Kerry drops backer for remark

Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign cut its ties yesterday to a controversial Arizona state representative who belittled the political prospects of a Kerry rival, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, because he is an Orthodox Jew who does not campaign on the Sabbath.

But a Kerry spokesman said that the campaign's manager in Arizona, Mario Diaz, was remaining on staff, even though Diaz was present when state Representative Ben R. Miranda made the comment to at least one other Arizona politician.

With Kerry and Lieberman jockeying for advantage in Arizona's strategically important Feb. 3 primary, Miranda and Diaz recently sat down with state Representative Cheryl Chase, a Lieberman supporter, to try to switch her endorsement to Kerry.

"Miranda said that Lieberman was at a bit of a disadvantage because he can't campaign three days a week," Chase said in an interview yesterday -- apparently a reference to Lieberman's practice of keeping the Sabbath and not working from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

Chase said she thought Miranda was exaggerating the amount of time Lieberman would scale back campaigning because of the Sabbath.

Diaz, the state campaign manager for Kerry, neither endorsed nor contradicted Miranda's remarks, Chase added.

Kerry spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that the campaign had "investigated the matter thoroughly" and that only Miranda, who was not on paid staff, had acted inappropriately. "We are fully satisfied that no member of the campaign staff was responsible for the incidents in question," Gibbs said.

Diaz did not return a phone message yesterday. A former top aide to Arizona's governor, Janet Napolitano, Diaz had been reprimanded at least twice by her this year for inappropriate conduct before he resigned last month to work for Kerry, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper.

The Republic reported yesterday that Miranda and Diaz made the same pitch about Lieberman's Judaism to at least three legislators, including state Representative Manuel V. Alvarez, who did not return a phone call seeking comment yesterday.

Miranda, who also did not return phone calls from the Globe, told the Republic that he denied the accusations and was quoted as saying, "[T]hat whole religious thing was put to rest when John F. Kennedy was elected 40 years ago."

Patrick Healy can be reached by e-mail at phealy@globe.com.