In most political campaigns, the children of candidates are off-limits -- at least they should be.
Someone may want to explain that to supporters of Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth, who GOP Senate candidate Jim Deakin claims "accosted" his teenage daughters in parking lots, telling them Deakin better get out of the race.
Deakin, a Tea Party candidate, tells New Times that Hayworth supporters -- including "Dwayne the Cabby," a longtime friend of Hayworth's old radio show -- harassed his daughters on two separate occasions at the beginning of the primary campaign.
Deakin says Hayworth's cronies saw "Jim Deakin for Senate" bumper stickers on his daughters' cars and started hassling them.
The daughters, ages 18 and 19 -- proud of their father and in an attempt to explain the bumper stickers -- told the political punks that Deakin was their dad. Hayworth's hooligans responded by telling the girls to go home and tell their father to drop out of the race.
In one case, Deakin says Hayworth supporters went so far as to block one of his daughters' car from leaving a Taco Bell parking lot.
Classy.
We contacted Hayworth campaign spokesman Mark Sanders to give the campaign a chance to respond to the allegations. He never got back to us.
