I'm Losing Track Of How Many Republicans The DCCC Has Recruited To Run For Congress This Year

Tom O’Halleran, a 70 year old conservative Republican, served in the Arizona House from 2001 to 2006 and then served in the state Senate until 2009, when he lost his primary to fringe nut Steve Pierce. A former policeman, he makes his living as a bond trader and talk radio host.

In 2014, angry the Republican legislature wasn't dealing with a water issue, he quit the GOP and re-registered as an Independent and ran for the state Senate again when Republican Chester Crandell fell off a horse and died. O’Halleran was defeated by Republican Sylvia Allen. So last August the DCCC recruited him to switch his registration again and run for the House seat conservative New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick is giving up in her suicidal race against John McCain.

You'd be hard-pressed to find the word "Democrat" on his website, which gives you no idea how he's likely to vote in Congress, although there is a big endorsement from defeated right-wing Blue Dog, Ron Barber, who spent most of his short ugly time in Congress crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans against working families.

His last batch of ratings from groups that watch state legislators included a 50% from Planned Parenthood, a "C" from the Sierra Club, a "D" from immigration rights activists Border Action Network, a 50% from Equality Arizona and, last year, 59% from Stonewall Democrats of Arizona. The state gun nut association gave him an A+.

An actual Democrat, state Senator Barbara McGuire has an exploratory committee for the seat but the DCCC is ignoring her and Kirkpatrick has endorsed O’Halleran. And the GOP will have a lively primary to pick their candidate. In October Studboi1 announced he was also running for the seat, but under the other name he uses, Paul Babeu. He'll be battling it out with Arizona's ex-Secretary of State Ken Bennett and Gary Kiehne, a rich rancher. Studboi1, who goes into graphic descriptions of his genitals on sex hook-up sites, has his own sordid sources of raising money for his campaigns. And the DCCC couldn't come up with anything better than some tired Republican retread to put up for the seat?!?!?!