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Trent Franks

Harold Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is an American businessman and former politician who served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2017 (numbered as the 2nd district from 2003 to 2013). He is a member of the Republican Party. During his tenure, Franks served as vice chairman of the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and chairman of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

In December 2017, the House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Franks. Franks had repeatedly asked two female staffers to bear his children as surrogate mothers, and allegedly offered one of them $5 million to carry his child and retaliated against her when she declined. The women feared that Franks wanted to impregnate them sexually as part of the surrogacy process. Franks acknowledged discussing surrogacy with the aides but denied the other allegations; he resigned from Congress immediately after the ethics investigation was announced, blaming his situation on "the current cultural and media climate".

Early life and education
Franks was born in Uravan, Colorado, a uranium mining company town which is now a ghost town. Franks is the son of Juanita and Edward Taylor Franks. He was born with a cleft lip and palate. After his parents separated, Franks took care of his younger siblings. Franks graduated from Briggsdale High School in Colorado in 1976.

In 1987, he completed a course of study at the non-accredited Utah's National Center for Constitutional Studies, formerly known as the Freemen Institute. For one year, from 1989 to 1990, he attended the Arizona campus of Ottawa University.

Early career
After high school, Franks bought a drilling rig and moved to Texas to drill wells with his best friend and his younger brother. He moved to Arizona in 1981, where he continued to drill wells.

Arizona House of Representatives
In 1984, while working as an engineer for an oil and gas royalty-purchasing firm, Franks began his political career by running in a heavily Democratic district for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, against incumbent Democrat Glenn Davis. Franks campaigned on a conservative "Reagan Republican" platform emphasizing stronger child protection laws as well as the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He narrowly won the election by 155 votes amid that year's massive national Republican wave. In the state legislature, Franks served as Vice-Chairman of the Commerce Committee and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation.

In November 1988, Franks ran again for a legislative seat, moving to District 18 shortly before the filing deadline. He lost that election.

Arizona governor's cabinet
In January 1987, he was appointed by Republican Governor Evan Mecham to head the Arizona Governor's Office for Children, a cabinet-level division of the governor's office responsible for overseeing and coordinating state policy and programs for Arizona's children.

Franks then founded the Arizona Family Research Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Focus on the Family. He was the executive director of the organization for four and a half years. He was successful in the Republican primary but lost in the November general election.

Political activism
In 1992, when Franks was chairman of Arizonans for Common Sense, one of the organization's efforts was a constitutional amendment on the November 1992 ballot to "protect most preborn children in Arizona from abortion on demand". The initiative lost, getting about 35 percent of the votes cast.

In August 1995, Arizonans for an Empowered Future, of which Franks was chairman, launched an initiative campaign to amend the state constitution, replacing the graduated state income tax with a flat 3.5 percent rate, and allowing parents to deduct the costs of private school tuition. That effort was also unsuccessful. Later that year, Franks, became the original author and leading proponent of the successful passage of the Tuition Tax Credit Bill in Arizona. The initiative was not one of those appearing on the ballot in 1996.

In 1997, Trent Franks, along with his brother, Lane Franks, founded Liberty Petroleum Corporation, a petroleum exploration company. That year, Franks also worked as a consultant and surrogate speaker for conservative activist Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign.

1994
Franks ran for AZ's 4th congressional district in 1994, after incumbent U.S. Representative Jon Kyl decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He lost to John Shadegg, 43–30%.

2002
Following the 2000 census, Arizona got two additional seats. Franks' home in Glendale was drawn into the 2nd district. That district had previously been the 3rd District, represented by 13-term incumbent Republican Bob Stump, who was not running for reelection. The initial favorite in the race was Lisa Jackson Atkins, Stump's longtime chief of staff, whom Stump had endorsed as his successor. Atkins had long been very visible in the district (in contrast to her more low-key boss) to the point that many thought she was the district's representative. Franks narrowly defeated Atkins in the seven-candidate Republican primary, 28–26%, a difference of just 797 votes. He won the November 2002 general election, defeating Democrat Randy Camacho, 60–37%.

2004
Franks faced competition in the Republican primary from the more moderate businessman Rick Murphy. Franks defeated him 64–36%. He won re-election to a second term, by defeating Camacho in a rematch, 59–38%.

2006
He won re-election to a third term with 59% of the vote.

2008
He won re-election to a fourth term with 59% of the vote.

2010
Franks was again challenged in the Republican primary. However, he easily defeated Charles Black, 81–19%. He won re-election to a fifth term with 65% of the vote.

2012
For his first five terms, Franks represented a vast district encompassing most of northwestern Arizona from the West Valley to the California border, including Lake Havasu City and the Grand Canyon. While the district appeared rural, the bulk of its population was in the West Valley, which had dominated the district since it was drawn into what was then the 3rd in 1967. The district appeared to be gerrymandered because of a narrow tendril connecting the Hopi reservation to the rest of the district. However, due to longstanding disputes between the Hopi and Navajo, it had long been believed the two tribes should be in separate districts.

However, after the 2010 census and redistricting, Franks' district was renumbered as the 8th District, and reduced to essentially the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd. It included most of Glendale, as well as all of Sun City and Surprise, almost all of Peoria, and much of western Phoenix. As evidence of how much the West Valley had dominated the district, Franks retained 92 percent of his former constituents, even as he lost 85 percent of his old district's land. He was challenged in the Republican primary by Tony Passalacqua, whom Franks defeated easily, 83–17%. The new 8th was no less Republican than the old 2nd, and Franks won a sixth term with 63% of the vote.

2014
Franks won his party's election in the Republican primary on August 26, 2014. Facing no Democratic opponent in the general election, Franks won re-election with over 75% of the vote over Stephen Dolgos, the Americans Elect candidate.

2016
Franks faced a Republican primary challenge from Clair Van Steenwyck, but won renomination with over 71% of the vote. He again faced no Democratic opponent in the general election, and defeated Arizona Green Party nominee Mark Salazar 68.5%–31.5%.

2024
After his resignation, Franks was succeeded by fellow Republican Debbie Lesko in a special election. Lesko would retire ahead of the 2024 election, leaving the seat open. On November 1, 2023, Franks announced he would run in the Republican primary to regain his old seat.

Political positions
In 2009, National Journal ranked Franks among the "most conservative" members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was a member of the Republican Study Committee.

Online gaming
In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.

Homeland security
On October 14, 2009, Franks joined with three other members of Congress in calling for the investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) over allegations of trying to plant "spies" based on a CAIR memo indicating that the group planned to "develop national initiatives such as Lobby day" and place "Muslim interns in Congressional offices." The request followed the publication of the book Muslim Mafia. Representative Sue Myrick had written the foreword, which characterized CAIR as subversive and aligned with terrorists. CAIR countered that these initiatives are extensively used by all advocacy groups and accused Franks and his colleagues of intending to intimidate American Muslims who "take part in the political process and exercise their rights."

Taxes
Franks signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In 2010, Franks voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He received high approval ratings from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. In November 2011, he voted to pass H.R. 2930, which authorizes crowdfunding for small businesses.

In 2009, Franks signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.

