Ben Quayle

2010

Quayle was a member of the Tea Party movement, which had many of its members swept into office during the 2010 elections.[8] After Republican Congressman John Shadegg decided to retire, Quayle launched his campaign following his father's announcement on America Live with Megyn Kelly that Ben was a candidate for Arizona's 3rd congressional district.[9] On August 11, 2010, Quayle released an advertisement in which he called Barack Obama the "worst President in history".[10][11][12][13][14]

Quayle's prior involvement with the controversial rumor and gossip website "DirtyScottsdale.com" complicated his run for office. According to the site's founder, Quayle was one of the "original contributors" to the site, which covered Scottsdale nightlife with features including sexy photos of women, and was the predecessor to the gossip website TheDirty.com.[15] Quayle initially denied the rumors,[16] before admitting several weeks later that he did, in fact, write material for the site under the pen name Brock Landers.[15][17][18][19]

Quayle won the 10-candidate Republican primary on August 24, 2010 with a plurality of 23% of the vote.[20] In the general election in November, Quayle defeated Democratic candidate Jon Hulburd 52–41%.[21]

2012

After redistricting, Quayle's district was renumbered the 6th district, while his home in Phoenix was drawn into the 9th district. But Quayle's home was just a few yards outside the 6th, leading a source close to Quayle to tell National Journal that Quayle would run in his original district.[22] While the 6th is as heavily Republican as its predecessor, the 9th was drawn as a fair-fight district.

On February 6, 2012, Quayle confirmed that he would run in the 6th. He faced fellow freshman Republican Congressman David Schweikert in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district. In an unusual twist, Schweikert's home in Fountain Hills had been drawn into the 6th, while Quayle's home had been drawn into the 9th, the geographic successor to Schweikert's 5th.[23][24]

During the bitter primary campaign, Schweikert was widely criticized for a mailer that accused Quayle of "going both ways", suggesting that he was bisexual. On the reverse, the mailer listed issues on which it claimed Quayle had taken both liberal and conservative positions. Senator Jon Kyl, who represented what is now the 6th from 1987 to 1995 (when it was numbered as the 4th district) said that "such campaign tactics insult the voters, degrade politics and expose those who stoop to them as unworthy of high office" and Senator John McCain said the mailer was one of the "worst that I have seen" and that it "crosses the boundary of decent political dialogue and discourse". Quayle's spokeswoman called the mailer "utterly false" and "a sleazy smear tactic". Schweikert's spokesman responded that people "should get their minds out of the gutter" because the mailer was "obviously" referring to "both ways—as in liberal and conservative". The Arizona Republic asked two political scientists to review the mailer, who both said that they had "never seen anybody accuse someone of flip-flopping [on political issues] that way" and said it was "difficult to believe" that the sexual suggestion was unintentional.[25][26][27][28]

Although the 6th contained almost two-thirds of Quayle's constituents, Schweikert defeated Quayle in the Republican primary with 53% of the vote.[29] Matt Jette, a business professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management who ran for governor of Arizona as a Republican in 2010, won the Democratic nomination.[30] Schweikert defeated Jette in the November 6 general election with 62% of the vote.[31]

After being elected to Congress, Quayle announced that he would opt out of the taxpayer-funded congressional health care and pension plan.[32]

In 2012 Quayle was named "The Most Conservative Member of the House of Representatives" by the National Journal.[33] He was awarded the 2011 "National Taxpayers’ Friend Award"[34] by the National Taxpayers Union, the "Spirit of Enterprise Award"[35] by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was given a 98% scorecard[36] by the Club for Growth.

Controversy arose after a bill to increase combat pay for military personnel was rejected, and Quayle and David Schweikert high-fived, happy about the bill's failure. After the incident, Maria Meacham, the mother of an active-duty soldier upset about the vote, began shouting from the gallery, and was removed by security.[37]

Quayle introduced legislation related to border security, guns, small business, government transparency, and health care[38] and successfully sponsored H.R. 3862, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act "to impose certain limitations on consent decrees and settlement agreements by agencies that require the agencies to take regulatory action in accordance with the terms thereof, and for other purposes".[39] According to the Congressional Budget Office, "Under the bill, complaints against federal agencies, the terms of the consent decrees or settlement agreements, and the award of attorneys’ fees would need to be published in an accessible manner, including electronically. The legislation would require that any proposed consent decree or settlement agreement be published in the Federal Register for 60 days of public comment prior to filing with the court."[40]

Quayle served on the following committees during his tenure.[41]

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet (Vice Chair)
• Committee on Science, Space and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Research and Science Education
  • Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation (Chairman)