Arizona Rep. O’Halleran posts video, accuses GOP of dirty campaign tricks

PHOENIX – Rep. Tom O’Halleran accused Arizona GOP staffers of fraudulently donating to his campaign posed as communist party members, and he provided video and images to back up the claim.

O’Halleran, a first-term Democrat, is running for re-election in Congressional District 1, which covers a huge swath of northern and eastern Arizona, including Flagstaff.

He called out Republican opponent Wendy Rogers in a tweet Friday, saying her staff committed fraud. O’Halleran also demanded answers from Rogers about what she knew of the incident in a statement to KTAR News 92.3 FM.

The tweet included video showing an O’Halleran staffer returning the donation to an Arizona GOP office in Flagstaff.

.@WendyRogersAZ, call your Flagstaff office.

Yesterday, your #AZ01 staff committed fraud when they donated to my campaign under assumed names and posed as members of the NAU Communist Party. We kindly returned the money & explained the law to them.

Read: https://t.co/HG7bbg6IRT pic.twitter.com/eFGWLj4p42

— Tom O'Halleran (@TomOHalleran) October 12, 2018

The video was also posted to the O’Halleran’s YouTube account.

O’Halleran’s campaign sent out a press release headlined “Fraud Alert: Arizona GOP Staff Commits Campaign Finance Fraud,” which included photos of a donation envelope and volunteer sheet, dated Thursday, signed by Jose Rosales, who said he was a Northern Arizona University student.

In the video, Lindsay Coleman, O’Halleran’s finance director, can be seen entering the GOP office, asking for Ahmahd or Jose.

A man enters the room from behind a closed door, and Coleman identifies him as the person who made the donation as Jose. She is told by someone in the office that the man’s name is Oscar.

Oscar leaves the room but returns when Coleman says she wants to return his cash.

“Us returning the funds that you just [contributed] … to our campaign in the name of Jose Rosales, claiming to be with NAU Young Communists when you are, in fact, with the NAU Young Republicans and your name is Oscar,” Sweeney says, before telling the man that it’s illegal to falsify campaign donation information.

Ryan Mulcahy, a spokesman for O’Halleran’s campaign, told KTAR News 92.3 FM that a campaign staffer recognized them from social media as being associated with the state GOP in Flagstaff, but was unable to confront them before they left the office.

In a tweet, Rogers denied knowledge of the incident, saying, “This is news to us. No one from our campaign was involved in this juvenile stunt.”

This is news to us. No one from our campaign was involved in this juvenile stunt. We are focused on defeating Tom O’Halleran & the Democrats this November & don’t have time for silly pranks. We are more concerned about exposing Tom O’Halleran’s open borders liberal record. #AZ01

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) October 12, 2018

The Arizona GOP didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to The Guardian, the amount donated, and returned, was $39.68.

Coleman told the UK-based newspaper that the man who accompanied Oscar to O’Halleran’s office and identified himself as Ahmahd Sadia was actually an Arizona Republican party organizer.

The paper said the organizer had been fired from his job.

The Guardian story suggested that the attempted donation was an effort to smear O’Halleran by linking him to the Communist Party.

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