SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A former soldier accused of demanding mental treatment as he took hostages at gunpoint at a Georgia Army hospital later told investigators he planned to kill President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed Tuesday.

Federal charges filed in U.S. District Court in Savannah identified the accused gunman as 29-year-old Robert Anthony Quinones. The Army says he took three hospital workers hostage early Monday in a two-hour standoff at Winn Army Community Hospital at Fort Stewart, 40 miles southwest of Savannah. Army officials say the gunman surrendered and no one was injured.

Federal prosecutors charged Quinones with kidnapping and assault with deadly weapons in connection with the hospital hostage standoff. He was also charged with making threats to kill Obama and Clinton.

Court documents say Quinones told FBI, Secret Service and Army investigators after his arrest that as part of his assassination plots he had studied Secret Service protocols, sniper techniques and ways to disguise himself and conceal weapons.

Investigators said a search of the suspect's home turned up at least 15 guns, including high-powered rifles with scopes, as well as books and DVDs on Secret Service protocols, Israeli sniper techniques, Osama Bin Laden and Okalhoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

An affidavit by FBI and Secret Service agents who interviewed Quinones, filed in court, says the suspect was asked if he would kill Obama and Clinton given a chance.

"Yes. On a scale of 1 to 10 about being serious, I am a 10," Quinones responded, according to the affidavit.

The court documents say Quinones was discharged from the Army in February and worked a civilian job at Fort Stewart. No other details about his military service or employment were immediately available. He lived in Hinesville, a city neighboring the post. A phone number for him was disconnected. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney or where he was in custody.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Phillips, a senior Fort Stewart commander, said the former soldier told hostages he needed help for mental problems "connected, I'm quite certain, to his past service."

The suspect walked into the hospital's emergency room at about 4 a.m. carrying two handguns, a semiautomatic rifle and a semiautomatic version of a submachine gun, Phillips said. He took a medic hostage and headed to the building's behavioral treatment wing on the third floor.

An Army psychiatric nurse spotted the gunman and approached him to talk, Phillips said. That nurse was then taken hostage along with a behavioral health technician who refused to allow the gunman through a locked door to the patient area.

Phillips said the nurse, an Army major, was able to start calming the gunman down before Army investigators trained in hostage negotiations arrived and persuaded him to drop his weapons and surrender.

Because the suspect is a civilian and the standoff involved hostages on a federal installation, the FBI was called in to help with the investigation.

Fort Stewart, the largest Army post east of the Mississippi River, is home to the 3rd Infantry Division. Most of the division's 19,000 soldiers are deployed to Iraq. It's the 3rd Infantry's fourth tour in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

Phillips said he'd seen nothing to indicate the former soldier had previously sought treatment at the Fort Stewart hospital.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A Christian minister vowed Tuesday to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that he would endanger American troops overseas.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, which has about 50 members, said he understands the government's concerns but plans to go forward with the burning Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks.

He left the door open to change his mind, saying he is still praying about his decision, which was condemned Tuesday by an interfaith coalition that met in Washington to respond to a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry.

Gen. David Petraeus warned in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan - and around the world - to inflame public opinion and incite violence."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley echoed that, calling the plan to burn copies of the Quran "un-American" and saying it does not represent the views of most people in the U.S.

"While it may well be within someone's rights to take this action, we hope cooler heads will prevail," Crowley said.

Jones told the AP in a phone interview that he is also concerned but wonders how many times the U.S. can back down.

"We think it's time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs - on the people who would do it," he said. "And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form."

Jones, who runs the small, evangelical Christian church with an anti-Islam philosophy, says he has received more than 100 death threats and has started wearing a .40-caliber pistol strapped to his hip.

The threats started not long after the 58-year-old minister proclaimed in July that he would stage "International Burn a Quran Day." Supporters have been mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his Dove World Outreach Center to be incinerated in a bonfire that evening.

The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Saturday, but he says he is going ahead with his event. He said lawyers have told him his right to burn the Quran is protected by the First Amendment whether he's got permission from the city or not.

Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.

The interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders meeting in Washington condemned Jones' plan to burn the Quran as a violation of American values and the Bible. Among the participants was Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C.; Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and top officials from the Islamic Society of North America, the group that organized the gathering.

"This is not the America that we all have grown to love and care about," said Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. "We have to stand up for our Muslim brothers and sisters and say, "This is not OK."'

In this progressive north Florida town of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, the lanky preacher with the bushy white mustache is mostly seen as a fringe character who doesn't deserve the attention he's getting.

Still, at least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in Gainesville have mobilized to plan inclusive events - some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services - to counter what Jones is doing. A student group is organizing a protest across the street from the church Saturday.

The Vatican newspaper on Tuesday published an article in which Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore, Pakistan, criticized Jones' plan.

"No one burns the Quran," read the headline in Tuesday's L'Osservatore Romano.

Jones gained some local notoriety last year when he posted signs in front of his small church proclaiming "Islam is of the Devil." The church is independent of any denomination but follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern day. Pentecostals often view themselves as engaged in spiritual warfare against satanic forces.

Jones' Quran-burning scheme, after it caught fire on the Internet, brought rebukes from Muslim nations and an avalanche of media interview requests just as an emotional debate was taking shape over the proposed Islamic center near the Ground Zero site in New York.

The Quran, according to Jones, is "evil" because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

"It's hard for people to believe, but we actually feel this is a message that we have been called to bring forth," he said last week. "And because of that, we do not feel like we can back down."

FBI agents have visited to talk about their concerns for Jones' safety, as multiple Facebook pages with thousands of members have popped up hailing him as either a hero or a dangerous pariah.

His plan has drawn formal condemnation from the world's pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution of learning, Al-Azhar University in Egypt, whose Supreme Council accused the church of stirring up hate and discrimination and called on other American churches speak out against it. Last month, Indonesian Muslims demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, threatening violence if Jones goes through with it

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Investigators are looking into what they believe is a copycat acid attack that has left a second victim severely burned in her face.

The second victim, Derri Velarde of Mesa, Ariz., suffered second-degree burns on her face and shoulders when a woman threw acid on her.

"It immediately started to just burn," said Velarde.

The attack happened on Sept. 4 in the parking lot of the woman's Arizona apartment. You can still see the acid stains on her front door, left from when she ran in to get help.

"I open my car door, and I see a woman walking up with what looked like a drink of water in her hand," Velarde said. "She just looked at me with these eyes as if she was saying something."

But the stranger said nothing. Instead, she tossed the contents of the cup, which turned out to be acid, on the unsuspecting woman.

The approach differs from the attack on the first victim, Bethany Storro, who said a woman approached her saying, "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?"

The attackers in both incidents remain at large.

Prior to both of these attacks was one in northern Washington on Friday, Aug. 6. In that attack, a man reportedly tossed a corrosive chemical into a Puyallup woman's face. He also got away, and remains at large.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Turns out politics, for all its focus on the gloomy economy, is a recession-proof industry.

This year's volatile election is bursting with money, setting fundraising and spending records in a high-stakes struggle for control of Congress amid looser but still fuzzy campaign finance rules.

Based on the latest financial reports, House and Senate candidates in this election cycle raised nearly $1.2 billion, well ahead of the pace for contests in 2008, 2006 and 2004.

Races for governor in 37 states - more than half of those for open seats - are also setting fundraising records. Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman leads the way, pumping $104 million of her own money into her campaign for California governor.

"We may be on track for the most expensive cycle ever, even more than '08, which is really hard to believe," said Michael Toner, a campaign finance lawyer at Bryan Cave and a former Federal Election Commission chairman.

Bitter intraparty fights, up to 100 competitive House races, a large number of open seats and early partisan attacks have created a growing demand for cash. The national parties are competing for dollars with outside groups and their often-anonymous contributors. And while Democrats have an advantage at the national party level, Republican-leaning groups seem to have more than filled the void.

