The Skinny

Signature Issue

Earlier this month, Washington Post political reporters James Hohmann and Elise Viebeck revealed that the paper had gotten a hold of a leaked contract that Republican congressional candidates are expected to sign if they want to participate in the National Republican Congressional Committee's Patriot Program, which is designed to help candidates in competitive districts.

The contract raised eyebrows because it included a requirement that members of Congress and their chiefs of staff provide "detailed, written legislative strategy that provides short-, intermediate- and long-term legislative goals, including political justification for those goals."

As it works out, Southern Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally is among the Republicans who are participating in the Patriot Program and Democrats are focusing on the NRCC document as evidence that McSally is not as independent as she made herself out to be during her successful campaign to unseat Democrat Ron Barber last year.

State lawmaker Victoria Steele, a Democrat who wants to challenge McSally next year, said via email that "McSally pledged to be an independent voice—that's turned out to be a false promise. Not even halfway through her first term, she's gone Washington and sold out the people in her district."

And Democrat Matt Heinz, a former state lawmaker who also wants a shot against McSally, said that he found it "very disturbing that any representative would be beholden to D.C. party bosses and not to the voters who put them in office."

Heinz called on McSally to publicly reveal any documents she signed with the NRCC.

"If Martha McSally wants to renew her contract with Southern Arizona voters, she should reveal the details of whatever she signed with the National Republican Congressional Committee to see what those promises were," Heinz said.

Team McSally declined to release a copy of any agreement between her and the NRCC but pushed back against accusations that the NRCC is controlling McSally's priorities. McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak told the Weekly that neither McSally nor anyone on the congressional staff signed the Patriot Program agreement.

"Both the NRCC and DCCC (Democrat campaign committee) provide valuable assistance for both members and candidates in their campaigns," Ptak said via email. "Like her predecessor, Ron Barber, and other Arizona members of Congress like Congresswomen Sinema and Kirkpatrick (all three participate(d) in the equivalent DCCC Frontline program), Martha has received help from her party's campaign committee. However in this case, Martha did not feel the need to sign the Patriot Program plan, though she has and continues to work with them for her campaign."

Ptak added that the "NRCC along with her 700,000-plus constituents and anyone else who has listened to Martha over the last 3.5 years is aware of what her priorities are. However, there was no back and forth discussion between the NRCC and Martha about what Martha's priorities should be, and at no point did the NRCC approve, edit, or provide any input whatsoever into what Martha deemed as her priorities."

Democratic strategists concede that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee works closely with candidates in the Frontline Program, which is similar to the NRCC's Patriot Program. In both cases, party strategists want to see that candidates in tough districts are raising money, hiring professional campaign staff and taking other steps to position themselves for victory, with the thinking that if the national campaign committee will be providing campaign resources, the candidate needs to be running a solid campaign.

But Dems say the Patriot Program is crossing the line by asking members of Congress and their staffers to sign agreements regarding legislative work—and the Post's revelation about the contract has made headlines around the country.

At least one Republican strategist agrees that the NRCC went too far with the contract.

Chip Lake, a Republican consultant based in Georgia, told Roll Call last week that the NRCC was "arrogant" for including the demand for a legislative agenda.

"Members of the Patriot Program will be having to either defend that memo or distance themselves from that memo," Lake told Roll Call. "No committee should put their candidates in that position, and this committee did."

Trust Issues

With Arizona's sorry school funding status back in the headlines following the collapse of talks to settle a lawsuit related to hundreds of millions in unpaid inflation adjustments, Gov. Doug Ducey is ramping his public-relations campaign to support busting the state land trust to provide more money for education.

Last week, there were a lot of rumors about a possible special session to put Ducey's proposal—which basically cuts into a trust fund whose interest is supposed to support schools—on the ballot. But this week, the talk has cooled, at least according to our sources.

Support for Ducey's plan appears shaky. Democrats say they don't want to talk about anything until lawmakers deal with a legal ruling that calls for the state to provide more than $300 million to the schools to make up for the fact that lawmakers shorted schools inflation funding that voters approved back in 2000. Lawmakers are appealing that decision, but so far, the courts have not seen things their way.

And on the right, some Republicans—led by state Treasurer Jeff DeWit—are saying that Ducey's proposal is irresponsible because it takes away from the principle of the trust, which will lead to fewer dollars being available for school children in the future.

The feud between Ducey and DeWit is proving to be one of the most amusing sideshows of the summer, with DeWit tweeting last week that he had to leave a political gathering early because Ducey refused to be in the same room as him. Team Ducey denied the charges.

City Hall Showdown, Round 2

The Tucson Weekly and Tucson Local Media are teaming up with KXCI-FM to bring you Tucson City Council debates on Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel. This week, Democratic Councilwoman Paul Cunningham is facing Republican challenger Kelly Lawton in the eastside Ward 2 race. It airs this Sunday at 8 a.m. on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast and Channel 58 on broadcast, DirecTV and the Dish Network and will also air at 5 p.m. Sunday on KXCI, 91.3 FM.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, Councilwoman Shirley Scott, a Democrat who is seeking her sixth term, will face Republican challenger Margaret Burkholder in the Ward 4 race. You can see last week's debate, featuring Councilwoman Regina Romero against GOP challenger Bill Hunt, at zonapolitics.com.