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Bill Brown

A complicated man.

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I'm no expert in campaign finance, but aren't you supposed to refrain from treating your election committee funds as a personal checking account? If I were a contributor, I'd be pissed.

Also, if you look nearly all the way down this page, you'll see an entry for "DMRW" on 3/4/04 for "fees." This would be utterly unremarkable were it not for the fact that the address listed had a rather un-Republican, un-family values purpose. Fees indeed!

Even though I went to middle and high school with him, I did not vote for Dean Martin. Ever since I have known him I have thought that he would either be a car salesman or a politician—quite a prescient assessment. His views as evidenced on his campaign site and the questionnaire cover every Republican bromide out there and point to a Bob Dole-style politician. (To give you an indication of his ambition, his sign design doesn't even list the office he's seeking.) No thanks!

So did I vote for Marla Wing, the Democratic challenger? Hell no, she's crazier than cotton and quite wrong for my interests. Plus, my wife had her son as a student and had to endure her insanity at parent-teacher conferences: she confirms what article after article only hint at—the woman ain't all there. (Side note: when you can't raise money except for $5 contributions from short-order cooks and the unemployed and you're forced to make campaign signs out of poster board and markers, you might want to cut your losses and go home.)

I did the only honorable thing when faced with such a choice at the very local level: I abstained. The Dean Martin steamroller doesn't need my support and there is no way that Marla Wing is getting into the state Senate (though it would definitely shake things up down there!).

[One programming note: this concludes the Bill Brown Information Center's foray into election commentary. It was short-lived and we like it like that.]

[UPDATE (11/26/04): The Arizona Republic has picked up this story and did a bit more investigating than I did. Apparently, a lot of the campaign money went back to his own companies. All of this came to light when a constituent informed the media of his self-dealing. I guess I should have done a little more research and made the information available to the media. Also, I guess the media isn't reading my blog. Heheh.]

[UPDATE (3/13/2006): Apparently, Dean's running for State Treasurer. His little scheme resurfaces in the comments and I think that such double dealing will come to haunt him in the run for State Treasurer, an office for which fiduciary responsibility and integrity is prime.]