WEBVTT 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.040 Oh, today is December 2, 2010 on David Berman and Professor Emeritus of 00:00:12.109 --> 00:00:17.227 Political Science at Arizona State University and I'm interviewing Matt 00:00:17.260 --> 00:00:21.506 Weissman who was with the staff of Congressman Harry Mitchell of the 5th 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:26.256 Congressional District, I've had the chance to go over your resume. So I 00:00:26.289 --> 00:00:29.686 have a good idea where you're, where you've been and a lot of experience 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:35.467 working with candidates and Illinois, particularly how did you happen to 00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:41.436 hook up with Harry, what was your first contact there? Actually, it was uh 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:48.406 somewhat uh indirectly I was invited, I was worked in politics previously 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:55.046 at the time, I was practicing law in Chicago and I got a call from someone 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:59.207 invited me to come interview out of the Arizona Democratic Party For a 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:03.016 communications director position. And when I flew out there at the time, 00:01:03.049 --> 00:01:06.346 Harry Mitchell was the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. So I met 00:01:06.379 --> 00:01:10.876 him when he interviewed me for that job, that was what, 2005, I think when 00:01:10.909 --> 00:01:16.456 you were in 2005 and he was chair And you were, I guess communications 00:01:16.489 --> 00:01:21.786 director for a coordinated campaign and 4006 at the Arizona Democratic 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:25.066 Party, I was the communications director. Yeah, I see you got involved in 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:31.917 that campaign? Yeah. At the party, obviously we were uh working to try to 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:36.266 elect democrats to hold a whole slate of offices. How did you look at that 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:39.867 situation compared to, were you in Chicago before then or in Illinois. But 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:44.596 yeah, I grew up in Chicago originally from there. So obviously it's very, 00:01:44.629 --> 00:01:48.747 very different politics in in the phoenix metro area than the Chicago 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:55.337 metropolitan area. So how was that different? Oh, uh, ironically, actually 00:01:55.370 --> 00:01:59.367 one of the things that I discovered, I had never been to Arizona actually 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:02.997 prior to ultimately interviewing and then coming out to work out there and 00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:06.027 I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out how many, how many 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.767 chicagoans and how many Midwesterners had relocated there. So it was 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:15.856 actually quite easy to adapt. But obviously, the kinds of issues that were 00:02:15.889 --> 00:02:19.376 first and foremost on the minds of voters in Arizona slightly different 00:02:19.409 --> 00:02:23.476 than those on the minds of folks in Chicago in Illinois. I know, as you 00:02:23.509 --> 00:02:27.057 mentioned, you did some work on JD Hayworth, there's investigations into 00:02:27.090 --> 00:02:32.587 JD Hayworth and uh Wound up being in Henry's opponent in the congressional 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:39.186 race. We did uh we at the time actually going into the 2006 cycle, the 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:44.467 sort of uh most of the 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:48.557 races that most people were interested in looking ahead at 2006 was the 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:53.786 gubernatorial re elect for governor, napolitano as well as the Senate race. 00:02:53.819 --> 00:02:59.126 Jim Peterson was challenging Senator Jon Kyl at the time. So actually, 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:03.147 initially people weren't really paying too much attention to the 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:07.577 congressional races, There wasn't much thought that there was going to be 00:03:07.610 --> 00:03:12.427 much turnover in the congressional delegation and uh trying to think 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:18.147 exactly when, but sort of late in 2005, I believe then uh congressman Jim 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:21.647 kolbe announced that he was going to retire. So race opened up in, in 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:26.927 Southern Arizona. And uh, and then as we were sort of working to try to 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:32.807 encourage folks to take a look at democratic candidates. Uh, we uh, 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:37.207 started learning some things about Congressman Hayworth, that we're not 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.987 just sort of partisan, but things that we found that odd independents and 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:46.467 republicans were not very pleased with. So, uh, we definitely worked to 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:52.247 try to draw some attention to that. It was harry a candidate. Them, no, 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:56.027 not at all, he was not. And this was not