NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday August 24, 2007

Nudist czar named to Arizona GOP Finance Committee

Phoenix – Nudist resort owner/promoter Horst Kraus has been such a major asset championing the Arizona Republican Party and its values that GOP Chairman Randy Pullen asked him to take on a more prominent role.

Kraus, who was just appointed to the state GOP finance committee, is best known for several controversial public stances, including pushing nudist camps for children.
(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0306/20/se.18.html)

Kraus, owner of the Shangri La Ranch, also testified as a character witness for a convicted child molester. The suspect, Owen Thompson, was convicted again and is now serving two life sentences. Kraus is quoted as undermining the alleged victim’s credibility: “It’s suspicious to me that no sooner Owen was gone and the child latched on to another single man.”
(http://sonoranalliance.com/?p=638)
(http://www.supreme.state.az.us/publicaccess/notification/
casedetail.asp?cs_id=kegqkoga&crt_name=Maricopa%20County%20Superior)

Republican Party spokesman Brett Mecum told the Capitol Times that Pullen thinks Kraus is doing a “heck of a job” registering and recruiting new voters and precinct committee members. (Yellow Sheet Report, Aug. 23, 2007)

“Since when is it a family value to defend child molesters? If this doesn’t tell you what the Arizona Republican Party really thinks about family values, I don’t know what does,” said Emily Bittner, communications director of the Arizona Democratic Party. “Democrats know how to value and support families: protect our children from predators, provide kids with decent and affordable healthcare, send kids to classrooms where they really aren’t left behind, rid our world of the danger of terrorists and leave them a clean planet.”