday morning, a hit piece from the Bitter Smith campaign showed up in mailboxes across the district saying Schweikert mismanaged the county's funds during his tenure as treasurer. Later that day, the Schweikert camp put out a robo-call refuting the charges and slamming Bitter Smith's "negative" tactics.

Brian Hummell, Bitter Smith's campaign manager, pointed to an audit of the treasurer's office from April 2007 to support his claim. The report stated that "some Treasurer’s Office actions conflict with uniform accounting practices and with State Statutes" by allowing its servicing bank "to extend credit beyond line of credit limits."

Seth Scott, campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell's re-election bid, told PolitickerAZ.com he is calling for the Susan Bitter Smith campaign to apologize for accusations made in a press release Tuesday.

The Bitter Smith campaign claimed several residents reported receiving calls that were "unflattering" toward Bitter Smith and another 5th district Republican, David Schweikert.

Brian Hummell, Smith's campaign manager, sent out a press release Tuesday saying Mitchell's campaign had "initiated" the calls, but offered no evidence to support the claim. Mitchell's campaign has denied having anything to do with them.

Hummell admitted to PolitickerAZ.com that whoever was conducting the poll would likely not be traced back to Mitchell's campaign, but maintained that the source had to originally lie with the incumbent's organization.

AZ-5 Republican primary candidate and Arizona cable industry lobbyist Susan Bitter Smith is charging that the campaign of U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Tempe) has been "push polling" in the 5th Congressional District - a charge the Mitchell campaign denies.

"Reports have surfaced that the Mitchell campaign has initiated a push pull [sic] in the District specifically targeting Susan," read a press release put out by the Bitter Smith campaign. 

"This is coming from supporters of ours who say they’ve gotten calls from people saying unflattering things about Susan and another candidate," said Brian Hummell, Bitter Smith's campaign manager, to PolitickerAZ.com. When asked if the other candidate was fellow 5th district competitor David Schweikert, Hummell said, "I believe so."

Susan Bitter Smith, U.S. House candidate in AZ-5, has worked to set up meetings between telecommunications executives and three Democratic Arizona members of the U.S. House, while campaigning to replace one of them.

Bitter Smith, who is executive director of the lobbying organization Arizona-New Mexico Cable Communications Association, lobbied her would-be opponent and two other members of the Arizona delegation. She requested meetings between executives at Cox Cable and U.S. Reps. Harry Mitchell (D-Tempe), Ed Pastor (D-Phoenix) and Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson). Bitter Smith is running for the Republican nomination in the 5th District, and will face Mitchell in the general election if she gets the nod.

Mitchell's office confirmed the meeting, but said it was only between Mitchell staff and the Cox executives. Mitchell spokesman Robbie Sherwood described the meeting as "positive," but said no specific legislation was discussed. Sherwood wouldn't comment on whether Mitchell's campaign thought it was appropriate for Bitter Smith to be currying favor on behalf of her clients with the member of Congress she hopes to defeat.

L to R: Joe Arpaio, Susan Bitter Smith, Ed PhillipsAt her Scottsdale home Friday evening, Susan Bitter Smith at last officially entered the six-person Republican primary field in CD5. Though some have questioned the soundness of her last-in-the-water strategy, Bitter Smith sought to belay any doubts by beginning her campaign surrounded by political supporters, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and replete with an oversized Taxpayer Protection Pledge that the campaign claims is "the biggest of any candidate."

Susan Bitter Smith announced this week she will be formally entering the Republican Primary for the 5th CD.  Bitter Smith has been considering joining the crowded field for a few months now.  She first started looking at entering the race in mid-January. 

The decision alone is not what makes the story interesting to the Inside Edge.  What is interesting is her announcement date of Friday May 9th.  There is a long standing tradition in political news cycles, you air your dirty laundry on Fridays. With Saturday being the day the least amount of people read the paper or watch the news, Friday is the perfect day to get out the bad info and save the good news (like an announcement) for the rest of the week. 

Bitter Smith is late enter the race and will need to rally some heavy hitting financial backers to play catch-up with the other candidates.

One plus for Bitter Smith is she has retained Brian Hummell to run her campaign.  Hummell is a well respected and experienced campaign operative in the 5th Congressional District having worked for former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. 

More Inside Edge

Susan Bitter Smith was absent from last night's CD5 candidate forum, but she may not be absent from the race for long.