something that he was planning to 00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:01.036 do. This was not something he really sought out, which was really, it was 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:07.256 , it was very much an unintended candidacy. What happened was as we 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:10.386 started trying to bring more attention to some of the things that 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:16.707 congressman Hayworth had been involved with, for example, uh, it was uh, 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:21.587 it was discovered that he had put his wife on his political action 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:25.426 committees payroll. So I think they estimated at the time upwards of 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:31.366 $100,000 had gone to his wife out of his political action committees 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:37.736 payroll, which was not illegal, but obviously was concerning to a lot of 00:04:37.769 --> 00:04:43.777 folks. And as that information sort of came out, a lot of folks were Sort 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:47.286 of wondering, well, toward what end this was a member who had been in 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:51.587 Congress for 12 years up until these sort of revelation started coming out 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:55.717 , had had been in pretty good political standing. And folks were kind of 00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:59.277 wondering, well, Does this mean anyone is going to run against him? And if 00:04:59.310 --> 00:05:04.536 so, who and at the time, Harry Mitchell was chairman of the State Party 00:05:04.569 --> 00:05:09.426 and he was also finishing his last term in the Arizona State Senate. She 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:14.897 was term limited out, and I think he was about 65, years old and really 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:19.846 getting ready to to be retired. And uh, a lot of folks then got excited 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:22.496 about the opportunity to to make a race in the fifth congressional 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:27.067 district and started encouraging him to run for Congress. And uh, after a 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:32.156 lot of urging, he finally agreed to do it. You you left before the 00:05:32.189 --> 00:05:37.606 election in the summer of six, I think I did. We were fortunate enough 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:42.786 that the what we discovered about Congressman Hayworth and and also the 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:47.327 launch of Harry Mitchell's race for Congress got a lot of national 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:52.757 attention because that year, a lot of national democrats were running on a 00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:56.666 platform of against a culture of corruption, I think, was a term that they 00:05:56.699 --> 00:06:01.897 were using. And Jack Abramoff was very much in the news that year. And 00:06:01.930 --> 00:06:09.930 what happened was, we had created a apparently, a race had come about in 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:14.457 Arizona, that sort of played into a lot of these national narratives. And 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:21.817 so in about april of that year, shortly after the congressman had declared 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:26.327 his candidacy, or actually, maybe slightly before, uh, Congressman 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:30.616 Hayworth appeared on meet the Press with tim Russert and immigration was a 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:34.746 huge issue that year, and it was a panel of guests that we're talking 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:37.777 about immigration. And Congressman Hayworth had been very much involved in 00:06:37.810 --> 00:06:43.527 the in that debate. And uh at the end of the the show on meet the Press, 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:47.437 the last two or three minutes of the show, tim Russert turned to 00:06:47.470 --> 00:06:51.827 Congressman Hayworth and really started questioning him very directly 00:06:51.860 --> 00:06:55.897 about some of the revelations that have come to light in Arizona. And he 00:06:55.930 --> 00:07:00.707 even mentioned his wife being on the political action committees payroll. 00:07:00.740 --> 00:07:03.556 And even mentioned that there was someone named terry Mitchell that was 00:07:03.589 --> 00:07:07.476 going to be running against him and that uh that they meet the press would 00:07:07.509 --> 00:07:11.786 be watching this race very closely. So, when that happened, we we 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:16.156 obviously received a lot of calls at the State Party asking, what had we 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:22.106 done, what, what had worked, um what have we tried to do? And so, I was 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:29.746 asked by some folks at the National Party to go work on a race for brad 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:34.077 Ellsworth in southern indiana, who was also running his first time for 00:07:34.110 --> 00:07:37.967 Congress at that time, and obviously was very, very hard to leave, but I 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.137 talked it over with uh, with the congressman. And were you surprised Harry 00:07:42.170 --> 00:07:48.296 won that race? Uh, I