J. D. Hayworth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| J.D. Hayworth | |
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| In office January 4, 1995–January 4, 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Karan English |
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| Succeeded by | Harry Mitchell |
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| Born | July 12, 1958 High Point, North Carolina |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Mary Hayworth |
| Religion | Baptist |
John David "J.D." Hayworth Jr. (born July 12, 1958) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 until January 4, 2007, representing the 5th District of Arizona (map). He was a television sportscaster and radio journalist before being elected to the House.
Hayworth conceded to Harry Mitchell on November 14, 2006, despite the fact that early votes, absentee, and provisional ballot counts were still underway. Hayworth himself commented that he did not expect the margins between him and Mitchell to close significantly. Subsequent counts of all ballots have since confirmed Hayworth's defeat in the election, but most major news media had already projected Hayworth's defeat on election night.[1]
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[edit] Early life, education, and broadcasting career
Hayworth was born in High Point, North Carolina. He received a bachelor's degree in speech communications and political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh in 1980.
He was a sportscaster for WFBC-TV (now WYFF-TV), the NBC station in Greenville, South Carolina, from 1981 to 1986. While in Greenville, he was a member of Edwards Road Baptist Church. From 1987 to 1994, he was the sports anchor on the news reports of KSAZ-TV, the FOX-TV affiliate in Phoenix.
Hayworth married in 1989.[2] He and his wife Mary have three children.
[edit] U.S. House of Representatives
Hayworth served on the Resources and the Ways and Means committees during his term in the House.
[edit] Campaigns
In 1994, Hayworth defeated incumbent Democrat Karan English, winning 54% of the vote. Hayworth criticized English's support for the Clinton budget plan, which Hayworth termed the largest tax increase in history. English had been endorsed in her successful 1992 campaign by the former Arizona Republican icon, Barry Goldwater when she ran against Doug Wead but not in 1994 when she ran against Hayworth.
In 1996, Hayworth fired two of his campaign aides for their part in forging his signature to file a campaign affidavit on time. Hayworth said he was unaware of the forgery and was not charged. He won in 1996 with 48 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Steve Owens, a friend of then–Vice President Al Gore.
In 1998, Hayworth signed and filed the form in person, with television cameras, campaign volunteers, and the Arizona Secretary of State watching. He again defeated Owens, 52 percent to 45 percent.
His next three elections were not especially close: He won in 2000 against Larry R. Nelson, 60 percent to 37 percent; in 2002, against Craig Columbus, getting 61 percent of the vote; and in 2004, against Elizabeth Rogers, getting 60 percent.
[edit] Speaking out
Known for his outspoken nature — he called President Clinton an "unprincipled philandering president" who had "the most corrupt administration in U.S. history" — Hayworth is a frequent guest on conservative TV and talk radio. He sometimes substitutes as host of the nationally syndicated Laura Ingraham political commentary show on the Talk Radio Network.
In 1998, Hayworth was voted the second biggest "windbag" in Congress in Washingtonian magazine's survey of 1,200 congressional staff members of both parties. "I was hoping to get the number one spot", Hayworth said. "I was last time."
Hayworth has never shied from controversy. In the same campaign letter in which he criticized Clinton, he said his Democratic opponent was "bankrolled by trial lawyers, radical homosexual rights groups, environmental extremists ... along with almost every other left-wing wacko group you can think of."
[edit] Political positions
Hayworth was generally known as one of the most conservative members of Congress. He has said he believes border security and interior enforcement of immigration laws are the solutions — not a temporary worker program as proposed by President Bush for illegal Mexican immigrants.
In January 2006, Regnery published Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror, a book by Hayworth and his chief of staff, Joseph J. Eule. In the book, Hayworth said that President Bush dances to a tune of big GOP contributors from the agribusiness, meat packing and construction industries who are "addicted" to a steady stream of workers from Mexico and Central America to keep wages down. Hayworth also describes what he considers a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, says that a child of illegals born in the U.S. should not be given U.S. citizenship, and advocates the "Americanization" program Henry Ford advocated in "The International Jew."[3]
- The ever-so-successful process that used to be called "Americanization" was a major movement in the early 1900s … Henry Ford, a leader in this movement, said, "These men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right way to live." Talk like that today and our liberal elites will brand you a cultural imperialist, or worse. But if you ask me, Ford had a better idea.
