Dan Quayle Defends Son Ben Against Smear Campaign

Former Vice President Dan Quayle has largely remained on the sidelines during his younger son Ben's campaign for an open Arizona congressional seat, but the barrage of attacks leveled against him in the wake of a smutty website owner's claim that Ben once published posts for a steamy sex/gossip site called DirtyScottsdale.com has caused him to break his silence as Arizona voters go to the polls in today's primary election. Politico quotes the father:

I took my fair share of outrageous slams in politics but Steve Moak's vicious smear against my son is over the top and unprecedented," Dan Quayle wrote. "I have never in my 35 years of politics seen such an ugly, slanderous assault in the closing days of a campaign against a fellow Republican."

"Ben made a satirical fictional posting on a blog three or four years ago commenting on night life in Scottsdale. That blog no longer exists. Ben had absolutely nothing to do with the vulgar website mentioned in the ad created and aired by Steve Moak," he wrote.

Quayle blames the smear campaign on one of Ben's primary opponents, businessman Steve Moak, who he says is trying to "destroy my son and his reputation." Quayle is referencing the TV ad Moak is currently airing against Quayle where he uses his own words he allegedly posted on the smutty website against him: "My moral compass is so broken I can barely find the parking lot." Politico says Moak is the only opponent of Quayle's who has raised any significant amount of money for his campaign. He has raised $547,000 and contributed $300,000 from his own pocket to help finance his campaign against the well-financed campaign of Ben Quayle.

I was surprised when I perused Ben's FEC reports at the lack of support he received from Indiana Republicans where his father was raised and served as both a congressman and a senator. Dan moved the family back to Indianapolis after leaving office as Vice President in 1993 where Ben briefly attended Park Tudor high school, but the family later relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona. Most of the money Ben raised came from the Steven Chancellor family in Evansville, who own AmeriQual, a major government contractor. There were only a handful of contributions from the Indianapolis area and virtually no contributions from Huntington where Dan and Marilyn lived when he represented a northeastern Indiana congressional district back in the 1980s. The only Pulliam family member listed as contributing to him was Myrta Pulliam, who donated $1,000 last month. Dan is the grandson of conservative stalwart Eugene C. Pulliam, the former owner of the Indianapolis Star-News and other newspapers, including the Arizona Republic. The family sold its newspaper chain to Gannett more than a decade ago.