Posted on 09/17/2006 8:12:45 AM PDT by Spiff
Surrounded by flowers, American flags and balloons, Graf told the crowd "everyone's on board," and said fellow party members, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, "impressed on me how important this seat is."
Graf returns having raised more than $20,000 to take on Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, with another $100,000 pledged, his campaign says.
"We have been blessed to be able to pull everything together here, and within 48 hours we had calls from our entire congressional delegation, except for Congressman (Jim) Kolbe, who we have yet to meet with, and I hope within the next week or two we can sit down and talk," Graf said in an interview.
Kolbe, a retiring Republican who currently holds the seat, opted last week to stay out of the race, saying he could not support Graf because of their ideological disagreements.
In last Tuesday's primary, Graf beat Steve Huffman, who was supported by Kolbe and the national-level Republicans Graf is now courting.
One visitor at the airport who gave Graf a warm reception was Pat Sexton, a 55-year-old East Side resident, who showed up decked out in Graf gear, including a sign that read: "Hispanics for Graf." "I think he's great for the Hispanic community," said Sexton. "The Hispanic community is about strong family values, and that is what Randy is about."
Republicans hold an edge in the district where Graf is running against Giffords. Both are former state legislators and both will need to expand their support outside their respective parties in order to win.
"We do have about 100,000 registered independents in this district, and I don't think most of them are independent because they are middle of the road," Graf said. "They're frustrated Republicans, frustrated Democrats, and I guess we'll both have a very good opportunity to bring them back to the parties to a certain extent. I believe we have the right message."
While Graf went to Washington to curb any chance of the Republican Party's splitting in the wake of a divisive primary, both parties launched ads: Republicans going after Giffords, Democrats attacking Graf.
Graf said he hopes things don't get overly negative. "The parties are going to do what the parties are going to do," Graf said. "I look forward to debating one-on-one on the issues."
Ping
Sun 17 Sep 2006
The Republican nominee for CD 8, Randy Graf, arrived at the Tucson airport a little after 4:00 pm on Saturday. He was greeted by a large contingent of enthusiastic supporters.
His visit to D.C. went very well and the powers-that-be in the party would like to keep the seat in the Republican column.
Randy met with and received support from Speaker Dennis Hastert (IL-14), Majority Whip Roy Blunt (MO-7), Chief Deputy Majority Whip Eric Cantor (VA-7), Deputy Majority Whip Tom Feeney (FL-24), Chairman of the RSC Mike Pence (IN-6), and Republican Policy Committee member Phil English (PA-3.) Not bad for a quick trip to the capital.
Graf also met with and got the backing of NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds (NY-26) and all of the Arizona Republican House delegation except one.
Randy stepped off the place with checks in hand. I hope that Gabby was not counting on the Republicans abandoning CD 8 as part of her strategy.
Here is an article by Daniel Scarpinato of the Arizona Daily Star covering the event.
Saturday 9-16-06
Thank you for the ping. Go Randy Go!!
It's always nice to see the RINO establishment get its butt kicked.
I guess that means he could not support anyone who is ideologically right of his buddy Barney Franks.
I did not really say that did I?
Shame on me.
Yup.
Kolbe always has to be soooo anal.
"It's always nice to see the RINO establishment get its butt kicked."
Just wish Chaffee's butt had been kicked as well.
WOW!! What a great looking group!
I see it didn't take long for Giffords and the RATs to quote Huffman and Kolbe in their attack ads on Randy.
I think he will win. At least he has two votes, mine and my wife. Yesterday I was out and a strong Gifford supporter came up. He and I are good friends. He asked if I would put a Gifford sign in my yard. I said sure: I will consider it as soon as she tells us how she intends to reduce the deficit as she promises, how she intends to get us out of Iraq with honor as she promises, whether she will vote with the Democrats on taxes, the pledge of allegiance, school prayer, the death tax, gay marriage and all those other "unimportant issues." He just walked away!
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