Kyle, McClung & McCain LLC

  • Kyl, McClung & McCain LLC

The Huffington Post took a glimpse at Ruth McClung’s campaign against U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva, and the extra help she’s getting from John McCain, which includes some office space (of course, don’t forget the ad for McClung with Jon Kyl and McCain in formal undertaker wear). You can read the entire post here, and a snippet below:

John McCain, lacking a viable challenger in his Arizona Senate race, has picked a proxy and is waging war against a longtime thorn in his side, Rep. Raul Grijalva, by cutting an ad for and sharing office space with Grijalva’s challenger, Ruth McClung.

While polls have shown Grijalva’s race to be a tight one despite the overwhelming Democratic registration advantage in the district, Washington operatives have expressed confidence in his ability to prevail largely because McClung isn’t seen as having the type of ground operation needed to get out the vote. But McCain certainly does have one. And even if McCain doesn’t fully hand over his entire apparatus to McClung, as long as he vigorously turns out Republicans in the district, they can reliably be presumed to be McClung supporters.

Without McCain, McClung, a 28-year-old newcomer to politics, has essentially no campaign operation. On Monday, HuffPost called the main headquarters number listed on McClung’s website and reached volunteer activist Beth Schmugge at her home. Schmugge explained that the campaign had no office space until recently and that she was volunteering to answer the phone when someone called. Reports the campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission confirm that no money has been spent on rent and otherwise details very meager spending. McClung’s mother, Gini Crawford, is acting as her campaign manager and the campaign has reimbursed her for modest campaign expenses. …

And McCain is now sharing office space with Grijalva’s opponent, subletting a chunk of his Tucson headquarters to the cash-strapped campaign of novice candidate Ruth McClung.

A McClung spokesman says that the campaign is reimbursing McCain for the office space in order to stay within campaign finance rules, but Grijalva’s backers wonder how much of McCain’s ground network is now at the disposal of McClung.

This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2010.

8 replies on “McClung and McCain: Office Mates”

  1. Sharing an office with McCain is better than Grijlva being Nancy Pelosi’s clone and voting for her agenda instead of working for us. Viva Ruth McClung!!!!

  2. I don’t see what the problem is here, is it because he’s feeling the lack of love and no one, other than SEIU, is helping him out. When you burn bridges the way raul has he has no one to blame but himself. I’m an hispanic male who is embarrassed to have him represent me & my family in Washington. Someone please buy that man an iron and some shirts that fit.

  3. Burnt bridges is so right!!! Grijalva burnt so many bridges when he called for and supported the boycott of our state. He can no longer be effective and work with our Senators and fellow delegation members. And now he minimizes his support of the boycott by saying it was a “mistake.” A “mistake” that cost some of his constituents their jobs or some of their income. A guy who makes these kind of “mistakes” has shown he is irresponsible and not worthy of reelection.

  5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/27/h…

    EXCLUSIVE: MCCAIN FLAGRANTLY BREAKING HIS OWN LAW – When Democrats complained that John McCain’s Senate campaign was illegally spending its money to back Raul Grijalva’s opponent Ruth McClung, McCain whipped out docs showing he had filed with the FEC to make the independent expenditure. But that means he can’t coordinate with the McClung campaign. HuffPost Hill snagged an email from the McClung camp to activists urging them to come into the McClung headquarters to do phone banking. The contact they give is a McCain staffer, Mike Sistak. It’d be difficult to define coordination any more clearly than that. Andrew Herman, a top election law attorney, calls the flagrant coordination “absurd” and “ridiculous.” “It’s certainly not within the letter and spirit of the law that bears the name of Mr. McCain,” he said. Why does McCain hate Grijalva so much, beyond the obvious? Paging Howard Zinn: It’s copper and uranium. “It’s those two issues, the uranium industry up in the Grand Canyon and Resolution Copper,” says Grijalva, who has blocked mining for both materials, digging that McCain wants to get going. “McClung doesn’t have a campaign infrastructure,” says Grijalva. “But McCain does have an infrastructure. And so their presence in these last remaining days will essentially be the McCain campaign.” (McClung’s camp says they’re paying for half the costs of the office and that the staffer was listed as a matter of convenience to activists.)

  6. It is crystal clear that Grijalva cannot be an effective legislator anymore if McCain and Kyl spend their own time and money to defeat him. If re-elected, despite all the last minute money that is being pumped into his campaign from numerous groups, he also would be in the minority in the House. In Congress even fellow Congressman from other states are showing a lack of confidence in Grijalva. Congressman Keith Ellison is working behind the scenes to push Grijalva aside and become the head of extreme Progressive Caucus.

    Voters in the district definately need to take a look at the big picture of who can represent them best for the next two years. Not that Grijalva has done a great job in the past eight years anyhow. The very little that he could boost about was all negated by the serious damage he did by calling for and supporing a boycott of the state and his constituents.

  8. Tedski – Read more slowly & carefully. He will be less effective in the minority and after angering his fellow delegation members of both parties. Also, I want him out because you don’t call for a boycott of your state and the people you represent. Grijalva’s mistake was irresponsible and hurt people!

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