Maricopa County Republicans Condemn McCain

NEWS & ANALYSIS

Maricopa County Republicans Condemn McCain for Straying from the GOP Reservation

By Dennis Durband
July 8, 2005

By a vote of 17-3, with two abstentions, the Maricopa County Republican Party’s governing board has voted to express its dissatisfaction with the representation of senior U.S. Senator John McCain.

The Executive Guidance Committee passed an amended resolution during its monthly meeting Thursday night. The initial resolution, introduced by Legislative District 11 Chairman Rob Haney, called for a “Resolution of Censure and Shame Over the Representation of John McCain.” Phil Mason introduced an amended resolution that won passage.

Motions to table the resolution and to withhold release of the action for 30 days until McCain could respond were defeated.

Representatives of both Arizona senators, McCain and Jon Kyl, were in attendance to oppose the resolution.

The resolution finds fault with McCain over five issues:

McCain has attacked First and Second Amendment rights through his support for Campaign Finance Reform and his legislation attempt to close down gun shows;

McCain has done great harm to our national defense and economy by twice voting against drilling in the Alaskan Oil Reserves;

McCain is opposed to the amending the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman as stated in the proposed federal marriage amendment act;

McCain has allied with the liberal Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy to introduce another immigration amnesty program for illegal aliens, ignoring the vast majority of Arizona residents to take strong action to stop the invasion of the United States; and

McCain led the derailment of the Republican strategy to end the filibuster of presidential judicial and ambassador appointments, undermining Republican leadership. The Executive Guidance Committee supports the position of both President Bush and Senate President Bill Frist to end the filibuster of nominees.

The EGC then resolved to “express our extreme displeasure with our own Arizona senior Senator John McCain for undermining the conservative mandate of the 2004 election, and state that we condemn John McCain’s betrayal of trust Republican voters placed in him. We further state that only under extremely ‘extraordinary circumstances’ will we support the candidacy of John McCain for President of the United States. We urge other Republican organizations to likewise convey to Senator McCain that they will not support his candidacy.”

Maricopa County GOP becomes the third Republican organization this summer to pass a resolution against the political betrayal of Senator McCain. Last month, the Arizona Republican Assembly voted unanimously to censure McCain, and the GOP Legislative District 11 voted 32-18 to do likewise.