wasn't surprised, But we knew it was a very uphill 00:07:48.329 --> 00:07:53.366 battle. I mean, this was this was not a gimme by any stretch, even with an 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:58.866 , uh, an embattled Congressman that we were trying to unseat. This was a 00:07:58.899 --> 00:08:03.397 district that was, uh, I think at the time, about 44% of voters were 00:08:03.430 --> 00:08:09.306 registered Republicans, were registered Democrats. This was by no means 00:08:09.339 --> 00:08:15.306 going to be a cakewalk. But what actually helped us was, uh, the district 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:21.096 congressman Hayworth, his views also on immigration, which was an 00:08:21.129 --> 00:08:24.527 immigration reform, which was one of the preeminent issues that year, had 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:29.327 sort of become out of tune with the sentiment in the district. He was very 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:33.626 much against immigration reform, and what we discovered is we talked to 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:38.407 more and more voters across the district, even a lot of republicans were 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:43.986 wanted to fix the immigration system, secure the border, but also fix the 00:08:44.019 --> 00:08:49.437 system that was just so broken. And so that I think that helped a lot as 00:08:49.470 --> 00:08:53.957 well, that I think people were sort of frustrated that nothing had been 00:08:53.990 --> 00:08:59.366 done and, and we're eager to try to uh, look for a change. But I think 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:04.287 what also helped harry Mitchell in particular, he was probably the only 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:09.386 person who could have won that year because of his, his longstanding roots 00:09:09.419 --> 00:09:13.697 in the community and his prior record of really working across the aisle 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:18.087 in a very bipartisan manner. Uh, this was clearly someone who who was 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:22.197 absolutely a Democratic candidate, but was not somebody that was going to 00:09:22.230 --> 00:09:27.827 be really, uh, strongly ideologically and reflexively opposed to any idea 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:31.766 that would come from a Republican or an independent, he would happily 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:36.547 partnered with them to try to solve problems. So after the election then 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:41.256 you got a call to come to Washington or did you? Oh yeah, I I had uh 00:09:41.289 --> 00:09:46.366 obviously even even being in indiana had been in close touch with everyone 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:50.467 in Arizona and I'm watching very closely and actually election wasn't 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:54.307 decided right on election night. It was close enough that they were 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:59.697 waiting for remaining balance to be counted. So we were all very watching 00:09:59.730 --> 00:10:03.297 very intently to see if what happened on election night, if the result 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:07.087 would hold up and he would ultimately prevail. So that delay got you an 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.677 office in this building. It did, it actually had a had an unexpected 00:10:10.710 --> 00:10:14.687 benefit. The the House of Representatives very quickly after an election, 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:18.317 they go through their office lottery where members move offices and new 00:10:18.350 --> 00:10:23.136 members select their offices. But because the race had not been called a 00:10:23.169 --> 00:10:29.167 congressman, Hayworth was not yet asked to give up his office. So they ran 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.486 the lottery, everyone picked their offices. And then by the time the race 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:37.047 was called, we just ended up inheriting congressman Hayworth's office 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:42.177 space, which was Uh he had 12 years of seniority in the house. So it was 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:46.917 not not a typical office space for a freshman member, you became Deputy 00:10:46.950 --> 00:10:50.366 Chief of Staff Legislative Director and counsel for the congressman 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.717 ultimately ultimately started out as the most, so this is where you spend 00:10:54.750 --> 00:10:58.667 most of your retirement Legislative Director then, and uh, and just 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:03.287 keeping them informed and uh, as the developments drafting legislation and 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:10.346 this is sure the whole gamut of activities there. Yeah, yeah. Uh, one 00:11:10.379 --> 00:11:14.907 article I read about the staff here is that it's a pretty congenial group 00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:19.396 to making decisions. You sort of had a devil's advocate in the group and 00:11:19.429 --> 00:11:23.437 you argue back and forth before decisions about what to sponsor what goes 00:11:23.470 --> 00:11:26.606 into a bill. The kind of things like that. Absolutely. And that's 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:30.756 something that congressman very much encouraged. I mean, he always wanted 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:37.677 to know every side of every issue, uh, and wants to know what, what we 00:11:37.710 --> 00:11:41.136 were hearing from constituents who are calling and writing in what we've 00:11:41.169 --> 00:11:47.797 heard in and around the district and also other information relating to it 00:11:47.830 --> 00:11:52.037 , what else was going on relating to it in Washington and in other places. 