J. D. Hayworth

J. D. Hayworth
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 5th district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Karan English
Succeeded by	Harry Mitchell
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Mary Hayworth
Residence	Scottsdale, Arizona
Alma mater	North Carolina State University
Occupation	Broadcaster

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 to 2007 from the 5th District of Arizona (map). He was a television sportscaster and radio journalist before being elected to the House. He hosted a conservative talk show radio program on KFYI in Phoenix until January 2010 when he resigned due to his run for Senate.

Hayworth has announced his intent to challenge incumbent Senator John McCain for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010.

Early life, education, and broadcasting career

Hayworth was born in High Point, North Carolina. His grandfather, Ray Hayworth, was a Major League Baseball catcher from 1926 from 1945. Hayworth received a bachelor's degree in speech communications and political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh in 1980.

Hayworth is an Eagle Scout, which led to his first radio job at age 14. 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 KTSP-TV (later KSAZ-TV), which was then the CBS affiliate in Phoenix.

Hayworth married in 1989. He and his wife Mary have three children.

U.S. House of Representatives

Hayworth served on the Resources and the Ways and Means committees during his term in the House.

Campaigns

In 1994, Hayworth ran in what was then the 6th District and defeated incumbent Democrat Karan English, taking 54 percent of the vote to English's 42 percent. 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.

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 he won handily: He won in 2000 against Larry K. Nelson, 60 percent to 37 percent; in 2002, against Craig Columbus, getting 61 percent of the vote; and in 2004, against Justice Elizabeth Rogers, getting 60 percent.

During his first four terms, Hayworth represented a district that took in most of the northeastern portion of the state, including Flagstaff. Most of its population, however, was located in the Phoenix suburbs. After the 2000 census, his district was renumbered the 5th District, and was made a much more compact district centered more in the Phoenix area.

Media profile

Hayworth and Barney Frank at a Capitol Hill press conference.

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, due to his verbal gift for gab, 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." He also won the "No Rocket Scientist" category. In response to this, Hayworth's spokesman noted that Hayworth graduated from college with honors. He also dismissed it as name calling and said that this is what happens when you're an outspoken conservative. In 2006 he was again voted the second biggest "windbag" in the House.

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."

Political positions

Like most Republicans elected in the 1994 landslide, Hayworth was an ardent conservative. He supports stronger border security and opposes the temporary worker program proposed by President George W. Bush for illegal aliens.

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 Bush is too close to GOP contributors from the agribusiness, meat packing and construction industries, who he calls "addicted" to a steady stream of workers from Mexico and Central America to keep wages down. Hayworth also argues that current immigration law misinterprets the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, says that a child of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. should not be given U.S. citizenship, and advocates the "Americanization" program Henry Ford advocated in an interview with the New York Times in 1914.

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.

Controversies

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.

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 percent of its $411,000 in revenue. The PAC also paid $70,000 to an outside political consultant and a California bookkeeper, bringing fundraising and administrative expenses 43 percent of the total revenue.

Between January 2001 and February 2006, TEAM PAC took in $538,109. Administrative costs for the period were about $165,000, about 30 percent 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.

Abramoff and Indian tribes

Main article: Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal

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.

After Abramoff was convicted of defrauding the tribes, Hayworth remained in possession of the donations not knowing where or who to return them. 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.'" Hayworth was co-chairman of the Native American Caucus in Congress. Hayworth gave $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, 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.

Same sex marriage

On March 14, 2010 while appearing on WORL (660 AM) in Orlando, Florida, Hayworth said that a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage defined marriage as "the establishment of intimacy." He said that the ruling could lead to a human marrying a horse based on that definition. The 2003 decision actually defined marriage as "the voluntary union of two persons as spouses, to the exclusion of all others", and the phrase "the establishment of intimacy" does not appear in the ruling.

2006 campaign

See also: United States House elections, 2006

Arizona's Fifth District is comprised mainly of Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale, western Chandler and Fountain Hills, suburbs of Phoenix.

