Reverend Jarrett Maupin Endorses Ben Quayle in Congressional Race. WTF?

Our holy-shit-ometer kicked in around 8:30 last night when we got an e-mail from the Reverend Jarrett Maupin, an African-American civil-rights leader here in Phoenix (he’s basically a young version of Al Sharpton — check the hair and our cover story from 2005).

Maupin leads the Inner-City Democracy Empowerment Agency and announced yesterday that he is endorsing Republican Congressional candidate Ben Quayle.

In case you forgot, Maupin is the same guy who in August bashed Quayle for using the term “national poster boy.”

Because the phrase includes the word “boy” — and Quayle was talking about a black guy — Maupin felt the term was racist.

“The Quayle campaign needs to get the closest Negro they got to make a statement about how he feels about African-Americans,” Maupin told New Times in August.

Read all about it here.

To his credit, Maupin admits in a press release that he had previously criticized Quayle but has since changed his tune.

“I’m endorsing Ben because at least he is who he says he is. Brock Landers controversy aside, there are no surprises with Ben in terms of his support of federal legislation. While I do not support Mr. Quayle’s positions on SB 1070, the DREAM Act, Affirmative Action, or the Economy; I do support his consistency and party loyalty,” Maupin says.

It seems it’s not so much that Maupin likes Quayle — more that he can’t stand his opponent, Jon Hulburd, for not toeing the line for the Democratic Party.

Hulburd, as we revealed yesterday, supports SB 1070 and opposes the DREAM Act — two positions not popular with Democrats.

“At least we know he is against us. We know he is a wolf, not a wolf in sheep’s clothing like his opponent, registered-Democrat Jon Hulburd.” Maupin says. “Hulburd is a weak Democrat. The reason he won’t win is because he’s trying too hard to be a Conservative Republican. The Party won’t say that but I will.”

Apparently the Quayle campaign found that “closest negro.”