McCain challenger Simcox has challenges all his own

Gone were the signature jeans and ball cap he often wore during his days patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border as a founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

"It's part of the uniform," Simcox said in an interview Friday about his makeover.

"I had to learn to tie a tie," joked the 48-year-old activist, who says he started dressing up for the speaking engagements he's done coast-to-coast for the past few years. "My wife says I clean up well."

Some, though, say that the changes Simcox has undergone during his rise from activist to senatorial hopeful are more substantive than just wardrobe — and the transformation is not necessarily for the better.

Some border activists he once inspired say they won't support Simcox because they believe he's strayed from the hard-line approach of his early years.

And McCain supporters say that while Simcox is now asking Republicans to nominate him, he's never been loyal to the GOP.

But the man who began his rocky and often controversial rise to fame in a small newspaper office in Tombstone seven years ago doesn't seem to care about the naysayers.

In the three days following his announcement, Simcox says followers from all over the U.S. donated a total of $30,000. And his bid has drawn the interest of the national media — and of anti-illegal-immigration activists nationwide.

Simcox says he's speaking for the many Americans who feel the government has failed to secure the border.

Some in that community aren't so sure he's the right spokesman, though.

"He can't even unite his own group; how is he going to unite the movement?" says activist Michelle Dallacroce, founder of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens.

"His eye is now on a bigger picture. It's not just to secure the border."

Dallacroce and others say Simcox has been inconsistent in recent years.

For example, he told The Arizona Republic in 2005: "I'd hate to see a fence built across our borders. I still would rather see the National Guard and U.S. military augment Border Patrol." Yet a year later he endorsed Republican Don Goldwater for Arizona governor, saying, "As governor, Don will build a fence along the border with Mexico and use National Guard troops to patrol the border."

Activists were particularly offended by a statement Simcox made to a group of Phoenix business leaders in 2007, saying he supports public education and health care for the children of illegal entrants. And there's concerns over a 2006 audit of the Minuteman group, which showed that while the organization took in about $418,000, it spent $449,493, leaving it in the red.

One breakaway group, called the Patriots Border Alliance, has already decided it will oppose Simcox's candidacy, said President Bill Irwin.

"A year and a half ago I said all he's doing is positioning himself for some government office," Irwin said in an interview. "He totally changed his position."

Irwin said he thinks there's still room for another candidate, preferably former Arizona congressman J.D. Hayworth.

Dallacroce — who originally became involved in politics because of Simcox — says she sees no difference between him and McCain.

"I think McCain is obsolete," she said. "But having someone who is running and paralleling him — it's like buying a different kind of milk with the same label."

Simcox and his defenders say his views haven't changed.

Carmen Mercer, who replaced Simcox as president of the Minuteman group after he resigned last week, said the movement he started is still strong.

"He's always done what he has said," Mercer said. And, she said, Simcox's view on children born here being entitled to public education is an acknowledgment of reality — the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires it.

Simcox calls his critics "narrow-minded."

Benefits and citizenship should not be dealt with until the border is first secured, Simcox says, adding he has been delivering that message consistently for years.

"Just look at the energy that this nation has wasted on this issue," he said in an interview Friday. "It's driving a wedge through the country."

But while many outside his movement blame him for creating that wedge, Simcox doesn't see it that way.

He takes credit for bringing attention to the issue nationally, but Simcox says he's been "part of the solution."

"I've always been solution-oriented," he said, adding that his focus is not on illegal immigrants — it's on border security.

"Illegal immigration is a symptom of failed policies in Washington," he said.

Asked specifically what the difference is between him and McCain, Simcox said, "Sen. McCain has never come out and forcefully used his influence to say that the president should deploy the National Guard.

"He hasn't been that bold, bravado maverick," Simcox said. "He's been absolutely impotent on national security."

McCain has been nearly silent about Simcox's bid. But his supporters question the challenger's credibility.

"I think he's a one-issue candidate, and I don't think he's going to break anything," said state Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, an early supporter of McCain during the GOP presidential primary. "It is important, there's no doubt about it, but it's not the only issue out there."

And some question his loyalty to the GOP.

"He's been attacking Republicans and people in the Republican Party for years," said activist Alberto Gutier, a longtime McCain supporter. "If he wants to get in the race, get ready, because he's going to have a hard time."

Some do worry about the consequences. Whether or not Simcox does win, will the national attention his bid against the four-term senator drive a stake through the heart of the Arizona Republican Party?

If so, Simcox doesn't care.

"If Sen. McCain and the Republican Party had planned on some good-old-boy politics, we've certainly thrown a wrench in their plans," Simcox says.

"That's exactly what they needed."