Arizona Democrats lobbed a guilt-by-association attack on GOP candidate Randy Graf with a press release Wednesday challenging the former state Representative to "sever his ties" to former Knights of the Ku Klux Klan founder David Duke. The alleged ties are rather tenuous as they stem from a link to Graf's campaign website that Duke placed on his own website. Responding to the charge, Graf campaign manager R.T. Gregg told the Arizona Daily Star, "We have no ties nor have we ever had ties with David Duke or any of his racist crazies."

Though never saying that Graf supports or even agrees with Duke, the Democrats challenge paints Graf's hardline stances as attractive to extremists like Duke, a move that could benefit Dem. candidate Gabrielle Giffords if voters end up associating Graf with Duke. We must point out though that Democrats are misrepresenting the facts when they claim Graf "is associating himself" with Duke as Graf has no control over who links to his website. However, Graf has done himself no favors by refusing to personally call on Duke to remove the link.