In his bid to upset two-term United States Sen. Jon Kyl, challenger Jim Pederson would have you believe that he's been an independent thinker and, for that matter, possibly a registered independent since registering to vote. Unfortunately for him, we know the real Jim Pederson.
Jim Pederson is one of the largest single contributors to the Democratic National Committee and the largest contributor to the Arizona Democratic Party, where he served as chairman until recently resigning to run for Senate. Let me expose Jim Pederson for who he really is.
When Howard Dean came to Arizona for a fundraiser, Gov. Napolitano wisely chose not to attend for fear of alienating the average Arizona voter. But guess who was there to greet him with open arms -- Jim Pederson.
It should come as no surprise to us that his campaign is foundering at the moment. After all, how far can friends like Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton take you in Arizona? The answer to that question is not very far at all. Pederson is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters in this state and, so far, he hasn't been all too successful.
Pederson's already shuffled his staff, as the two East Coast liberals who were running his campaign have bolted. In their place are Joe Yuhas and Mario Diaz, the latter known for his strong-arm tactics that forced the name change of Squaw Peak a few short years ago.
Already, we can see the type of tactics they're employing with the new ad on immigration that's just been released. In it, Pederson uses Sen. John McCain to attack Kyl's immigration stance. McCain has come to the defense of Kyl by issuing a statement about his strong support for Kyl and his disappointment that his name is being used in a smear ad.
This is just a sampling of what there is to learn about Jim Pederson. He's not the independent man he claims to be in his advertisements. He's an overly partisan liberal whose only chance of winning this election is pumping his millions of dollars into his sinking campaign.
Kyl's only potential downfall would be his relative obscurity. While in Nevada over Christmas break, I read an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that chronicled this race under the title, "Arizona's 'other' senator." That's not exactly the type of headline you want, especially after having served for nearly two full terms in the Senate and four more in the U.S. House.
One reason for this relative obscurity is his workhorse nature. TIME recently named him one of America's 10 best senators, along with McCain. His behind-the-scenes work in the Senate as well as his standing on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee serve Arizona well.
Jim Pederson must think Arizonans are very foolish people if he expects us to believe him when he says he'll be our independent senator. Unfortunately for him, the evidence is right there in front of us.
You can always tell what kind of person one is by the people they surround themselves with, and if Harry Reid and company are it for Pederson, I'll take McCain's friend and colleague Jon Kyl over them any day of the week.
T.J. Shope is a political science junior hoping for a miraculous Phoenix Suns comeback so that we may finally see the end of Kobe Bryant's season. Reach him at thomas.shope@asu.edu.
