Horne outspends education rivals

Relentlessly attacks GOP incumbent Molera

Tom Horne is a wealthy Republican lawyer who wants to run Arizona’s schools.

So he has reached into his own pocket and pulled out more than $400,000 in a bid for a job that pays $85,000 a year.

So far, for every 27 cents Republican incumbent Jaime Molera has spent in the primary race, Horne spent $1.

That’s nothing, Horne said, compared with the two hours a week he volunteered as a Paradise Valley Unified District school board member for the past 24 years.

“If I had spent that time on my law practice,” Horne said, “it’s a $750,000 loss.”

But this time, Horne’s small fortune has bought a relentless campaign of home mailers, radio ads and television commercials. Horne’s spending breaks records for the post of Arizona superintendent of public instruction.

And his campaign is so harsh toward Molera that even the Republican state chair called and sent a letter asking Horne to stop.

He hasn’t. He won’t.

Horne’s high-gloss negative campaign ads are going to turn against him, Molera said.

“Ultimately,” Molera said, “they’re going to come back and bite him.”

But Horne denies his campaign is out of the ordinary and anything but necessary strategy.

“Molera is an incumbent,” Horne said, “and it is necessary to make voters aware of our differences.”

Their differences on the issues, in the end, aren’t that big.

Approaches may vary, but both candidates support charter schools, school tax credits, finding more education money, labeling schools according to academic achievement, helping those schools that don’t work, and working with and supporting teachers.

The winner will face one of two Democrats, Rod Rich or Jay Blanchard, in the Nov. 5 general election.

Horne has been hammering away about his tougher policy on AIMS testing and English-only teaching.

But both candidates support AIMS testing. They differ on how to make it a high school graduation requirement by 2006. In Molera’s administration, kids who can’t pass the high school AIMS can do a class project and graduate. Horne would lower the benchmark scores needed to pass the high school AIMS, give an honors diploma to those who excel on it and a “certificate of attendance” to those who still fail it.

Horne said he’d be a tougher enforcer of the English-only teaching initiative passed by voters in 2000, not allowing so many parents to sign waivers allowing their kids to remain in bilingual classrooms. Molera, who initially opposed the law, said he’s enforcing it and even cleaning up loopholes in the law to toughen it up.

There’s another reason Horne is ignoring party bosses’ requests to soften the tone of his campaign.

Horne, positioning himself as the most conservative candidate, is ahead among the core Republican voters likely to cast ballots in the Sept. 10 primary, according to an Arizona State University Channel 8 (KAET) poll released last week. Horne garnered 27 percent of votes to Molera’s 16 percent.

“The primary system voters lean more toward the hard-nose conservative concerns he’s espousing,” said Earl De Berge of the Behavior Research Center. “But the general public does not.”

Molera said it’s a poll that has a history of being wrong.

Most political insiders considered Molera a shoo-in until Horne started spending. Molera was appointed to the office just over a year ago.

Many educators, business leaders and politicians credit Molera with bringing peace to what was an ongoing war on education policy and with bringing order to the tangled mess of education laws it produced.

Molera went after and won the endorsement of senior Republican politicos, from Sen. John McCain on down. Molera scoffs at Horne’s party credentials.

“All of a sudden, he comes out and tries to be Mr. Conservative,” Molera said. “Give me a break. He was a Democrat until 1996.”

True, said Horne, who changed parties to run and win two terms in the state House as a Paradise Valley Republican.

“Did I change my views as an adult?” Horne said. “Yes. So did Ronald Reagan, who was once a Democrat.”

And, yes, Horne said he did give $500 to Walter Mondale in his 1984 presidential bid against Ronald Reagan.

Meanwhile, money’s not Molera’s only problem.

Former Tucson state lawmaker Keith Bee grabbed the teachers union endorsement. More important, the ASU poll shows him grabbing 8 percent of Republican primary votes.

Some analysts say most of those votes would go to Molera but aren’t enough to swing the election one way or an- other.

“I don’t think I’m a spoiler,” said Bee, pointing out the he was first to announce his candidacy and still plans to win, despite the polls. “They’re not taking into account the entire state. I’ve got a really strong base in Pima County.”

Horne’s campaign wasn’t always working.

Earlier this year, he sued Molera, complaining a mailing sent from his office violated election law. Horne lost. Then lost the appeal, too.

Then Horne announced a joint news conference with California millionaire Ron Unz, who funded Arizona and other state campaigns to require English-only teaching.

The day before the event, and in the same e-mail endorsing Horne, Unz made belittling, and what some called racist, remarks about U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who is Black. Horne denounced Unz’s comments and returned his $1,000 contribution.

Last weekend, Molera, well aware the high name recognition that television can provide, showed up as a spokesman for commercials on behalf of Indian-gambling Proposition 202.

Now Horne is asking both the Arizona Attorney General and Secretary of State offices to determine if that breaks the state law prohibiting corporate donations to an individual’s political campaign.

He doesn’t buy the argument that Molera never mentions his personal campaign.

“People can’t tell the difference,” Horne said. “They think it’s a campaign for the candidate.”

Molera said he ran the decision to make the commercials by plenty of lawyers who guaranteed him that no law was broken.

“I never mention the campaign,” Molera said. “It’s about the $400 million the proposition would put into education funding. That’s what a state superintendent of public instruction is suppose to do.”

But in the end, despite endorsements, finger pointing or admonishments, there’s really only one thing that will swing this election: money.

That will be the defining difference that could win the race for Horne, Merrill said.

“If Molera loses, it’s because he was 3- or 4-to-1, it’s as simple as that,” Merrill said. “That’s the American system.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected].



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