Criticism of the Obama administration
He opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying "the thought of Americans' health care decisions being put into the hands of an unimaginably large bureaucracy is a frightening prospect." He was not supported by American Public Health Association or the Children's Health Fund.

In September 2009, he called President Barack Obama an "enemy of humanity" with his spokesperson later clarifying the remarks were in response to Obama's position on abortion.

"A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity," Franks said to the "How to Take Back America" conference.

Abortion
In a 2010 interview, discussing the legacy of slavery which Franks described as a "crushing mark on America's soul", the congressman said, "Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery."

In June 2013, he proposed a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, without exceptions for rape and incest. He stirred controversy when saying that "the incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." He later clarified, "Pregnancies from rape that result in abortion after the beginning of the sixth month are very rare." The bill passed by a vote of 228–196.

In 2017, he again proposed the same bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks without exceptions for rape and incest. The bill passed by a vote of 237–189.

Franks presided over a hearing to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia, in which he did not allow D.C.'s lone delegate and Member of Congress, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, to testify. In doing so, he said Congress has the authority to "exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" in the District, even though the heavily Democratic district is strongly opposed to the ban.

Franks has also been involved in the founding of a crisis pregnancy center in Tempe, Arizona. In the past, Franks has picketed abortion clinics but has ceased to do so stating in a June 2013 interview that "It became clear to me that I could be more effective by trying to do something to light a candle rather than curse the darkness."

Other
During the 2008 campaign, Franks stated that he is skeptical about global warming and other commonly accepted theories supported by the scientific community. Franks is a past chairman of the Children's Hope Scholarship Foundation.

He opposes same-sex marriage.

Franks opposes gun control. The interest group Gun Owners of America has given Franks high approval ratings. In 2011, he voted to pass the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act. Franks has also been active with Operation Smile.

Sexual harassment scandal and resignation
In December 2017, two of Franks' former aides accused him of sexually harassing them by pushing them to serve as surrogate mothers for his wife. In response, the House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Franks.

On December 7, 2017—hours after the ethics investigation became public—Franks announced he would resign from the House on January 31, 2018. In a statement, Franks acknowledged discussing surrogacy with the aides and acknowledged that he inadvertently discussed it in a manner that was "insensitive," and regretted "having caused distress" to his former aides. While he denied the other allegations, he stated that "the current cultural and media climate" made a fair hearing impossible, and was resigning to prevent harm to "those things I love most." The following day, after his wife was admitted to the hospital, Franks announced his immediate resignation.

It later emerged that one of the aides' friends advised the aide to seek counsel from Traditional Values Coalition president Andrea Lafferty. When the aide was ready to come forward, Lafferty arranged a meeting with staffers from House Speaker Paul Ryan's office. Lafferty told CNN that she was outraged that "somebody who purports to be a conservative and a Christian" could behave in the manner that Franks allegedly behaved. According to a statement from Ryan, his general counsel interviewed the ex-aide on November 28, during which she mentioned the second aide's claims of misconduct. After Ryan's staff was able to corroborate the second aide's claims, Ryan was briefed on November 29. On November 30, Ryan called Franks in and confronted him with the allegations. After Franks "did not deny" the allegations, Ryan referred the matter to the Ethics Committee and demanded Franks' resignation. Subsequent talks between Ryan and Franks led to Franks tendering his resignation on December 7. In his statement, Ryan said that he found the aides' claims "credible," and acted in accordance with his duty to ensure "a safe workplace in the House."

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Armed Services
 * Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
 * Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
 * Committee on the Judiciary
 * Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law
 * Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chairman)

Caucus memberships

 * DUI Caucus
 * Congressional Hispanic Conference
 * Education Freedom Caucus
 * Human Rights Caucus
 * India Caucus
 * Israel Allies Caucus
 * International religious freedom caucus
 * Liberty Caucus
 * Tea Party Caucus
 * Congressional Constitution Caucus
 * Working Group on Judicial Accountability
 * Working Group on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Legislation sponsored

 * Congressman Franks sponsored into law The Critical Infrastructure Protection Act to protect America's critical infrastructure including protecting the electric grid against natural and weaponized electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
 * On April 9, 2013, Franks introduced the Keep the Promise Act of 2013 (H.R. 1410; 113th Congress). If enacted, the bill would prevent the Arizona Native American tribe Tohono O'odham from building a planned casino in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Keep the Promise Act of 2013 would prohibit Class II and III gaming on land within the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area that is acquired after April 9, 2013, by the Secretary of the Interior in trust for the benefit of an Indian tribe. The bill would terminate that prohibition on January 1, 2027.

Opponents of the bill gave several reasons for their opposition. Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA) was opposed to the bill because it would hurt job creation and break a promise to the Tohono O'odham tribe. Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. objected to the bill because it is "special interest legislation" that creates a "no-competition zone" for the two tribes that already have casinos in that area.

Proponents of the bill included Gila River Indian Community Gov. Gregory Mendoza, who was in favor of the bill because he believes that the compact not to build more casinos needs to be respected. The Tohono O’odham Nation argues that federal rules allow casinos on reservation land created after October 17, 1988, if they are part of a settlement of a land claim. The Nation claims the West Valley land is partial replacement to settle a claim for the 10000 acre of its lands that were flooded as a result of the construction of the Painted Rock Dam on the Gila River.
 * On July 14, 2017, Franks introduced Amendment No. 13 to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018. The amendment called for a database surveying American Muslim leaders to identify violent and "unorthodox" strains of Islam. Critics of the amendment, including, most notably, Minnesota Democratic congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, repudiated the amendment as an attempt to subject one religion to special scrutiny. Ultimately, the amendment was defeated 217–208, with 27 House Republicans joining all the House Democrats in voting in opposition.

Ultimately, the amendment was defeated 217–208, with 27 House Republicans joining all the House Democrats in voting in opposition.
 * in Congress, Franks was a chief opponent of abortion. He was the original sponsor of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which began in 2017 on his initiative and then continued in 2019 thanks to Senator Ben Sasse; The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act; and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. All three bills passed the U.S. House of Representatives with the latter becoming the first bill in history to pass either chamber of Congress affording affirmative protection to a fetus.

Personal life
Franks and his wife, Josephine, have been married since 1980; they are members of the North Phoenix Baptist Church. Franks' wife, Josephine, is an immigrant.

title: Trent Franks


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Rick Renzi

Richard George Renzi (born June 11, 1958) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing Arizona's 1st congressional district from 2003 until 2009.

In 2013, he was convicted on federal criminal charges against him for his involvement in a land-swap deal. The charges for personal gain of over $700,000 were filed in 2008. On April 19, 2007, the FBI raided his family business, and he temporarily resigned from the House Intelligence Committee. On April 27, Renzi denied printed claims he was considering resigning office; however, on August 23, Renzi announced he would not be a candidate for re-election in 2008. On February 22, 2008, Renzi was indicted on 35 counts connected to land deals. He pleaded not guilty. On June 12, 2013, Renzi was convicted on 17 of 32 counts in his corruption case. On October 28, 2013, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

After numerous examples of Prosecutorial Misconduct came to light in a 119-page Inspector General complaint, Renzi was pardoned by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2021.