Hayworth had considered running for the Governor of Arizona in the 2006 elections against incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano, but in March 2005 he announced that he preferred to stay in Congress. In the spring of 2005, Napolitano was enjoying a 79 percent favorable job rating.

On October 27, 2006, after endorsing Hayworth in previous Congressional races, the Arizona Republic newspaper withdrew its support and instead endorsed Harry Mitchell, his opponent. Harry Mitchell was a former State Democratic Chair, and also a former mayor of Tempe. In explaining its shift of endorsement, the paper cited Mitchell's long record of public service and ability to work collaboratively across partisan divides. The article placed Hayworth "among Capitol Hill's worst offenders" of "extreme partisanship." Calling Hayworth a "bully," it described an example of an "overbearing attempt at intimidation" by Hayworth during an interview with the paper's editorial staff. It finally suggested that his "bombastic rhetoric and obnoxious behavior" in the conduct of his office was a key factor in the paper's withdrawal of their support for him. In contrast, Hayworth's response to the Arizona Republic over the years has been a bombardment of rhetoric using the phrase "Arizona Repugnant."

Several prominent local Republicans also crossed the aisle to endorse Harry Mitchell in the race, including many former GOP elected office holders. This defection of Republicans had a significant impact on the result of the general election: CD-5, despite having a 60% Republican active registered voter advantage over Democrats (139,057 vs 86,743 in October 2006), nevertheless voted in favor of the Democrat Mitchell.

On the evening of November 7, election day, most major news media declared 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. 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 percent margin. Hayworth finally conceded on November 14. His reasons for the delay in conceding contrasted with his actions in his 1996 Congressional election when, leading by only 590 votes on election night, he "brushed aside suggestions the outcome could change". Mitchell did not claim victory until November 22.

During the campaign, Hayworth was dogged by controversial affiliation with Jack Abramoff and over questions of propriety of payments to his wife from Hayworth's PAC (see above). In a leaked internal email from the National Republican Congressional Committee, G.O.P. spokesman Carl Forti suggested that Hayworth's defeat was caused by the "scandal factor."

Radio talk show host

On April 23, 2007, it was announced on Phoenix radio station KFYI that Hayworth would begin hosting an afternoon drive time (4–7 PM) radio talk show on the station starting April 26, 2007.

In November 2009, Rasmussen Reports released the results of a poll of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona showing a statistical tie in in a hypothetical primary challenge to incumbent John McCain for the 2010 Republican US Senate nomination in Arizona. A February 2010 poll by Rasmussen Reports however had McCain beating Hayworth 53% to 31%. Hayworth says he is considering running against McCain because he has "a profound disagreement with Senator John McCain over the concept of amnesty, whether he wants to call it comprehensive immigration reform or a pathway for guest workers to remain." As of November, 2009 Hayworth had yet to announce a decision about whether he would enter the race. One factor may be John McCain's formidable fundraising advantage. McCain has raised $12 million for his reelection campaign.

Hayworth can currently be seen as a spokesman for "National Grants Conferences" on their late-night infomercial.

Hayworth resigned his position as a political talk show host following his January 22, 2010 broadcast. At the time of his resignation he had plans to challenge McCain in the 2010 Republican Primary.

Political future

Initial indications are that JD Hayworth may become a formidable challenger to Senator John McCain. Mr. Hayworth has picked up several prominent endorsements from Conservative groups and continues to emphasize his anti-amnesty position when it comes to the Illegal Immigration subject. A Rasmussen poll taken on March 18th, 2010, indicated Hayworth was seven percentage points from McCain in a political match-up. The poll also goes on to state; "But now Hayworth, a former congressman turned popular local talk radio host, is a formal candidate, and anti-immigration activist Chris Simcox has quit the race and endorsed him. For McCain, the new numbers also show him dropping again below 50%, and incumbents who poll less than 50% at this stage of a campaign are considered potentially vulnerable."

External links

• United States Congress. "J. D. Hayworth (id: H000413)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Campaign website
• Associated Press profile
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — J.D. Hayworth profile
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