Doesn’t sound like a serious threat to McCain, but it should make the primary interesting if nothing else.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
Social conservatives tolerated John McCain as the party’s nominee, but never trusted him, and he now appears to be facing a serious primary from the right in Arizona next year.
Chris Simcox, the founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a prominent figure in the anti-immigration movement, will announcing tomorrow at an event on the Mexican border that he’s resigned from the group to run in the 2010 Senate primary.
From a forthcoming release:
“John McCain has failed miserably in his duty to secure this nation’s borders and protect the people of Arizona from the escalating violence and lawlessness,” Simcox said. “He has fought real efforts over the years at every turn, opting to hold our nation’s border security hostage to his amnesty schemes. Coupled with his votes for reckless bailout spending and big government solutions to our nation’s problems, John McCain is out of touch with everyday Arizonans. Enough is enough.”
McCain was forced to abandon his own immigration reform legislation during last year’s Republican Primary, a move that may have cost him substantial Hispanic support to which his record could have given him access.So he’s basically getting it from both sides on this one.
Simcox, with a national base and a high profile on the right, is well positioned to give McCain a serious local headache. He’ll find some allies among the conservatives who recently took over the Arizona Republican Party from McCain’s allies, and he has a national fundraising base.
Arizona GOP’ers are hardcore anti-immigrant so that could pose problems. Simcox’s main issue will be proving that he’s more than just a one-note candidate and could be viable in a general election. On a related note, whatever happened to the rumors Hayworth was going to challenge McCain? There was a bunch of chatter last January about it, but it’s died down since.
Hopefully this will convince a viable AZ Democrat to jump in now there’s the prospect of a weakened opponent (I’m looking at you, Gordon and Giffords).
Is the small but critical possibility that this douchenozzle will be my Senator. I almost want McCain to win, because you never slap around those racist immigration nutters enough. Hopefully this gets a credible candidate to take another look, though.
I’d love to see the Reelect/Consider Someone Else/Replace number out here… kos? You just did UT-SEN for Christsake…
Check out the reader comments on the politico link. Most of them are not “omg why is this loon running?”. Most of them are republicans gushing at the fact that they have a wingnut to back against McCain and are looking for a Simcox website to donate money to him.