Early life, education
Renzi is one of five siblings born into an Italian-American family in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He attended high school in Annandale, Virginia, before moving to Sierra Vista, Arizona, in 1975, where his father, U.S. Army Major General Eugene Carmen Renzi (d. 2008), served at Fort Huachuca. Renzi graduated from Buena High School and attended Northern Arizona University (NAU), earning a B.S. in criminal justice in 1980. He played football for NAU and was a starting offensive lineman.

Family
Renzi and his wife, Roberta S. Renzi, are the parents of 12 children. Like Renzi's siblings, his children all have forenames that begin with the letter "R".

Career prior to Congress
Where Renzi lived and what he did throughout the 1986–1997 period is unclear. In a letter to the Arizona Daily Sun in July 2002, Renzi said "The only time I have not lived in Arizona is when I served our nation overseas on a Defense Department program, or when I entered law school at age 39" [which would be 1997 or 1998].

However, according to an August 2002 Associated Press article, Renzi said that between college, starting in the late 1970s, and his return some 20 years later, he had lived in Flagstaff for only a total of seven years. The AP article also said "Renzi made much of his money while living in Burke, Virginia, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington. He has owned a $765,000 two-story, six-bedroom home on five acres there since 1991, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, property records."

In 1989, Renzi started Renzi & Company (now called the Patriot Insurance Agency), a company that offers insurance to nonprofit organizations such as crisis pregnancy centers, pregnancy care clinics, maternity homes, PTAs, PTOs, and local service organizations. In 2006, Renzi said that he decided to enter politics because of his experiences as a member of National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. Renzi was a property/casualty agent and a member of PIA of Virginia & D.C. He said his first taste of the political process was attending a PIA Federal Legislative Summit. "I had a chance to interact with a lot of the congressmen and Senators, and I fell in love with it", Renzi said.

In 1997 or 1998, Renzi began to take law courses at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. He finished his coursework in December 2001 and graduated with a J.D. in 2002. While he was studying law, he claimed he was an unpaid intern in Senator Jon Kyl's office for two months in 1999, and in 2001 he spent several months as an unpaid intern for Representative Jim Kolbe. Senator Kyl later questioned the accuracy of Renzi's description of his work in Kyl's office, saying he was never employed there.

Move to Arizona
Renzi moved his official residence from Virginia to Arizona in 1999, registering to vote in Santa Cruz County. In 2001, he bought a $216,000 home in Flagstaff, moving his voting registration there in December of that year.

In 2002, Renzi acknowledged that he returned to Arizona with the intention of running for Congress, but defended his state ties. He noted that between college and his return to Arizona, he lived in Flagstaff for a total of seven years. There is proof Renzi was living in Arizona after college because, Renzi and his wife did have several children who were born in Sierra Vista, AZ. Renzi also said he owned more than 400 acre in northern Arizona through a real estate development and improvement business, in addition to a small vineyard and ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, west of Sierra Vista, in the 8th congressional district, and a home in Kingman. During the campaign, Renzi said "Let the chips fall where they may if I'm a carpetbagger."

Primary election
Renzi won a hotly contested Republican primary election against five other candidates; his closest opponents were Lewis Noble Tenney, a former Navajo County supervisor, and conservative radio personality Sydney Ann Hay of Munds Park. Renzi outspent his primary opponents by a substantial sum of money. He invested $585,000 of his own money and raised another $100,000 to run radio and TV ads throughout the district. Renzi received 24.4 percent of the 46,585 votes cast in the Republican primary, with half of his votes coming from Yavapai County.

The 2002 Democratic primary, also hotly contested, was narrowly won by George Cordova, a party outsider who ran against several better-known candidates, including Stephen Udall, Diane Prescott and Fred Duval. (There was no incumbent for the seat, in a new district created after the 2000 census gave the state two more Representatives.)

General election
Renzi received significant support from the national Republican party in the race: President Bush visited twice, including a fundraiser; Vice President Cheney appeared at a fund-raising luncheon; Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton visited the district to support Renzi; and so did Mel Martinez, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The campaign included the heavy use of negative advertising attacking Cordova, including accusing him of cheating investors out of $1 million in a failed business venture, failing to pay income and business taxes, and living in California. Cordova denied the charges but had no funds to buy many television ads to refute them. The Renzi campaign also made heavy use of automated telephone calls throughout the district with various claims and innuendos about Cordova. Renzi said of the $2 million spent on negative ads, that he "took no joy in any of that." Renzi said he had tried to tell the National Republican Congressional Committee that the negative ads were the wrong way to go.

During the 2002 election campaign, Renzi proposed that Walnut Canyon National Monument in Northern Arizona be renamed the "National Park of the American Flag" with the addition an American flag theme to the park, including displays of U.S. flags throughout history. This was in response to proposals by local citizens that Walnut Canyon National Monument be expanded and given National Park status. Renzi's proposal was widely ridiculed, and he has not promoted it since.

On election day, Renzi defeated Cordova by 49 percent to 46 percent, a difference of about 6,000 votes.

Campaign finances
Renzi spent $436,590 of his own money on the election. In addition to large donations from his father's defense company, Mantech International, Mantech executives were the largest single source of outside money for the campaign.

In 2004, the Federal Election Commission completed an audit of Renzi's campaign committee, "Rick Renzi for Congress." The audit found that Renzi's campaign overstated its cash on hand by about $64,000, and that employers or occupations for 200 contributors were not listed, though required by law. The FEC also concluded that the committee had illegally financed much of the campaign with $369,090 of loans that came from "impermissible" corporate funds. Most of those loans were part of the $436,000 that Renzi put into his own campaign. Renzi was fined $1,000 in November 2005 by the FEC for underreported receipts stemming from what his campaign called a software glitch. During the summer before the 2006 election, the FEC dropped all charges related to the 2002 alleged use of impermissible corporate funds for his campaign.

2004 re-election
In preparation for the 2004 campaign, the Democratic Party in Arizona tapped Paul Babbitt, Coconino County commissioner and the brother of Bruce Babbitt, to run for the seat and pressured all other candidates with the exception of political unknown Bob Donahue to bow out of the primary in order to clear the way for Babbitt to run against Renzi without a costly primary contest. Paul Babbitt's campaign was named a top national priority by most major Democratic fundraisers and liberal weblogs, because a plurality of Arizona 1st Congressional District voters are registered Democrats and because Renzi won so narrowly in 2002. Unlike the Cordova campaign in 2002, which received only token support from the national Democratic Party organizations, the Babbitt campaign received major support; nonetheless, it was unable to match Renzi's fundraising.

2006 re-election
Renzi faced no opposition from his own party in the Republican primary. Five Democratic Party candidates, including Bob Donahue, Mike Caccioppoli, Susan Friedman, Ellen Simon, and Vic McKerlie, ran in the 2006 primary in September, which was won by Ellen Simon, an attorney and community activist. David Schlosser was also in the November general election on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Renzi won his re-election against Simon, 52% to 43%.

On August 23, 2007, Renzi announced he would not seek another term.

Issues and positions
In 2002, in response to a question about spiraling health care costs, Renzi said "In order to keep health insurance costs competitive, we must allow the self-employed to take annual tax deductions for their health-care costs. We must change the health insurance industry by allowing employees to purchase their own health-care policy. This would allow for personal ownership of health-care policies, which would provide portability, more choice and thus more competition, which leads to lower health-care premiums."

