Trent Franks

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.

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.

Mitchell-Giffords

The Arizona Republican Party is going after the two freshman Democrats in the delegation, Reps. Gabby Giffords (D-8) and Harry Mitchell (D-5) over the poor marks they received in the annual National Taxpayers Union's report card.

“Being a former school teacher, it shouldn’t be difficult for Congressman Mitchell to understand a 'D' is simply unacceptable,” said Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen. “Representative Giffords’s score of 9 percent is shameful. We have seen these two follow, in lockstep, the lead of Nancy Pelosi by voting to increase government spending, increase taxes on Arizona’s working families and failing to bring meaningful reform to the earmark process."

The National Taxpayers Union have released their Taxpayers Friends in the House for 2007 and Arizona Congressmen Jeff Flake and Trent Franks took the top 2 spots.

Candidates for Congress have to submit their first quarter finance reports to the FEC by April 15th. The reports cover the fundraising period of Jan 1st – March 31st of 2008. Of the current candidates for Congress the first report has been filed. John Thrasher, a retired music professor from Glendale Community College, is challenging Trent Franks

As we reported, Arizona is 51st of 51 states (including DC) in pork per capita, a decrease of 31 spots since 2006. Arizona received an average of $14.17 per person with a national average of $33.77.  read more »

Harry Mitchell came under heat last week from a few of his CD5 potential general election opponents for missing an ethics vote. I decided to do a little research on attendance records for the 110th Congress to see just how often members from the Grand Canyon State missed session days in DC.  read more »

When the U.S. House voted yesterday on a proposal to create a new Office of Congressional Ethics, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-1), who was indicted in February on 35 federal counts ranging from wire fraud to extortion, wasn't there.

As reported by The Hill:  read more »

Three of Arizona’s elected delegation have been invited to speak to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual convention this week.

Yesterday the Arizona Republican Party had a mandatory meeting for committee members.  Many conservative grassroots activists have emailed me to point out that while the grassroots activists took time to show up, elected members of Congress did not.   read more »