Jan Brewer, Jeff Flake, and the other Republicans rumored to be interested in running for governor next year can just hang it up now - the race for the Republican nomination for governor next year is all over but for the actual, you know, voting.
During a visit to the Secretary of State's website, I came across the committee info for the only currently organized committee for a gubernortorial run in 2010.
Meet Samuel Timothy Willis, running as Tim Willis.
Having never heard of him, I performed some intensive research* into his background.
* = Googled him. :)
Details from his campaign website -
He lives in Wickenburg and is the pastor of a church in Congress, Arizona. (Interesting note - Congress, AZ is also the home of recently convicted and defeated Republican U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, formerly of Alaska.)
His wife, Barbara, is the President of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, based in AZ. (CPC is an anti-choice organization fronting as a medical clinic. Donna at Democratic Diva has a post on the organization here. NARAL has info here.)
He thinks that the state budget is spent "frivolously" and that state government is "bloated" and that state employees should miss a few paychecks. In addition, he thinks that the governor (Jan Brewer), state treasurer (Dean Martin) and the head of the Department of Administration (William Bell) are "out of control spendthrifts." HUH?!?
He believes that the state's budget should be balanced by cutting programs that are "important to liberals."
He thinks that state government agency heads have cut services to taxpayers in order to continue supporting undocumented immigrants. This is better than anything I could make up if I was creating a candidate in a satire.
He's a big fan of tinkle-down economics (the farther down you are in the economic food chain, the more tinkle lands on you), as he thinks that wealthy people getting dressed up for a party and hiring servants for that party is a good way to stimulate the economy.
He worked for a distributing company before becoming a pastor in the 1980s. Since then, all of his listed experience is related to that line of work.
To sum up:
He has no political experience, nor does he have experience in overseeing a large organization (his website claims that the congregation of his church numbers fewer than 100 members).
He's a hardcore social winger who blames "liberals" for all that ails AZ. He makes Len Munsil look like a bleeding heart.
He has absolultely no clue about how fiscally lean AZ government was even *before* the current budget crisis.
In short, he's the wet dream of the "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" branch of the Republican Party, and he *will* win the support of the Randy Pullen-led AZGOP.
...OK, OK - even a dyed-in-the-wool liberal like me doesn't actually believe Willis will get the Rep nomination next year.
However, having fringe Rep candidates already crawling out of the woodwork can only help the Democrats regain the 9th floor of the Capitol, and help AZ get back on the path to fiscal and political sanity.
It's even likely that this blog post will be the high point in his campaign's public profile.
Of course, if his candidacy *does* gain a foothold, every Dem in the state who's ever aspired to the governor's office will be lining up to run against him.
Yup, it's going to be a fun year and two-thirds. :))
Later!
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