WIL CARDON'S 'SLEAZY' POLITICAL CONSULTANT CONSTANTIN QUERARD!

Who is behind the 'phony' articles being put out by the Wil Cardon campaign? None other than the 'Sleaziest Political Consultant in Arizona' CONSTANTINE QUERARD!

We've written about Querard before (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE). Querard, longtime recipient of Clean Elections Matching Funds for his candidates for State Legislature (No one has done a better job working the system than Querard. In 2008, he was paid $111,050 by Clean Elections candidates alone. Not bad for a few months' work.)

Our friend, Sarah Fenske had this to say about Querard:

"If there's a villain in the Clean Elections story, most moderates will tell you that Constantin Querard fits the bill. A Laveen-based political consultant who boasts that he works only for pro-family (read: anti-abortion) candidates, Querard has made a mint taking down Republicans he believes to be insufficiently conservative.

And this is the real dirty truth about Clean Elections: The measure that was meant to be a Trojan Horse for the left has instead become the ultimate tool of the hard right.

"That's what always happens with such so-called innovations," says Heiler, the Republican operative. "Political culture is like an anthill. It will crawl all over what's placed in the middle of it and try to use it to its advantage."

His strategy is simple. Arizona has a surplus of "safe" districts, which are either heavily Republican or heavily Democrat. That means the primary can be more important than the general election. A Democrat could never topple a moderate Republican incumbent in most districts — but a social conservative running in the primary could.

Of course, social conservatives used to be at a huge disadvantage. The Chamber of Commerce crowd provided most of the party's financing and was more into laissez faire economics than stopping abortion.

But Clean Elections changed all that. Thanks to public financing, the humblest born-again Christian has just as much money as the most-connected businessman.

Querard is convinced that's a good thing. "Some Republican — someone who wasn't a Clean Elections fan — was saying that this process worked so much when the Chamber of Commerce use to vet the candidates. Well, to the average person voting, no one ever realized that was their job — or the job of the old 'Phoenix 40' before them. This is not what people had in mind when they describe the democracy they want to live in."

But even Querard admits that a bunch of true believers who answer to no one but their consciences can make it pretty difficult to govern. "I can see that degree of independence can cause problems for the people who used to run the show," he says.

And really, in this brave new world, a legislator no longer needs to be a joke in the halls of the Capitol to draw a well-funded primary challenge. No, these days, he need only fail to toe a partisan line. The next thing he knows, his opponents are guaranteed enough funding to get an equal say on the airwaves.

And who do you think primary voters are going to elect? A lawmaker who stresses competence and getting the job done? Or a challenger who pledges ideological purity?"

In 2012, Querard is running the campaigns for Wil Cardon & Russell Pearce. Back in the re-call election late last year, Querard was the one who was 'rumored' to be behind the candidacy of Olivia Cortes, the 'Sham' candidate. Lucky for Querard & others, Olivia Cortes dropped out of the race & the court case was dropped (would that have been a 'spectacle' to see who would throw who under the bus).

The good news is this. Once both of his candidates get SMASHED on August 28th, Querard won't have anywhere to hide. No more Clean Elections Matching Funds to pad your bank account Constantine!

Maybe it's time for Querard to head back to Colorado or even better, back home with Mommy to Antiqua?