00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:57.307 So there's a lot of heated arguments sometimes and oh, for sure. For sure. 00:11:57.340 --> 00:12:02.537 Um, but always, always, I think respectfully, obviously we all got along 00:12:02.570 --> 00:12:07.567 great. Still get along great. So I was just thinking about the broader 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:12.526 political environment, uh, seemed like the most important factor affecting 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:16.606 your relations with other party leaders or the legislation you adopted or 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:21.126 supported was the fact that he was a democrat in a heavily Republican 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:26.616 district. And it seems to me there was, it was, you had to be fairly 00:12:26.649 --> 00:12:32.596 careful about what you did well, you know what, what's fascinating about 00:12:32.629 --> 00:12:40.226 that is he, how district focused he has always been, uh, that a lot of 00:12:40.259 --> 00:12:44.057 folks come to the House of Representatives and it's uh considered sort of 00:12:44.090 --> 00:12:47.217 a stepping stone, they want to get elected to the House because then they 00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:52.496 want to use that as a platform to run for some other office. And really 00:12:52.529 --> 00:12:56.967 congressman Mitchell, he got elected to the House and he was just really 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:01.736 eager to, to serve and try to do, uh, the best he could for for his home 00:13:01.769 --> 00:13:07.396 district. He was not trying to ultimately run for Senate or or find some 00:13:07.429 --> 00:13:12.526 other office. So he was very, very focused on just the district and in 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:17.217 that way really was intent on hearing from everybody in the district and 00:13:17.250 --> 00:13:21.457 made it took great pains to reach out to not just the folks that voted for 00:13:21.490 --> 00:13:24.697 him, but the folks who voted against him and, and really spend a lot of 00:13:24.730 --> 00:13:28.697 quality time with them to hear from them, understand their views, listen 00:13:28.730 --> 00:13:33.947 to their concerns. Um, and when things would come up, he would always 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:36.957 instruct us to make sure we were reaching out to people that even if 00:13:36.990 --> 00:13:39.866 people weren't calling in and asking and registering their opinions that 00:13:39.899 --> 00:13:42.896 we were getting out and and asking them for their opinions before they 00:13:42.929 --> 00:13:47.407 even called us and register their opinions. The party leaders would 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:52.917 recognize the unique characteristics of the district that he had to work 00:13:52.950 --> 00:13:56.886 with to get reelected. And and so maybe they could cut him some slack on 00:13:56.919 --> 00:14:01.486 some issues. Is that, you know, I I don't think you can ask him, but I 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:06.587 really don't I don't recall sort of pressure from leadership being 00:14:06.620 --> 00:14:13.106 something that was a heavy factor in his his vote calculus. Uh He was 00:14:13.139 --> 00:14:17.976 always very uh focused on on the district and uh and what he thought was 00:14:18.009 --> 00:14:23.787 best and and as a result his voting record, as you look at it is very very 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:28.797 moderate. It does. He was for example, just recently this year, he was the 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:32.927 only democrat who voted for the health care bill, which was something that 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:35.996 democrats were very much for. But then he was also endorsed by the U. S. 00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:40.907 Chamber of Commerce over his opponent in this last election. And that's a 00:14:40.940 --> 00:14:45.667 typically very republican uh sought after endorsement. The one thing he 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:52.287 did get is a subcommittee chair chairs job, which is quite unusual for a 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:56.657 freshman. It was unusual for freshman. So the veterans subcommittee on 00:14:56.690 --> 00:15:00.587 veterans affair oversight. I think it was an oversight and investigations. 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:05.726 And that was something that what was great also about kind of unique 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:10.106 about harry Mitchell first coming into Congress was that he was a freshman 00:15:10.139 --> 00:15:14.896 in Congress, but he was the oldest freshman uh in his freshman class. But 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:19.526 he was by no means a freshman in politics. This was somebody who had, had 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:24.356 , had a lifetime of public service and he really sort of, uh, knew how to 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:30.067 hit the ground running. And uh, so he was sort of fit right into that 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:34.896 chairman role, pretty pretty easily sort of veterans affairs