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Arizona Politics Get ‘Dirty’: Ben Quayle’s Website Controversy

Politics in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district sure are getting “Dirty.”

Jon Hulburd, the Democratic candidate in the district, recently released a radio spot on three Christian radio stations and a conservative talk radio station accusing his Republican opponent, Ben Quayle, of contributing to TheDirty.com, a racy website about Arizona nightlife, according to Politico.  In the ad, a woman who identifies herself as “a Christian and a mom” says that Quayle helped create “one of the most offensive websites I’ve ever seen.”

Quayle, who is the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, was first confronted with accusations of writing for TheDirty.com during the primary campaign. Just weeks before the Aug. 24 primary, Nik Richie, the founder of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based website whose legal name is Hooman Karamian, told Politico that Quayle was one of the original contributors to the site when it launched in 2007 as DirtyScottsdale.com. Richie claimed that Quayle published eight to 10 blog posts on the site under the alias “Brock Landers” – the name of a fictional porn star from the 1997 movie “Boogie Nights.”

Politico reported that Quayle, who campaigned as a “family-values conservative” according to the Associated Press, initially denied any involvement with the website. But one day after dismissing the accusations, Quayle changed his story, telling Phoenix’s 12 News that he “just posted some comments there to try to drive some traffic” but could not remember what those comments were, according to Politico.

The day after Quayle won the Republican nomination, an Arizona Republic blog reported that Hulburd had released a statement that called the general election a race “between Jon Hulburd and Brock Landers,” identifying Quayle by his alleged alias.

The controversy seems unlikely to fade in the coming months, with Democrats eager to put Quayle on the defensive in the Republican-leaning district, according to The Arizona Republic. On Sept. 8, the Quayle campaign began running an ad on Phoenix radio stations criticizing Hulburd’s positions on social and moral issues. Among other things, the ad accuses Hulburd of using his “massive wealth to fund abortion lobbies,” Politico reports. The ad also notes that Quayle is pro-life and that he “strongly supports constitutional protection of marriage between a man and a woman.”

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