- (from Whatever It Takes)
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Payments to Hayworth's wife
Between 2001 and 2005 inclusive, Hayworth's wife Mary was paid $20,400 per year by TEAM PAC, Hayworth's leadership political action committee. In 2002, a spokesman for Hayworth said that his wife handled bookkeeping and many administrative details for the PAC.[4]
Hayworth's wife had been the only employee of TEAM PAC after December 1999. Through the end of 2004, the fund had paid $107,000 for her salary and payroll taxes, or roughly 26% of its $411,000 in revenue. The PAC also paid $70,000 to an outside political consultant and a California bookkeeper, bringing fund-raising and administrative expenses 43% of the total revenue.[5]
In 2002, the Phoenix New Times questioned whether a variety of TEAM PAC expenditures were in fact for personal use of Hayworth and his wife.[6]
Between January 2001 and February 2006, TEAM PAC took in $538,109. Administrative costs for the period were about $165,000, about 30% of contributions during the period, including $102,000 for Hayworth's wife. As of July 31, 2006, TEAM PAC had received $92,000 during the 2006 election cycle (January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2006) and had $15,000 cash on hand.[7] It was paying Mary Hayworth $2,076 every month. It was also reporting about ten expenditures per month, with half related to her employment.[8]
[edit] Abramoff and Indian tribes
In 1997, Hayworth helped stop a proposal to tax Indian casinos, which would have taken $1.9 billion off reservations. In 2002, Hayworth played a key role in preventing a change in the law that allowed Indian tribes to contribute to an unlimited number of federal candidates with an aggregate cap in dollars.[9]
Between 1999 and 2005, Hayworth received $69,000 from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients, primarily from Indian tribes. $62,000 of the money went to TEAM PAC.[10] Hayworth decided to keep the donations. His chief of staff, Joe Eule, said to the Arizona Republic, "The tribes have told us, 'We love you. We loved you before we met Jack Abramoff, and we love you after Jack Abramoff, and we think it would be foolish of you to (give back) the money.'"[11] Hayworth was co-chairman of the Native American Caucus in Congress. Hayworth did give $2,250 representing the total of personal campaign donations from Abramoff to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005.
Hayworth had free use of Abramoff's sports skyboxes for five fund-raisers,[12] the first in 1999. In 2004, some months after Abramoff's millions of dollars of lobbying fees from Indian tribes was first reported in the news, Hayworth paid the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana nearly $13,000 for the use of the skyboxes. Eule did not respond to repeated calls asking for documentation why the tribes should be paid (the box was in Abramoff's name) and how it was determined that they should receive equal amounts. Federal lobbying records showed that the Chitimachas were not registered as paying clients of Abramoff when four of the events took place.[13]
[edit] Remarks by volunteer
Jonathan Tratt was sent by J.D. Hayworth's campaign to fill in for the Congressman at a debate organized by the National Council of Jewish Women.
Tratt, who is Jewish, said Hayworth's opposition to abortion made Hayworth a "more observant Jew" than many of those present, prompting about three-quarters of the remaining audience to storm out of the northeast Phoenix synagogue.
Afterward, when some audience members confronted the couple, Irit Tratt, the wife of Jonathan Tratt, reportedly said, "No wonder there are anti-Semites." The remark was heard by Kathy Shayna Shocket, a Republic columnist who moderated the event.[14]
[edit] 2006 campaign
- See also: United States House elections, 2006
The Fifth District is comprised mainly of Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, suburbs of Phoenix. In 2004, John Kerry won 45% of the vote in Hayworth's district.
Hayworth had considered running for the governor of Arizona in the 2006 elections, but in March 2005 he announced that he preferred to stay in Congress.
On the evening of November 7, election day, most major news media declared former state senator Harry Mitchell the winner of the Congressional race, as the state poll numbers demonstrated a clear victory, but Hayworth refused to concede while the prospects for victory remained with the significant number of absentee and early-voting ballots to be counted. Harry Mitchell was a former State Democratic Chair, and also a former mayor of Tempe.[15] As the ballots were counted and the results were updated each day, Hayworth never demonstrated the significant gains he anticipated and ending up losing the election by more than 8,000 votes or a 3.4% margin. Hayworth finally conceded on November 14. Mitchell did not acknowledge his victory until November 22.
It is believed that Hayworth is in negotiations to work as a commentator for Fox News, where he has been a frequent guest.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006//pages/results/states/AZ/H/05/county.000.html
- ^ "Celebrating 9 years of a happy marriage, and urging members to help end the marriage tax penalty", remarks in the House of Representatives, February 25, 1998.
- ^ BlueField News: "Whatever It Takes" Offers Solutions to Illegal Immigration Crisis by Border State Congressman J.D. Hayworth
- ^ Jon Kamman, "Gaming tribes donate freely to Hayworth", Arizona Republic, October 21, 2002
- ^ Jon Kamman, "Campaign committee nepotism under fire: Family ties are legal but are they right?", The Arizona Republic, April 10, 2005
- ^ Amy Silverman, "Money for Nothing: Halloween is still a week away, but are contributors being tricked into paying for J.D.'s treats?, Phoenix New Times, October 24, 2002
- ^ Summary data on TEAM PAC, Opensecrets.com, accessed September 17, 2006
- ^ http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expend.asp?strID=C00341768&Cycle=2006 Expenditure data for TEAM PAC], Opensecrets.com accessed September 17, 2006
- ^ Amanda B. Carpenter, "House Democrat Boasted of Saving Tribal-Contributions Loophole", Human Events Online, March 14, 2006
- ^ "Jack Abramoff Lobbying and Political Contributions, 1999 - 2006", Center for Responsive Politics
- ^ Ed Montini, "On the political calendar, every day is Christmas Day", December 27, 2005
- ^ Jonathan Weisman and Derek Willis, "Democrat on Panel Probing Abramoff to Return Tribal Donations", Washington Post, December 14, 2005
- ^ Jon Kamman, "Hayworth, 2 others account for skyboxes: New filings omit links to lobbyist", The Arizona Republic, May 10, 2005
- ^ "Hayworth spokesman has a record", Arizona Republic
- ^ HarryMitchellforCongress.com
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Karan English |
United States Representative for the 6th Congressional District of Arizona 1995–2003 |
Succeeded by Jeff Flake |
| Preceded by Jim Kolbe |
United States Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Arizona 2003-2007 |
Succeeded by Harry Mitchell |
