WITH JON KYL, DULL DOESN'T MEAN HARMLESS

Comments (0) By Tom Fitzpatrick Thursday, Oct 20 1994

...continued from page 1

Kyl began his career as a lawyer, but did not find litigation to his taste. He became a lobbyist for Salt River Project at the state legislature and subsequently went to work for the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

He is a man who talks a good game about spending less taxpayer money, but spends as much on himself as he can get his hands on.

In 1992, Kyl's office expenses alone were nearly $1 million. He also voted in the affirmative during the postmidnight vote for a huge congressional pay raise.

But, of course, Kyl does have other enthusiasms. He revels in fund raising. According to impeccable sources, he has spent at least three or four hours of every day in Congress fund raising.

There have even been times when Kyl flew out of Washington and missed important votes so he could travel around the country making speeches to raise funds for his Senate race.

Kyl's efforts have been rewarded. Very few Washington pols have been able to raise a war chest comparable to the one that Kyl has amassed for this race against Sam Coppersmith, the Democratic candidate.

And what has it all earned for Kyl? The other night, his performance in the debate against Coppersmith and Scott Grainger, the Libertarian candidate, was an exercise in boredom.

Some Republicans walked away from the debate saying they were ready to vote for the Libertarian. Some even said they would vote for Coppersmith.

I know only one thing for sure. After what he has done to them, any woman who casts her vote for Kyl should have her right to vote revoked.

This is really a terrible state of affairs. Obviously, Kyl does not deserve to be elected to a seat in the U.S. Senate.

But there seems to be nothing that can stop him. Kyl's enormous political war chest speaks with such deafening force that it even overpowers his multitudinous ethical lapses.

Once again, the bad guys win.