Illegal immigration and border security were a combined focus of a Thursday evening televised debate between the two leading Republican candidates for an open U.S. Senate seat from Arizona.
Businessman Wil Cardon said U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake opportunistically discarded his long advocacy for comprehensive reform to now say border security must come first, while Flake said his changed position was a bow to reality.
Cardon also complained he was unfairly attacked by Flake advertising about hiring at a Subway business partly owned by Cardon. Cardon said he only owned a small part of the business, which was fined for documentation violations, not illegal hiring.
Cardon said his opponent's ads on the Subway issue distorted Cardon's business record while laying the blame for illegal immigration on businesses, not the federal government's failure to secure the border.
"It's a deliberate lie and an attempt to mislead," he said.
Flake responded that Cardon should take it up with federal immigration authorities who found that many of the Subway employees' work-authorization papers were faulty.
"Wil's problem is not with me," Flake said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is the one that said ...half of your employees did not have the proper documentation."
Flake, who adopted a narrower position on immigration when he announced his Senate candidacy last year, said only after the border is secure can other immigration concerns like creation of a temporary worker program and the status of current illegal immigrants be tackled.
"It's a recognition that until we get border security that we can't move on to the other items," he said.
Cardon said Flake's position was too late and too convenient after a decade of advocating comprehensive reform.
"We can't keep changing our minds ... just because all of a sudden we're running for another office," Cardon said.
Former Youngtown Mayor Bryan Hackbarth and Christian radio talk-show host Clair Van Steenwyk also participated in the debate produced by KAET-TV in Phoenix and aired by KUAT-TV in Tucson.
Flake, the front-runner in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, has been trying to fend off a charge by Cardon, who has spent millions of dollars of his own money on campaign advertising.
Flake, a six-term congressman, said the next senator should be equipped and willing to take on state-focused issues such as forest health and mineral rights as well as national concerns like soaring federal debt and the budget deficit.
"This is a high-stakes election," he said.
Cardon pitched his business background as he called for the election of an outsider who would turn Washington around.
"I'm not an establishment candidate," Cardon said, dismissing the endorsement of Flake by Kyl and fellow Republican Sen. John McCain.
The debate was held 12 days before the Aug. 28 primary. The winner of the Republican contest will face Democrat Richard Carmona, a former U.S. surgeon general, in the Nov. 6 general election.
Democrats hoping to keep control of the Senate have said they have a shot at capturing the Arizona seat now held by Kyl, a three-term senator.
Republicans generally scoff at that, but Kyl and McCain have said they feared their party's contested primary could weaken the nominee in the general election race.
Both Flake and Cardon said they'd support the Republican nominee.
samkat posted at 8:14 pm on Thu, Aug 16, 2012.
Somebody please tell me what Flake has actually done for his constituents? I am having a hard time coming up with anything. His main claim to fame is single handedly ending earmarks and he id not even do that.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:37 am on Fri, Aug 17, 2012.
Folks,.................. "R.I.N.O."....(R-epublican I-n N-ame O-nly".....JEFF FLAKE...is one of the most.... PRO-IILLEGAL ALIEN AMNESTY.....Congressmen in the US House of Representatives.
GO INTO .....WIKEPEDIA....AND LOOK UP CONGRESSMAN JEFF FLAKE'S............"S.T.R.I.V.E.....A.C.T.".....THE HE SPONSORED ALONG WITH THE "MOST LIBERAL"...DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN (FROM CHICAGO, OBAMA'S OLD STOMPING GROUND).
THE STRIVE ACT WOULD HAVE NOT ONLY ALLOWED..........ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM MEXICO AND POINTS SOUTH TO BECOME ..."OVERNIGHT" AMERICAN CITIZENS (BYPASSING ALL THE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD WHO HAVE WAITED YEARS AND YEARS TO BECOME ...."NATURALIZED, ENGLISH-SPEAKING" AMERICAN CITIZENS THE "LEGAL WAY"....BUT WOULD HAVE ALLOWED THESE ...."ILLEGAL ALIENS TO BRING OVER THEIR WHOLE FAMILY....AND I MEAN...UNCLES, AUNTS, COUSINS, GRANDPARENTS....THE WHOLE ...."KIT AND KABOODLE".
REMEMBER THAT OLD SAYING (TRUE THEN, TRUE NOW).....THAT A "TIGER CAN NEVER CHANGES HIS STRIPES"...........WELL NOTHING TRUER WAS EVER SAID ABOUT..........."PRO-ILLEGAL ALIEN AMNESTY......JEFF FLAKE.
Heisenberg posted at 10:31 pm on Fri, Aug 17, 2012.
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
george w posted at 10:51 am on Sat, Aug 18, 2012.
The US Founders never would have imagined an American elite so corrupt that they would dissolve the people and import a new one. But how about the WHITES? There future?
How is this not genocide:
White countries are being flooded by non-whites. We are told to be TOLERANT. We are forced to integrate.
With assimilation we see the extinction of one race only, the white race. Its not funny, not comedy, its white genocide.
DavidNichols posted at 12:34 pm on Mon, Aug 20, 2012.
I wonder if any of these "Wise Politicians" remember America before they began the "Anti-Immigrant Political Rant"????????
January 2008 began the E-verify Law, the I.C.E. Deportations/Incarcerations, and of course "The Great Recession/New Deficit"!!!!!
This is No Co-incidence!
The Hard Labor Immigrants gladly did for America was the very Foundation of our Strong Economy, and this Hard Labor supported all other American Jobs!
The Tens of Thousands of Vacated Immigrant Homes triggered the entire "Foreclosure Crisis" no matter who owned them.
These Good, Hard Working Hispanic Immigrants had been here up to twenty-five years prior to the January 2008 start of the "Anti Immigrant Political Rant".
The twenty five years prior to January 2008 were "The Most Prosperous years in Total U.S. History"!!!!
"America is great because it is good, when it ceases to be good, it ceases to be great."
Alex De Tocqueville
This Great Nation Built of Immigrants was Built on Far Better Principles, and Values than to rip apart Good, Christian Families, and Deport Parents away from their Legal Citizen Children, or Families!
This is our I.C.E.'d Economy!
I.C.E. "Put the Car in the Ditch"! It is still in this Racist Ditch.
To: Good, Brotherhood, and Prosperity.
Jesus Christo de Nogales posted at 12:35 pm on Mon, Aug 20, 2012.
Owebama is a true racist. Why does the US President hate the advancement of the standard of living for Mexico’s poor? Barrack Hussein Obama; how dare you deprive Mexico its young educated and motivated people? These US educated and motivated illegal alien occupiers (brought to the US as babies) now in the US are the only hope for Mexico and you want to keep them here in the US. They could start businesses, create jobs, and improve the standard of living for the poor people of Mexico. Yet you want to be selfish and deprive Mexico of these talented youth who could make life better for all the people of Mexico. SHAME ON YOU! Have you no compassion for the poor now living in Mexico? Gustavo Arellano, Steve Gallardo, Nicky Diaz Santillan, and La Raza need to insist that all these young educated and talented Mexicans be sent back to Mexico to help improve the standard of living for the poor Mexicans. Are you with us for the good of Mexico and its people?
mlimberg posted at 12:07 pm on Fri, Aug 24, 2012.
Hey Flake, you're the man in office, why is it up to now we've heard nothing from you on illegal immigration?
Flippin RINO's.... Flake has got to go....