The money has been flowing into political battlegrounds since early this year, from a special Senate election in Massachusetts to a Democratic primary fight for a Senate seat in Arkansas, from the race for Florida governor to the gubernatorial and Senate contests in California. The spending will now shift to the general election.

Millions of dollars are pouring into campaigns that have been dominated by discussions about the government's fiscal prudence. There's no such thing as restraint when it comes to getting elected.

Factors affecting the role of money:

Court Decisions

The Supreme Court earlier this year freed corporations and unions to spend their money on ads targeting candidates for president and Congress. A subsequent lower court ruling said individuals are also free to spend unlimited amounts on independent election ads.

So far, however, corporations have generally avoided overt politicking.

"The whole notion of 'Vote against Snodgrass by Gillette shaving cream' - it's just not going to happen," said Kenneth Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist who specializes in political media.

Instead, corporations are funneling their money to trade associations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or other groups that can air election ads, often without having to disclose their donors.

The desire for anonymity may have gotten an extra push when Target Corp. faced a backlash for its $150,000 donation to a Minnesota political group that was running ads in support of conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.

"What we will see is corporations not wanting to anger their shareholders, not wanting to anger their retail customer by getting involved in partisan elections," said Paul Ryan, a senior lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center. "Instead they will employ strategies to obscure the fact, or hide completely the fact that they are dumping money into politics by routing their money through groups like the Chamber of Commerce."

The Chamber plans to spend $70 million in elections this year. It has already devoted more than $5 million to advertising campaigns helping Republicans in Senate races in Massachusetts, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and New Hampshire, and for Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas.

Last week, an anti-abortion group aired among the first ads to specifically call for the defeat of candidates. The radio ads were broadcast in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania and targeted three Democratic House incumbents.

The Federal Election Commission has yet to write rules on how to apply the Supreme Court's ruling. Democrats in Congress have tried to pass legislation that would require groups that run ads to reveal their donors. The legislation has stalled in the Senate, but strategists in both parties and campaign finance lawyers say the effort may have given some potential corporate donors second thoughts.

Still, Larry Noble, former general counsel at the FEC and a lawyer at Skadden Arps, said more corporations are seeking advice on how and when to donate.

"My guess is we're going to see more corporate money spent on elections," he said. "If it's successful and you don't see a lot of real pushback, then in 2012 you'll see even more of it. So this is a test election."

Outside groups

Since 2000, Republicans had relied on President George W. Bush's prodigious fundraising to keep the party well supplied with money. Now, however, the GOP lags behind the Democratic Party. That has created a web of outside groups, a shadow party of sorts weighing in with millions of dollars to help Republican candidates.

Among the most prominent is American Crossroads and its allied groups. It was created under the direction of former Bush political strategist Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie. The operation is run out of offices two blocks from the White House.

"We wanted to create a group that was monolithically focused on helping get Republicans elected," said Steve Law, the president and CEO of American Crossroads and a former U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawyer.

Politicians often point to their small-dollar donations as evidence of broad appeal. But American Crossroads and its affiliates are relying on large corporate and individual donors, the fastest and most efficient way to build their budgets. Law said he has seen some increase in small-dollar giving to his groups, but added, "We haven't spent a lot of time cultivating that."

While American Crossroads and groups like it represent the mainstream of the Republican Party, the Tea Party Express is the party's occasional ally but more regularly a thorn in its side. Its Our Country Deserves Better PAC spent nearly $600,000 to help Republican Joe Miller defeat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Alaska primary. Murkowski had the GOP's backing.

The PAC also helped tea party favorites Sharron Angle in Nevada over GOP establishment-supported Senate candidates and is now backing conservative Christine O'Donnell in a Senate primary in Delaware over party-backed Rep. Mike Castle.

The parties

The Democratic National Committee and its Senate and House party affiliates have the advantage over their GOP counterparts in fundraising and cash on hand. That puts an additional burden on outside Republican groups such as American Crossroads.

