McCain files signatures to qualify for Ariz primary ballot, says he shuns pork-barrel spending

more images

more images

McCain files signatures to qualify for ballot

PHOENIX — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday that primary voters across the nation sent a clear message this week that they’re angry and frustrated.

“The message in the Republican primaries: No earmarking, no pork-barreling, stop the spending,” McCain told reporters after turning in petition signatures to qualify for the Aug. 24 primary ballot in Arizona.

McCain, a Republican seeking his fifth term in the U.S. Senate, downplayed comparisons of his re-election battle to the campaigns of other longtime senators who recently lost in their primaries.

He said the senators who lost were all defenders of earmarks — special federal funding set aside for specific, home-state projects. McCain has long opposed earmarks, calling the process pork-barrel spending and saying it leads to corruption.

Former congressman J.D. Hayworth is challenging McCain from the right in the state primary, saying conservatives can’t trust McCain to vote their way. Hayworth served 12 years in the U.S. House.

“Congressman Hayworth was one of the big earmarkers and pork barrelers,” McCain said. “I’m on the side of the American people who want this kind of corruption stopped.”

Hayworth’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voters this week rejected Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a runoff in Arkansas.

Republicans in Kentucky nominated tea party darling Rand Paul for a U.S. Senate seat, bypassing an establishment candidate. And earlier this month, Utah Republican activists at the party’s convention denied a space on the ballot to Sen. Bob Bennett.

McCain also defended Arizona’s tough crackdown on illegal immigration and lashed out at President Barack Obama for criticizing it.

“Overwhelmingly the American people support what the Legislature and governor of Arizona did, and it’s because the federal government would not fulfill its responsibilities to secure the border,” McCain said.

Arizona’s law requires police officers enforcing another law to investigate people’s immigration status if there’s reasonable suspicion they’re in the country illegally. Obama called the measure “misdirected.”

The campaign also announced that McCain’s Senate chief of staff, Mark Buse, would take over as campaign manager.

McCain shook up his campaign last week, moving two senior operatives to an outside fundraising committee.