Posted on 07/22/2010 6:44:08 AM PDT by CanadianYankee
National Republicans cheered when state Arizona state Sen. Jonathan Paton announced he would challenge Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in November. Democrats have already started to attack him.
But both sides might be fixated on the wrong guy.
Arizona state Democrats have tried to link Paton to predatory payday lenders, and the Arizona Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against him. Paton has second-tier status in the NRCC's "Young Guns" program for promising candidates and the National Republican Congressional Committee's recruiting chair, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, is a big personal fan.
But Paton still faces a primary against former Marine Sgt. Jesse Kelly, his long-shot, Tea Party-driven campaign poses a legitimate threat, insiders say.
"Jesse Kelly is one of the true darkhorse kind of stories of Arizona politics this cycle because he really came out of nowhere," said one longtime Arizona Republican consultant who has worked on races in Arizona's 8th District during several cycles.
"If you had said three months ago, 'Jonathan Paton and Jesse Kelly: Who wins?' I don't think anyone would have said Kelly. Now, well, people have taken notice," the consultant said.
Kelly has brought military-style discipline to a grassroots campaign, earning serious credibility through his fundraising. He has brought in $488,000 so far this cycle, just over $121,000 of it between April and June. Most of the money has come from small donors - most of whom have not yet given the maximum contribution.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
While Jesse may be slightly behind Paton in total monies raised, the fact that most of the money has come from small donors, as opposed to Paton's big-money McCain-type backers, indicates to me that Jesse has the popular winds at his back in the Primary.
Go Jesse!
Can Jesse beat the rat?
Not only can he beat him, IMHO I believe he WILL.
I’m very impressed with this guy. I’ve seen his town hall meetings on you tube. He’s just great - the kind of Congressman or Senator you’d love to clone.
CanadianYankee - your SIL is AWESOME. Borax Queen and I went and saw him at the townhall last night and he was hands down the most passionate and intense. It was so great to see him so fired up.
My favorite line of the night was “The tofu eaters are in charge of our environmental laws!” (or something to that effect)
GO KELLY!
Thank you MountainWoman, he is awesome :-)
His wife isn’t too bad, either. I’ve listened to her speak and watched her with Jesse - she’s a woman to walk alongside her man, not behind him.
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