The economic downturn — combined with the crashes of the sub-prime mortgage and housing markets — has hit Arizona especially hard. Yet as Valley residents struggle to stay in their homes, perennial congressional candidate David Schweikert is circling overhead, preying on homeowners and profiting from Arizona’s foreclosure crisis.

“Stabilizing our housing sector is critical to Arizona’s economic recovery, but David Schweikert is banking on its failure,” said Luis Heredia, Arizona Democratic Party executive director. “After mismanaging his second failed campaign for Congress and racking up a half-million dollars in campaign debt, I can see the desire to make a quick buck. But doing so on the backs of suffering families who are being foreclosed on and forced onto the streets is despicable.”

For two years, Schweikert has not been forthcoming about his real estate dealings, particularly how they relate to the housing and foreclosure crisis that continues to rock Arizona’s economy and ravage our neighborhoods. He has remained conspicuously vague when discussing his occupation, describing himself as “a small business man” or the owner of a small “real estate business.” But the fact is, he is a predatory real-estate investor – the type of investor that real estate experts often call a “vulture” or “bottom feeder” because they profit from failed, foreclosure-ridden markets.

“Arizona is second in the nation in foreclosures. And in this market, our loss is literally David Schweikert’s gain,” Heredia said.

Today, the Arizona Democratic Party is launching www.yourlosshisgain.com, so Arizona residents can read the facts for themselves and see how Schweikert’s foreclosure investment scheme blooms in an unstable, falling economy by profiting off the misery of others and threatening Arizona’s long-term recovery.

Among the website’s highlights:

* In some of the most hard-hit neighborhoods in the Valley, Schweikert has expanded his foreclosure scheme to include more than $11 million in real estate holdings [Source: Maricopa County Recorder]

* While claiming to revitalize neighborhoods, Schweikert’s company has been cited repeatedly for blight and neglect, facing thousands of dollars in fines. [Source: City of Phoenix]

* Schweikert’s foreclosure investment scheme has the potential to further shake Arizona neighborhoods by thwarting long-term investment, with short-term rental gain. Law enforcement experts say that the large numbers of rental homes in the Valley make their jobs more difficult because criminal human smugglers and Mexican cartels frequently use rentals as “drop houses” used in the trafficking of illegal immigrants and drugs. [Arizona Republic, Aug. 31, 2008]

* Schweikert has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last year operating his home foreclosure investment scheme. [Source: 2009 Schweikert Personal Financial Disclosure Statement]

Follow The Money

Shortly after his second failed congressional campaign came to an end in 2008, Schweikert announced he was going to run for Congress again. [Source: The Arizona Capitol Times' Yellow Sheet, “Schweikert: Another ‘Crazy’ Run in 2010,” November 10, 2008].

Since then, he’s racked up a half-million dollars in campaign debt to self-fund another congressional run. Not only are the profits from Schweikert’s foreclosure investment scheme lining his own pockets, they are lining the pockets of his business partners, who in turn, are contributing heavily to his third, debt-ridden congressional campaign. [Source: The Federal Elections Commission, August 12, 2010]

“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time shady real estate dealings and shell games have ensnarled political officials in Arizona – just ask Rick Renzi or Fife Symington,” Heredia said. “While David Schweikert says he wants to clean up Washington, it’s clear that his clean-up exercise should start in his backyard(s). He should start by disclosing the size and nature of his predatory scheme, who his investors are and how much they’ve already made off the backs of Arizona families.”

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Looks like the GOP is sticking to their favorite strategy. When you have a tight race try to scare the hell out of Americans with September 11 and terrorists.

The question too is this: does the death penalty for terrorism suspects keep America safe? Is it a deterrent to someone who is willing to commit a suicide attack? The GOP is wrong on national security and these tasteless ads only highlight that.

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It’s happening all over the country.

In state after state, young people are proving they are fired up about the election and committed to bringing about real change. In Colorado, young people turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots in the February caucuses.

Mark admires young people who stand up for Colorado through community service and activism. As a young man, Mark worked to elect his father, Mo Udall to Congress. He later served as the Executive Director of Outward Bound, building character development and self-discovery in people of all ages and walks of life through outdoor challenges and experiences.

With your help, we can send someone to Washington who will elevate policy debates above partisan politics in order to find workable solutions to difficult political issues.

Join Udall Generation and help elect Mark Udall to the U.S. Senate!

Managing a statewide campaign is not easy. We rely on community leaders to provide us feedback on local issues as well as information about important community events. We need you to be our eyes, ears, and voice in your community to help us carry Mark’s message to every corner of the state.

Join Udall Generation and help elect Mark Udall to the U.S. Senate!

The election is just over three months away and we need your help now more than ever. We need you to stand up and work with us to elect Mark Udall to the U.S. Senate.

