John Shadegg

Sen. John McCain's involvement in a land deal between the federal government and a company whose principals have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for him is the subject of a USA Today report out this morning. Yet McCain wasn't the only Arizona politician who supported the deal, according to a McCain spokesman, nor was he the only one who received financial backing from the company in question.

According to the story, McCain was instrumental in securing the acquisition of several hundred acres surrounding Luke Air Force Base from SunCor in 2003. SunCor's parent company, Pinnacle West, and its executives are major contributors to McCain, and the story indicates that McCain relaxed his "no pork" stance by appropriating the funds for the land purchase.

What the USA Today article failed to mention, according to a McCain spokesman, is that the deal was supported by the entirety of Arizona's congressional delegation - many of whom also count Pinnacle West and its officers among their top contributors.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean came to Phoenix Tuesday to strategize with Democratic volunteers, bolster the belief that Sen. John McCain is beatable in Arizona and discuss downticket races.

Now the Arizona Democratic Party has released the podcast of Dean's talk with the party's new media communications manager, Jeff Goodman. In it, Dean discusses McCain's weaknesses, touts Democratic congressional candidates and finally reveals which candidate he DNC chair supports... on American Idol.

After quitting the CD3 race today, independent Annie Loyd is not planning to throw her support behind either Democrat Bob Lord or Republican U.S. Rep. John Shadegg. Rather, she said, she will devote herself fully to combating what she sees as wrongheaded immigration enforcement practices in the Greater Phoenix area.

The former candidate explained to PolitickerAZ.com why she got out of the race and how she plans to participate in the remaining months of the contest.

Annie LoydAnnie Loyd, independent for Congress in CD3, is running no longer.

Loyd had been incredibly visible for a candidate without party affiliation, and leaves the race with numerous questions, such as whether she will throw her support behind either Democrat Bob Lord or, less likely, Rep. John Shadegg.

She said she sees a need to address the immigration question immediately, and feels running for office to be contrary to her more community-based goals, but left unsaid whether any specific catalyst prompted her to leave the race.

The Arizona Democratic Party is calling on U.S. Rep. John Shadegg to return campaign contributions from the Scottsdale lobbyist who worked for the military junta in Myanmar and who resigned from running the Republican National Convention.

John McCain's campaign hand-picked Doug Goodyear to be coordinator of the convention. Goodyear resigned this weekend.

While Arizona's congressional delegation may often split along ideological divides, yesterday marked a rare occasion in which Democrats and Republicans united behind a common cause.

In a letter sent to President George W. Bush, four Republican and two Democratic members of Congress from Arizona urged the federal government to renew Operation Jump Start, the 2006 initiative to place National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexico border. The mandate is set to expire in just over two months, which, the legislators argue, would severely compromise anti-illegal immigration efforts.

U.S. Rep. John ShadeggAs Congress passed several bills this week in an attempt to deal with the worsening home foreclosure crisis, U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) offered a motion on one of the bills to bar sex offenders, drug dealers and those who've committed mortgage fraud from eligibility in a proposed state-based loan program, while giving preference to disabled veterans.

Shadegg painted his motion to recommit on a bill that would use government funds to buy, rehabilitate and sell foreclosed houses as "an attempt to improve" the legislation by giving disabled veterans more consideration as buyers of the rehabilitated homes, while eliminating from eligibility those he said have "preyed on the innocent."

John ShadeggAfter declaring his support for a guest worker program yesterday, Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) claims he never supported the immigration reform program that caused a rift among the GOP last year. Today Shadegg's spokeswoman Abby Winter categorically denied that he had backed the controversial immigration reform measure that Sens. John McCain and John Kyl spearheaded, and that a report in the Arizona Republic claiming he did was "false."

U.S. Rep. John ShadeggU.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) may be regretting his brief flirtation with dropping out of the re-election hunt - it cost him almost $60,000. PolitickerAZ.com has learned that during the two weeks Shadegg was not a candidate for his CD3 seat, he was compelled by donors to return a large amount of contributions.

When he filed his FEC report two weeks ago, it included $59,800 in refunds for the first quarter - when in all previous quarters the total was $1,900. The mystery was cleared up by major contributors and the campaign, who revealed the reason to be Shadegg's short - and costly - break from the race.

Democrat Bob Lord is coming after his opponent Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) over Shadegg declining to support the Post-9/11 GI Bill introduced by Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-5). The bill has picked up a great amount of support, in the House and Senate, from both Democrats and Republicans.

The Arizona Democratic Party has been hammering all four Republican members of the Arizona delegation for not signing on as cosponsors, of whom there are currently 241, including scores of Republicans. So far none have spoken out on why they have not, but Lord is certainly speaking out and trying to make it an issue.