Republic: Battle for District 5 Heats Up - 9/28/2008

Battle for District 5 Heats Up by Beth Duckett September 28, 2008 The Arizona Republic The heat is on in the battle for Arizona's 5th Congressional District. Republican David Schweikert emerged this month as the challenger to face U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat, in the Nov. 4 election. The candidates and their parties have already started criticizing each other. Democrats have homed in on Schweikert's three-year record as Maricopa County treasurer, a post he resigned last fall to run for Congress. Republicans have accused Mitchell, a former Tempe mayor, of being little more than a "grandfatherly" public figure. "To be a good representative, you have to be more than somebody's best friend," said Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. "Arizona needs somebody who is engaged and creating change, not waiting for it to happen." Mitchell has had his hands full juggling a campaign amid a national financial meltdown. The freshman Democrat said on Friday that he opposed the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout plan, calling it "fundamentally flawed." "It provided no oversight, no protection for taxpayers and little accountability," Mitchell said amid bipartisan talks to hammer out a new rescue plan. According to the Federal Election Commission, Mitchell has raised more than $1.8 million, with $1.3 million in his campaign coffers. Schweikert has brought in almost $1 million, according to the most recent FEC reports. The Republican is anticipating a boost next month from ally Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who sought this year's GOP presidential nomination. Thompson will be in Arizona Oct. 22 to attend a fundraiser for Tim Bee, the Republican taking on Democrat incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson's Congressional District 8. "Senator Thompson will be supporting David Schweikert's campaign," said Lauren Barnett, a Schweikert campaign spokeswoman. Republicans have high hopes of overtaking the district they presided over for 24 years before Mitchell's 2006 upset against incumbent J.D. Hayworth. The nonpartisan Political Cook Report lists the District 5 race as "competitive," leaning slightly toward Mitchell. So far, it seems to have lived up to the hype. Shortly after the Sept. 2 primary, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a scathing television commercial targeting Schweikert's past performance as county treasurer. The 30-second ad details a 2007 audit citing "weaknesses" at the treasurer's office. "David Schweikert couldn't get the job done as county treasurer," said Yoni Cohen, a spokesman for the DCCC. "Arizona families simply can't afford to have Schweikert bring his record of mismanagement and incompetence to Congress." Schweikert fired back Thursday, calling on Mitchell to give back $28,000 in campaign donations he received from Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, is under investigation amid allegations he failed to report income on a beach home in the Dominican Republic, among other charges. "If Harry Mitchell truly believes in ethical reform, he should return the money," Schweikert said in a news release. "It's never too late to do the right thing." The Mitchell camp had its own qualms on Schweikert's fiscal-reform policy. A July statement in the Phoenix Business Journal said Schweikert favors a national sales tax instead of the current federal income-tax program. The result, according to the Mitchell campaign, would be a hefty jump in Arizona's sales tax. In 2005, the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform said that to remain revenue neutral a retail sales tax on a broad base with a cash grant program would require at least a 34 percent tax rate. Arizona's base sales-tax rate is currently 5.6 percent. A national sales tax would replace the current tax structure, thereby eliminating the home-mortgage deduction, said Mitchell campaign spokesman Seth Scott. "It's simply a bad idea," Scott argued. "We need to do everything we can to keep people in their homes." Barnett rebuffed the claim, saying Schweikert has only "considered" amending the tax code. Proponents of the national sales tax have included former GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee and Mike Gravel, a former senator from Alaska who ran as a Democrat in this year's presidential election. "Right now, our tax code is set up so that it penalizes savings and discourages investment," Barnett said. "And that's against the American spirit."

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