The strangest political story in a very strange year just got even stranger. Just a day after GOP Rep. Trent Franks announced he'd resign because he'd asked two female staffers to serve as surrogate mothers for him and his wife, the AP reported that the Arizona congressman had repeatedly pushed one aide to carry his child and had offered her $5 million to do so. It gets even worse: Politico says that the women in Franks' office thought their boss "was asking to have sexual relations with them" because they were unsure whether he was "asking about impregnating [them] through sexual intercourse or in vitro fertilization."
There's more still. One staffer says that Franks "tried to persuade a female aide that they were in love by having her read an article that described how a person knows they’re in love with someone," and another says that her access to the congressman was cut off after she rebuffed his advances. Franks had originally said he'd leave office at the end of January, but just before these latest revelations were published, he announced he'd be quitting immediately.
It's all so disturbing, and good riddance. But perversely, it also helps shed light on the most mysterious episode of Franks' career (which, believe it or not, is not this one). In 2011, Franks was preparing to run for what was then an open Senate seat, and indeed, his own consultant confirmed to reporter Dave Catanese that he was going to kick off a bid, complete with date and time of announcement. But just the day before, Franks shockingly pulled the plug without explanation, and we've never had an inkling why—until now.
According to Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, Franks' "after-hours activities caught up to him," with one unnamed operative claiming there was a "file" on Franks that was shared with him to deter him from running. Another said that Franks "wrote creepy text messages a decade ago" to another politico. As is invariably the case, once a creep, always a creep. Did we say good riddance?
Of course, that now means there's yet another vacancy to fill in Congress, and folks are already lining up.
Arizona’s 8th District, which includes some of Phoenix’s conservative suburbs, backed Romney 62-37 and Trump 58-37, so most of the action will be in the GOP primary. On Thursday evening, ex-state Corporate Commissioner Bob Stump announced he was in. Stump, was elected twice statewide to the utility regulation agency, and as far as we can tell, he's not related to the late GOP congressman with the same name. However, Stump was at the center of a controversy that, while considerably more safe for work than the Franks drama, did get his name in a few papers.
In 2016, the Attorney General's Office seized Stump's phone during an investigation of former Commissioner Gary Pierce in search of evidence that Pierce had engaged in inappropriate political activity. Meanwhile, a watchdog group called Checks and Balances Project requested thousands of deleted texts from Stump's phone, arguing the texts could show if he had illegally helped two Republicans running for the commission coordinate with independent groups. The attorney general's office didn’t find those relevant texts, and a judge ruled that, while it was possible a more thorough search could uncover those messages, the AG's search was good enough. Stump left the commission early this year due to term limits.
Several other Republicans are considering running in the upcoming special election. State Sens. Debbie Lesko and Kimberly Yee and Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman each publicly expressed interest, and the Arizona Republic reports that state Sen. Steve Montenegro and ex-state Rep. Phil Lovas are "believed to be considering it." Politico also mentioned ex-Gov. Jan Brewer as a possibility, but there's no sign she's interested.
This seat is incredibly challenging for Democrats. According to Miles Coleman, even Republican Joe Arpaio carried it 52.5-47.5 as he was losing re-election as Maricopa County sheriff 56-44. (The whole seat is in Maricopa.) However, Democrats have an interesting candidate who was already running here with little fanfare. From July to September, physician Hiral Tipirneni raised $92,000 from donors and self-funded another $73,000, leaving her with $123,000 on-hand.