Mahoney, aide getting death threats
 
By Chip Scutari and Robbie Sherwood
The Arizona Republic
 
Independent gubernatorial candidate Richard Mahoney and his top campaign aide have received death threats in the wake of television ads that injected allegations of child abuse in northern Arizona into a heated governor's race.

Mahoney, who has reported the threats to the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said one of the callers yelled, "Pull the ad or I'll kill you!" Another threatened to shoot Mahoney. He said a total of three death threats were received by phone, all late last week.

Mahoney, who began running the ads a few days before getting the threats, said he wasn't bothered by the calls at first.

"It wasn't too scary until I was in the car the other night near my headquarters and a blue truck was right on my bumper for several blocks," he said. "That was weird."

Mahoney campaign manager Paul Koerner added, "We were expecting a reaction to the ads, but nothing like that."

Mahoney also told DPS about a pickup truck that has been "casing" his headquarters. DPS officials said they are investigating the threats.

Last week, Mahoney ran two ads that criticized the two front-runners for what he calls their lack of interest in the problems of Colorado City.

One ad says Republican Matt Salmon would never solve northern Arizona's polygamy problem because he is Mormon. Another suggests that Democrat Janet Napolitano has ignored crimes in polygamist communities and doesn't care about victims' rights.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejected the practice of polygamy in 1890, but some fundamentalist offshoots still believe that taking multiple wives is a key to salvation.
 
azcentral.com
Originally published October 17, 2002
 
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