though. Is 00:15:34.929 --> 00:15:39.096 that a particularly important district area of policy and District five? 00:15:39.129 --> 00:15:43.346 Is that it absolutely is. There's a lot of veterans in and around the 00:15:43.379 --> 00:15:46.776 district and it was something that the congressman felt very, very 00:15:46.809 --> 00:15:52.427 passionately. I see the personal passion there And at the time, uh, it was 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:57.827 uh, one of the other huge issues that year in 2006 was the Iraq War was a 00:15:57.860 --> 00:16:01.707 big political issue, but 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:07.026 how veterans were being treated at the time was, it was, uh, really, uh, 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:10.236 troubling. Um, and, and even even now, I mean, there's still a lot of 00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:13.876 issues that the veterans face and that's something that he, he he knew 00:16:13.909 --> 00:16:16.687 when he, he got here, he really wanted to try to make a difference. And 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:21.957 frankly, a lot of freshmen may not even uh, seek out involvement in 00:16:21.990 --> 00:16:24.606 veterans issues because a lot of times it's not necessarily the most 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.907 politically uh 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:34.526 beneficial a subject to work on. And it also, a lot of folks who are again 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:39.547 , trying to climb the ladder and work, uh, work their way up to higher 00:16:39.580 --> 00:16:43.746 office, they want something that will give them a higher profile or will 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:49.047 be in the news more. But congressman Mitchell is always, uh, he always 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:52.077 even talks about, he's still used to teach government, but he's still a 00:16:52.110 --> 00:16:55.707 student in government and he's much more interested in the mechanics and, 00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:59.427 and trying to get in there and sort of solve problems and, and work with 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:03.427 the nuts and bolts. So that was that was sort of a signature issue. I 00:17:03.460 --> 00:17:09.486 think that particularly in the first a term that was that merged quickly 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:13.687 as a signature issue fiscal conservatism. I think he voted against the 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:21.127 budget of the democrats that year. And ah, seems to me that these are the 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:25.976 kind of things that would go over? Well, in the district, your immigration 00:17:26.009 --> 00:17:29.236 was a tough, what was the toughest kind of issue to get your hands on in 00:17:29.269 --> 00:17:33.157 terms of coming up with something that would be satisfactory far as your 00:17:33.190 --> 00:17:36.217 constituents are concerned and your conscience and all the other things? 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:40.286 Well, that was actually, the congressman has a really strong conscience. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:46.286 So, I think that was sometimes things were, it can be difficult when 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:49.766 things are packaged and bundled in a way where there are things that you 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.417 like in a package and things that you don't like in a package. And the 00:17:53.450 --> 00:17:58.677 question is, is it, is it worth getting progress on some element of a 00:17:58.710 --> 00:18:02.236 package? But at the same time, this other thing that you don't like as 00:18:02.269 --> 00:18:07.107 much is also part of the package. So, um, those are always difficult votes 00:18:07.140 --> 00:18:10.917 and he, in a way, those things sort of very carefully, healthcare would be 00:18:10.950 --> 00:18:16.207 a particularly difficult one. Sure, because it's and I know during the 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.506 last campaign that he was 00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:23.506 sure that he did the right thing and that he then, but I'm not so sure 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:28.056 that that helped him particularly. That was that became an issue. Sure. 00:18:28.089 --> 00:18:32.826 Certainly it was it was a big, a big political issue. Uh, but uh, he he 00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:38.397 really wrestled with it, He studied it, he uh, talked to, uh, so many 00:18:38.430 --> 00:18:43.197 people across the district and and uh, throughout the phoenix metropolitan 00:18:43.230 --> 00:18:50.046 area, around Arizona, a lot of folks here in Washington. Um, he, I got it 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:52.766 , I'm struggling to come up with a number of constituency actually talked 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:57.786 to, it was like a, you know, really, really large number. He held some 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:01.976 telephone town halls were, enables literally thousands and thousands of 00:19:02.009 --> 00:19:05.016 constituents to be able to get on. This was a very hot issue, though. Very 00:19:05.049 --> 00:19:13.049 , very much so. And the stimulus to expect it is, at the time, it was 00:19:13.049 --> 00:19:16.726 actually probably slightly less controversial when it was first getting 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:22.117 past because it was right when, uh, soon after President Obama