Across Arizona, Republican Party members are watching as the power struggle between AZGOP Chair Robert Graham and grassroots activists plays out. Graham, who is fighting to maintain power for the Party’s McCain-centric establishment, has launched an unprecedented assault on precinct committeeman on behalf of his chosen replacement, Jonathan Lines.
The annual statutory meeting of the Arizona Republican Party is scheduled for this coming Saturday.
In the past, Graham’s attacks on behalf of McCain have left many members of the Party disillusioned and disenfranchised. Under Graham’s leadership, the statutory meetings have been nothing short of divisive and disastrous, according to many participants.
In this his final year as AZGOP Chair, Graham has pulled out all the stops to stop the grassroots from being represented on the state level. To that end, Graham has moved to illegally block the participation of 119 state committeemen in Legislative District 23 (LD23). LD23 is the stronghold for Jim O’Connor, who is challenging Lines for the top GOP spot.
If Graham were successful in blocking the 119 state committeemen, Lines would have a much better chance of securing the AZGOP chairmanship. Considering the amount of cash that flows through the AZGOP, the stakes are high for Graham. Control of the Party means control of the money. Since taking office, Graham, who has his own legal issues, has been able to funnel money to and away from candidates and operatives.
Given the fact that Graham had badly damaged Arizona’s relationships with the RNC during Reince Prebius’s tenure, Graham has had to rely on other money sources to keep the state organization alive. As a result, whoever takes over the Party will have to mend relationships and create a more diversified funding pool.
Playing fast and loose with procedures
Graham has made several allegations against then-LD23 Chairman Jim O’Connor. He has, according to the Arizona Freedom Alliance, failed to substantiate those allegations.
In a video, LD23 member, Tim Horn explains the issue and describes Graham’s efforts in great detail.
According to sources, Graham is confident that he can manipulate the annual meeting proceedings, as he has done in the past, to ensure that Lines will walk away with control.
Who and why Lines?
According to the Arizona Freedom Alliance (AFA), Lines has developed an interesting reputation in his Yuma district. The group reached out to activists in the area to discover “who is this man, what has he actually done in Arizona politics, how qualified is he.”
AFA reports that “Lines has also said he will keep his position as Yuma County Central Committee Chairman.” The group has concerns that this arrangement will create a conflict of interest in the future.
In the present, as Yuma County Central Committee Chairman, Lines sent out the Call to the Organizational meeting by email. As AFA notes, that is exactly what O’Connor did.
If it weren’t for double standards, Graham would have no standards at all, so it is not surprising that O’Connor and Lines are receiving disparate treatment.
[READ MORE ABOUT THE EMAILS HERE]
AFA’s sources report that Lines is very “close” to the McCain camp. The source explained, “Precinct committeemen both the ones now and those who were PCs before say he is an avid supporter of both Senators (Flake and McCain). They say he consistently works in their primary campaigns as well as their General Election campaigns. That is what I have seen, too.”
Lines’ FEC report shows his support for both McCain and Flake. As late as October 2016, Lines gave $500 to the McCain Victory Committee and another $500 to McCain’s Sedona PAC. He also gave money to the widely unpopular Jeb Bush presidential campaign.
More of interest to the stalwarts of the Party is the fact that Lines has given money to Democratic Party candidates. AFA’s source stated that Lines “supported Lyn Pancrazi for election against one of our own Republican candidates? As I recall, that was in a state Senate primary. Maybe it was in the General, I don’t remember the timing but I thought that was just plain wrong for a Republican chairman to do. Isn’t there something illegal about that or maybe even unethical?”
Same ol’ same ol’
During his tenure, Graham used his position to primarily promote himself. With ambitions to replace Prebius, Graham focused more on winning support from other states rather than shoring up Trump or down ticket candidates in Arizona. Because of his neglect, Graham was seen as someone who “doesn’t do much for the Party.”
According to the AFA’s Yuma source, Lines has the same reputation but for different reasons. When asked about the relationship between Lines and Graham, the source stated, “Certainly there is something between these two. This committee suddenly got a lot of cash from AZGOP, sometime in the fall. Jonathan is not good at raising money to keep this district going and members don’t provide much in the way of income. But suddenly, the district had money. We didn’t hold a fundraiser so I don’t know where that came from unless he got it from Graham. Do you know that Graham regularly pays some districts a lot of money to keep them bound to him? There’s a lot of, shall we say, unusual activity between these two. Oh, he doesn’t tell some of us but Yuma is a small town. Word gets around. Oh, yes, he’s running as the third term of Graham. Like Hillary did.”
“He just got re-elected for the third time so we have plenty of experience with him as chairman. He gets elected because most of the current PCs are his family members or close friends. He has a really big family.”
Family is a foundational value of the Republican Party. However, operatives say that you can’t win elections if all you can mobilize is your family – no matter how big it might be.