RSS Feed MenuThe parking lot outside of the J.D. Hayworth Election Party last night projected confidence. The window of a red SUV blared “McCain = Amnesty” in white letters. A sedan nearby read, “JD!” and “Victory” in bold red writing.
But inside it was a different story. Situated in the subterranean ballroom of a northern Scottsdale resort, J.D. Hayworth’s election party was not the passionate populist uprising the campaign might have wished for. Rather, it was a small gathering – less than 200 I would guess – of Hayworth’s most loyal supporters, all without any delusion of victory.
For a majority of the evening, there were no chants or “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, just polite conversation and nostalgia for the campaign gone by. A large collage stood out front, featuring photo after photo of Hayworth smiling and giving the thumbs up. On a projector screen inside the ballroom, a nostalgic slideshow (with patriotic country music, of course) documented Hayworth’s campaign up and down the state, including his trip to the border with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who got raucous applause.
A few hours into the party, the anticlimax arrived. A local news anchor on the big projector screen reported that McCain was leading Hayworth 2 to 1 and CNN was calling it for the incumbent senator. A single, surprised shout rang out. Otherwise, there was quietly disappointed murmuring. The inevitable was now official.
A few minutes later, though, John McCain’s beaming face appeared on screen and all hell broke loose. The ballroom exploded in anger. A chorus of relentless, hysterical screaming began, as if a decade of frustration was boiling over all at once. The most common refrain was “liar!” (McCain: “I will fix the border!” Screams: “Liar!” McCain: “Thanks for your support” Screams: “Liar!” McCain: “Good evening, friends.” Screams: “Liar!”) Another common refrain was the “shut up!” as if yelling it loud enough would finally, once and for all, make McCain stop talking. One white-haired, red-faced old woman was particularly loud. She began chanting “RINO! RINO! RINO!” at the sight of McCain and about half the room joined in. After a few minutes of mayhem, though, the television screens went blank and people resumed their polite conversations, waiting for Hayworth’s concession speech.
In this more calm state, the Hayworth supporters I chatted with weren’t angry with McCain, just fed up with him. They had McCain fatigue. A mustachioed Scottsdale man told me, “Why doesn’t he just retire? He’s 74. He should move to Sedona.” Only the matter of “amnesty” got the blood boiling a bit.
National politics were hardly discussed last night. Though Arizona has been in the national political spotlight for several years – first McCain came close to the presidency, often basing his national campaign from Arizona, SB1070 passed earlier this year, and both the National Review and Harper’s Weekly have had lengthy recent articles just about Arizona politics – there was little sense of Hayworth being part of a larger, national struggle. President Obama and socialism never came up in my brief conversations, but McCain and illegal immigration came up constantly. When I mentioned to a J.D. supporter that CNN had a reporter at the McCain rally, he was surprised. When I asked some self-proclaimed tea partiers if they were upset that Hayworth had not been endorsed by Arizona’s tea party groups, they were hearing about the slight for the first time. Overall, the Hayworth fans I spoke to were not living for politics; politics just happened to be in their lives for the moment. (After a year of living in Washington D.C. this was, I must confess, a refreshing formulation.)
The party attendees were almost all old and white: septarians and sestarians in golf shirts and sandals. There was some local flavor, like cowboy boots and big belt buckles, but mostly the crowd was well-off suburbanites from Scottsdale and Sun City. It was, in other words, a portrait of the 2010 Republican Party.
But, to my surprise, there were a few Hispanic supporters of J.D. – about four, by my count.
Two of the Hispanic supporters, an older couple, were die-hard J.D. fans. They had actively supported Hayworth since 2007 and had been active in tea party politics since 2008, when the Tea Party Express first arrived in Phoenix. They started a group called the “Legal Hispanics Tea Party,” which they ran out of South Phoenix, the Valley of the Sun’s most Hispanic neighborhood. Since then, the couple had spent a lot of their time protesting a wide variety of things, including The Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper and Mayor Phil Gordon. The husband, the mastermind behind all their protests, had a long hippie-like ponytail, exemplifying David Brooks’ theory that the Tea Party and the protesters of the 1960s have a lot in common.
