This article was originally posted on SWR Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 - Special Thanks to the folks over at SWR for letting us re-post this:
Former conservative talk show host turned 2010 US Senate candidate, JD Hayworth, has spent nearly a year exercising his First Amendment rights – using the Arizona airwaves, Republican meetings and town halls to angrily call Senator John McCain a bully, an intimidator, and a scared political heavyweight has-been.
What a rookie error. A Senate rookie, that is.
Hayworth has repeatedly and publicly mischaracterized
Senator McCain’s finely-aged confidence, world-wide respect and manhood – his lifelong legacy – as merely some kind of juvenile, schoolyard victim story that has left him paralyzed with fear after all of these years in Washington.
Hayworth desperately wants to believe that Senator John McCain is scared of him. The truth is almost laughable. Senator McCain has wrestled bigger demons and principalities during his lifetime than JD Hayworth has ever wrestled in his dreams.
But sadly, reality will not stop JD Hayworth’s mouth. He
believes it is his greatest weapon but it is, in fact, his darkest curse.
Years ago, The Arizona Republic christened JD Hayworth with the nickname “The Bully” for exercising his free speech incessantly and brutishly. It is a name that has served him well both in Arizona and in Washington DC.
Just ask some of the good folks at Phoenix television station, KTVK – Channel 3.
In what can only be described as alarming and despicable behavior unbecoming to a conservative Christian, it has been discovered that JD Hayworth participated in an extortionate scheme to shakedown the #1 independent television station in the United States and the #1 station across Arizona, Phoenix’s KTVK – Channel 3.
With the gratuitous help of his favorite high-powered Washington DC legal firm, Foley & Lardner, Hayworth’s threatening interference with KTVK’s broadcasting license kicked off a desperate attempt to stifle political free speech just two weeks before Hayworth’s embarrassing general election loss to Democrat Harry Mitchell in November, 2006.
Responding to an October 18, 2006 complaint from JD Hayworth’s campaign which accused the National Education Association’s Fund for Children and Public Education (NEA) of running a television ad that falsely attacked Hayworth’s legislative voting record and policy positions, admitted McCain-Feingold hater, Foley & Lardner election law attorney Cleta Mitchell, fired off a nasty three page “cease and desist if you want to exist” letter to the Station Manager of Belo Corporation’s KTVK – Channel 3 – “Arizona’s Family”.
In her legal letter on behalf of Hayworth, Mitchell threatened KTVK with the loss of its broadcasting license if it did not immediately cease airing the NEA’s ad. If any attorney in Washington DC would petition and sue to revoke a broadcaster’s license, provided that best served a client – that attorney would be Cleta Mitchell
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO!
Mitchell’s letter to the KTVK Station Manager said,
“….this is not political advertisement as that term is defined by the Federal Communications Act. Your station is not protected from legal liability for airing false and misleading advertisement
sponsored by the NEA……your station is not obligated to air any advertisement from the NEA……a licensee who fails to properly supervise the airing of (among other things) ‘false and misleading advertising’ can be properly divested of its license….you are subjecting your station to potential liability….please be advised that the NEA has falsified its required report which was to have been
filed within 24 hours of the airing of this advertisement. A complaint is being filed today against the NEA…..”
Mitchell finished her rude letter with a big lie. One she’d hoped might influence the election for her client.
Cleta Mitchell told KTVK management that the NEA had falsified its required FEC report regarding expenditures at their station, even though she knew the NEA had not yet filed any report with the FEC and that they had still had 48 hours to do so. Considering the NEA had spent over $308,000, the stakes for all players were high.
The emergency dissemination of this letter to Arizona’s favorite television station was a decidedly anti-First Amendment maneuver from a First Amendment hypocritical-blowhard and his legally
blond sidekick who lawyers-up with any constitutional politician, PAC or ultra conservative cause that will have her. She is a featured performer on that circuit. Not bad for a gal that spent the first 40 of her 60 years….as Democrat.
The investigation by SWR also found that JD Hayworth and Cleta Mitchell filed a stealth 2006 complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) against the NEA on October 20, 2006, just two days after threatening to shut down KTVK. This complaint formally became known at the FEC as Matter Under Review – 5855 (MUR 5855). All public documents can be found here. Just type 5855 in the case # window.