Renzi was named one of the American Legion's "Unsung Heroes" of the 108th Congress. American Legion National Commander John Brieden noted that "The 108th Congress passed a record increase in Department of Veterans Affairs health care funding for the current fiscal year, and it reduced the number of service-disabled military retirees subject to a 'disability tax' on their retired pay." Brieden said "I commend Representative Renzi for taking a leadership role in making that happen."

In 2004, Renzi and Representative Jon Porter introduced legislation to split the Ninth Circuit court, currently the largest circuit in the U.S., which includes Arizona, into three smaller circuits. John Ensign of Nevada introduced similar legislation in the Senate.

Renzi was generally a supporter of expanded legal immigration into the United States and supported expansion of guest worker programs and the H1B visa. He did strongly support using technology to enforce border security.

In June 2006, the House accepted an amendment proposed by Renzi to increase tribal law enforcement funding by $5 million and decrease spending for international organizations such as the United Nations by the same amount.

On December 14, 2005, he voted for the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. On June 29, 2005, he voted for the increase of funds by $25 million for anti-marijuana print and TV ads.

Controversies
In September 2006, Renzi was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-partisan watchdog group founded in 2005 by former Democratic congressional staffers. Renzi was also listed in the first report by the organization in January 2006, when he was one of 13 named members. The organization said "His ethics issues stem from the outside income earned by his administrative assistant and from legislation he sponsored that benefitted his father." He was subsequently listed in CREW's 2007 and 2008 reports as well.

ManTech International Corp.
Renzi had been criticized for consistently introducing and voting in favor of bills benefiting his father's defense company, ManTech International Corp., a Fairfax, Virginia,-based defense contractor. Renzi's father, retired Major General Eugene Renzi, was an executive vice president of the firm, until his death in February 2008. ManTech had $467 million in contracts at the Army's Fort Huachuca with options for an additional $1.1 billion between 2004 through 2008. In addition, the company, which has an office in Sierra Vista, Arizona, was the largest contributor to Renzi's 2002 congressional campaign and the second largest in his 2004 campaign.

In 2003, Renzi sponsored legislation (signed into law in November 2003) that put hundreds of millions of dollars to Eugene's business while, according to environmentalists, devastating the San Pedro River. The provision exempted Fort Huachuca, in Sierra Vista, Arizona, from maintaining water levels in the San Pedro River as called for in an agreement made in 2002 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Renzi claimed he introduced the measure to prevent the closing of the Fort and to promote its enlargement. Neither the fort nor the river is located in Renzi's Congressional district.

On October 25, 2006, just two weeks before Election Day, The New York Times reported that federal authorities had opened an inquiry into the case. According to the Times, the "officials said the inquiry was at an early stage and that no search warrants had been issued, suggesting that investigators had yet to determine whether there was a basis to open a formal investigation or empanel a grand jury." Federal investigators in Arizona reported that unexplained delays were encountered in getting permission from Washington for investigations prior to the 2006 election.

On April 19, 2007, the FBI raided his family business, and he temporarily resigned from the House Intelligence Committee.

On February 22, 2008, Renzi was indicted on multiple federal charges as a result of the investigation.

2005 land swap
According to the Phoenix New Times, in 2002 Renzi sold off a half-interest in his real estate investment business to a fellow investor, James Sandlin, for $200,000. Renzi used the money for his 2002 congressional campaign. In 2003, Renzi sold the remainder of the business to Sandlin, for somewhere between $1 million and $5 million, according to financial records, retaining a "future development interest".

In October 2005, three years after the business transaction with Sandlin, Renzi announced he'd be introducing a bill in Congress that would include a swap of land owned by Sandlin (not in Renzi's district) for federal land near Florence, Arizona. A week after Renzi's announcement, Sandlin sold his land for $4.5 million, a much higher price than he paid for it.

Renzi told the New Times that he did nothing wrong and that sometime after his announcement he recused himself from the bill after a lobbyist questioned his connection to Sandlin. The land swap never became law.

In 2007 news came of another $200,000 payment that Sandlin made to Renzi, this one in 2005, that Renzi failed to report on financial disclosure forms.

On October 24, 2006, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona has opened an investigation into the land swap deal. The US Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton, had initiated the investigation in September 2006.

John Wilke in The Wall Street Journal writes,

"That investigation became a formal public-corruption probe by a federal grand jury in Tucson. The grand jury authorized a search warrant of a Renzi family business. Investigators uncovered evidence that Mr. Renzi received a cash payment from his former business partner, funneled through a family wine company, after a second investor group pursuing an unrelated land swap agreed to pay $4 million for the alfalfa field, according to people contacted in the course of the two-year investigation.

Mr. Renzi denied any wrongdoing and said that he intended to cooperate with the investigation. The search of the family business, he said in a statement, was 'the first step toward getting the truth out.' His lawyer says the cash payment he received was to settle an unrelated debt.

The case added fuel to the firestorm over the Bush administration's firing of federal prosecutors. Paul Charlton, the U.S. Attorney who had been overseeing the case, was among those dismissed at the behest of the White House. A spokesman for Mr. Renzi dismissed as 'a political hatchet job' the suggestion that Mr. Charlton's firing was connected to the probe of Mr. Renzi. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress that none of the dismissals were politically motivated, and said the Justice Department is committed to battling corruption."

On February 22, 2008, a Federal Grand Jury in Arizona handed up a 35-count indictment charging Renzi with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering extortion and insurance fraud.

Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
After the land swap controversy was revealed, an unnamed official from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) cautioned the media not to jump to conclusions regarding the inquiry into Renzi, saying it "is not a well-developed investigation, by any means. A tip comes into the department. The department is obligated to follow up ... and we do that. People are assuming there is evidence of some crime," even though that is not necessarily true. The official added, "Be careful. I can confirm to you a very early investigation. But I want to caution you not to chop this guy's (Renzi's) head off."

According to the Arizona Republic, "The federal official would not discuss whether the Justice Department was being manipulated for political purposes. However, the official said it is unusual for the department to publicly acknowledge concerns about the accuracy of media reports." In the same story, the official said the Justice Department contacted at least two newspapers about "chunks of stuff in their stories that's wrong."

Shortly after initiating the investigation of Renzi, the US Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton, was belatedly added to a previously assembled list of US attorneys the Justice Department wanted to remove, in an effort that would become the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. In February 2005, Charlton had been on the "retain" list of United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, but "by September of 2006 – after it became clear that Charlton had launched an investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz, – Sampson included the Arizona prosecutor on another list of U.S. attorneys 'we now should consider pushing out'." Sampson made the comment in a September 13, 2006, letter to then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers.

On March 19, 2007, the White House released 3,000 pages of records connected to the controversy, including emails sent by Charlton to the Justice Department about his dismissal. On December 21, 2006, Charlton sent a message to William W. Mercer, the third-ranking official in the DOJ, writing, "Media now asking if I was asked to resign over leak in Congressman Renzi investigation." Charlton never received a response from Mercer, about whom ethical questions had also been raised.

