Friends of Gov’s Budget Pick Hershberger, O’Halleran, Gibbons

Contact: For Immediate Release:
Rep. Eddie Farnsworth August 29, 2008

Friends of Gov’s Budget Pick Hershberger, O’Halleran, Gibbons
Protect Arizona’s Future Banks on Republican Big Spenders in Contested Primaries

MESA – With the help of four Republicans in the House and four Republicans in the Senate, Governor Janet Napolitano was able to pass a devastating budget containing over $2 billion in borrowing and spending gimmicks. Her plan included $1 billion for university construction to be paid for through taxes collected from increased gambling, and revenue-raising traffic cameras that will issue speeding tickets to pay for reckless state spending.

A group called Protect Arizona’s Future has spent over $120,000 to support Republicans who helped pass the budget and recruit other friends to replace those who have been critical of the Governor’s borrow and spend policies. Two of the Republicans who helped pass the current budget are Representative Pete Hershberger and Senator Tom O’Halleran. One of their recruits, immigration lawyer, Kevin Gibbons, is challenging Representative Russell Pearce for the District 18 Senate Seat.

Protect Arizona’s Future is using deceptive signs to support their candidates. They claim that they “Fight for Lower Taxes” and support “Strong Republican Values” when in fact, they voted against the 27 other Republican legislators who refused to support the Governor’s irresponsible budget. If you review the rankings from the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers or the Goldwater Institute, you will see that the candidates backed by Protect Arizona’s Future are truly not friends of the taxpayer.

Their tactics are especially troubling in Legislative District 18 where Protect Arizona’s Future is supporting Kevin Gibbons, the candidate who has been bankrolled with big dollars from Democrat supporters, employer sanctions opponents, groups that support open border policies and other state-wide special interests.

Russell Pearce has been an outspoken critic of this budget and has challenged the Governor to cut her reckless government spending programs. He has been a perennial champion in reducing the growth of government and protecting the taxpayer.

Protect Arizona’s Future and the special interests have thrown their support behind Kevin Gibbons, in an attempt to knock off a real conservative in the primary and replace a voice of fiscal responsibility with yet another big spending. Clearly, Gibbons is the Democrat’s choice in this Republican primary.

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric put forth by the Friends of the Governor’s Budget. Russell Pearce is the only Senate candidate for District 18 with the proven leadership skills and experience necessary in reversing our state’s fiscal crisis.

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Who is pulling Kevin Gibbons' strings?

Read Gibbons' latest campaign finance report.

Read Mesa Deserves Better's campaign finance report.

Read Judgment Matters' campaign finance report.

Franchisers spend $33,780 attacking Russell Pearce and his Employer Sanctions Law

For Immediate Release:
August 22, 2008


Franchisers spend $33,780 attacking Russell Pearce and his Employer Sanctions Law
"Mesa Deserves Better" and "Stop Illegal Hiring" Bankroll Campaign for Cheap Labor

MESA -When it comes to attacking Russell Pearce and his employer sanctions law, fast food franchise owners Jason Levecke and Mac Magruder have taken a three pronged approach: fund Pearce's opponent, subsidize a misleading personal attack campaign, and finance an initiative to weaken laws.

In all, the proponents of punishing Pearce and gut his employer sanctions law have directly spent $33,780. Here is their latest spending:

Magruder Family
$780 to Kevin Gibbons, Pearce's opponent
$10,000 to Mesa Deserves Better
$9,500 directly to Stop Illegal Hiring

Levecke Family
$4,000 to Mesa Deserves Better
$9,500 directly to Stop Illegal Hiring

"Now that the curtain has been pulled back, it's clear that these fast food franchisers are only looking to line their pockets. I think it's disturbing that they are spending so much money to attack me," said Rep. Pearce.

According to campaign finance reports, Magruder and Levecke's personal donations make up nearly half of the funds given to "Mesa Deserves Better," the controversial group targeting Pearce with misleading personal attacks. Affiliates of their "Stop Illegal Hiring" campaign donated the remaining funds, along with giving an additional $1,860 in donations to Kevin Gibbons.

Their ill-fated "Mesa Deserves Better" personal attack campaign on Russell Pearce and his family has been decried by hundreds of supporters, the East Valley Tribune, the Arizona Republic, and even Governor Janet Napolitano.

Russell Pearce is being challenged for the Arizona State Senate by immigration attorney Kevin Gibbons, who has outspent Pearce through donations from special interest groups. Democrats, and proponents of weakening the employer sanctions laws.

"The ultimate goal of this group is to roll back immigration policies and weaken Arizona's Employer sanctions laws by any means necessary," said Pearce. "Their proposed law eliminates required use of E-Verify and its 99.7% accuracy rate in favor of the Federal I-9 process, which is prone to more fraud. They want to gut the law and make sure I am not around to do anything about it."

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U.S. House of Representatives Learning About the “Real Kevin Gibbons”

For Immediate Release:
August 18, 2008

U.S. House of Representatives Learning About the “Real Kevin Gibbons”
www.RealKevinGibbons.com receives visits from Congressional Servers

MESA – Since the launch of theRealKevinGibbons.com nearly a month ago, the site has been a helpful location for voters to see a collection of information shared by others regarding Kevin Gibbons and his bid for Arizona State Senate in District 18.

According to traffic reports, the website has been of great interest to hundreds across the district and the state, including someone in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the past 30 days, the site has been visited by someone in a congressional office on government time at least 22 times.

