Coward.

From now on, that's how I will refer to JD Hayworth (R-Coward).

[Note - I'll do a more detailed report on the Pederson/Kyl part of the forum, as well as a general report, later.]

There was a candidate forum tonight at Temple Beth Israel in north Scottsdale.

A number of candidates from LD7, LD8, the McDowell Mountain Justice Precinct JP race, CD5, and the U.S. Senate race were there.

JD wasn't there, though.

He sent a surrogate in his place.

He wasn't the only candidate to do that. Michele Reagan, a Republican LD8 candidate for the state house, sent her mother in her stead. Donna Reagan expressed her daughter's regrets at her inability to attend due to a scheduling conflict and did a fine job of representing her daughter.

The same cannot be said about JD's surrogate, Jonathan and Irit Tratt. (I may have the names incorrect here. No disrespect intended. I'll be happy to correct it if someone has the correct spelling. Thx.)

[On edit: Thanks to the Lofty Donkey for the correct names. I've updated where appropriate.]

This was not a predominantly friendly crowd toward the likes of JD and Jon Kyl, but at least Kyl handled the boos and outbursts from the audience smoothly.

One of JD's surrogates, Mrs. Tratt, did alright. Mostly she just read campaign literature.

However, JD's other surrogate, Mr. Tratt, was unprepared, combative and hostile, speaking down to the audience.

And that is far and away the best thing that I can say about his performance.

In what should have been JD's "introduction" speech, he spoke almost entirely about Israel and JD's support for it. He also ranted for a while about "Islamofascism" and terrorism.

He ignored every other issue.

Worse still, he started driving the audience toward the exits with an reference to murdered reported Daniel Pearl. Many of the people present found his use of the brutal killing of Mr. Pearl in a campaign speech to be offensive in the extreme.

However, many people stood fast and tried to stay through the rest of the program, if only to listen to Harry.

Mr. Tratt was frequently jeered when he spoke. And to be fair, he provoked most of it with his style, demeanor and disdain for the facts.

For instance, he lied about Harry Mitchell attending a CAIR fundraiser.

Also, his insistence on ignoring most issues besides Israel won him no supporters in this audience, even though many were members of the temple. Continued support for Israel is an important issue, but it's far from the only issue, and this audience wanted more.

The audience's steadfastness lasted until the 'closing' part of the program, when Mr. Trapp proclaimed from the stage that, practically speaking, JD "is a more observant Jew" than most of the people in the room.

At that point, most of a now very angry audience rose from their seats and left the room.

I joined them, as I found Mr. Tratt's presentation to be almost painful, and since I'm not a professional journalist, I'm not getting paid to listen to that garbage.

On the plus side, the attendees *were* rewarded with a presentation by Harry that defined why he is the best choice to represent CD5. He spoke about specific issues facing the district and the country, and had specific ideas to address those issues.

He also showed that he is an experienced speaker, remaining unfazed by the carnival sideshow that represented JD. He also did not let the moderator's (AZ Rep society columnist Kathy Shayna Shocket) personal bias in favor of JD affect his performance.

If there were any undecided voters in the audience (and judging from the number of candidate stickers that people wore, there weren't too many :) ), they would have been impressed by Harry's professional demeanor, if nothing else.

As for JD?

...Perhaps he truly had someplace better to be tonight.

Even though Jim Pederson and Jon Kyl have a televised debate in Tucson tomorrow night and they could *both* be there.

Even though a most of the other candidates had other meetings to attend, they could be there.

...Perhaps he didn't want to face questions about his idolization of Henry Ford.

...Perhaps he didn't want to face questions about his ideological (and intellectual) twin Russell Pearce and Mr. Pearce's emailed links to the website of neo-Nazi group the National Alliance.

Even though Sen. Kyl was able to face an unfriendly audience.

The bottom line is that JD grossly insulted the organizers of the forum, the congregation of Temple Beth Israel, the other candidates, the audience, and the voters of CD5 when he blew off the forum and sent Mr. Trapp to harangue us in his place.

He should apologize for that insult. Now.

At every forum that I have attended where a candidate had need to send a surrogate in his/her stead, the surrogate spoke about their candidate's positions and records. In short, they did a good job of representing their candidate.

The worst part of all of this for JD?

Most of the audience may have left thinking the same thing about Mr. Tratt.