The Nation - News from March 30, 1988

While the Arizona Senate heard testimony about an allegedly improper $80,000 loan from a protocol fund to Gov. Evan Mecham’s car dealership, the governor’s son announced that the family has been forced to sell the business to avert financial ruin. “The confusion and questions this avalanche of negative publicity has caused . . . has forced my family to come to this decision to sell Mecham Pontiac while the condition of the company remains solvent and salable,” Dennis Mecham told a news conference at the dealership in Glendale, near Phoenix. Dennis Mecham said sales have decreased dramatically for over a year as the result of Mecham’s political battle. The dealership was sold for about $4 million to a neighboring auto dealer, he said.