The two sides of Tom Rawles

At first glance, Tom Rawles’ gray hair and youthful smile might be his most striking contrast. But that’s not the only apparent contradiction when it comes to Rawles. The 57-year-old Mesa city councilman calls himself a Libertarian, is a registered Republican and has been labeled a liberal by the national media.

He once advocated to cut off government funding for local charities, and then volunteered to round up private donations to cover the shortfall.

He’s been known to wear a cowboy hat and jeans to public meetings as a joke. But he’s most well-known for taking a political stance that is anything but funny.

Last month, Rawles made headlines across the nation when he decided to stay seated and silent during the Pledge of Allegiance at a council meeting in protest of the war in Iraq. And he also energized his critics.

Angry constituents have called for him to step down from the City Council, and one has discussed starting a recall effort. He’s been called unpatriotic and a traitor to his country, and he was briefly under police surveillance for his own safety.

But Rawles seems OK with all that. He has sought to mold the political debate surrounding his protest, and hopes his expression has stirred others to think about their own rights as Americans, he said. If he faces a recall over it, so be it.

“If I have to end my political career on another campaign I can’t imagine a better one to end it on than whether the First Amendment is alive and well in Mesa, Arizona,” he said.

Rawles doesn’t mind standing alone for things in which he believes. In fact, he’s used to playing a maverick role.

He often finds himself on the short end of 6-1 votes on the City Council, and colleagues say it’s often easier to work around him than with him.

Rawles has never been one to build political coalitions. He earned the reputation as a staunch ideologist when he served one term as a Maricopa County Supervisor in the mid-1990s.

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, who served with Rawles as a county supervisor, said she didn’t always agree with Rawles but appreciated the fact that he stood up for his beliefs.

“I always knew where Tom stood on things,” she said. “I could work with that.”

Even back then, Rawles made headlines for the things he voted against. He was the lone dissenter on a county plan to pass a sales tax to generate millions of dollars for what is now Chase Field.

The fallout after the vote led to the shooting of Wilcox, which prompted Rawles to carry a gun as a protective measure.

These days, his safety has become an issue once again as he faces death threats from people deeply offended by his public protest of the pledge.

Two weeks ago, police reviewed e-mails and phone calls from people who threatened to beat up Rawles outside the council chambers, bury him in cement near his workplace and “put a bullet” in him.

“Is it people just spouting off? That’s not for me to decide,” Rawles said.

CALIFORNIA ROOTS

Rawles grew up on a ranch in Boonville, Calif., surrounded by the redwoods in Northern California.

His father was a rancher and later a land developer, who served as an Army captain in the South Pacific during World War II. Rawles said he was deemed medically unqualified to serve in Vietnam because of migraine headaches. He attempted to join ROTC while in undergraduate school in Oregon.

The younger Rawles migrated to Arizona in the early ’70s to attend law school at Arizona State University.

An early love of political strategy and philosophy signified a successful career in politics and law.

As an adolescent, Rawles’ political views were shaped by Winston Churchill. He recalls reading Churchill’s commentary of pre-World War II Britain. He also had an interest in politics, tabulating national elections with his own charts and graphs back when TV’s broadcasted only the raw numbers.

One of Rawles’ favorite quotes came from Churchill.

“Never, never, never give in,” he said.

After finishing law school, Rawles joined the firm of Flynn, Kimerer, Thinnes, Derrick. The firm was made famous when John Flynn successfully argued the Miranda case before the Supreme Court which gave crime suspects the right to remain silent.

Rawles has argued deathpenalty cases and defended high-profile public officials from corruption charges.

His trials brought him before then Arizona trial court judge Sandra Day O’Connor, who later became a Supreme Court justice.

O’Connor was so impressed with Rawles that she convinced him to join her husband’s legal team to practice medical malpractice law, he said.

“She said, ‘You ever thought about changing what you’re doing?’ I said ‘No, but I’m always open,’ ” Rawles said. “She goes and sits down. She called her husband, who was a senior partner at Fennimore, Craig and told him ‘There’s someone here you need to meet.’ ”

That professional adventurism sent Rawles to several law firms with different specialties after that, but he was drawn back to criminal law in 1999. Five years later he became general manager and counsel at Johnson Stewart Co., an industrial business in Mesa.

A colleague said that Rawles’ return to criminal law after practicing commercial and medical malpractice was a natural fit, even though criminal defense is not as lucrative.

“He’s a champion of the Bill of Rights. This was a natural calling for Tom and I think he missed it when he was away from it for a while,” said Clark Derrick, a member of Kimerer, Derrick.