The Wall Street Journal explained further allegations: that the DOJ under Gonzales had intentionally delayed part of the investigation of Renzi until after the November 2006 election. They wrote: "The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. ...

Investigators pursuing the Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the election, people close to the case said. ... ... the investigation clearly moved slowly: Federal agents opened the case no later than June 2005, yet key witnesses didn't get subpoenas until early this year, those close to the case said. The first publicly known search – a raid of a Renzi family business by the Federal Bureau of Investigation – was[n't] carried out [until April 2007]. ..."

Further, the Journal noted that investigators had unsuccessfully solicited the administration for clearance to tap Renzi's phone for months. That clearance was finally given nineteen months later, in October 2006. Unfortunately for the investigators, word broke of the investigation soon after, disrupting the usefulness of their wiretap.

On April 24, 2007, Renzi stepped down from the House Financial Services and Natural Resources committees, as more revelations connected him to the U.S. attorneys controversy. During that afternoon, Paul Charlton, a United States Attorney from Arizona who was inexplicably added to the list of those to be fired, related to House investigators that Brian Murray, Renzi's top aide, called Charlton spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle shortly after news of Renzi's investigation became public, making inquiries related to information on the case. Charlton, in turn, notified the Department of Justice about the call. Justice, it was discovered, had neglected to notify Congress of the contact.

Patty Roe
In December 2005, Renzi hired Patty Roe, the wife of Jason Roe, the chief of staff of Representative Tom Feeney (R-FL), as his full-time administrative assistant. In that position, she was paid $95,000 per year. Renzi also pays her $5,000 per month ($60,000 per year) as a fundraising consultant (she ran her own consulting business before being hired by Renzi). To be in compliance with the rules, Roe had to do all her fundraising work clocking in to work as Renzi's administrative assistant, or after work. Renzi's spokesman Vartan Djihanian said that this is the case: "Whatever fundraising she does ... is on her time."

Roe also received about $30,000 in fundraising fees in 2006 from four other House members: Tom Feeney; Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart, both of Florida; and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. Renzi's office said those payments were for services rendered in 2005. There is no evidence that Roe's activities are not in compliance with House ethics standards.

Reported floor fight
Renzi was an opponent of embryonic stem cell research. In May 2005, he engaged in an argument on the House floor with Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL). The argument ensued after Renzi had learned that Kirk and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership commissioned secret polling in the districts of Renzi and other members of Congress who oppose stem cell research. Renzi said, "I was yelling at him. I told him it's absolutely unprecedented that Republicans would pay for a push poll to attack another Republican on such a core belief of mine ... You're not going to change my view on the issue, as a father of 12."

Funds from DeLay's PAC
Renzi also received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.

Indictment, conviction and pardon
On February 22, 2008, after Phoenix New Times columnist Sarah Fenske broke a story about the 2002 campaign financing embezzlement, Renzi was indicted on multiple federal charges. The charges included conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and insurance fraud. In October 2009, the government added a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud charge to the indictment. It alleged that Renzi and others willfully embezzled from a risk retention company called Spirit Mountain. In June 2010, Federal District Judge David C. Bury, ruled that procedural errors precluded the prosecution from using available wire-taps as evidence in the case going forward.

On July 9, 2010, a Renzi associate, accountant Dwayne Lequire, was convicted for conspiracy in the embezzlement of $796,000, while involved with Renzi, of insurance premiums from a dozen non-profits. Upon appeal, Dwayne Lequire's conviction was reversed and ruled an acquittal on all counts. A co-defendant, Andrew Beardall, was also acquitted.

In 2011, Renzi appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to stop his prosecution. A three-judge panel held that Renzi's prosecution could go forward and the full court let pass a petition to rehear that decision en banc, allowing the case against Renzi to proceed. Renzi appealed to the Supreme Court but it also declined to hear his appeal so he was put on trial.

On June 12, 2013, a jury convicted Renzi on 17 of 32 counts in his corruption case that accused him of using his office for personal financial gain and looting a family insurance business to help pay for his 2002 campaign. That October, Renzi was sentenced to three years in prison. Renzi appealed his conviction to the Ninth Circuit, but the court upheld the jury's verdict. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari.

On February 27, 2015, Renzi reported to Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown West Virginia, to serve his 3-year prison sentence. He was Bureau of Prisons inmate 29375-208 and was released on January 6, 2017.

On January 20, 2021, Renzi received a full pardon from President Donald Trump during his last hours as president. Citing numerous examples of prosecutorial misconduct, including fabricated evidence, the pardon was supported by Representative Paul Gosar, Representative Tom Cole, former Representative Tom DeLay, former Representative Jack Kingston, former Representative Todd Tiahrt, former Representative John Doolittle, former Representative Duncan L. Hunter, former Representative Richard Pombo, former Representative Charles H. Taylor, former Representative Dan Burton, Larry Weitzner, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rick Renzi


text:
John Shadegg

John Barden Shadegg (born October 22, 1949) is an American politician and former U.S. representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, serving from 1995 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.

The district, numbered as the 4th district before the 2000 census, included much of northern Phoenix.

Early life, education and career
Shadegg is the son of the former Eugenia Kerr and Stephen Shadegg, both deceased. The senior Shadegg, a conservative political consultant and public relations specialist, supported Barry Goldwater's 1952, 1958, 1968, 1974, and 1980 U.S. Senate campaigns and worked with F. Clifton White and Peter O'Donnell to organize the Draft Goldwater Committee in the 1963–64 presidential campaign.

The Shadeggs are of partial Swiss descent.

John Shadegg was born in Phoenix and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona at Tucson in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona Law School, also in Tucson, in 1975. He served in the Arizona Air National Guard from 1969 to 1975.

In 1975, he went to work for the law firm of Treon, Warnicke, Dann and Roush. Shadegg. In 1982, Shadegg led the re-election campaign of Robert Corbin, for Arizona Attorney General. The election was challenged with claims that Corbin buried the prosecution looking into the murder of organized crime investigative reporter Don Bolles which Corbin's former employer was suspected in. Shadegg served as Special Assistant Attorney General for Corbin between 1983 and 1990. He was also Corbin's chief lobbyist, where he was the point man for the impeachment of Gov. Evan Mecham.

Shadegg served as special counsel to the Arizona state House Republican caucus in 1991 and 1992 and an adviser to the United States Sentencing Commission before entering the House.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Energy and Commerce
 * Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
 * Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet
 * Subcommittee on Health
 * Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Party leadership
From 2000 to 2002, Congressman Shadegg served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of conservative House Republicans.

Following the 2004 election, Shadegg was elected Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking position in the House Leadership. He was the only member of the Republican Class of 1994 serving in leadership until resigning the post to run for Majority Leader in January 2006.

On January 13, 2006, Shadegg officially joined the race for the House Majority Leader as a compromise alternative candidate to Representatives Roy Blunt and John Boehner. Shadegg received the support of the National Review, the Club for Growth, and the Arizona Republic. Feb. 2, after Shadegg came third in the first ballot, his supporters switched to second place Boehner, ensuring Boehner's election on the second ballot.

Shadegg ran for House Minority Whip following the loss of Republican control of the House in November 2006, losing to Blunt.