had assumed 00:19:22.150 --> 00:19:27.056 office and at the time, his popularity was really high and and the economy 00:19:27.089 --> 00:19:35.089 was hemorrhaging jobs. And there was a huge outcry to please Congress do 00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:42.736 something. Um and uh in fact one of the, I remember there was a press 00:19:42.769 --> 00:19:50.086 release that we put out from the office, uh, that just publishing all, 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:53.256 some of the voices from the community that we had heard from, that had 00:19:53.289 --> 00:19:58.336 reached out to the congressman, businesses, other interest groups that had 00:19:58.369 --> 00:20:02.286 just said, we're in a crisis here, congressman, this is what we recommend 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:06.976 , This is what we want you to do, not all of it in agreement, but just, it 00:20:07.009 --> 00:20:13.056 was, it was the urgency was really a big factor. Then I became sort of an 00:20:13.089 --> 00:20:17.986 issue of overspending or wasteful spending as the, it's actually the 00:20:18.019 --> 00:20:23.586 campaign came around. Sure. And when, with any big issue in any campaign, 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:27.086 of course, it comes down to messaging. I mean, there's there are the facts 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:30.857 of ultimately what is what's in the bill, what it does, what it does well 00:20:30.890 --> 00:20:33.536 , what it doesn't do well, and then there's always what each party will 00:20:33.569 --> 00:20:39.756 say, uh, Bill does or doesn't do. Um, and actually, one of one of the 00:20:39.789 --> 00:20:43.806 things that we've found most, uh, which you probably talked to any 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:48.496 democrat, you'd find like with the health care bill in particular, the, 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:53.347 the misinformation and misunderstanding of sort of what the bill actually 00:20:53.380 --> 00:20:58.556 did, or didn't do, was pretty widespread. And, uh, and that was, I think a 00:20:58.589 --> 00:21:03.316 huge, huge challenge to democrats this year and trying to help the public 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:08.957 understand what rumors were false, what the bill actually did and didn't 00:21:08.990 --> 00:21:13.296 do. And you can have a genuine debate over whether you support what the 00:21:13.329 --> 00:21:18.347 bill does or doesn't do. But for people to be arguing over death panels, 00:21:18.380 --> 00:21:24.546 isn't exactly a a debate that Is focused on what the bill actually does. 00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:29.806 Immigration was was an issue when you were now Arizona in 1905 and six. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:33.917 And it's still, it became an issue of course, after 1070, how did that 00:21:33.950 --> 00:21:38.016 impact? You get a lot of pressure one way or another, and from other 00:21:38.049 --> 00:21:44.746 people after 10 17 we did, and I think that's sort of uh 00:21:44.779 --> 00:21:48.566 that that was an issue that uh, the congressman had always worked very 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.677 carefully on on immigration and border security issues because he ran on a 00:21:52.710 --> 00:21:56.887 platform of of trying to push immigration reform when he first ran and In 00:21:56.920 --> 00:22:03.627 2006, So he had always pushed for uh, solutions. And I think his his uh 00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:10.707 frustration with all the focus on 1070 was it's not really moving the ball 00:22:10.740 --> 00:22:16.207 forward to solve a solution that that neither the bill nor the lawsuit to 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:21.877 stop it was doing anything to fix the broken immigration system or secure 00:22:21.910 --> 00:22:25.607 the border. So he'd always try and try to be really focused on that. And I 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:29.566 think he was frustrated that now there was this huge distraction and 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:33.046 political fight over something over here that was sort of taking our eye 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:37.617 off the ball over here. So, um he, one of the first things he did actually 00:22:37.650 --> 00:22:42.347 , when he came into congress was he asked for a the government 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:47.927 accountability office, the G. A. O. To come in and examine immigration 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:51.506 enforcement for example, and find out sort of getting beyond the rhetoric 00:22:51.539 --> 00:22:56.006 and beyond the partisan platitudes. 00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:01.086 How is the system functioning? Why why is it broken? What would somebody 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:04.996 from a purely objective standpoint say, or some steps that need to be 00:23:05.029 --> 00:23:10.076 taken? And they did a 2.5 year study and ultimately, when they came back 00:23:10.109 --> 00:23:15.347 and the results came back this year, they found that, for example, one of 00:23:15.380 --> 00:23:20.407 the big issues we have in phoenix is the drop house issue with immigrants 00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:23.857 getting smuggled across the border and then held for ransom. And there 00:23:23.890 --> 00:23:30.157 were some headlines declaring phoenix a kidnapping capital. And uh, what 00:23:30.190 --> 00:23:34.437 the J. O. Found was uh, as much as we're trying to stamp out these drop 00:23:34.470 --> 00:23:37.036 houses and