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After Harry Mitchell announced his candidacy for congress, reporter Lew Ruggiero of Channel 12 up here in Phoenix said this election would be about the three I’s: Immigration, Iraq, and Integrity. I thought that was really insightful (another I!) and dead on, but as things continue to heat up in CD 5 it is clear that this race is probably more about one I … INTEGRITY. This, of course, puts JD on the ropes.

Tedski over at Rum scooped me on a very interesting developing story in MY district that is related to an event that I WAS AT. My blog envy aside (grr), this story potentially could turn the heat up on JD and what seems to be his willingness to ignore the rules (and laws).

Here is the deal. If you are a paid employee of the government, you can’t participate in election activities during your ON time. This is why people who work for an agency, or a member of the house, or whatever will often keep a detailed log of when they are on and when they are off.

Turns out, however, that a part of your job description if you work for JD, is to directly do campaign work – or at least that is what Tedski is saying.

This guy with no name tag, Todd Sommers, is a paid staffer for JD’s CONGRESSIONAL office, not his CAMPAIGN office. During working hours though, this photo came up that shows him at the Harry Mitchell announcement.

Tedski also writes that Todd Sommers was at the City Hall in in Tempe trying to find some dirt on Mitchell. I have called a few people I know who work for the city and one of them confirmed to me that this had happened. During the day, Todd Sommers, doing campaign work.

This isn’t the first time this type of thing has come up for JD. Remember the whole wikipedia flap where a staffer from a House computer altered JD’s Bio? I know they aren’t the same – but it is just MORE evidence that these guys could give two shits about the rules.

I’m going to end this by completely ripping Ted off, his ending to his post was MAGICAL …

You know, most campaigns can pay for people to do this sort of opposition research so they don’t need to break the rules and send folks on federal salaries to do it. I thought Hayworth raised somewhere north of $800,000, you’d think he’d have enough to pay someone to do this. Maybe he’s anticipating spending all that money on something else, like attorneys.