Senators McCain, Kyl endorse Flake in Arizona Senate race by Dan Nowicki - The AZ Repubic

McCain, Kyl endorse Flake in Arizona Senate race by Dan Nowicki

Jul. 13, 2012 10:08 AM
Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl on Friday officially threw their support to Rep. Jeff Flake in the race for the retiring Kyl's Senate seat while condemning the negative campaign tactics of Flake's GOP primary rival Wil Cardon.

McCain and Kyl said they were disturbed by the scorched-earth strategy of Cardon, a Mesa businessman who has been attacking Flake's integrity in a series of television ads, including one in which President Barack Obama was Photoshopped into a picture with Flake. Another Cardon web video purported to show Flake "hobnobbing" with lobbyists, but the two men in the photo with Flake actually were fellow members of Congress.

"I said I wouldn't be involved (in the GOP primary) unless I felt a need to do so, and I do feel a need to do so today," Kyl said at a news conference with McCain and Flake in Phoenix. "There have been so many misrepresentations, mischaracterizations, reckless statements by the other campaign. None of them individually all that important, but when cumulatively considered, require a response."

Kyl cited the brutal 1976 Republican Senate primary between Reps. Sam Steiger and John Conlan that contributed to the election of Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.

"The effect of the Cardon campaign in the primary is not to elect Wil Cardon -- he hasn't been able to establish why he should be elected -- but he tears Jeff Flake down," Kyl said.

Cardon and Flake have been at each other's throats in a bitter grudge match that has started to make Republicans nervous.

Cardon's team has been hitting Flake on issues such as his past support for comprehensive immigration reform and his broken pledge to serve only three terms in the House.

Flake's team, in turn, has been pounding Cardon over his business record.

A Subway sandwich shop company partly owned by Cardon was the subject of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation that concluded that 151 employees were suspected illegal immigrants.

"I, like Jon Kyl, am disturbed at the kind of campaign that is being run by Mr. Cardon -- the mischaracterizations and the falsehoods," McCain said. "I think the people of Arizona deserve a better campaign than that. And, frankly, I also worry that these attacks might make it harder in the general election for us to elect Jeff Flake to the United States Senate."

The winner of the GOP primary will face presumptive Democratic nominee Richard Carmona, a former U.S. surgeon general, in November. On Twitter, Matt Canter, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director, ridiculed the McCain and Kyl endorsements of Flake as "the sound of Republican panic."

In a statement to the Republic, Cardon said he has always had "deep respect" for McCain and Kyl, but both senators "are part of the old guard in Washington."

"They're establishment politicians, insiders entrenched in Congress since the 1980s," Cardon said. "I'm not surprised they endorsed their friend Jeff Flake. Washington insiders stick together. They do this out of fear."

Kyl and McCain are "afraid of candidates like me - conservative outsiders who represent real change, a new way of doing things, new commitment, new energy, new solutions."

Cardon added, "I'm not a Washington insider. I'm not running to simply to mimic John McCain or Jon Kyl."

In a March interview with the Republic, McCain predicted Flake would be the Republican nominee but also doubted that there would be any establishment GOP pressure put on Cardon to quit the race.

"Frankly, I believe that Jeff Flake will be our nominee," McCain said at the time. Even tough primaries "are always good maturing and honing experiences for candidates," McCain said.

At Friday's news conference, McCain suggested that he and Kyl aren't calling on Cardon to get out of the race.

"We aren't telling Mr. Cardon what to do," McCain said. "(Those are) decisions that he and his campaign make. We are here to support the candidacy of Jeff Flake for the United States Senate."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/07/13/20120713arizona-senate-race-mccain-kyl-endorse-flake.html#ixzz20XKrndmL