A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Despite his bold political stances, Rawles has an unassuming personality and a confident demeanor.

He says bird-watching is the most intellectually challenging activity he’s ever done. He gave up hunting years ago, and says bird-watching fulfills the same love for the outdoors.

He and his wife Linda, 48, got news recently they would be traveling to Kenya next year to bird watch, a hobby they’ve share together since they vacationed in Florida and she challenged him to identify a rare Mexican bird.

“By the end of it I was hooked,” he said. “It’s one thing in the world I can do now and I don’t think about anything else.”

Politics has been a bit of a lifelong hobby too. Rawles made brief runs for congressman and governor. In both cases, an opportunity opened and Rawles’ political ambition led him toward the office.

He served as the chief of staff for a couple of years to John J. Rhodes III, who was a competitor in a 1986 congressional race for an open seat.

The two met each other on the campaign trail and soon Rawles was working for Rhodes’ campaign and writing briefs on nuclear nonproliferation, something Rawles had studied previously.

“I wasn’t really going to beat him but there wasn’t an overwhelming reason to beat him,” Rawles said. “I could have just got out. But I got out and endorsed him.”

A 1998 run for governor prompted Rawles to briefly switch affiliations to the state’s Libertarian Party, as a matter of political survival.

Republicans decided to back Jane Hull, who replaced deposed Governor Fife Symington, leaving the lesser-known Rawles in the cold.

The Libertarian party designation didn’t stick, but the underlying beliefs did, he said.

“I want to spend my time pushing the pendulum the other way. People have a misunderstanding of what government should be. I’ve outlined the things that I won’t do.”

THE MAVERICK

Rawles’ stubbornness will come in handy as he faces his critics at future City Council meetings — especially on Monday, the first such meeting since he refused to stand for the pledge.

The national news media is expected to show up to follow what has become a story that reaches beyond Arizona.

Rawles was a guest on the Fox show “Hannity and Colmes” last week, trying to explain why he protested and his political affiliation.

Conservative commentator Sean Hannity said Rawles’ refusal to say the pledge was “something out of the playbook of Democratic leaders” to insult President Bush.

When Rawles said he was a registered Republican, Hannity replied “Whatever.”

Fellow Mesa councilmembers also have been taking heat. Some constituents have suggested the council issue a formal censure. Rawles said there’s no basis that would prevent him from exercising the right to free speech. “They have told me, ‘People want us to do something about you.’ I say, ‘Don’t you think you should tell them you can’t.’”

Viewed through the blue state-red state prism, it’s hard to see Rawles. But his constituents seem to care less about party politics and more about what they consider an aloof, arrogant government official.

The controversy over his protest, while likely to draw a reaction anyway, was intensified by how people already felt about him.

Mesa resident Jon Gabriel suggested a recall petition immediately after the protest. Rawles’ ideals have frustrated those in west Mesa, Gabriel said. Rawles consistently votes against any city zoning, be it payday loan stores or controversial “big-box” stores.

Gabriel said protesting the flag doesn’t speak for the people who live in Mesa’s District 3.

The protest “was a very powerful example of a problem people have had with him for quite some time,” Gabriel said.

Some might say Rawles plays the political game like he has nothing to lose, but maybe he doesn’t.

Rawles has said he has no intentions of running for office in 2008. He said he works about 15 hours a week on city issues. His rise to the Mesa City Council was in protest to Dennis Kavanaugh, who was attempting a third consecutive run for council. Rawles filed a legal challenge over Kavanaugh’s candidacy on the basis of term limits.

He won in court and Kavanaugh was removed from the ballot, after it was too late for anyone else to file for the office. Rawles won the election in 2004 by beating write-in candidate Tom Mizner by just more than 900 votes.

That close victory echoed his supervisors’ campaign, when he beat current Tempe City Councilman Ben Arredondo by less than 100 votes.

Alma Jones, an organizer in the Marlborough neighborhood of Mesa, said she has invited Rawles to Christmas toy drives and Easter events without a response.

“The election was underhanded politics,” she said. “If he was a politician he would be at some of our events — everyone here he knows he’s not for anyone besides himself.”

But Rawles said building a political base is not his priority. “I don’t go to any of the social events, the black tie events or the charitable events,” he said. “I’m not trying to build a political future – I haven’t been trying to build a political future. I don’t go to all of the things that you do in order to build a political future.”

Mesa City Council

When: The City Council meeting starts at 5:45 p.m. on Monday. Citizens can arrive as early as 4:30 p.m. for the study session before the meeting.

Where: City Council Chambers, 57 E. First St. in Mesa