John McCain’s very first campaign for office was a contentious one. I know. I was there. As a reporter for the Phoenix NBC affiliate, I was assigned to cover the 1982 race for Congress in Arizona’s 1st District, covering the eastern part of the metro area.

In past years, this had been no race at all. Congressman John Rhodes, a legendary figure in Arizona politics, had been entrenched for 30 years in the solidly Republican district. But now, after Rhodes decided to retire, it became a wide open race, with four candidates vying for their party’s nomination.

Two of them were long-time politicians and veteran state lawmakers, Sen. Jim Mack representing Tempe and Rep. Donna Carlson-West from Mesa. Ray Russell was a former veterinarian, active in Mesa civic affairs and the Mormon Church. The fourth candidate was not known locally, but as a war hero and a Washington insider, he was someone to take seriously.

John McCain also had money. His wife, Cindy, was the daughter of Jim Hensley, who had gotten wealthy from his Phoenix Anheuser-Busch distributorship. Some of that money went into McCain’s congressional campaign.

From the beginning, McCain was painted as a carpetbagger by his opposition. He had just married Cindy and moved to Arizona so he could run for office, some people alleged. Others claimed he had no political experience or ties to the state, as opposed to the other three candidates who had strong roots in Arizona.

But even then I knew enough about politics to see that McCain had the superior campaign organization. He had a consultant from Washington on his team, and support from some key Republicans. While the other three candidates focused on Tempe and Mesa, he focused on Scottsdale and won a key endorsement from that city’s well-known and popular mayor, Herb Drinkwater. And McCain’s team knew how to use TV advertising effectively.

Most importantly, McCain was charming and full of energy. The media liked him (including me). He went for votes the old fashioned way, by walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors. As the story goes, he wore out three pairs of shoes during that campaign.

During 15 years as a TV reporter, I covered many campaigns, but this was one of the most interesting. There were lots of fireworks, which made for great stories. The race was hard-fought and extremely close. There was bitterness and name calling. One candidate even tried to dig up dirt on McCain by contacting his ex-wife. And the carpetbagger issue kept coming up — until McCain put it to rest for good.

At a candidates forum, someone asked him again about his residency. According to McCain, he “snapped” after hearing the accusation “for the thousandth time.”

“Listen, pal,” he started. “I spent 22 years in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fac, when I think about it now, the place I lived the longest in my life was Hanoi.”

That now much talked about McCain temper may have won him his first election. Many people, including McCain, believe that was the turning point of the race, though he didn’t realize it at the time.

On election night, McCain got 15, 363 votes. Russell was second with 12,500, Mack third (10,675 votes), and Carlson-West fourth (9,736). Because the district was so heavily Republican, he had the seat locked up after the primary. In the general election he trounced his Democratic rival by more than a 2 to 1 margin and headed to Washington.

Now 26 years later, McCain tries to be President of the United States, a fight harder than he could ever have imagined on that magical night in 1982. Will that legendary temper hurt him or help him in 2008?

In what century is Target living? I thought these people were hip, savvy marketers. Unfortunately, they apparently don’t have a clue about public relations.

The founder of ShapingYouth.org, a blog about the impact of marketing on children, called Target, complaining about a commercial that shows a woman spread across a giant target with her crotch at the bull’s eye. The PR department responded with this email:

“Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets. The practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest (their shoppers).”

Frankly, I don’t find anything offensive about the ad. But that’s beside the point. You would think any smart PR person would realize that these so-called “nontraditional media outlets” are becoming more and more traditional. And that Target’s “guests” write and read blogs. And that such an ignorant policy would eventually get publicized — in the very traditional New York Times — and spread across the blogosphere faster than any ad campaign.

That publicity woke up the PR department, which said it is now reconsidering the policy.

What if your water isn’t safe to drink, but nobody tells you? That’s what happened to many residents of Paradise Valley, Arizona yesterday.

Luckily, I was one of the those who did get notified, at about 5 PM. It was one of those recorded messages — I couldn’t stop it, play it back, or ask questions.

At first I thought it was a joke, but then realized that Arizona American Water seriously didn’t want us to drink, cook with, or clean dishes with our tap water for at least two days. There had been some kind of malfunction at the treatment plant. (I later learned that the levels of TCE, a potential cancer-causing solvent, were dangerously high).

I didn’t have a pen handy to write down the number the message said to call for more information, so I went to Arizona American Water’s website. Wouldn’t you think if the company had a concern about the quality of water going to 5000 of its customers, it might want to post something?

But nothing was mentioned then (or even by this morning). In fact, under “Latest News,” one item said “Water Quality Meets or Surpasses Standards.” Uh, no, I don’t think so.

I called one of my good friends who also lives in Paradise Valley. She had not been notified. Neither had one of my neighbors. Apparently, dozens of people didn’t know about the dangerous water unless they happened to see the story on TV or get a call from a friend.

This kind of behavior by a company that provides an important service to the public is just plain unacceptable. There’s no excuse for not notifying all residents, and in this age of the internet, it’s ridiculous for a company not to immediately post information on its website.

Most of all I wonder, how long had we been drinking contaminated water before the company got around to notifying us? After all, Arizona American Water hasn’t done much to gain the public’s trust.

In a quickly growing city, bad publicity waits on developers’ doorsteps like a rattlesnake waiting to strike. Activists are quick to speak out against projects, and neighbors of proposed commercial or residential developments are always poised to complain about increased traffic, too much density, and decreased property values.

At first the battle between Phoenix home developer James Sasser and neighbors near his proposed project on Dreamy Draw Drive followed the usual script. He announced his plan to build four houses on a never developed 10-acre mountain top. Residents and activists complained loudly because they believed the city had promised to keep the land as part of the Phoenix Preserve.

But somehow, the president of the Home Owners Association had, without residents knowledge, sold the land to Sasser for $150,000, much less than it was worth. The city council approved the housing project, despite the outcry from citizens.

Then the script took a surprise twist. After discussions with some of the city council members, Sasser agreed to donate the land to the city for inclusion in the preserve. He did the right thing for the community.

It was also a great PR move. Building four houses just wasn’t worth the bad publicity he was getting. Unfortunately, a lot of developers wouldn’t have been so savvy or generous.

Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO of AMD admitted to analysts that 2007 was a bad year for his company. “We blew it and we’re very humbled by it and we learned from it and we’re not going to do it again,” he said.

Yes, it was a very bad year. Thanks to technical problems that delayed the availability of its new chip, AMD lost 1.6 billion during the first nine months of the year. The stock price is down 56 percent from a year ago.

Despite, the company’s poor performance, Ruiz got a raise in his base salary of 7.4 percent. His total compensation last year was already $12.8. What is the board of directors thinking? Did they read the balance sheets? Somehow, that doesn’t give me a lot of trust in AMD or make me want to buy stock.

(The board can’t justify the raise by saying they are paying the going rate. The CEO of AMD’s biggest competitor, Intel, makes just $9.8 in total compensation).

Meanwhile, the president and CEO of Costco, one of the most successful retailers in the country, gets no raise for the seventh year in a row. That’s the way Jim Sinegal wants it, even though Costco’s stock price is up 28 percent from the same time last year. His total compensation this year is about $3.2 million.

And when Sinegal admitted a mistake in 2006, taking responsibility for errors in the company’s stock-option grants to employees, he turned down a $200,000 bonus.

So, one CEO who performed horribly is paid at least $4 million dollars more than the $8.3 million average median income for CEOs. And a CEO who continues to perform well, makes $5 million dollars less than the average.

What’s wrong with this picture?