Last night, though, the latest American revolution was floundering; Hayworth had let it down. This year was conservatives’ best shot in decades to unseat McCain and send an unmistakable message of reform to the Washington elite. For most of 2010, the necessary momentum was there: indeed, several conservative insurgents won last night in local Arizona elections. Yet, J.D. Hayworth was trounced. By last night, it was painfully obvious that the man of the hour was not a good fit for the role of anti-Washington insurgent.
At the end of the evening, Hayworth came out for the first time, gave a short, generic speech calling for his supporters to stay involved in politics. Then Hayworth and supporters disappeared, walking back to the parking lot and into the night.
llbroo49 // Aug 25, 2010 at 5:19 pm
In reality, it would have been silly to replace a high ranking, well placed senator (McCain) for what would have been a junior senator (Hayworth).
Carney // Aug 25, 2010 at 5:26 pm
llbroo49, much less “silly” than to allow millions of foreigners to cross our nation’s borders en masse, against our will, and then after a wrist-slapping, proclaim them citizens as good as any of us.
Or to have a “guest worker” program guaranteed to become a permanent mass immigration phenomenon, since the “guest workers” merely have to reproduce on US soil to become un-deportable even if they deliberately overstay their temporary work visas.
easton // Aug 25, 2010 at 5:38 pm
What can you expect if you shave a gibbon and have him run for Congress. Hayworth is a buffoon.
As to McCain, I suspect if he wins he will tack left and right whichever way gets him the most glowing press.
Canrey: “Or to have a “guest worker” program guaranteed to become a permanent mass immigration phenomenon, since the “guest workers” merely have to reproduce on US soil to become un-deportable even if they deliberately overstay their temporary work visas.” This is a lie and you know it. My wife can not bring her parents to the US from China, we can’t even get them a tourist visa to visit though I can personally attest there is no way in hell they will stay, they have their son in China, their business, their home, etc. As to guest workers, you don’t understand that the migrant workers who harvest the crops then have enough money to return to their villages in rural Mexico until the next year.
I have been living here in Southern Mexico for years, I have met hundreds of people who go to the states for a few years, make some money, and come back here to buy homes and start businesses. Go down to Oaxaca for yourself and ask around.
Oldskool // Aug 25, 2010 at 5:53 pm
He was his own worst enemy. People seem to forget we live in an age of Recording Devices and whatever you say on tv or radio will be around awhile.
llbroo49 // Aug 25, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Carney,
But now you/ AZ will get the best of both worlds: keep its senior senator AND a strong stance on immigration since Hayworth forced the issue. While McCain may shift a bit to the left , after this fight, I seriously doubt he decides to take on any immigration issues by himself.
ktward // Aug 25, 2010 at 6:51 pm
This year was conservatives’ best shot in decades to unseat McCain and send an unmistakable message of reform to the Washington elite.
‘Conservatives’ best shot IN DECADES to unseat McCain …’
Did I miss a memo? McCain IS a Con.
Now, I’m aware that he tacked a little too left of Far Right the last few years and made certain opportunistic Con factions uncomfy — but to imply that McCain has been the bane of Cons for ‘decades’ is absurd.
‘…and send an unmistakable message of reform to the Washington elite.’
From the AZ GOP, I don’t recall any ‘unmistakable’ reform messages pre-Obama. Once upon a time, maverick McCain was the darling of the ‘reform’ crowd — until the RR/Nativist factions effectively neutered him and nearly everything he ever stood for.
Carney // Aug 25, 2010 at 10:16 pm
easton, how is what I wrote a lie?? If a guest worker cranks out offspring, on US soil, that child is granted US citizenship by our authorities. Few if any immigration officials are willing to deport illegal alien parents of citizen children, especially infants; hence the term “anchor babies”. That’s why all the promises of stern enforcement of guest worker visas’ temporary residency rights are hollow nonsense.
