The resume of Arizona’s J.D. Hayworth, who is currently challenging John McCain for the right to represent the Republican Party for the US Senate on the ballot this November, is nothing if not eclectic. And he’s now taking heat for an infomercial he made back in 2007 urging people to apply for big-buck government grants, shortly after being forced to exit the US House of Representatives.
Hayworth’s most recent job prior to his Senate run was a Talk host gig with Clear Channel’s KFYI in Phoenix.
What Hayworth was helping to sell was a seminar run by National Grants Conferences that ostensibly taught enrollees how to get government grants, or “free money.” Blog site azcentral.com dug up a 2009 investigation into the company executed by Tucson’s NBC KVOA-TV, owned by Cordillera Communications.
What KVOA found was a very questionable operation, which charged between $999 and $1,200 for information that allegedly wasn’t all that useful or valuable.
KVOA said in its report, “A grant expert tells us that the information they’re trying to sell you is available for free – on the Internet or here, at the Pima County Public Library. Number 2, a simple Internet search inputting just the company’s name reveals hundreds of complaints from people all across the country about National Grants Conferences. And Number 3, some Better Business Bureaus nationwide rate the company an ‘F.’ Separately, the attorney general in Vermont sued the company and forced them to tone down their advertising and the claims they were making.”
Here’s the video of the infomercial.
Rasmussen just issued a poll on the Republican Arizona Senate race, and although the reaction to the infomercial is not reflected, Hayworth can take some solace in the fact that McCain suffered a bit of erosion, going from 52% to 47% from Rasmussen’s most recent prior sounding. Unfortunately, however, Hayworth also fell, from 40% to 37%. 7% favor Tea Partier Jim Deakin, 1% have a different candidate in mind and 8% say they are undecided.
RBR-TVBR observation: Skeletons have often seemed to find away out of candidates’ closets throughout the history of elective politics, but there was also a good chance that they would remain hidden. But thanks to the internet, those days would appear to be over. In this campaign, McCain tripped over his denial of ever claiming to be a maverick, and now Hayworth has joined the club in an entirely different way.
