Saturday, September 02, 2006

Today I was threatened with arrest. The crime? Calling a Republican, "a Republican."

Today I went to a rally sponsored by the White Mountain Democrats, where we heard from candidates including Senatorial candidate Jim Pederson, Attorney General Terry Goddard (who was instrumental in pushing forward the case against Warren Jeffs, which I blogged on a few days ago) and two of our Congressional candidates, Bob Donahue and Mike Caccioppoli (who I endorsed in this post a couple of weeks ago.) We also heard from candidates for Corporation Commission, Superintendent of Instruction and State Senate. As this is ten days before the primary election a number of people came to learn more about the candidates.

There was a minor incident as well that involved me, and I would like to address that here. Bradley Carlyon is a Republican running for Superior Court Judge against Tom Wing (who I've known for some time, and I was even more impressed with once I saw him in action back when I was on a grand jury earlier this year-- Judge Wing two or three times filled in for the usual judge in accepting-- or not accepting-- the indictments we sent him; Judge Wing didn't rubber stamp them, but took the time to question them and refused to accept a couple that had serious flaws.) Although judgeships are partisan elections here in which each party selects its nominee in the primary just as we do for other positions, judges are not designated on the general election ballot by partisan affiliation. Neither Judge Wing nor Carlyon have primary opponents so they are already campaigning for November.

So Bradley Carlyon's official campaign vehicle, plastered with signs was parked at the rally, and put right in front where it was impossible to miss, apparently designed to fool Democrats. After all, who would be at a Democratic rally just days before the primary? mainly Democrats. Conspicuously absent from Carlyon's vehicle was any indication that he was a Republican. So the attempt was being made to misrepresent Bradley Carlyon as 'one of the faithful' to faithful Democrats.

So, I decided to write a note on a piece of paper. It said, "This Guy is a REPUBLICAN, running against Tom Wing." So the note was factually correct, and not insulting, except to someone who does not want to be identified as a Republican.

When I went to put it on the vehicle (using tape which would not leave any mark on the window), the owner (who it turns out is Mr. Carlyon's wife) came storming out and threatened to call the police and have me handcuffed if I touched her vehicle. Of course, if I attached it to her vehicle then I would have in effect 'given' it to her and she would have been perfectly within her rights to have removed it, ripped it to shreds and thrown it in the trash, but apparently that thought never crossed her mind and she wanted to call the cops.

So seeing an opportunity here, I decided to do it. Most probably the officer would show up and tell her something to the effect of, "You wasted my time with THIS?" And frankly I was hoping to be arrested, because if it got into the papers then it would certainly embarrass Mr. Carlyon more than me, if I got arrested just for telling people he is a Republican, and in any case he is running for office and I'm not.

I talked to my party chair first and asked him if he could take care of my two kids and see that they got home safely in the 'extremely unlikely' event I was actually arrested over this. So then I put the sign on, Mrs. Carlyon angrily stomped over and got out her cell phone and told me it was 'my last chance.' I really did want her to call, but Ken (my party chair) told me that he thought I'd made my point and could put the sign up next to the vehicle on a portable easel. And I can see why he probably said that-- the event should garner some positive local press for the White Mountain Democrats and they might not want to louse it up with an incident involving police. I can respect that line of thinking though I had no intention of giving in to Mrs. Carlyon's threats. So I put it on the easel next to the vehicle. Then later on Ken took the mike and told people they shouldn't be fooled and that the signage was for 'Tom Wing's Republican opponent.'

I would have been happy to be arrested in order to make a Republican candidate look like a fool (especially for objecting to a sign that merely identified him as a Republican). As it is though, it is comforting to note that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who (in the words of Maryland Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Michael Steele) now have to deal with that 'scarlet letter 'R.' They can thank George Bush for that.

15 comments:

EAPrez said...

Unbelievable!

Tom & Icy said...

That was amusing. It does appear that the Repuplican party is beginning to crack or break up.

Anonymous said...

The easel idea was a very good one. I don't think putting your message *on* the car was, though.

I can't help but chuckle about the similarity between "Carlyon" and the fact that the car was lyin' to folks about his party registration.

Chuck said...

"As it is though, it is comforting to note that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who (in the words of Maryland Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Michael Steele) now have to deal with that 'scarlet letter 'R.' They can thank George Bush for that.">

Hell yes!

Way to go Eli. For what its worth, I'm proud of you!

Anonymous said...

Hah! Excellent story. Not to wish you ill or anything, but it would have made a better story if you had been arrested and it showed up in the newspaper. :)

Tom & Icy said...

