Governor Jan Brewer has finally decided where to start spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars she's collected for her political action committee.
Brewer set up the federal PAC last year in the wake of court rulings eliminating limits on spending by independent expenditure committees. But it took until last week for her to decide she wanted to spend more than $23,000 to print and mail a piece urging voters in the newly created 9th congressional district to defeat Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, in part by linking her with President Obama. PAC spokesman Paul Senseman said the governor's decision should be no surprise, as Brewer disagrees with many of Sinema's votes in her seven years as a legislator. But Rod McLeod, the candidate's campaign manager said Sinema is proud she opposed Brewer on things like the governor's decision to cut Kids Care which provides low-cost health insurance to the children of the working poor. Anyway, McLeod does not think Brewer's tactic will work -- at least not in this race.
"Jan Brewer lost CD 9," McLeod said. "She lost the precincts that make up these communities back in her race in 2010. And according to our polling, she's not very popular here."
The money for Brewer's PAC has come from various sources. But the largest on record is $25,000 from officers and top staff of Magellan Health Services -- the company that has a $769 million contract with the state for behavioral health services. But Senseman said Brewer would not have taken the money if she thought the donation was inappropriate.