Tim Bee is desperate for money. That’s why he sucked it up and asked his political hero, George W. Bush, to fly out to his district and raise a reported $600,000 for his campaign against freshman Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
But Tim Bee isn’t the only one hurting for funds. In a recent editorial by the Tucson Citizen, the paper is raking Bee over the coals for the costs of Bush’s swanky private fundraiser at a posh home in the Catalina foothills: $99,000 for the services of 161 police officers and 165 sheriff’s deputies over the course of two days in July. From the editorial:
Bee is a third-generation Tucsonan with a fine record of public service, but his campaign now is tapping our community’s public safety resources and not giving back. That’s wrong. And we expect better from Bee.
His staff needs to pull some money out of that $600,000 windfall and put it back where it belongs: in the budgets of our local law enforcement agencies.
In tight economic times like these, that’s the only appropriate response. Public safety officers cannot be used for purely private security.
The Arizona Daily Star agrees, and has also called for Bee’s campaign to reimburse taxpayers. The only problem? Bee will have none of such talk, as his campaign says that they have “no plans” on reimbursing the city of Tucson or Pima County for the security costs.
And it’s no small wonder why Bee is holding firm: According to his pre-primary report filed with the FEC last night, Bee only raised $278,000 from July 1st through August 13th, including just $184,000 from the “Tim Bee Arizona Trust”, the committee set up specially for Bush’s fundraiser — that’s less than a third of what the event raised, as the remainder went to other costs associated with the event and to the state party and the NRCC.
As we reported last night, Bee has less than $590,000 in the bank compared to Giffords’ $2.15 million. Was the hassle of sacrificing his “moderate” image, and the follow-up of the local media roasting him for squandering taxpayers’ dollars worth the $184,000 that his event brought in?
SSP currently rates this race as Lean Democratic.
“As we reported last night, Bee has less than $590,000 in the bank compared to Giffords’ $2.15 million. Was the hassle of sacrificing his “moderate” image, and the follow-up of the local media roasting him for squandering taxpayers’ dollars worth the $184,000 that his event brought in?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
In the August Senate cattle call I predicted, as I had in June, a gain of about a dozen Democratic seats. (And thereby provoked some poor soul into such blind frenzy that he misread the instructions and my explanations. He seems to have quit posting at this site and I’m sorry it turned out that way. But I digress.)
I took a pass a week or two back when we were asked to round up our House winners, because I felt I didn’t know enough or have time to think them through.
Last night I read the calm, cool, and collected diary by dreaminonempty predicting a gain of 21 House seats, and the comment by SE-779 listing 72 (later 69) seats he thinks we’ll take in November. I gathered up my courage (no, I was not drinking!) and predicted in a comment that we’d win more than 50.
Since my forecast that we’d win a dozen seats, the outlook has improved greatly in North Carolina, Georgia, and Oklahoma. So I’m cool with that.
We’ve been riding a run of good luck in the Senate races since, well, the last bit of bad news that comes to mind was when Ms Figures declined to get out of the way of a candidate who could win in Alabama.
Now I read stories like this about House races and it looks like a run of good luck here too. So I’m cool with forecasting 50 (net) House seats too.