Republicans can also look to another quarter for help. The Republican Governors Association, which can raise unlimited sums from corporations, has outraised its Democratic rival and is prepared to spend $65 million by Election Day, compared with $50 million for the Democrats.

While the governors' group cannot use the money to help federal candidates, its get-out-the-vote efforts will inevitably help all Republicans on the ballot. With the mood running against Democrats, that can't hurt.

LONDON (AP) - A key aide to Prime Minister David Cameron will be questioned by police over allegations a major British tabloid illegally eavesdropped on politicians and celebrities - including the British princes, a senior Scotland Yard officer said Tuesday.

Assistant police commissioner John Yates told a parliamentary committee that Cameron's communications director Andy Coulson, the newspaper's former editor, is expected to meet with investigators after they look into new allegations made by an ex-reporter.

Coulson quit as editor of the 3 million-circulation weekly News of The World in 2007 after the newspaper's royal reporter was convicted of hacking phone voicemail messages and jailed, along with a private investigator.

The pair were found to have accessed voice messages left for royal officials, including some from Princes William and Harry.

Coulson has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, or knowing that hacking cell phones was widespread among his former staff.

In an article published Sunday, the New York Times quoted a former reporter, Sean Hoare, and other unnamed ex-staff as claiming that Coulson had in fact been aware of the practice.

Yates said that police would speak with Hoare, who was fired from the tabloid, in "the near future," and discuss with prosecutors whether their inquiry should be reopened.

He said officers would also speak with Coulson - who has said he is willing to meet with investigators. "At some stage, I imagine we would be seeing him in some capacity," Yates told the committee.

Yates said he had written Tuesday to the New York Times asking editors to review a decision not to assist the police by supplying materials from the newspaper's interviews.

Executive editor Bill Keller said that to do so would contravene newspaper policy. Keller was quoted by the Times on Monday as saying "police already have evidence that they have chosen not to pursue."

Critics of the original police inquiry claim officers failed to adequately examine practices at the newspaper. Yates acknowledged officers should have interviewed the newspaper's chief reporter, whose name appeared in some documents related to transcripts of the hacked messages.

At the time of the initial inquiry, police there was no evidence of widespread illegal behavior at the newspaper. However, the Times claimed Coulson had participated in dozens or even hundreds of meetings where hacking was discussed.

Scotland Yard found nearly 3,000 cell phone numbers over the course of their initial investigation and said hundreds of people were thought to have been targeted. However, it is likely far fewer had their phones actually broken into.

Yates said the targets may have included athletes and models, in addition to legislators and members of the royal family.

Cameron's Downing Street office has said Coulson has the prime minister's support.

The News of the World denies phone hacking was widespread. It has accused the New York Times of being motivated by commercial rivalry. The tabloid is owned by News International Ltd., a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., whose U.S. media outlets include Fox Television, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal - which is in fierce competition with The New York Times.

In this file photo taken Sept. 11, 2002, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, left, now Pope Benedict XVI, is seen with late Pope John Paul II during mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Tuesday an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

Meanwhile, NATO reported the death of an American service member in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday.

The comments from Gen. David Petraeus followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center - a small, evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy - to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that provoked the Afghan war.

"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan - and around the world - to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.

In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.

Responding to Petraeus' comments, Dove World Outreach Center's senior pastor Terry Jones acknowledged Petraeus' concerns as legitimate.

"Still, we feel that it is time for America to quit apologizing for our actions and bowing to kings," Jones said in a statement released by his church. "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats. It is time for America to return to being America."

The church, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning. The congregation's website estimates it has about 50 members, but the church has leveraged the Internet with a Facebook page and blog devoted to its Quran-burning plans.

The American's death brings to at least six the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan this month, along with at least four other non-American members of the international coalition.

Engagements with insurgents are rising along with the addition of another 30,000 U.S. troops, bringing the total number of international forces in the country to more than 140,000.

