Thursday, April 1, 2010

George Will on Hayworth-McCain race; covers McCain's silencing of Hayworth on the air waves

Some excerpts from his article, GOP Senate Race Heats Up in Arizona. Even though McCain's threats alleging campaign finance violations forced Hayworth to resign from radio, leaving McCain and his warchest to dominate the airwaves with a slew of mudslinging ads attacking Hayworth, Hayworth has still been able to raise money as fast as McCain using social media. 

McCain, who has a flair for umbrage, felt some about another Hayworth cause -- a possible Hayworth Senate candidacy. So McCain, whose pugnacity is part of his charm, for those who are charmed, went after Hayworth with tactics that reminded other people why they are not charmed. The co-author of the McCain-Feingold restrictions on political speech asked the Federal Election Commission to silence Hayworth.

Although Hayworth was not yet a candidate, McCain argued that he was receiving from the radio station's owner an illegal "corporate in-kind contribution" of "as much as" $540,000 a week, a figure concocted by pricing Hayworth's 15 hours per week at the rate advertisers would pay for 1,800 30-second spots. Hayworth spared his station the litigation costs by becoming a candidate.

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