Ex-Cat Bouie unsure of political future after primary defeat
by Anthony Gimino on Sep. 06, 2008, under Sports
Bouie
Former Arizona football All-American Tony Bouie, a political rookie who this week lost a heated race for state representative – including a perceived death threat – says he is unsure of whether he’ll run again.
“I don’t want to pull a Brett Favre and make a decision on my future right after I lost the last game,” said Bouie, referring to the short-lived retirement of the former Green Bay quarterback.
“I’m interested in politics. I’ve gotten a lot of support from some people in the Republican party. A year from now, I’ll assess what the landscape looks like and make a decision.”
He ran for state representative in District 6, a conservative stronghold that includes north Phoenix and Anthem, where Bouie lives.
Bouie, 36, was running against incumbent state representative Sam Crump and Carl Seel, a Minuteman who is no stranger to the political realm. Bouie had the endorsement of Doug Clark, the district’s outgoing congressman.
Bouie finished third in this week’s primary. Crump and Seel move on to the general election.
The race created a stir among Republicans, who didn’t exactly throw their big tent around Bouie. Foes charged Bouie with being a political opportunist because he switched his party affiliation five days before declaring his candidacy in April.
“My views tends to be pretty conservative, Republican views,” he told the Citizen in April. “I think like most people, when you’re 18, you just kind of check the box that your parents are associated with. That’s what I did.”
Bouie made a rookie mistake, though, when he told reporters and the Seel camp that he had been a registered Republican for a while when he lived in Florida and was playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
A check of the records showed that to be false. Bouie said he must have not completed the paperwork or that it had been mishandled.
“I was sure that I was registered as a Republican,” he said, adding that he never voted in primaries, where an error might have been detected.
“No way would I have told them where to look if I was lying.”
Regardless, his opponents, who mostly came from the further right of the party, jumped on the issue and were able to damage Bouie’s campaign.
As to the question of who damaged Bouie’s campaign signs, that’s unresolved. Several were defaced with stickers that showed the silhouette of what is supposed to be a black man. There are six targets on the image.
The words above the picture are shocking: “Official Runnin’ (racial expletive) Target.”
“We filed a report,” Bouie said. “It’s a death threat. I don’t take these things lightly.”
That and more provided Bouie quite the introduction to politics – and that was just from within his own party.
“I did not expect the vitriol and half-truths and lies to be thrown around like this,” he said.
If Bouie does run again, he says it likely will be as a Republican.
The impetus to seek elected office at this time was his battle with cancer earlier this year. He says he had gained a no-time-like-the-present appreciation. Following chemotherapy, he says he is “officially in remission.”
“I feel like I have a new lease on life,” he said.
Bouie played safety at Arizona from 1991 to 1994. He was with Tampa Bay from 1995 to 1998.
