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PHOENIX — When Senator John McCain broke his silence Monday on his home state’s tough, new immigration enforcement bill, some immigrant advocates wished he had kept quiet and worried that he was backpedaling on what had been one of his signature bipartisan issues. Perhaps more than anything these days, though, Senator McCain’s decision to endorse the measure as a “good tool” signals the rightward tilt of his party and his re-election battle with a conservative primary challenger. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News on Monday, Mr. McCain said: “The state of Arizona is acting and doing what...

April 18, 2010 Show -- Our Guest...... J.D. Hayworth Candidate for U.S. Senate Running Against RINO John McCain in Arizona

During a discussion of John McCain's drift rightward on Wednesday's Morning Joe, MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle smeared the Arizona Senator as more scared of Republican primary challenger J.D. Hayworth than he was of his Vietnamese torturers. Barnicle mocked, "The ultimate sadness is that, here, in the 21st century, running for re-election, he shows more fear of J.D. Hayworth than he showed toward his captors in North Vietnam." [MP3 audio available here] A transcript of the exchange, which aired at 8:05am EDT, follows: JOE SCARBOROUGH: Is he angry and bitter, Mike Barnicle? MIKE BARNICLE: To me, there is a sadness to...

Alternate headline: “Artist Formerly Known As Maverick soon to be Artist Formerly Known As Senator.” McCain has been losing ground since January when he picked up 53% of the potential GOP Primary vote and Hayworth had only 31% support. Last month, the longtime senator and 2008 GOP presidential candidate earned 48% of the vote, while 41% of likely primary voters supported his challenger. Eighty-six percent (86%) of GOP Primary voters in Arizona think the recently-passed national health care bill should be repealed, with 78% who strongly favor repeal. Fifty percent (50%) of those who strongly favor repeal support Hayworth; 41%...

Both Republican hopefuls hold an early advantage in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 telephone survey of the U.S. Senate race in Arizona. Newly announced Democratic candidate Rodney Glassman, a Tucson City Council member, earns 32% support to Senator John McCain's 54%. Eight percent (8%) would vote for some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. If McCain's GOP Primary challenger, former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, is the Republican in the race, he gets 48% support, while Glassman picks up 39% of the vote. Seven percent (7%) would opt for some other candidate, while another seven percent (7%) are undecided....

Incumbent John McCain now earns just 47% support to challenger J.D. Hayworth’s 42% in Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely primary voters.

In a new web video, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) paints his primary challenger J.D. Hayworth as a birth-certificate-searching, horse-marriage-fearing, Dracula-believing whackadoo. Hayworth, a former congressman, is mounting a challenge from the right and attacking McCain as overly moderate. Although Hayworth is still lagging in the polls, he could give McCain a serious run for his money. The video, using clips from the Lion King and Mars Attacks, says Hayworth considers the "most pressing challenges" to be President Obama's birthplace, interspecies marriage and whether Dracula is real. Also, martians.

PHOENIX - Arizona Senator John McCain is getting some heat because of video made by his campaign. A Web video just released by the McCain campaign is under the guise of being a message from his U.S. Senate race opponent former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. "I've stood up against the grave threat of man-horse marriage," the announcer says on the video, followed by Hayworth's own comments, "if you really had affection for your horse, you could marry your horse." CNN's Anderson Cooper says the video attacks Hayworth on things that some Republicans take seriously. Republican strategist Ed Rollins says McCain should...

TUCSON—Among lawmakers threatened with losing their seats this November because of federal expansions enacted under President Barack Obama is the man who was his presidential challenger, Sen. John McCain. Arizona's August primary was considered a lock for the elder statesman just months ago. But his record of reaching across the aisle on legislation ranging from immigration to climate change has left some Republican voters wondering whether they can depend on him to fight Democrats on key issues. The title McCain once prized as an asset, "maverick," has left the door open for a challenge from former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth....

From NBC's Mark Murray A new Research 2000/Daily Kos poll shows Arizona Sen. John McCain with a comfortable 15-point lead over GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth, 52%-37%. Interestingly, both men are viewed favorably among Arizona Republicans. McCain's fav/unfav with them is 76%-19%, and Hayworth's is 61%-16%.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is fighting back hard against claims made by his primary opponent J.D. Hayworth that he is soft and wavering on immigration reform —calling Hayworth's comments "dishonest," "disgraceful" and "despicable." Hayworth, who attacked the former presidential nominee on Arizona television, accused McCain of flip-flopping on the issue of amnesty for electoral gain after news broke during the weekend that an illegal immigrant allegedly killed an Arizona citizen and the senator called for troops to be deployed to the state's border. The McCain campaign acted swiftly, with communications director Brian Rogers blasting the following release: "It is despicable...