Political positions
In every Congress since the 104th Congress, U.S. Congressman John Shadegg has introduced the Enumerated Powers Act, although it has not been passed into law. At the beginning of the 105th Congress, the House of Representatives incorporated the substantive requirement of the Enumerated Powers Act into the House rules.

In 2007, he opposed several bills to set a deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq. Shadegg voted against the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which increased the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Shadegg voted for a bill to build a 700 mi fence along the border between the United States and Mexico (Secure Fence Act of 2006). In 2005, Shadegg voted against a bill to create a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution.

Shadegg is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.

Shadegg is vehemently opposed to the Healthcare Reform Package that was tabled in October 2009. He said the reform package is a "Soviet-style gulag health care", and will make American healthcare something akin to that available to the prisoners of Russian gulag.

On October 14, 2009, Shadegg joined with three fellow Representatives in calling for the investigation of CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) over allegations of trying to plant "spies", based on a CAIR memo indicating that they "will develop national initiatives such as Lobby Day, and placing Muslim interns in Congressional offices." The request came in the wake of the publication of a book, Muslim Mafia, the foreword of which had been penned by Congresswoman Sue Myrick, that portrayed CAIR as a subversive organization allied with international terrorists. CAIR has countered that these initiatives are extensively used by all advocacy groups and accused Shadegg and his colleagues of intending to intimidate American Muslims who "take part in the political process and exercise their rights."

In November 2009, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed confidence in the security of having five 9/11 suspects brought to trial in lower Manhattan, to which Shadegg gave an overheated response: "Well mayor, how are you going to feel when it is your daughter that is kidnapped at school by a terrorist?". He later apologized to the mayor and his family for "the insensitivity of my remarks."

On March 17, 2010, after criticizing the lack of a single-payer health care system or an alternative public option in health insurance reform proposals by the Obama administration, Shadegg, who has previously responded to the possibility of such a system as, "full on Russian gulag, Soviet-style gulag health care", stated in an interview, "I would support single-payer." Shadegg's spokeswoman later clarified the remark, explaining that the Congressman believes that "Forcing them [health insurance companies] to compete, even through a public option, would be better than an individual mandate which will not work."

On September 29, 2008, Shadegg voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which created the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

Despite his support of the second economic stimulus package bill, he voted "NO" on the first Economic Package and he also was a proponent of the 2009 Tea Party protests which condemned any bailouts, and even spoke at a rally in Phoenix.

On November 30, 2010, Shadegg declared his opposition to the extension of unemployment benefits on the basis that "the unemployed will spend as little of that money as they possibly can", having commented to Mike Barnicle "Your answer is it's the spending of money that drives the economy and I don't think that's right."

Political campaigns
Shadegg entered the Republican primary race for Arizona's 4th District in 1994 after four-term incumbent Jon Kyl began what turned out to be a successful run for the United States Senate. Shadegg won a four-way primary with 43 percent of the vote, and won in November. He was reelected seven times.

2006
In 2006, the Democratic Party nominee was Herb Paine, who barely defeated his Democratic primary opponent, to face Shadegg in his November 2006 bid for reelection. Shadegg retained his seat with nearly 60% of the vote.

2008
Shadegg announced on February 11, 2008, that he would not run for an eighth term, saying that he wanted to "seek a new challenge in a different venue to advance the cause of freedom." However, Shadegg retracted the statement on February 21 and announced he would seek reelection. Although it was speculated that he would run for the United States Senate in 2010 if John McCain had become president, Shadegg had expressed his intention to leave public life and return to the private sector before changing his mind.

2010 retirement
On January 14, 2010, Shadegg announced he would not run for reelection to a ninth term. In his statement, Shadegg says he will "pursue my commitment to fight for freedom in a different venue."

Early in 2011, Shaddeg joined the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix as a senior fellow; but he is no longer formally affiliated with the group.

In 2011, Shadegg joined the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP as a partner, working out of their Washington, DC, and Phoenix offices. In 2016, Shadegg joined the Polsinelli PC law firm in Phoenix as a partner.

title: John Shadegg


text:
Ed Pastor

Edward Lopez Pastor (June 28, 1943 – November 27, 2018) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona from 1991 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Arizona's 2nd congressional district from 1991 to 2003, its 4th district from 2003 to 2013, and its 7th district from 2013 to 2015, all of which were anchored in downtown Phoenix.

Early life
Pastor was born in Claypool, Arizona, as the oldest of three children. After high school, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from Arizona State University (ASU). He became a chemistry teacher at North High School in Phoenix and later went on to work as deputy director of the community service group Guadalupe Organization Inc.

After returning to ASU to earn a J.D. degree, he became an assistant to Arizona Governor Raúl Héctor Castro. In 1976, Pastor was elected to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and he served three terms in that role as a county executive.

Elections
In 1991, Pastor entered a special election to succeed retiring 28-year incumbent Democrat Mo Udall in the 2nd District, which then comprised the southwestern part of Arizona, including half of Tucson and portions of southern Phoenix. Pastor won a narrow victory in the four-way Democratic primary, defeating his closest challenger, Tucson mayor Tom Volgy, by 1,800 votes. He was the only major candidate from the Phoenix share of the district.

He then won the special election a month later with 55 percent of the vote to become the first Latino to represent Arizona in Congress. He was reelected four times without substantive Republican opposition, never dropping below 60% of the vote.

Pastor's former territory was renumbered as the 7th District following the 2000 census, but his home in Phoenix was drawn into the newly created 4th District. Rather than move to the Phoenix portion of the reconfigured 7th, he opted to run in the 4th. The newly created district was heavily Democratic and majority-Latino, with Democrats having a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in registration, similar to his old district. He was reelected six times against nominal Republican opposition.

Tenure
Pastor was one of the nine Chief Deputy Whips for the Democratic Caucus. Following in Udall's footsteps, his voting record was decidedly liberal; for most of his tenure, he was the most liberal member of the Arizona congressional delegation. He was well-respected by members of both parties, and had a reputation for bipartisanship.

He was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was pro-choice, and in 2006 supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood 100 percent, according to their records. In 2006, NARAL Pro-Choice America-Endorsements endorsed Representative Pastor. He voted against the 2002 Iraq Resolution that started the Iraq War.

In 2011, Pastor voted against the National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. He also voted against several bills that would encourage trade between countries such as Panama. Furthermore, he voted to encourage the display of "In God We Trust" in public buildings and schools.

In 2009-2010, Pastor was backed by the National Farmers Union. However, he was not supported by the National Council of Agricultural Employers.

Pastor was supported by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which works to protect native wildlife and wild areas.

Around the mid-1990s, Pastor was backed by the Americans for the Arts Action Fund. However, since then, their support has dwindled somewhat.

Pastor had a strong stance on civil rights regarding sexual orientation and race. For example, in 2007, he voted to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and, in 2006, he voted against defining marriage as one man-one woman. Finally, in 2004, he voted against a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. In 2002, the ACLU rated Pastor at 93% for a pro-civil rights voting record.