At least 322 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, exceeding the previous annual record of 304 for all of 2009, according to an AP count.

Petraeus is asking for 2,000 more trainers and field troops for the international force, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.

Also Tuesday, authorities confirmed the ambush killing of a district chief by suspected insurgents in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday afternoon. Nahrin district chief Rahmad Sror Joshan Pool was on his way home after a memorial service for slain anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud when rocket-propelled grenades hit his vehicle, setting it on fire, said provincial spokesman Mahmood Haqmal.

Pool's bodyguard was also killed in the attack, and one militant died and two were wounded in the ensuing fire fight with police, Haqmal said.

Five children were killed and five wounded in Yaya Khil district in the southern province of Paktika when an insurgent rocket fired at an Afghan army base hit a home Monday evening, provincial government spokesman Mokhlais Afghan said.

Kidnappers also seized two electoral workers and their two drivers in the western province of Ghor, according to deputy provincial police chief Ahmad Khan Bashir.

Insurgents have waged a campaign of violence and intimidation to prevent Afghans from voting, especially in rural areas, while some pre-election violence has also been blamed on rivalries among the candidates.

NEW YORK (AP) - A former JetBlue flight attendant accused of cursing out a passenger and sliding down an emergency exit chute is working on a plea deal, attorneys on both sides said Tuesday.

Steven Slater, looking straight ahead with his chin held high, did not speak during his brief appearance in Queens on criminal mischief charges.

Slater also was charged with reckless endangerment and trespassing after last month's meltdown aboard a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh that had just landed at Kennedy International Airport.

Defense attorney Daniel J. Horwitz has said the passenger's "lack of civility" prompted his behavior.

Slater became water cooler talk for days after his Aug. 9 meltdown. Online groups canonized him as a hero or vilified him as a cranky brat.

Horwitz said he's working to resolve the situation "favorably" but had no further comment.

Slater's publicist, Howard Bragman, said they'd look at possible employment opportunities after the case is completed.

Bragman said Slater has spent the past few weeks visiting his mother in California. "He's doing great, all things considered," Bragman said.

After the hearing, Slater - still looking straight ahead and ignoring journalists' shouts - stepped into a waiting car and pulled away.

Horowitz said Sunday that Slater quit his job at the Queens-based JetBlue Airways Corp. last Wednesday, after he had been suspended following the on-board antics he was charged with committing. JetBlue had said Saturday that Slater was no longer an employee but didn't give any details, which prompted online speculation he had been fired.

Updated | Monday 9:54 p.m. A man’s long climb to the top levels of a skyscraper in downtown San Francisco ended with officers taking him into custody after he displayed a small American flag on the side of the building.

The San Francisco Police Department identified the man as Daniel Goodwin, 54, otherwise known as “SpiderDan,” who had previously climbed the Sears Tower and John Hancock building in Chicago, and the World Trade Center in New York. Mr. Goodwin was cited with two misdemeanors and later released from a police station in downtown San Francisco.

A press release on Mr. Goodwin’s web site said he made today’s ascent to “call attention to our nation’s continued vulnerability to attacks of terrorism upon our skyscrapers” and to “increase public awareness of cancer.”

Footage of the ascent showed Mr. Goodwin using what appeared to be suction cups to ascend the exterior glass of the 58-story residential structure, Millennium Tower.

The incident shut down portions of portions of Mission Street in the city, but the disruption caused no accidents or other problems, the police said.

The police estimated that the climb began around 2:15 p.m. Pacific time. It ended roughly three hours later after Mr. Goodwin held still and took several minutes to unfurl the flag. People along a ledge above him assisted him with the flag’s placement by holding it in place while officers waited below Mr. Goodwin on another level of the building’s uppermost areas.

Officers made no move to pull Mr. Goodwin down as he slowly descended to the ledge. After stepping onto the roof, his hands were put behind his back, and officers led him into the building. Mr. Goodwin was described by the police as “cooperative” when being taken into custody.

