Phoenix, AZ (JUNE 11) -As Sen. John McCain opened his Yuma campaign office today, the campaign of U.S. Senate Candidate J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) said Mr. McCain needs to explain why he is breaking the spirit of his own campaign-finance reform law - and maybe the letter of the law - when he put his two top aides in a McCain friendly campaign operation in Yuma.
"The Senator sends his top two campaign people out the door, gets them positions in the Yuma County GOP federal account operation run by a McCain supporter and claims that was the plan all along," said Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders.
Sanders said the Yuma operation is designed to support all Republican candidates, not favor one over another. Victory operations must be separate and independent of individual campaigns for individual offices.
"The McCain people who moved over have worked for the Senator for more than a year, know his internal poll numbers, know his strategy, know his media buys, and know his budget," Sanders said. "While they may not be overtly helping Sen. McCain, they can't possibly be independent of the campaign. It is not believable that these operatives have no first-hand knowledge of the McCain operation.
"Sen. McCain can't expect voters to believe shipping his top two campaign advisors to a friendly, well-funded organization is in the best interest of Arizona and does not violate the spirit of the McCain-Feingold law created to clean up campaigns,' Sanders said.
Thankfully, efforts by the McCain operatives to take control of the state Victory operation and turn the Yuma Victory operation into a wing of the McCain campaign have so far been thwarted.
"The McCain operatives tried to pull off a coup when they hit the ground, but were rightly rejected," Sanders said.
"First McCain switches on taxes, then he switches on illegal aliens, and now he shreds the very legislation he sponsored to clean up campaigns by looking for loopholes that benefit him," Sanders said.
Just yesterday, the Hayworth campaign questioned the $1.1 million McCain took from a convicted felon who ran a Ponzi scheme. McCain used the money to run his "McCain Victory 2008" committee and his "McCain-Palin Victory 2008" committee.
"Seems that despite touting his efforts to clean up the campaign finance troubles, McCain does not think the rules apply to him and Victory committees are his personal playground," Sanders said.
No comments:
Post a Comment