Attorney General Terry Goddard has filed a complaint against Republican challenger Bill Montgomery, alleging that Montgomery hired illegal aliens in a campaign commercial (which has not been aired yet) in which the men were portraying illegal aliens being arrested, and further did so using clean elections funds allocated for the primary, and not the general election.
While I actually suspect that Montgomery may technically be right on the second charge (the commercial was apparently filmed and paid for on September 12, the date of the primary, before the polls closed) he clearly is abusing the intent of the law.
On the more serious charge, Montgomery only says this:
Montgomery said he does not know the immigration status of the men filmed for the commercial, who were hired by a company contracted to produce the spot.
OK. This is a man who wants to become the chief law enforcement officer for the state, and he can't even guarantee that his own campaign is in compliance with the law.
It does seem that someone knows about the immigration status of the men:
A Gilbert town employee, Matt LaMotte, watched as the commercial was filmed Sept. 12 at Freestone Park. He filed a town incident report documenting what he saw.
LaMotte's report was included in the Clean Elections complaint. He wrote: "The camera operator informed me that the commercial is about illegal immigration, the groups of Hispanic men are illegal immigrants, and they were being paid for their services."
In response to that charge, Montgomery questioned whether the camera operator knows the immigration status of the men. So, he knows what information the camera operator has access to, but he does not know whether his campaign was hiring undocumented workers.
Let's put the best face on this for Mr. Montgomery and assume that he really doesn't know this. Don't you think that since this story first broke on Saturday he'd have taken the time to find out, so that he could prove that they were not, if they're not, or at least issue an apology if they are? Is this the kind of lack of a real investigation that Bill Montgomery will conduct if he becomes Attorney General and someone brings him a complaint that it is not convenient for him to investigate? Terry Goddard took some real risks as Attorney General and made some enemies in order to crack down on everything from consumer fraud to polygamy involving teen brides. But Bill Montgomery can't even investigate his own campaign.
What other conclusion is there? That maybe he does know the truth, and that it is that he did indeed hire indocumented workers, and now he wants to make the whole story go away so he's saying nothing about it? Maybe, in which case we definitely don't need him as Attorney General.
You'd think any politician would know enough to have the immigration status of anyone he hires beyond reproach. But for it to be people he hires only to make an ad about immigration is dumb, and your right, if he's running for a position like A.G., he's really asking for it.
ReplyDeleteIt bumfuzzles me with all the complications of getting something done with contractors, sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors. And when some dumbass way down the line drops the ball, the top guy gets the blame.
ReplyDeleteGet your facts straight, On December 4th of 2000 Leesa Morrison Deputy state Attorney for Janet Napolitano called me and used me as their sole source, for the original preliminary investigation into polygamy and Colorado City. This call was recorded! That was nearly 6 years ago, as the states FOR KIDS SAKE representative, I have hundreds of emails and dozens of recorded calls with both Jan & Terry's staff. Terry was the guy in 2003 that was picked up at the airport by Mayor Dan Barlow of Colorado City and taken on a private tour by the polygamist Mayor.
ReplyDeleteI have 550 audio cassettes in the prophets own speech, 10,000 pages of the FLDS theology and a source for a lot more than Janets 30 day investigation. I met with Bill Montgomery also and I say a NEW BROOM SWEEPS CLEAN!
If Goddard is reelected the legacy of Arizona will be the same as Utah, of being a haven for polygamist and pedophiles! I've supplied data to 400 news stories and have material for 1000 more. This ain't going away as a story and Janet passed it to Terry and Terry has had 4 years to addres it, Janet 2 years before that. How many children her raped and how bad was the incest on victims for the last 6 years and how many more DECADES does Arizona need to address this issue?
MIB
Jay:
ReplyDeleteBe honest here-- more has been done in the last six years than was done in the previous fifty since the Short Creek raids.
Thanks to the work of Terry Goddard and Janet before that, Warren Jeffs is behind bars, the FLDS Church no longer controls the trust fund and the investigation is continuing.
Somehow I believe that Bill Montgomery, however well intentioned he might be, just doesn't have the basic competence to get the job done. Because there would be one thing worse than not pressing the case forward (as was done for half a century) and that would be to press forward and lose. Now honestly-- do you believe that Bill Montgomery, who can't even police his own campaign, has the competence to push this to a successful conclusion without screwing something up somewhere? I sure don't. As for Terry visiting Colorado City, at least he did visit it, and he wouldn't have been there at all if his attitude was of benign neglect like many of his predecessors. As an official visit he is likely to be shown around by the official in charge, but that doesn't mean he isn't still investigating any more than Condi Rice being given all the diplomatic niceties and being shown around Beijing by the President of China means that she didn't speak firmly to him about China's human rights policy, or that we have relaxed our official position on the same.
Incidentally, I've blogged before on the whole FLDS matter and the lost boys, if you contact me after the election sometime I'd be more than happy to meet with you-- though you and I may disagree on who would do the best job of ending the child abuse, we probably agree that it has to end.