Richard Kimball

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This article is about the politician. For the fictional character, see Richard Kimble.

Richard Kimball is an American politician, and president of the nonprofit organization Project Vote Smart.

[edit] Biography

In 1986, after serving in the Arizona Legislature and the state's Corporation Commission, Kimball ran as a Democrat against John McCain for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barry Goldwater. His campaign was subject to negative press, one Phoenix columnist described him as displaying "terminal weirdness." [1] McCain ultimately won the election by a margin of twenty percent,[2] and is now Arizona's senior Senator.

In his 2002 memoir Worth the Fighting For, McCain described the race and his opponent:

[M]y first race for the Senate was pretty close to a foregone conclusion. I led in the polls from start to finish. My eventual opponent, Richard Kimball, (...) was a tall, good-looking guy who shared his name with the hero of a popular 1960s television drama, The Fugitive. He was a nice man and a well-intentioned public servant. But for all his fine qualities, he was not the first-tier candidate the Democrats had hoped to field.[3]

According to the Project Vote Smart web site, during his closing remarks at a debate, Kimball decided to forgo an attack on McCain in favor of this speech:

Understand what we do to you; we spend all of our time raising money, often from strangers we do not even know. Then we spend it in three specific ways: first we measure you, what it is you want to purchase in the political market place -- just like Campbell's Soup or Kellogg's Cereal. Next we hire some consultants who know how to tailor our image to fit what will sell. Lastly, we bombard you with the meaningless, issueless, emotional nonsense that is always the result. And which ever one of us does that best will win![4]

In 2006, Kimball commented on the campaign to a reporter from the Arizona Daily Star: "I was enormously depressed — not because I lost. It was because I spent all my time collecting money." He spent the months after the election traveling through Mexico, and has not sought public office since.[5]

In 2006, Project Vote Smart, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, awarded Kimball a $400,000 bonus and a 400% salary raise. Among the board of directors, who approved this bonus, was Richard's wife Adelaide Elm Kimball. The raise was criticized by Project Vote Smart alumni in blog posts,[6] and resulted in a low rating from consumer group Charity Navigator.[7] On August 30, 2007, The Missoula Independent ran an article criticizing Kimball's raise and its justification by Project Vote Smart's leadership.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Nowicki, D. & Muller, B. (2007, March 1). The Senate calls. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved September 16, 2007.
  2. ^ Election statistics from the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
  3. ^ McCain, J., & Salter, M. (2002). Worth the Fighting For. New York: Random House.
  4. ^ Kimball, R. (2008). Project Vote Smart's History. Project Vote Smart. Retrieved March 3, 2008.
  5. ^ Innes, S. (2006, November 9). Candidates on losing end of election cope differently. The Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
  6. ^ Castanien, Matt. (2007, June 25). Richard Kimball’s $400,00 bonus!!! & PVS’s 990 TAX FORM Partisan Free Politics. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
  7. ^ a b Duganz, Patrick. (2007, August 30). Raising Richard: Breaking the pay scale at Project Vote Smart. Missoula Independent. Retrieved November 6, 2007.

[edit] External links