Congressman Jeff Flake is the brother-in-law of Kevin Gibbons. Flake is busy seeking his fifth consecutive term in Congress, despite pledging to serve only three.

“I know that Congressman Flake stands with me in protecting taxpayer dollars,” said Russell Pearce, “Hopefully, he will speak out on the House floor against being involved in political races on taxpayer time. Perhaps, he will nominate this waste of dollars as his ‘egregious earmark of the week.’”

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Third Party Signs

It has come to our attention that a third party group has placed signs around District 18 that are similar to some of the artwork featured on theRealKevinGibbons.com. These signs were posted without our knowledge and are neither authorized by nor paid for by the Elect Russell Pearce committee.

How much do you really know about Kevin Gibbons?

What do the people attacking Russell Pearce have in common?

Kevin Gibbons and Cheap Labor

Connecting the Dots

Kevin Gibbons Funded by Employer Sanctions Opponents

Who is behind the group that is attacking Pearce?

The Same People.

From the East Valley Tribune:

A longtime Republican campaign consultant and the owner of a string of fast-food restaurants are behind a campaign to persuade Mesa residents to oust one of the most powerful Republicans from the Legislature.

Jason LeVecke told Capitol Media Services on Thursday he is helping to finance Mesa Deserves Better because he believes voters in west Mesa are not familiar with Russell Pearce, the man they first elected to the House in 2000 and three times since. Pearce, legally barred from serving more than eight consecutive years or four terms in the House, is running for the state Senate.

And LeVecke, owner of the Valley's Carl's Jr. and Pizza Patron franchises and a major Republican donor in previous years, was unapologetic about the content of a controversial flier mailed to Republican voters citing claims purportedly made by Pearce's wife about violent behavior when she filed for divorce 28 years ago. LuAnne Pearce now says those assertions were untrue and the petition was withdrawn shortly after it was filed.

"The voters deserve to know the character of the people they are electing," LeVecke said. "The people in the district don't know all the facts."

LeVecke said that mailing is not going to be the last word. He said Pearce has a "pattern of practice" that will become the focus of future fliers, including one going out today.But Nathan Sproul said it was his idea to target Pearce. Sproul, who has worked to elect Republicans, said defeating Pearce is necessary for the GOP to survive.

"The Republican Party in Arizona is either going to decide to be the party of Russell Pearce and the John Birch wing of the party - and let those people become the spokesmen and the leaders of our party - or we are going to follow the path of (Sens.) John McCain and Jon Kyl and be a party that stands for core value but is also inclusive of dissenting opinions," he said.

Sproul has not revealed the names of others who have contributed to the campaign or the amount LeVecke has donated.

The focus on Pearce is not coincidental.

LeVecke, who lives in Phoenix, is a primary foe of what may be the toughest law in the nation to punish companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers, a law crafted by Pearce. He also is one of the organizers of Wake Up Arizona, which filed suit to have the law overturned.

And Sproul is a consultant to a ballot campaign to try to persuade voters on Nov. 4 to undermine key provisions of that law.

Pearce told Capitol Media Services the comments about saving the Republican Party are just cover for the real agenda: Targeting him because of the employer sanctions law.

Pearce said he met with LeVecke three times when crafting the law and later changes adopted earlier this year. "I bent over backwards to make sure that nobody can get into trouble accidentally," he said.

The campaign is taking advantage of a provision in state law to ensure it does not indirectly help Pearce.

Candidates who run with public money, like Pearce, are entitled to a set amount of cash. If foes spend more, the candidates get a dollar-for-dollar match.

But that match ends when they hit three times the original limit. Pearce already hit that figure, $58,146 in his case, because of spending by his privately financed Republican primary foe Kevin Gibbons - meaning anything Mesa Deserves Better spends will not be matched.

LeVecke said his disagreements with Pearce go beyond his role in getting an employer sanctions measure approved.

It was the way he did it, LeVecke said, that led him to believe that Pearce lacks the character to be a legislator. He said Pearce at first said there would be no effort to take the issue to the ballot but then there was.

LeVecke and Sproul, however, are going after Pearce for his personal conduct as well as his stance on employer sanctions. One mailer pulls allegations from a 28-year-old divorce petition filed by his wife.

The complaint alleged that Pearce "is possessed of a violent temper, and has from time to time hit and shoved the wife, the last time being on February 3rd (1980), when he grabbed the wife by the throat and threw her down."

She never pursued the divorce and the couple reconciled. And in a prepared statement, she said the legal papers were filed "on my behalf" but the allegations she made "are not true."

Pearce said those who know him know the charges are false. "And it's a shame that anyone who doesn't know me would believe this garbage."

LeVecke, however, said it's more than just that. New fliers going out to voters will expose other pieces of Pearce's history, he said but refused to elaborate on what the history may be.

Photoshop submissions

Here are some submissions from our readers:

Kevin Gibbons and His Donors - I'm lovin' it!

Kevin Gibbons Photoshop Contest

Sonoran Alliance has a photoshop contest going on for the template signs that the unions are using to support various candidates around the State. One of the candidates is you guessed it, Kevin Gibbons. We had a couple of readers suggest that that the same photoshop fun could be applied in District 18. Here is a sample they provided to get the ball rolling:



They also gave us a blank version for your own photoshop fun. Just right click on the picture and select "save as." From there, open the picture in whatever type of software you have and let the fun begin. Send in your favorites to realkevingibbons@gmail.com.