Arizona Republican urges party to endorse 'anyone but McCain'
An Arizona Republican is pushing the state party to officially endorse "anyone but Senator John McCain" in 2016 because of the senior senator's "very liberal attitude."
A.J. LaFaro, an East Valley precinct committeeman and former chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, recently introduced the resolution, hoping for a vote at party meetings in January. LaFaro said he would support state Sen. Kelli Ward or any of McCain's lesser-known challengers.
It is the latest salvo from conservatives against McCain in a years-long battle within the party. Arizona GOP members attracted national attention in 2014 when they overwhelmingly voted to censure McCain for his "long and terrible record of drafting, co-sponsoring and voting for legislation best associated with liberal Democrats."
"It was the resolution that was heard 'round the world and caused the firestorm and the political civil war that's occurring right now in Arizona," LaFaro said.
Establishment Republicans responded by recruiting precinct leaders friendlier to McCain. While county chairman, LaFaro struck back by appointing conservatives to vacant seats.
LaFaro's new resolution criticizes McCain on immigration reform, the Iran nuclear deal and his description of some Republicans as "crazies" and "wacko bird."
McCain's campaign declined to comment.
Chad Heywood, executive director of the Arizona GOP, said a committee would take a look at the proposal but spared LaFaro no kind words.
"A.J. LaFaro is a disaffected former county chairman who is skilled at negativity but is not skilled at building people up and has no record of success," Heywood said in a statement. "All state committee members have the right to submit resolutions to the committee for vetting. Even if poorly written by a crazy narcissist in search of attention."
In other news:
• McCain's opponents like to tout his unpopularity ratings, but Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., may need to work on his appeal as well. A survey of 75,000 voters across the country about their home-state senators showed Flake with among the lowest approval ratings. He scored 39 percent on both favorability and unfavorability among the 1,688 Arizonans surveyed by Morning Consult, a Washington briefing group. McCain had 50 percent favorability and 41 unfavorability. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.