Curiously, Hayworth’s formal FEC complaint neglected to mention Mitchell’s strong-armed letter to KTVK. However, the last few pages of the NEA’s formal response to the Hayworth’s complaint contained a gem of a copy of the KTVK letter.
The NEA’s copy of the KTVK letter shows three faxed time stamps and phone numbers. This copy of the KTVK letter went from JD Hayworth’s Scottsdale office, to the KTVK – Channel 3 Sales Department and on to Media Strategies – the media buying firm that purchased the airtime on KTVK for the NEA’s 30 second spot.
The KTVK letter was a hot item then. It still is, even now.
Following Hayworth’s formal complaint to the FEC, the FEC notified the NEA that Hayworth had filed a complaint against them. The NEA already knew about the KTVK shakedown and didn’t hesitate to repeat the dirty details in its reply to the FEC.
The NEA’s lead counsel, Richard Wilkof, drafted a poignant response to Hayworth’s formal FEC complaint saying, “….the Complaint is entirely groundless, to the point of being frivolous. It appears to be merely part of a larger effort to bully a television station that broadcasts in Arizona’s 5Ih Congressional District into pulling from the air an independent expenditure paid for by The NEA Fund that was critical of Congressman Hayworth.
In that sense, the Complaint would be the functional equivalent of an abuse of the process, and should be summarily dismissed by the Commission…… We submit that allegations in the Complaint are disingenuous, and that the Hayworth committee filed the Complaint merely as part of a multi-faceted strategy to pressure KTVK-TV into pulling The NEA Fund’s television advertisements from the air.”
Responding to Cleta Mitchell’s manufactured lie about the NEA’s falsified expenditure report to the FEC, the NEA responded, “The complainant alleged that the National Education Association
Fund for Children and Public Education (“NEA Fund”) violated the Act by failing to report within 48 hours its independent expenditures for television advertisements that were critical of Rep. J.D. Hayworth. However, the complaint was filed roughly twelve hours before the NEA Fund’s report was due to be filed with the Commission. In fact, respondent did file timely its necessary 48 Hour report. Hence, no violation occurred.”
For the next seven months, the FEC kept MUR 5855 under investigation but had classified the complaint as a low-rated matter and recommended it for dismissal. On May 16, 2007 the FEC’s Office of General Counsel dismissed the case, saying that Hayworth’s filing of the formal complaint was premature, as the NEA still time to legally file its expenditure report after Hayworth filed his complaint.
However, on May 30, 2007, the FEC commissioners met and unanimously voted to reject the Office of General Counsel’s recommendation to dismiss MUR 5855 on the basis of prosecutorial discretion. The FEC commissioners, instead, voted to find no reason to believe that the NEA violated and campaign finance laws or FEC regulations.
The FEC commissioners handed JD Hayworth and Cleta Mitchell a definitive rejection of their frivolous complaint, saying that no violation occurred. By June 20, 2007 the FEC commissioners had all signed off on their unanimous decision in favor of the NEA.
By this time, Hayworth had already lost his US House seat to Harry Mitchell and had been the afternoon talk show host at KFYI-550 AM for a couple of months. Hayworth had not been a radio broadcaster since his college days. Prior to becoming a US House Representative in 1995, Hayworth had been a longtime Phoenix television sportscaster but he was unable to find a job in that venue, at any local station.
Sources
http://www.jdforsenate.com/
http://www.azcentral.com/
Hayworth Atty Letter to KTVK 3 Oct 2006
http://www.foley.com/
Oct 2006 FEC Complaint Re FOLEY vs NEA
http://www.neafund.org/main.cfm?agreed=1&s=nea
Oct 2006 FEC Complaint Answer of NEA
http://www.foley.com/people/bio.aspx?employeeid=18472
Oct 2006 FAC Complaint General Counse…
10 2006 FEC Complaint Board Answer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0E4oZLv9pA
http://eqs.sdrdc.com/eqs/searcheqs?SUBMIT=continue
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1027fri1-27.html
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