Jon Kyl

John McCain may be the Republican nominee for President, but according to Right Wing News blog McCain is not a favorite among right wing bloggers. The blog sent out an email to right wing blogs asking them to name their least favorite elected Republican. Arizona’s senior senator came in 5th behind Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Right Wing News had done an earlier survey asking bloggers for their favorite Republicans and four Arizona Republicans made the top 20.  Jeff Flake came in 11th, John Shadegg and Jon Kyl tied for 12th and McCain made that list too coming in 16th.

With all the talk about our senior senator running for president, its easy to forget our junior senator is the current Republican whip in the Senate.  The Poltico has an interesting look at Jon Kyl and his leadership style.

U.S. Sen. John McCain: Getty Images PhotoThe Southwest regional headquarters of U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is now officially up and running, after a grand opening ceremony Friday that brought out prominent Arizona Republicans - including U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Phoenix) - as well as up to 100 protesters denouncing the senator from Phoenix.

The new headquarters will house a call center and offices to coordinate efforts in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada - all of which, besides Arizona, are swing states that could prove vital to Sen. McCain winning the presidency. As the festivities got underway, the room was packed to the hilt with McCain supporters, including Arizona Republican Party officials, office holders and office seekers.

"Today is a very proud day," said Bettina Nava, Southwest Regional Director of McCain's campaign. "Arizona has always overwhelmingly to elect John McCain, and we think that history will continue."

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Phoenix) is opening the Southwest Regional Headquarters for his presidential bid in Phoenix on Friday, according to Politico Mafioso. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Phoenix), who chairs McCain's Arizona campaign, will be appearing to commence the celebration. A celebration of that sort is a long way off for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), however, according to his campaign.

"We're still hiring staff" was the response from the Obama press office, which told PolitickerAZ.com that there are no plans in the immediate future for an Obama Arizona office. "It's still early, though," said the media contact.

CQ Politics has a list of the top 10 campaign committees with outstanding debt.  Coming in at number seven on the list is Arizona’s own Jim Pederson.  Pederson still has $2,532,972 in campaign debt from his 2006 US Senate bid against Jon Kyl.  Under FEC regulations a candidate cannot close their committee until all debts have a repayment agreement approved by the Commission.  Pederson’s debt is from personal loans he made to the campaign during his election.  

Don't expect Sen. Jon Kyl to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd consider accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

With his colleague John McCain presumptively the Republican nominee, how did Republican Jon Kyl respond?

Mark Twain once said “Thank God we don’t get all the government we pay for.”   But it appears not everyone feels that way.   read more »

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.

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 »