December 13, 2006 - The GOP is currently into a period of great soul-searching, arguing if the party has been too conservative or not conservative enough, does it stand on principle and did it lose too many seats for having too much or too little. Should the tent be broader or narrower? Some wish to purge the ranks of those they call RINO - Republicans In Name Only.

Many equate RINO with "moderate." Moderation is a demeanor, not an epistemology. Either way, some GOP conservatives want either purged for deviation from party platforms, supporting Democrat policies and failure to follow GOP leadership on vital issues.

They have a valid point about purging those who sacrifice principle for personal gain, support left wing ideas, and spend public money on blatantly unconstitutional programs. I have a great place for them to begin - Republicans who take public money to run their campaigns.

Public financing of political campaigns is as much a bulwark of leftist thought in America as the inheritance tax and abortion on demand. It overrides other issues in relevance because it does what its pinko promoters want - changes the way campaigns are run.

Arizona's "Clean" Elections process was established by a ballot initiative led by Democrat Mark Osterloh who'd lost a couple of local races. He attributed that to an insufficiently "level playing field." He oversimplified unequal vote tallies to unequal finances. After selling it to Arizonans under the pretentious title "Clean Elections" and running a successful campaign against inept opposition (and ironically spending far more than he would allow most statewide candidates) he then used his system to run for governor. He was trounced. He has since promoted the recently-trounced voting lottery proposal.

Because many on the left fervently believe that money equals votes, they likewise beleive that money is the real evil. Scratch deep for their pseudo-Marxist, anti-capitalist philosophy fed by pathological egalitarianism. Republicans and conservatives are supposed to know better.

Conservative candidates are using "clean elections" as a tool against "moderates" throughout the state. They're winning primaries because a couple of Colorado boys came down and showed them how to game the system. The justification I hear from these whining sell outs is, "but we can't raise enough money otherwise. "

The fanatics who wrote "Clean Elections" didn't leave enough money for much of anything, particularly statewide races. A "level playing field" with both candidates underfunded re-elects incumbents. "Clean elections" allows legislative candidates to collect the bulk of their government cash in either the primary or general, then adds matching funds of up to three times the original government stipend to participating candidates to offset spending by a non-participating opponent.

A "clean elections" legislative campaign taps out just under $60,000, a viable primary budget where items like mailing universes are greatly reduced. Unfortunately for some GOP legislative candidates, they were like beached whales in the general, insufficiently funded to make a case to a broader electorate - assuming they even knew they should have.

Here's a terrible message for goody-two-shoes lefties, sell-out conservatives, fast buck out-of-town consultants and special interests who have been getting by on the cheap: $60,000 is peanuts.

In a fast-growing state with only 30 legislative districts, pittances imagined as sufficient even when tripled by the "clean elections" process are already inadequate to reach six-digit voting populations. The future will revolve around independent committees making the candidates potted plants even before they're elected. Conservatives using "clean elections" in the future will be even more irrelevant.

A fundamental conservative and Republican principle was jettisoned. That a host of GOP candidates using public money were creamed combines political expediency with political incompetence.

Republicans on the political welfare dole are analogous to the Russian peasant whose sleigh is chased through the forest by a pack of wolves. He jettisons his children one by one hoping there will be some left when he gets home.

Those "clean" GOP candidates just threw over the first kid.

If anybody is serious about cleansing the GOP temple, start there.

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EMIL FRANZI

EMAIL FRANZI

BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!

About Emil Franzi

Emil Franzi is the owner and host of "Inside Track" on KVOI - 690AM and KAPR - 930AM in Douglas. The program airs on Saturdays from 12 pm till 5 pm.

Franzi currently writes a weekly column for the EXPLORER (formerly the NORTHWEST EXPLORER). He filled the TUCSON WEEKLY with close to a million relevant words from 1993 to 2004 and was an OpEd regular with the Az Daily Star from 1994 to 1998. His writing has also appeared in PHOENIX Magazine, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, and the late CITY MAGAZINE in Tucson.

But then, Franzi is an iconoclast.

This website is Franzi's baby, put together with work, faith, and a little help from his friends, like Tom Danehy, Joyce Downey and Mike Tully. The concept -- politics, books, humor, the Old West, movies, "Pet Talk" and letters -- is Emil's. This unique brew seems to work. This website averages more than a thousand "hits" a day and keeps growing.

You can read Emil Franzi's views on all things political and cultural, as well as opposing views, on our "Politics and More" page.