In February 2014, Pastor announced that he would not seek reelection and would instead retire upon the completion of his term.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Appropriations
 * Subcommittee of Energy and Water Development
 * Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
 * Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)
 * Source:

Caucuses

 * Congressional Progressive Caucus
 * Congressional Hispanic Caucus
 * International Conservation Caucus
 * Source:

Legacy
Multiple schools, parks and other institutions including the Ed Pastor Center for Politics and Public Service have been established in his honor. A section of Loop 202 in the Phoenix area was named in his honor.

Pastor has been credited with inspiring multiple generations of people dedicated to public service including Arizona State House Democratic Leader Charlene Fernandez.

Personal life
Pastor was married to Verma Mendez for 53 years and had two daughters, Yvonne and Laura. He died on November 27, 2018, following a heart attack in Phoenix at the age of 75.

Electoral history

 * Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1990, write-ins received 44 votes. In 1992, write-ins received 5 votes.

title: Ed Pastor


text:
Radu the Handsome

Radu III of Wallachia, commonly called Radu the Handsome, Radu the Fair, or Radu the Beautiful (Radu cel Frumos; Radu Bey; c. 1438 – January 1475), was the younger brother of Vlad the Impaler (a.k.a. Vlad III) and prince of the principality of Wallachia. They were both sons of Vlad II Dracul and his wife, Princess Cneajna of Moldavia. In addition to Vlad III, Radu also had two older siblings, Mircea II and Vlad Călugărul, both of whom would also briefly rule Wallachia.

In 1462, he defeated his brother, Vlad III, alongside Ottoman Empire sultan Mehmed II, with whom Radu had an intimate relationship.

Life with the Ottomans
In 1436, Vlad II Dracul ascended to the throne of Wallachia. He was ousted in 1442 by rival factions in league with Hungary, but secured Ottoman support for his return by agreeing to pay tribute to the Sultan and also send his two legitimate sons, Vlad III and Radu, to the Ottoman court, to serve as hostages of his loyalty. Vlad and Radu were later educated in logic, the Quran and the Turkish and Persian language and literature. The boys' father, Vlad Dracul, with the support of the Ottomans, returned to Wallachia and took back his throne from Basarab II.

While Vlad was eventually released to take his place on the Wallachian throne in 1448 after his father was killed by John Hunyadi, Radu converted to Islam and was allowed into the Ottoman imperial court. Radu later participated alongside Mehmet II, now Sultan, in the Ottoman siege which eventually led to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Radu was allowed to live in the newly built Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. According to the Serbian Janissary Konstantin Mihailović, Radu was a commander of the Janissary; in the campaign against his brother Vlad III, Radu was at the head of 4000 horsemen.

Struggles for the rule of Wallachia
In November 1447, John Hunyadi launched an attack against Wallachia due to its alliance with the Ottomans by the treaties signed by Vlad II Dracul and his duplicity in Varna Campaign (1444). Radu's father fled, but Mircea II was captured by boyars from Târgoviște and was blinded with a red-hot poker before being buried alive. A short time after their father was captured and killed by the forces of John Hunyadi, Vlad III was released in 1448 and was the Ottoman Turks' candidate for the throne of Wallachia, the first of a succession of times he would hold the throne, this first time for only a matter of months.

Radu's brother Vlad III later went on to take the throne from Vladislav II in 1456 and began his second reign for which he was to become famous. Like his older brother Mircea II, Vlad III was an able military commander and now found himself opposing the Ottomans.

Radu, at the age of 22, became a leading figure at the Ottoman court. In 1461, Mehmed II began preparing to invade Wallachia. After consulting his astrologers, the thirty-year-old sultan resolved to personally lead the punitive expedition. His personal Janissary guard was larger than the entire army of Vlad III. Moreover, the sultan opted to reward Radu's ongoing loyalty by setting him on the throne of Wallachia in Vlad III's place.

In 1462, a massive Ottoman army marched against Wallachia, with Radu at the head of the Janissary. Vlad III retreated to Transylvania. During his departure, he practised a scorched earth policy, leaving nothing of importance to be used by the pursuing Ottoman army. When the Ottoman forces approached Târgoviște, they encountered over 20,000 of their kind impaled by the forces of Vlad III, creating a "forest" of dead or dying bodies on stakes. This atrocious, gut-wrenching sight was too much even for them to bear therefore they returned to Ottoman forces to regroup.

Vlad III waged a guerrilla campaign against the Ottoman forces commanded by the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha in May 1462, pursuing them in their retreat as far as the Danube. On 16 and 17 June, he again defeated a sizable Ottoman force in what has become known as The Night Attack, which resulted in heavy casualties to the Ottoman army, as well as logistical losses.

After Mehmed II suffered losses from The Night Attack, Radu and his loyalists campaigned on the Danubian plains for support to replace his brother. It was not difficult to convince them; he only had to promise the boyars that he would restore their privileges and assure the defectors from Vlad III's camp that they would not be punished. But above and beyond this, he preached of a lasting peace, a gentle reign, and no revenge for any past wrongdoings. Radu sent envoys to the Saxon cities hardest hit by Vlad III, tempting them with old-fashioned advantageous trade regulations and vouching for the sanctity of their families. His good nature attracted instant allies, including inhabitants of Bucharest and Târgoviște, who had enough of the cruelty of his brother.

Radu chased Vlad III to his castle north of Curtea de Argeș and, finally, out of Romania itself, which was incorporated under Ottoman control. Taking advantage of their fortune the Ottomans strengthened their commercial presence in the Danube against any Hungarian influence and intervention in the region.

Meanwhile, his brother Vlad III, due to his harsh policies towards the boyars (whose power struggles he blamed for the state of the realm), was betrayed by them. Vlad III travelled to Hungary to ask for help from his former ally, Matthias Corvinus. But instead of receiving help he found himself arrested and thrown into the dungeon over false charges of treason.

After the victorious campaign north of the Danube, the Ottomans placed the young Radu (then 26 years of age) as the Bey of Wallachia. Soon after, the Janissary under his command began attacks and raids on Vlad III's mountain stronghold on the Argeș River, Poenari Castle. During his reign the Ottoman Sipahi's gained a strong foothold in the south of the country.

In 7 March 1471, Radu fought the Battle of Soci against Stephen III, his future son-in-law, for possession of Chilia (now Kiliya in Ukraine). Slavo-Romanian chronicles relate that Stephen III had a "war with Radu voivode for Soci". Stephen III's relationships with Radu were hostile. He invaded Wallachia on several occasions during Radu's reign, dethroning him four times in response to Radu's vassalage.

In 1473, following an agreement with the Ottomans, Basarab Laiotă cel Bătrân (Basarab Laiotă the Old) took over the throne. Between 1473 and 1475 Radu briefly returned twice to the throne.

He died in January 1475.

Personal life
Radu's wife was Maria Despina, considered to be a Serbian or Albanian princess. Their daughter was Maria Voichița, who later married Prince Stephen III of Moldavia.

title: Radu the Handsome


text:
J. D. Hayworth

John David Hayworth Jr. (born July 12, 1958) is an American television host and former politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2007 from Arizona's 5th Congressional District. He later hosted Newsmax Prime, a television news/talk prime time show that airs weekdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Newsmax TV. Previously, he hosted a conservative talk radio program on KFYI in Phoenix until January 2010, when he resigned due to his run for the U.S. Senate.