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Join 29-year old Donald Betts Jr., candidate for Kansas’ Fourth Congressional seat tomorrow for a live-blog Q&A.

Tomorrow, July 3, 2008
5:00 PM Central Time
www.futuremajority.com

The Facebook event for the live-blog is here.

The DailyKos diary about the live-blog is here.

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Scott Kleeb represents the youth of America. Not only is he at 33 still a young Democrat, he has been a friend to the youth movement for many years. His family embodies the commitment to America’s youth. He is married to Jane Fleming-Kleeb, former Young Democrats of America Executive Director and currently of Young Voter PAC. His campaign was built from young activists asking him to run, and Scott answered. Now it is time to show that we are committed to his campaign and everything it represents.

Support Scott on ActBlue

This is a call to all young people and members of the Netroots who want to see Scott in the US Senate. We know he’ll have our back, so we need to have his.

If you contribute the max for the primary, $2,300, you are a Wrangler. All the rest of us are Backers.

We are trying to get to $33,000 by the primary which is on May 13th.

Young people are voting at record numbers and now it’s time to back Scott up with our money. Scott will be the youngest member of the US Senate when we get him elected.

This is our race. We drafted Scott – not party insiders, not the DNC, NDP, or the DSCC. We placed our trust in a (young) people powered candidate and he rose to the challenge.

We can do better than Tony Raimondo in the primary. We can do better than Mike Johanns in the general.

Many people are saying this race is unwinnable. That no matter how hard we work we will fall short.

They also said we wouldn’t show up to vote.

We proved them wrong there, let’s prove them wrong again.

We are the ones, let’s prove it!

http://www.actblue.com/page/wranglers

Dislaimer: This endorsement is solely that of Kevin Bondelli and not of any organization or committee.

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Rep. Tom Udall has had an amazing first quarter of fundraising, pulling in $1.3 million. Udall is seeking the U.S. Senate seat left open by Republican Pete Domenici. Udall looks extremely strong against his potential Republican opponents, Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce. As an Arizonan I feel a strong connection to the Udalls’ Democratic legacy. Tom Udall’s father, Stewart Udall, represented Arizona in Congress and served as President Kennedy’s Secretary of the Interior. His uncle Morris Udall represented Arizona in Congress and was a Democratic candidate for President. His cousin Mark Udall is currently in the U.S. House from Colorado, and is now running for U.S. Senate as well (odds are good that Mark is going to be a featured candidate on here in the near future). The Udall family has been the heart and soul of the Democratic Southwest, and it is great to see the new generation continuing the legacy.

The New Mexico Senate seat is one of the Democratic Party’s best pick-up opportunities. To learn more about Tom Udall’s campaign visit his official site.

Consider making a contribution to the campaign to help gain another Senate seat for the Democrats.

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I had the honor of meeting Lt. Col. Charlie Brown at the California Young Democrats Lake Tahoe Retreat, and I came away knowing that he is a man of experience and character, exactly the qualities needed to be an excellent member of Congress.

Charlie Brown has had a distinguished 26-year Air Force career during which he was involved in every U.S. military conflict from Vietnam to Desert Storm, and has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during aerial operations.

His experience in the Air Force has resulted in an overwhelming understanding of the costs of war, the importance of providing troops with proper equipment, and the need to ensure that the military is receiving the best possible intelligence.

His post-military career has involved working in finance, promoting fiscal responsibility, and public safety, serving twice as Vice-President of the Roseville Police Association. Charlie Brown’s broad experience makes him uniquely qualified to tackle the myriad issues that affect our county and the people of California’s Fourth Congressional District.

Charlie Brown has been a friend to Young Democrats and young voters across the board, and I am honored to feature him as a candidate.

To learn more about Charlie Brown visit his campaign site at http://www.charlieforcongress.com.

To make a contribution to the campaign go to https://secure.charlieforcongress.com/contribute.php

If you are in California and would like to get involved with his campaign as well as other important races, check out the California Young Democrats.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw6tNmrZ-nY]

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New Jersey State Senator John Adler has recently reported amazing fundraising numbers in his campaign for New Jersey’s Third Congressional seat, left open by Republican Rep. Jim Saxton. A press release from the Adler campaign reports that he has raised$1,159,310 for the cycle and $529,320 in the first quarter of 2008.

The seat Adler is currently seeking has been in Republican control since 1882 (that’s right, 126 years). There is a good post on MyDD about Adler and his fundraising success that you should check out as well.

Go to John Adler’s campaign website to learn more and consider making a contribution to the campaign that will make history for New Jersey Democrats.

This is a new feature of the blog that will be covering prominent races throughout the country. If you would like to nominate a candidate for a feature leave a comment, send me an email, or any other method of contacting me that you can figure out.

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