nobody likes these, it doesn't matter where you are an 00:23:37.069 --> 00:23:41.697 immigration reform, nobody likes people being held for ransom and held 00:23:41.730 --> 00:23:46.647 hostage and and people breaking the law and and mexican cartels and crime 00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:49.836 and violence being brought into our communities. Um, there's actually 00:23:49.869 --> 00:23:55.576 broad bipartisan concern over over that issue, but there was a loophole in 00:23:55.609 --> 00:24:00.516 federal law that was uh, constraining the ability to actually use a civil 00:24:00.549 --> 00:24:04.967 forfeiture to actually sees the homes so the authorities could seize all 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:07.536 the other things that were used to perpetrate the crime. But when they 00:24:07.569 --> 00:24:10.016 were trying to actually shut down the drop house, they couldn't actually 00:24:10.049 --> 00:24:14.377 go after the drop house. It just seemed like a very reasonable, sensible 00:24:14.410 --> 00:24:17.586 solution that not a lot of people were paying attention to. I don't think 00:24:17.619 --> 00:24:20.937 anyone was really paying attention to because they're all fighting over 00:24:20.970 --> 00:24:26.296 what was being chatted about on cable tv and uh, and that was sort of, I 00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:30.496 think very telling of the kind of work that the congressman did because he 00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:36.486 was much more interested in trying to actually forge a solution that a 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:43.266 broad bipartisan a group could support, as opposed to sort of running to 00:24:43.299 --> 00:24:47.917 try to make headlines. This come out legislation he did. So he ultimately 00:24:47.950 --> 00:24:52.707 introduced a bill called the stop the Drop Houses Act, which ended up 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:57.586 getting support from both the right and the left, which was very 00:24:57.619 --> 00:25:03.867 heartening. Um, but uh, ultimately by the time the report came out in the 00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:07.637 bill was filed, it was already uh, like in about july of this year and 00:25:07.670 --> 00:25:11.506 then august recess hit. And it was campaign season. And uh, Congress is 00:25:11.539 --> 00:25:15.607 never really good about getting things done during campaign season. But 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:20.937 but that was something he had worked on for a long time, but also, uh, he 00:25:20.970 --> 00:25:26.877 actually very much supported uh, when uh President Bush had sent National 00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:31.887 Guard troops to the border to try to help Get a handle on some of the 00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:37.566 crime that was going on around there. And and had urged them not to take 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:41.187 the National Guard troops away unless until they could build up the border 00:25:41.220 --> 00:25:46.707 patrol to a point that it would actually where they were taking out 6000 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:52.177 troops and putting in 3000 New Border Patrol. The math just kind of didn't 00:25:52.210 --> 00:25:56.097 add up. So he was just, again, he didn't care if he was working with a 00:25:56.130 --> 00:26:00.377 republican or a democrat. It just was like sort of Made sense that they 00:26:00.410 --> 00:26:06.806 put 6000 in things were they were effective? Why would you take 3000 out? 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:12.157 Um, so I noticed on 1070, he was very critical of Obama's administration's 00:26:12.190 --> 00:26:18.536 decision to sue the state. And with that bill, he was again, because he 00:26:18.569 --> 00:26:23.496 very much felt that it just neither the bill or a lawsuit against it was 00:26:23.529 --> 00:26:28.427 going to solve the problem or even move the ball forward that it was just 00:26:28.460 --> 00:26:34.546 a fight about something that isn't going to secure the border and isn't 00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:40.907 going to fix the broken sort of a symbolic thing. But she, there was some 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:47.447 concern that encouraging, well that it was, we had a one congressman who 00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:53.796 had some trouble because of that bill routine a boycott as I think so yes. 00:26:53.829 --> 00:26:58.387 Which, which congress Mitchell was never for, he, that was one of the 00:26:58.420 --> 00:27:02.677 things that's been most challenging to in this most recent turn as the 00:27:02.710 --> 00:27:06.776 economy has gone down. Obviously Scottsdale is a big part of the district 00:27:06.809 --> 00:27:13.607 and the lack of tourism and meetings and convention business is just uh, 00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:18.026 had a horrible, horrible toll. And that was something that, uh, the 00:27:18.059 --> 00:27:22.286 congressman had worked very closely with folks in the industry, um, and 00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:25.697 the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, and, and, and they had 00:27:25.730 --> 00:27:30.496 always suggested, they said, not only should, should would we hope that 00:27:30.529 --> 00:27:34.286 politicians would not endorse a boycott? We would just hope they wouldn't 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.296 even be talking about it? Because every time they're even saying I'm 00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:42.467 against a boycott, it just kept