The spectacle echoed the dramatic climbs of Alain Robert, a Frenchman known for scaling tall buildings. He ascended The New York Times building in June 2008 and displayed a banner reading “Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week” near the top. On the same day, Renaldo Clarke, 32, of Brooklyn, also climbed The Times building. Both were arrested after reaching the roof.

On Friday, Mr. Robert pleaded not guilty to charges related to the ascent of 57-story building in downtown Sydney, the Associated Press reported.

Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

“These are people who are not serious and who were recruited as part of a cynical manipulation of the process,” said Paul Eckstein, a lawyer representing the Democrats. “They don’t know Green from red.”

But Steve May, the Republican operative who signed up some of the candidates along Mill Avenue, a bohemian commercial strip next to Arizona State University, insists that a real political movement has been stirred up that has nothing to do with subterfuge.

“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.”

To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the frequenters of Mill Avenue are known.

“Are you fake, Benjamin?” he yelled out to Mr. Pearcy, who cried out “No,” with an expletive attached.

“Are you fake, Thomas?” Mr. May shouted in the direction of Thomas Meadows, 27, a tarot card reader with less than a dollar to his name who is running for state treasurer. He similarly disagreed.

“Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied.

Gathered around was a motley crew of people who were down on their luck, including a one-armed pregnant woman named Roxie whom Mr. May befriended sometime back and who introduced him to the rest.

The Democratic Party is fuming over Mr. May’s tactics and those of at least two other Republicans who helped recruit candidates to the Green Party, which does not have the resources to put candidates on ballots around the state and thus creates the opportunity for write-in contenders like the Mill Rats to easily win primaries and get their names on the ballot for November. Complaints about spurious candidates have cropped up often before, though never involving an entire roster of candidates drawn from a group of street people.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s not right. It’s deceitful,” said Jackie Thrasher, a former Democratic legislator in northwest Phoenix who lost re-election in 2008 after a Green Party candidate with possible links to the Republicans joined the race. “If these candidates were interested in the democratic process, they should connect with the party they are interested in. What’s happening here just doesn’t wash. It doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Arizona, where Democrats, Republicans and independents each represent about a third of the populace, is known for its political hardball. Challenging nominating petitions is common. Election-related lawsuits are filed with regularity. This is not the first election in which a party has accused another of putting forth candidates to hoodwink voters.

Besides the Mill Rat candidates, the Democrats smell a rat in other races, including one in which a roommate of a Republican legislator’s daughter ran as a Green Party candidate in a competitive contest for the State Senate. They cite a variety of state and federal election laws that the Republicans may have violated in putting forward “sham” candidates for the Green Party.

The view, though, is different along Mill Avenue, where the first-time candidates appear to have been emboldened by the exercise, as Mr. Pearcy’s street corner campaign speech last Thursday night attests. Dressed up spiffily, he described himself as the illegitimate son of a stripper who had had run-ins with the law and a tough childhood but who had pulled his life together.

“I’ve been homeless,” he said, his eyes darting back and forth. “I got a place. Anyone can do it. We’re all good enough.”

There was nodding all around, more than when he went into his pitch to solve the budget deficit through the installation of solar panels. As Mr. Pearcy went on, Mr. May whispered “focus, focus, focus” into his ear to get him back on track and help prepare him for a debate in early October, which will be televised across the state.

Reading tarot cards has taught Mr. Meadows, who is known for his purple and green jester hat, to talk a good game. “This is not the land of the free,” he told the loungers on the sidewalk, pitching himself for treasurer. “It’s the land of what’s for sale.”

Grandpa, widely known in the area through the pedicab he drives for hire, is against higher taxes and for God in the classroom. The other night, he was supposed to debate his Democratic and Republican rivals in the race but after seeing only the Democrat on stage, he decided to watch from the back. “I got a bad vibe,” he said.

Mr. May, who served as a Republican legislator from 1998 to 2002, said, “Even if I wanted to control these guys, they’re uncontrollable.”