A graduate of North Carolina State University, Hayworth anchored sports reports for three television stations during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994, Hayworth was elected to represent Arizona's 6th congressional district, which was redistricted into the 5th District starting in the 2002 House elections. He was defeated in 2006 by Democratic candidate Harry Mitchell.

In 2010, he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate, losing to incumbent Senator John McCain in the Republican primary.

Early life, education, and broadcasting career
Hayworth was born in High Point, North Carolina. His grandfather, Ray Hayworth, was a Major League Baseball catcher from 1926 to 1945. Hayworth received a bachelor's degree in speech communications and political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh in 1980, where he was student body president during his senior year.

He was a sportscaster for WPTF-TV in Raleigh/Durham, NC, WFBC-TV (now WYFF-TV), the NBC station in Greenville, South Carolina, from 1981 to 1986, and WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1986 to 1987. From 1987 to 1994, he was the sports anchor on the news reports of KTSP-TV (later KSAZ-TV), which was then the CBS affiliate in Phoenix.

Hayworth married in 1989. He and his wife Mary have three children.

Committees
As a congressman, Hayworth served on the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. He was the first ever representative from Arizona to have served on the committee. While working on the committee, he was given a "satisfactory" (64 percent) rating from the National Taxpayers Union. Hayworth supported the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Campaigns
In 1994, Hayworth ran in what was then the 6th District and defeated incumbent Democrat Karan English, taking 54 percent of the vote to English's 42 percent. Hayworth criticized English's support for Bill Clinton's budget plan, which Hayworth termed the largest tax increase in history. English had been endorsed in her successful 1992 campaign by former state U.S. Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater when she ran against Doug Wead, but not in 1994 when she ran against Hayworth.

In 1996, Hayworth fired two of his campaign aides for their part in forging his signature to file a campaign affidavit on time. He won in 1996 with 48 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Steve Owens.

In 1998, Hayworth signed and filed the form in person, with television cameras, campaign volunteers, and the Arizona Secretary of State watching. He again defeated Owens, 52 percent to 45 percent.

His next three elections he won handily: He won in 2000 against Larry K. Nelson, 60 percent to 37 percent; in 2002 against Craig Columbus, getting 61 percent of the vote; and in 2004 against Justice Elizabeth Rogers, getting 60 percent.

During his first four terms, Hayworth represented a district that took in most of the northeastern portion of the state, including Flagstaff. Most of its population, however, was located in the Phoenix suburbs. After the 2000 census, his district was renumbered the 5th District and was made a much more compact district centered on the northeastern Valley—including all of Tempe, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, western Mesa, and Chandler, and part of northeastern Phoenix. Despite a modest Republican registration advantage, it was considered to be slightly less conservative than other suburban Phoenix districts.

Media profile
Known for his outspoken nature—he called President Clinton an "unprincipled philandering president" who had "the most corrupt administration in U.S. history" – Hayworth is a frequent guest on conservative TV and talk radio. He sometimes substitutes as host of the nationally syndicated Laura Ingraham political commentary show on the Talk Radio Network.

Hayworth has never shied away from controversy. In the same campaign letter in which he criticized Clinton, he said his Democratic opponent was "bankrolled by trial lawyers, radical homosexual rights groups, environmental extremists ... along with almost every other left-wing wacko group you can think of."

Political positions
Hayworth is a staunch conservative. He supports stronger border security and opposes the temporary worker program proposed by President George W. Bush for illegal aliens.

In January 2006, Regnery published Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror, a book by Hayworth and his chief of staff, Joseph J. Eule. In the book, Hayworth said that Bush is too close to GOP contributors from the agribusiness, meat packing and construction industries, whom he calls "addicted" to a steady stream of workers from Mexico and Central America to keep wages down. Hayworth also argues that current immigration law misinterprets the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, saying that a child of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. should not be given U.S. citizenship (a view he has reiterated during the 2010 campaign ), and advocates the "Americanization" program Henry Ford advocated in an interview with the New York Times in 1914.

"The ever-so-successful process that used to be called 'Americanization' was a major movement in the early 1900s ... Henry Ford, a leader in this movement, said, 'These men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right way to live.' Talk like that today and our liberal elites will brand you a cultural imperialist, or worse. But if you ask me, Ford had a better idea."Hayworth is the chairman of the advisory committee of the United States Justice Foundation.

2006 congressional campaign
Hayworth had considered running for the Governor of Arizona in the 2006 elections against incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano, but in March 2005 he announced that he preferred to stay in Congress. In the spring of 2005, Napolitano was enjoying a 79 percent favorable job rating.

In the 2006 election, Hayworth faced former Tempe mayor, state senator, and then-state Democratic Party chairman Harry Mitchell. A number of prominent Republicans endorsed Mitchell, and this defection appeared to have influenced the general election. CD-5, despite having a 60% Republican active registered voter advantage over Democrats (139,057 vs 86,743 in October 2006), nevertheless saw Hayworth narrowly defeated by Mitchell. While most media outlets called the race for Mitchell on election night, Hayworth refused to concede due to a large number of absentee and early-voting ballots. However, when it became apparent that Mitchell's lead was too large to overcome, Hayworth conceded on November 14. He ultimately lost by 8,000 votes.

Radio/TV talk show host
On April 23, 2007, it was announced on Phoenix radio station KFYI that Hayworth would begin hosting an afternoon drive time (4–7 p.m.) talk show on the station starting April 26, 2007. Hayworth left his position as a political talk show host following his January 22, 2010 broadcast. At the time of his resignation he made the decision to challenge John McCain in the 2010 Republican primary election for U.S. Senate.

On January 3, 2012, Hayworth began a stint hosting a morning show on KSFO in San Francisco, California.

On April 10, 2012, former presidential candidate and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee replaced Hayworth on KSFO. Hayworth was a sometime fill-in when Huckabee is away from his radio show.

On March 8, 2013, it was announced that Hayworth would become the new co-host for the morning talk show on XEPRS-AM 1090 in Tijuana/San Diego. He joined Lee Hamilton. On August 30, 2013, he left XEPRS 1090.

2010 Senate campaign
In November 2009, Rasmussen Reports released the results of a poll of likely 2010 Republican primary voters in Arizona showing a statistical tie in a hypothetical primary challenge to incumbent John McCain for the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Arizona. Hayworth said he was considering running against McCain because he has "a profound disagreement with Senator John McCain over the concept of amnesty, whether he wants to call it comprehensive immigration reform or a pathway for guest workers to remain."

In February, 2010, Hayworth announced that he was indeed running against McCain. By mid March, Rasmussen reported only 7 points separating the two. Some credit was given to other McCain challengers' dropping out, thereby allowing Hayworth to pick up their support.

During the campaign, Hayworth displayed his ignorance of history by stating that the United States never declared war on Germany during the Second World War. The United States, in response to Germany's declaration of war against the United States, declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941.

It was also discovered that Hayworth, the alleged fiscal conservative, had participated in an infomercial in which he encouraged persons to obtain “free money” from the United States government through a program widely criticized as a scam, leading one person to call Hayworth a “trashy, idiotic crook.”

On August 25, 2010, Hayworth was defeated by John McCain 57–32% in the Arizona Senate primary.

title: J. D. Hayworth