A couple of notes, and first of all, I don’t know much about this race, it’s on the other side of the world from me.

With respect to the poll, they polled 300 people and I can’t find the internals. I’m a little surprised at the result only because Jonathan Paton is a former state senator, is a pretty high-profile guy in the area and I would have thought he’d have done better based on name recognition.

With respect to the Instapundit link, I find it interesting – really interesting – than Glenn Reynolds says the following…

ARIZONA TEA PARTY FOLKS send this link on candidate Jesse Kelly, whom they suspect of being one of those fake tea party candidates. What do you think?

Glenn is a widely respected law professor and has been publishing Instapundit for a long time. I don’t think he’d just assume the owners of the Kelly hit site are affiliated with the AZ TP. They must have made that representation to him.

There is no indication of any affiliation with anybody, especially any of the TP groups on the site. The only contact link is a gmail address. There is nothing on the – very poorly done – site except Kelly hit pieces.

I’ve contacted the gmail address and I’ll let you know by the end of the day if I’ve heard from them. I doubt I will.

this race as I’m in CD7. Jesse Kelly seems like a pretty good guy though. Much respect for a Marine combat veteran here. That website content looks like it was written by a 12 year old. Although I’m sure most 12 year olds would have done much better with the design.

Used to live in the district, and have been involved in this race (having no real prospects for my district, which is Grijalva’s). Both Jesse Kelly and Jonathan Paton, the front-runners, are conservative, are serious candidates, and whichever one wins should be supported by those on this site. Here’s a quick rundown of the race:

Jonathan Paton was part of the state legislature before running for AZ-08, and voted in a generally conservative fashion. His tenure there was marked by two very positive attributes: namely, his aggressive slashing of taxes, and his push to reform Child Protective Services (CPS). Unfortunately, it was also marred by support and votes in favor of further funding AZ’s defunct education apparatus, some questionable votes on environmental legislation (he’s more or less a non-believer in global warming, but otherwise moderate on the issue), and voting in favor of raising the wages of public employees. In addition, he opposed school choice, tort reform, and the Rosemont mine. He’s been hammered for voting in favor of some bloated budgets, as well. Most everything else (guns, abortion, immigration, etc) he’s pretty conservative.

Jesse Kelly has no previous record in office: a good thing, at this juncture. He emerged in the nascent Tea Party movement as a “citizen candidate” of sorts against Giffords, and has been against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) since day one. In addition, he broadly supports some entitlement reform (or did last time I saw him), a must for our incoming candidates, IMO. Mostly, he’s running as a fiscal/national security conservative, but he’s pro-life and, AFAIK, against gay marriage.

That brings us to Brian Miller. Sleazy is the word that comes to mind, and the only reason he’s in the running, as far as I can tell, is that Lute Olson endorsed him. Pretty much the sort of repellent McCain type that we don’t want in office.

Both guys are solid conservatives, former veterans, and are both knowledgeable concerning the issues. Either one would stand against the Democrat agenda and vote with the caucus on the big issues. I’m supporting Kelly because he favors entitlement reform, is new blood for Congress, and would, in my opinion, fare better on spending than Paton. Whichever one wins, I’ll wholeheartedly support, and both have a good shot at beating Giffords (Paton polls a bit better against Giffords, but both are within striking distance). I’ll hopefully be posting more on the race within the week.

Hey red-staters…

I’m a frequent visitor to this site, but don’t really post comments on here. But wanted to drop a comment here.

I’m not a wealthy guy by any means. And I can’t say that I’m highly involved in politics (in comparison with some of you folks) I’m a registered Republican. I’ve given to the GOP and to George W. Bush’s campaign in the past and supported other GOP led fundraising efforts.

But with posts (like the recent one on red state) from Republicans who don’t think they can ever repeal health care, I’ve stopped giving even one friggin dime to the GOP.

If they don’t have, as Sarah Palin would say, the cajones, to stand WITH the American People who are against Government intrusion into our lives and instead want to make what I like to call “Government intrusion – light” or “Diet Government intrustion”, they’re not getting my support.

Which is my lengthy explanation why I’ve donated a couple hundred dollars to Jesse Kelly even though he’s in Arizona and I’m in New Jersey. I’ve listened to his speeches (on youtube) read stuff about the guy. He’s someone I really want to see in Washington.

So the $350 or so that I would have given to the GOP, I’ve given to Jesse directly (as well as donations to other CONSERVATIVE candidates).

Hope the GOP wakes up soon and seizes this opportunity to bring conservative leaders in with backbones to actual listen to the voices of the people they work for.