The French and Germans have experienced the phenomenon of “guest workers” who don’t leave, and then produce generations of alien malcontents. Any given night in France features hundreds of torched cars, and ultra-dangerous “suburb” slums shunned by cops. Meanwhile both France and Germany have large and serious radical Islam problems. A glance at any jail shows the overwhelming non-French and non-German makeup of their respective nations’ criminal element. Ah, the blessings of diversity! Cheap labor isn’t, and isn’t worth it!
And what your elderly Chinese in-laws have to do with all this baffles me.
Carney // Aug 25, 2010 at 10:18 pm
ktward, McCain has tacked sharply left, within the GOP since at least 1997 when he began running for President. Over and over he’s been one of a handful of Republicans providing “bipartisan” window dressing for liberal vote after vote after vote, even on basics like taxes and guns. Most notoriously, his signature initiatives in Congress – campaign finance restrictions, illegal alien amnesty, global warming, are all liberal causes.
Madeline // Aug 25, 2010 at 10:25 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/us/14immig.html
Of nearly 2.2 million immigrants deported in the decade ended 2007, more than 100,000 were the parents of children who, having been born in the United States, were American citizens, according to a report issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.
Was there ever a “JD Hayworth Revolution”? Didn’t it fizzle before it actually started?
SFTor1 // Aug 26, 2010 at 2:02 am
Just come right out and say it Carney: those little darkies are polluting the land of your white heritage.
I know it’s hard to live with all this fear you experience. Try medication or perhaps a strong gin and tonic. Things will look rosier, you’ll see.
And Carney, it is not true that “any given night in France” features “hundreds of torched cars.” It just ain’t so.
Nanotek // Aug 26, 2010 at 2:37 am
“McCain has tacked sharply left”
when ?????
“If a guest worker cranks out offspring, on US soil, that child is granted US citizenship by our authorities.”
authorities?? It’s called the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution and good. The Mexicans I know work their tails off from dawn to dusk and I appreciate them as neighbors. I wish we had more like them.
rbottoms // Aug 26, 2010 at 8:53 am
You do know illegal immigration has fallen by about 50%?
Candy83 // Aug 26, 2010 at 9:47 am
I think John McCain (R-Arizona) had a good sense of the political winds this year and better prepared himself. The 2008 presidential election was a historical trend against the incumbent White House party. This year, the opposition White House party has the advantage (as it has in nearly every Year 2 of a commander-in-chief’s administration). So, McCain knew how to fight off ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz. #05).
abj // Aug 26, 2010 at 11:37 am
Was there ever a “JD Hayworth Revolution”? Didn’t it fizzle before it actually started?
Madeline, you’re right – there never was a Hayworth revolution. What did he get for all his anti-immigrant rhetoric? Defeated for reelection in 06, and defeated in the Senate primary this year. It would seem his hard-right stance in immigration has resulted in abject failure. McCain, of course, moved right on the issue, but it just goes to show taking an extreme stance on immigration won’t save Republican candidates. That’s the lesson I would draw from it, anyway.
Rob_654 // Aug 26, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Hate will only take someone so far.
GEValle // Aug 27, 2010 at 4:20 pm
To all the brainless nit-wits who think that Hayworth’s loss means the end for the Tea Party, do yourselves a favor…dust off your brains, and think again.
Hayworth’s bid was always a longshot. Nonetheless, he forced the detestable John McCain to take Conservative positions (meaning, he forced McCain to flip-flop) to fool the electorate yet again. But most importantly, Hayworth also forced McCain to spend $20 million(!) in a Primary!!!
Meanwhile, Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio is poised to win the Florida Senate seat, not former RINO Charlie Christ. Tea Party favorite Joe Miller is about to knock-out Lisa “RINO” Murkowski. And in Arizona, Jesse Kelly, another Tea Party favorite, won EASILY in his district’s primary, knocking-out the GOP-establishment candidate.
But hey, go ahead, choose to ignore the evidence! If you are a Frum-type RINO, you will LOSE BIG this Fall. Your influence in the Party is OVER. Get used to the new reality, or do a “Crist”, and bolt.
The J.D. Hayworth Revolution Fizzles Out – FrumForum | Projection Screen Fixed // Sep 5, 2010 at 9:00 pm
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