I was just thinking, though. Maybe he was just protecting his car. If he had R stickers at a D meeting, then someone might scratch up his paint job or something.

shrimplate said...

The Scarlet Letter... hey Eli, I think you have created a really great meme.

Ok if we use this and run with it?

R= The Scarlet Letter.

Loving it, dude.

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain; go to www.americaswrongfullyconvicted.com You all ain't seen nor heard anything yet... click on the red star for wrongfully convicted, then click on the photo of Joel K. Barr, then all of you - readers, I mean, open your minds and absorb the facts. I lived through this with Joel; none of it is true. We were publishers of the Grapevine Newspaper in Phx and the first newspaper in America to publish a recall petition. We wanted Symington out of office and I got two phone calls threatening my life... probably from the former gov's "security" personell.

Black widows live in the darkest of places, until a bright light is turned on. Save yourselves from their corruption by turning on your light of knowledge. Knowledge is true power and these people can end your life if they so choose.

End the lies, end the brute force, end the reign of terror and free yourselves.

Eli Blake said...

Not even a bit surprised to learn that's what Carlyon's like. Luckily, Tom Wing (who IMO is a superb judge) beat him soundly last year.

I didn't know until I read this that his wife works with him though. Not surprised.

I was manning a table for the Democrats a couple of months ago at the Navajo Nation Fair, and Brian Hounshell stopped by. Apparently he supports Joe Arpaio for Governor (not surprised by that either.)

Eli Blake said...

And oh, yeah:

In Arizona, what do you call people who actually do get involved with child molestation and/or protecting child molesters?

Answer:

Speaker of the House

or

http://tiodt.blogspot.com/2006/05/penalty-for-sexually-assaulting-18_13.html">President of the Senate.

Anonymous said...

well i must humbly disagree with your assessment of tom wing. appaerently hes now issuing no knock warrants so the ncso can go breaking into peoples house based information collected from there garbage. ie an early morning attack on a man in a robe sitting at his table drinking coffee when 5 ncso drug task force people come in pointing assault rifles with lazer sights. the other occupants of the house were handicapped and took a number of prescriptions. they were summarily hauled off and refused there meds until they confessed to being meth makeers
kc clark the hot shot new sheriff told them to despose of asbout 400 pounds of meat the man had bought in prepartion for a catering job. well some ended up in the garbage so was fed to dogs and some was given to members of community. 1 man gave the guy 200 bucks so he was effectively out of business. take to jail in his robe he was summarily released that way and told to use the pay phone to call for a ride home in heber. as no big surprise this cases and the other 2 have a questionable status
in the navajo county court system
brad carlyon as well as criss candeleria are allegedly being investigated for some reason.
sadly for the people of navajo county brad carlyton was elected county atty running unopposed.
no doubt there will be many lawsuits against the county given his behavior so far in the st johns case
essentially kc clark and brad carylon have turned navajo county into a police state

Anonymous said...

i forgot the best part
when the crime lab came out they found no indicaiton of any meth or material to make meth. these idiots cost the taxpayers money for the law suits filed against them because of there screw ups kc clark soon to be sheriff was running this operation. for someone with a long list of creditiaals it seems hes stupid

Anonymous said...

brad carlyon had an adulterous affair with a co-worker and subordinate beginning in October 2007. no secret in apache county, just everyone looked the other way as brad was deputy attorney.

Horse said...

Really? Didn't Carlyon's wife know? I thought he was supposed to be about "family values" and doing the right thing, and all that?

Anonymous said...

I'd like to update some of the things that Ed said. KC Clark falsely imprisoned Gary on meth manufacturing charges. Poor Gary is sitting in prison for (I think) 12 years because his boarders were the ones manufacturing meth. The woman that was living in his house, and didn't spend a second paying for her crimes, went on to manufacture meth in St Johns Az as well as in another state. Her husband also has gone on to commit further drug related crimes. To add insult, KC Clark proudly wrote about what a good job he did putting away a "bad" guy, and the idiots at the local paper were more than happy to print his horseshit. He also printed this pat on the back to himself on the sheriff website. Oh, did you know KC used to try to sell fellow construction workers cocaine, along with his brother? Did you know KC also has a felony poaching charge? Remember when a bunch of dirtbags were murdering wild horses as "bait" for hunting? That was KC. He's a "hell of a guy". KC is also rumored to currently coerce people into selling meth for him. What a guy.-Stacey