Ex-hopeful Jones crashes DuVal press conference

From GOP candidate to GOP tracker?... Politicos were befuddled by GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Christine Jones’ appearance Friday at Fred DuVal’s news conference.

Jones, who supports Ducey, said she happened to be in the neighborhood of the Arizona Education Association in central Phoenix. She offered some comments in response to DuVal’s criticism of her GOP colleague.

Jones said she was not sent by the Ducey campaign but attended as a Republican Party “unifier” and wife of a highschool teacher.

“I was just kind of literally in the neighborhood — I’m not just making that up,” she said.

“And it’s very interesting to me what comes out of these press conferences and gets through the filter, because it tends not to be the whole story.”

That remark left reporters puzzled, given that she was a candidate for governor a few short weeks ago and knows exactly how news conferences work.

» The race that keeps on giving... Who knew the race for Arizona secretary of state could fuel so many Twitter tweets and Facebook posts? But when Michele Reagan held her birthday party at Amy’s Baking Company, famous for its appearance on cable’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” Democrats couldn’t help themselves.

“The only way this makes sense is if Michele Reagan’s internal polling shows her swing demographic is TMZ readers,” said Barbara Lubin, communications director for the Arizona Democratic Party. Robbie Sherwood, executive director of Progress Arizona, posted the photo of Reagan with the Amy’s duo and labeled it “Raging Lunatics for Reagan.”

Amy’s tweeted back, chastising Democrats for not focusing on running the country and applauding Reagan for being “smart enough to not believe what she sees on TV.”

Meanwhile, Team Reagan took a swing at Democrat Terry Goddard, knocking him for running for office with voter-approved public financing while fretting about elections officials raiding the public purse by staging a two-track voting system. They figure Goddard has spent $3 million from public coffers for his political gain.

That wouldn’t be so bad, Reagan said, if Goddard didn’t criticize elections officials for spending tax dollars on running dual-track elections, even though his $2 million estimate turned out to be much lower.

» Quote of the week: “To go from millionaire candidate to Republican Party tracker is a pretty big comedown.” — Rodd McLeod, Campaign consultant to DuVal, remarking on Jones’ appearance at DuVal’s news conference Friday