So, you might think the Amy's Baking Company saga couldn't get crazier. You would be wrong.
Last night, it was announced that Rose+Moser+Allyn Public & Online Relations is going to be helping Amy's Baking Company recover from their public relations/normal human decency fiasco*:
No big, right? You and I would both try to hire someone to help us recover from a PR disaster this massive (it's literally made the news in every Anglophone country).
But Jason Rose is no ordinary PR guy. He is the Arizona right-wing's go-to guy when they need someone to try to salvage their career - sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
There was the time he tried to save State Senator Scott Bundgaard from being removed from the State Senate for slapping around his girlfriend by the side of Arizona Highway 51 He was unsuccessful, as Bundgaard resigned after the Senate Ethics Committee was about to throw the book at him (he also pled "no contest" to the charges in court).
Rose is also a booster for Andrew Thomas, the resigned, disbarred former Maricopa County Attorney. The same Andrew Thomas who is incidentally also running for Governor.
And all THAT happened because Thomas linked arms with good ol' Sheriff Joe, who has also been a client of Jason Rose, along with noted gasbag J.D. Hayworth, Krysten Sinema opponent Vernon Parker, and so on, and so on, and so on.
But the Amy's Baking Company saga has nothing to do with politics you say? Well, Amy Bouzaglo is no ordinary crazy cat-lady-baker-cum-meltdown-haver:
“She is also very involved in the Arizona Republican Party and volunteered numerous hours of her time during the 2006 elections. In 2005, she was 1 of 250 people appointed to the Republican Presidential Task Force in Arizona.”
That's incidentally from the court papers regarding her bank fraud conviction.
OK, so I know we shouldn't expect PR people to be squeaky clean, and God knows there is no shortage of PR folk who wouldn't try to reform the public opinion of John Wayne Gacy if the money was good enough.
But this is where the story gets weird(er).
Jarrett Maupin is a local African-American preacher who fits the "Fox News Democrat" mold. The SAME Jarrett Maupin who has fought in the past for a living wage who has fought in the past for a living wage. The SAME Jarrett Maupin who then started shilling for both Ben "Daddy's Boy" Quayle, calling him, and I swear to the Lord God Above that I am not making this up, "my nigga" and the awesome Krysten Sinema's opponent last election, Vernon Parker.
Remember, Amy's Baking Company pays a flat wage, and TAKES THEIR SERVERS TIPS. I'm not sure how the champion of the living wage can justify his appearance for Amy's Baking Company, other than to sell out Arizona's workers for the GOP. Why is he doing this? What does Rev. Maupin get for this?
Crazy politics, convictions, selling out, public meltdowns. In other words, it's just another goddamn day in goddamned Arizona.
* - If you don't know this story yet because you have been on Mars for the last week, in a cave, with your eyes shut and my fingers in my ears, just go to Google and type "Amy" - it's the second auto-finish option, after Amy Adams but before Amy Schumer.