As a warm-up to tonight’s Sierra Vista debate between Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Republican Jesse Kelly, Giffords campaign manager Rodd McLeod and Kelly campaign manager Adam Kwasman exchange emails:

From: Rodd McLeod
Subject: Re: Jesse Kelly: “I would vote for the fair tax; I do support the fair tax.”

Good afternoon, Adam.

I direct your attention to the link below, put up on youtube.com by Kelly4Congress. In it, Mr. Kelly describes the 23 percent consumption tax, and says, “I would vote for the fair tax; I do support the fair tax.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVeozni3klY

Mr. Kelly seemed unwilling to acknowledge his support for this policy in Monday’s debate. We are committed to having a substantive discussion of the issues affecting Southern Arizona, and we hope Mr. Kelly will acknowledge his position, or explain that his position has changed. This video is posted online by your campaign on a page called Jesse Kelly for Congress, Kelly4Congress’s Channel.

Tonight, unlike Monday, we hope that Mr. Kelly will not deny his stated position.

Safe travels and best of luck!

Sincerely,

Rodd McLeod

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On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 1:25 PM, @votejessekelly.com> wrote:
Dear Ron,

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to hear about the interest in honesty from your campaign.

I trust that this new interest in transparency will include an immediate release by the Giffords campaign admitting to purposefully lying to the constituents of District 8 about Jesse Kelly’s positions on social security.

I can’t tell you how inspiring it is to me

that one of the most dishonest campaigns in the history of southern Arizona is now interested in being truthful from this point forward.

Please forward your release to this email address for my personal records.

Yours, in liberty,

Adam Kwasman

* * *

From: Rodd McLeod
Date: October 20, 2010 2:45:25 PM MST
Subject: Re: Jesse Kelly: “I would vote for the fair tax; I do support the fair tax.”

Again, Mr. Kelly’s own words on Social Security are the issue here. I took Mr. Kelly at his word when he was asked about Social Security, if he would “work toward eliminating it.”

“If you have any ideas on that, I’m all ears. I would love to eliminate the program. I’d love to take steps to let people opt in and opt out of it. Privatize it.” (Tucson Weekly, 12/2/09)

This came up again at the KUAT debate in July, and Mr. Kelly said:

“Right now, you have to take steps to reform it, to privatize it, to phase it out.” (KUAT debate, 7/30/10)

In addition, Mr. Kelly has not explained how benefits for current Social Security retirees could be met if workers under the age of 55 simply opted out, as Mr. Kelly has proposed.

I guess we’ll talk about it more tonight!

Safe travels,

Rodd McLeod

This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2010.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

5 replies on “CD8: Pre-Debate Smack Talk”

  1. I notice that Adam is both snarky and bad at punctuation. He also did not spell Rodd’s name correctly. Is this the level of professionalism the Kelly campaign brings?

  3. Good thing neither of these people are running for Congress.

    Jesse Kelly isn’t snarky, he’s a nice guy with a good heart and cares about this district and bringing America back to free market solutions to our job and economic woes. Whereas Giffords has a rep for flying off the handle whenever she doesn’t get her way, just ask some big blue dog democrat donors who didn’t appreciate her voting record in the 111th congress and decided to support Jesse Kelly what it’s like to get a phone call from Giffords in a tiff.

    I already sent my ballot it in for Jesse Kelly.

  4. Did Rodd McLeod even bother to watch the YouTube clip he referenced in his email? Kelly clearly states that the “fair tax” would take a constitutional amendment and is NOT something that would fly today. He then states his support of a flat tax.
    Typical selective edditing on McLeod’s part. Give me a bunch of tapes of anyone speaking over a long enough period of time and I could probably edit it to the point where they hate babies, want to kill old people, invade Canada, would shoot your dog, and anything else you might imagine.

  5. Frankly, I can understand displeasure at political figures (purposefully chose to leave out the title. “Leaders”) because of economic challenges. On the other hand, I would expect most people to realize that the horrific downturn did not start with the current Democratic Party politicians. Anyone and everyone can point blaming fingers all over the ‘map’ and not solve a single problem. Like voteinaz, I already cast my ballot and mailed it in — done is done, thank God! I voted according to my enduring conscience. voteinaz and I most assuredly “cancel each other out” this time; but, at night, in the quiet of my home and in the warm company of my family, I sleep very well for having participated in the democratic process once again, and voicing my opinion peacefully.

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