PHOENIX, Arizona -- Behind a Dunkin' Donuts in a shopping center on East Cactus Road, J.D. Hayworth's Senate campaign headquarters has a low-budget look. Near the front door, pinned to a cubicle wall, is a campaign T-shirt proclaiming Hayworth "The Consistent Conservative," offered for sale at $15 each. Volunteers are stuffing envelopes at a folding table that holds seven telephones, the phone lines dangling down from the ceiling. A large bulletin board is festooned with letters from supporters, including a woman from Dewey, Arizona, who wrote to say, "Sock it to him, please!" The "him" is, of course, Sen. John...

PHOENIX -- In 1994, when first running for Congress, J.D. Hayworth, who today is 51 and trying to wrest from John McCain, 73, the Arizona Republican Party's Senate nomination, went jogging in Washington wearing a T-shirt given to him by some Arizona loggers. Federal solicitude for the supposedly endangered spotted owl was bedeviling the timber industry, and Hayworth's shirt read: "If two teenagers can procreate in the back seat of a Volkswagen, why does a spotted owl need 2,000 acres?" Hayworth's jog intersected President Clinton's, so Hayworth subsequently told the loggers he had "run your message past the president." Hayworth's...

Listen Up! Great New Tune! McCain's Got to Go! This one says it all! The CD came by mail anonymously to the Terry Anderson show. "Your career has hit a snag, it's time to pack your bags...it's time to hit the road!"FLUSH the JOHN.mp3

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- The man who hopes to wrest the Republican nomination away from four-term Arizona Sen. John McCain blasted the 2008 presidential candidate for his positions on immigration and border security at a Tea Party rally here on Sunday. Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who has emerged as a formidable primary challenger to McCain, seized on amnesty for illegal immigrants and border control, which have become defining issues in the state's GOP Senate primary race. "It is unconscionable that nearly a decade after 9/11 the backdoor of the United States remains open," Hayworth told hundreds of Tea Party members gathered...

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - John McCain is reuniting with his former running mate Sarah Palin, but not all Palin fans are happy about it. A handful of Palin supporters have set up outside a rally in Tucson featuring McCain and Palin. Former congressman and conservative talk-radio host JD Hayworth has launched a primary challenge to McCain saying the four-term Arizona senator isn't conservative enough for Arizona voters. Jennifer Leslie of Oro Valley, Ariz., says she's an avid Palin fan but will be voting for Hayworth in the August primary.

COCHISE COUNTY - News 4 has confirmed that a well-known rancher in Southeastern Arizona has died. Investigators say Rob Krentz was found shot to death Saturday night near his ranch. Saturday morning Krentz reportedly left the ranch on a quad and called home a short time later to report an illegal immigrant, whom he thought was in need of medical attention. That was the last time anyone heard from him. Investigators located Krentz alongside his dog who we understand had been shot. Krentz leaves behind and wife and 3 children. According to the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of...

One of my very favorite bloggers on the Right - Powerline's John Hinderaker - wrote a post earlier today entitled 'Biker Girl Campaigns for McCain'. By Hinderaker's own admission, his sole motivation for writing it was to show a perfectly gratuitous photograph of Palin looking great in a black leather biker jacket on the campaign trail. No complaints there. However, I have a bone to pick with the rest of John's comments: Sarah Palin was in Arizona yesterday, campaigning for John McCain in his primary contest against former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. This was an appropriate demonstration of loyalty toward the...

Election 2010: Arizona Republican Primary for Senate Arizona GOP Senate: McCain 48%, Hayworth 41% Thursday, March 18, 2010 Email a Friend Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement Quantcast Longtime incumbent John McCain now leads conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth by just seven points in Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Arizona GOP Primary voters shows McCain ahead 48% to 41%. Three percent (3%) favor another candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. Following the announcement that Sarah Palin would campaign for his reelection, McCain opened up a 53% to 31% lead over...

Had Sarah Palin not been on the national scene right now, things would be SO MUCH WORSE! Obamacare and Cap & Tax would have passed months ago without her contributions to public discourse. (Death Panels anyone? Or her Washington Post editorial on Climategate?) Obamacare not only would have passed sooner, but it would have come without any of the "compromises." Beginning with her endorsement of Doug Hoffman in the NY-23, we take for granted how much her name lends legitimacy to the Tea Party movement and to ALL the *contested* primaries going on in the country, INCLUDING the one in...