perpetuating attention on the fact that 00:27:42.500 --> 00:27:45.276 there is discussion about a boycott and they felt that was damaging. So, 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:48.776 they had always very much encouraged congressman Mitchell and I assume 00:27:48.809 --> 00:27:52.776 others to say, Please, just, just stop, stop using the word boycott. Just 00:27:52.809 --> 00:27:58.357 , just, let's let's focus on what we have to offer and, and selling what 00:27:58.390 --> 00:28:01.897 the great, so basically saying, I think 10 said he was going to amount to 00:28:01.930 --> 00:28:07.016 too much. So why make a big with the boycott and with a uh, suit from the 00:28:07.049 --> 00:28:13.566 federal government? Just, just back off from that ah, Back in 2000, I 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:18.427 guess you were here in 2008? Yeah. When you re elected and then, uh, ran 00:28:18.460 --> 00:28:21.857 against the same guy in 2010 and everything had turned around as he played 00:28:21.890 --> 00:28:27.306 politics moves very quickly. Sure, was there. What were the, what were the 00:28:27.339 --> 00:28:32.627 crush, what was the crucial movement there? Uh, I think, uh, I think what 00:28:32.660 --> 00:28:40.660 was really telling is, uh, for example, the election in 2006 was uh, there 00:28:40.859 --> 00:28:45.726 was some some national issues for sure. It was a very, uh, it was a big 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:51.347 watershed election, year wave election, so to speak. But the election in 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:55.536 the congressional district was very focused on Congressman Hayworth, and 00:28:55.569 --> 00:29:01.407 it really was about him and his conduct in office to a large extent. Um, 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:07.627 and uh, I think uh, this last election, like in 2010, um, it was 00:29:07.660 --> 00:29:12.006 interesting that congress Mitchell lost, but uh, you didn't hear too much 00:29:12.039 --> 00:29:17.746 about the congressman personally. Uh, it seemed to be a lot of the 00:29:17.779 --> 00:29:23.157 national narratives that folks just were not, uh, not pleased with what 00:29:23.190 --> 00:29:27.657 they had seen in Washington and I wanted to make a change. But most of 00:29:27.690 --> 00:29:32.986 commercials and other things you saw were uh, sort of against Obama and 00:29:33.019 --> 00:29:37.607 Pelosi. Uh, and so 00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:43.026 it didn't seem like it was as focused specifically on harry Mitchell. And 00:29:43.059 --> 00:29:47.286 I think part of the reason to was also uh, I mean, he had sort of kept 00:29:47.319 --> 00:29:51.766 faith and had a very with the District and had a very moderate voting 00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:56.006 record. I mean, he voted for health care for sure, um, which was a big 00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:01.167 Democratic bill, but when you look at he was listed in The National 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:04.536 Journal's having one of the most independent voting records in Congress, 00:30:04.569 --> 00:30:10.357 because he really didn't matter what the vote was whether it was a heavy 00:30:10.390 --> 00:30:15.266 duty, big vote on a big bill or if it was even a procedural motion on the 00:30:15.299 --> 00:30:19.357 floor, if he thought it was, uh, that either side was trying to get away 00:30:19.390 --> 00:30:25.117 with something or not using fair play, he was going to stand up and make 00:30:25.150 --> 00:30:28.387 sure that republicans were treated well when democrats were in the 00:30:28.420 --> 00:30:31.597 majority, because he would expect that the democrats should hopefully be 00:30:31.630 --> 00:30:37.707 treated well when republicans were in the majority. And so what do you 00:30:37.740 --> 00:30:40.786 look looking back? Of course, you might might change your mind later 00:30:40.819 --> 00:30:44.407 around. But looking back now, what do you think your team, the team of 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:48.857 which you were apart? What did it accomplish? What were its frustrations? 00:30:48.890 --> 00:30:54.046 What what would you do differently? Oh, goodness, I'm pretty proud of 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:58.377 actually what, uh, what the team accomplished and I, I wanna say this has 00:30:58.410 --> 00:31:02.147 been a tremendous experience. I really wouldn't change any of it for, for 00:31:02.180 --> 00:31:09.187 anything. But I think what what has been great is we've all been sort of 00:31:09.220 --> 00:31:14.336 blessed to work uh, under a congressman who again, was not your typical 00:31:14.369 --> 00:31:17.607 congressman. I mean, this was somebody who came to Congress a little later 00:31:17.640 --> 00:31:22.867 in life than the typical freshman. It was somebody who really had a 00:31:22.900 --> 00:31:30.026 passion for public service and for helping the community and it really was 00:31:30.059 --> 00:31:34.536 just in it to try to do the right thing? Uh, not sort of the political, 00:31:34.569 --> 00:31:39.147 how do I get to the next office kind of thing. Um, And it was just an 00:31:39.180 --> 00:31:45.046 honor to be able to, to work for him. And we all just, you know, he taught 00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:49.306 government, he kept teaching all of us government along the way. Uh, and 00:31:49.339 --> 00:31:53.197 so I know we all learned a ton from him, so we're all obviously pretty 00:31:53.230 --> 00:31:57.417 grateful. Okay, fine. I think that should, that should do it. It's a nice 00:31:57.450 --> 00:31:59.806 high note. 00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:01.839 Okay.