Former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe is endorsing Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu for Congress, despite recent allegations that Babeu threatened an ex-lover with deportation.
Kolbe, who served part of Tucson and southeastern Arizona in Congress for 22 years, said he has become acquainted with Babeu over the last couple of years.
Babeu is running for the Republican nomination in the new Fourth Congressional District, which runs from northern Pinal County, wraps around the eastern part of metro Phoenix and extends through Prescott all the way to Lake Havasu City and wide swaths of western Arizona.
Kolbe acknowledged he is known as more of a moderate Republican than Babeu, who says is a conservative. But actually, Kolbe said, they agree on most issues.
“If you talk to him and listen to him, he really comes from the same wing of the party I do. He’s really very libertarian, and I’m very libertarian,” Kolbe said.
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Kolbe and Babeu also are both gay Republicans — a fact that catapulted Babeu’s campaign into the spotlight after his former companion revealed their relationship and accused Babeu of threatening him in a Phoenix weekly publication. Kolbe came out publicly in 1996, after almost 12 years in Congress, suspecting he was about to be outed by a magazine.
Kolbe said he and Babeu have spoken several times, but he wouldn’t say whether they’d discussed how to handle the question of Babeu’s sexual preference.
“I’ve talked to him a lot about issues, and he’s right about things like debt and balancing the budget, entitlement reform, issues I care about,” he said.
Kolbe has heard of the allegations against Babeu — that he and his lawyer threatened Babeu’s ex-lover with deportation if he didn’t keep silent about Babeu’s personal life — but he said he doesn’t know whether they’re true.
“I think his record speaks for himself,” Kolbe said. “I don’t know the merits of the imbroglio. Everything I know about him is he’s a very honest person.”
For more on this issue, see Thursday’s Arizona Daily Star
