S.H.I.E.L.D. has posted a second article about Mr. Robert Graham titled Robert Graham and Prop 121: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Before Mr. Graham’s supporters blast both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Gilbert Watch with another round of insulting, vile emails after our last articles, consider this. Both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Gilbert Watch do our best to vet our own and pass on the vetting to you. Our work consists of days of dogged research, and more days of analysis. For what? Certainly not for money. Certainly not for power. We bang our heads against the wall in our fight for Individual Liberties, which are going down in flames all across our country. We cannot afford to elect a single "Republican" leader who won’t stand up for our Constitution and our Individual Liberties.
We don’t want Mr. Graham to fail in this battle.
We offer every State Committeeman who will be voting this Saturday with the results of our labor, on a silver platter. Free of charge. Beat up the messengers if you wish. Understand that, should Mr. Graham be elected, YOU will be the ones to help Mr. Graham succeed. The job of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Gilbert Watch is done after Saturday.
It will be up to you to help Mr. Graham choose the right battles. Someone needs to help him brush up on "target marketing." As S.H.I.E.L.D. has noted in the most recent article, Prop 121 was a waste of resources. It was hugely unpopular even among Democrats. It went down 67% to 33%.
It will be up to you to help Mr. Graham spend money frugally. As S.H.I.E.L.D. has noted, his fund-raising was in the hands of political advisors who raked in over half of the Prop 121 income for themselves. The rest was for the usual and customary services that a well organized grassroots group can do: web design, door hangers, mailers, signs.
It will be up to you to caution Mr. Graham to look before he leaps, take names, and "get it in writing." His Americans for Responsible Leadership (ARL) PAC contributed $7,500 to the Republican Victory Fund, before the Primary. ARL also donated $50,000 to the House Victory Fund. It was the largest single contribution from any other source. Did Mr. Graham "responsibly" ask those "responsible" for the Republican Victory Fund and the House Victory Fund how this money would be spent? Did he know who in the organization would decide how it would be spent? Did he get anything in writing? Or just verbally? Ultimately, "the FUND" (since no one has taken responsibility for who did it) spent plenty of those contributions toward the Primary against Republican John Fillmore, in favor of Republican Rich Crandall. This money was supposed to be used to defeat Democrats in the General, not Republicans in a Primary. In fact, the Arizona Legislature turned a little Blue, didn’t it.
It will be up to you to help Mr. Graham keep our State Legislature RED. Maybe if Graham’s Americans for Responsible Leadership (ARL) PAC had donated more than $801.00 to Frank Antenori, Mr. Antenori wouldn’t have lost to a Democrat. Instead, ARL gave $11.5K to Andy Tobin, who probably didn’t need the money. (Remember, the Republican Victory Fund and House Victory Fund, cited above, got $57,500 from ARL.)
Who else lost? Right. Vernon Parker! Mr. Graham donated to Ben Quayle. Granted, the donation was made before Quayle deserted his own district, fearful of a fight with Leftist Kyrsten Sinema. Quayle decided instead to run against fellow Republican David Schweikert. Quayle might have actually beaten Sinema had he stayed. He certainly would have retained the respect of most conservatives. So Ben Quayle used Graham’s contribution to fight Schweikert. Is it possible that Mr. Graham could have requested his money be returned to be used to help Vernon Parker more than he did?
Maybe you could explain to Mr. Graham the importance of focusing on Arizona, and also help him differentiate between the Ruling Elite Republicans versus grassroots conservatives. Mr. Graham’s ARL donated to Orrin Hatch in his Primary battle with TEA Party backed conservative former Utah State Senator Dan Liljenquist.
It will be up to you to help Mr. Graham brush up on some subtleties. For example, Mr. Graham, along with some well known anti-Russell Pearce moderates, plus some open borders groups, joined together in contributing to Phil Lovas in his State Representative campaign. Of course, Phil Lovas’s wife owns Lovas, LLC, a political consultant who was one of the many political consultants that was paid out of those hefty contributions made by Graham’s ARL, to defeat Prop 204, a permanent sales tax increase, another proposition that was unpopular with many voters, including Governor Jan Brewer.