The Arizona Republic has reported that legislative candidate and former NFL player Tony Bouie lied about his party registration. Bouie, who moved from Florida to Arizona to run in the predominantly Republican District 6, stated that he had been a Republican for half his life. In fact, Bouie was a registered Democrat in Florida five days prior to filing documents to run as a Republican in Arizona. Bouie now says he intended to change his registration, but never got around to it. His press release “clarifying” his party registration fails to note that his first NFL paycheck was in 1995. That is a long time not to complete the approriate paperwork. He is under considerable pressure to withdraw from the race.

Bouie Clarifies His Historical Party Affiliation

(Anthem, AZ) – There has been much discussion and debate about my former party affiliation while I resided in the state of Florida. While I was playing in the NFL after my college playing days at the University of Arizona, I experienced a political epiphany. After receiving my first check in the NFL, I noticed, from my perspective, an unusual amount of money missing from my check. I remember it being almost half of my gross pay. I marched straight to the head accountant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and asked if there had been some mistake. After he told me there was no miscalculation in the net pay, I decided that my party affiliation should be Republican since they believed in lower taxes. This moment was a culmination in my belief that the Democratic Party no longer represented what I ideologically believed.

Unfortunately, I did not complete the voter registration paperwork to make this switch official. This left my party affiliation officially unchanged. My official party affiliation has not detered my conservative views on the role of government, education, immigration, 2nd amendment rights or traditional family values.

I hope this clarifies any confusion about my party past.