Tonight's meeting was pretty low-key. Lots of candidate updates and calls for volunteers to help with get out the vote projects and with poll working/watching on primary day (September 12).
State Senate candidate (and current LD17 State Rep,) Meg Burton-Cahill spoke on how the D17 Senate race is one of the 3 Senate races getting the most attention in the fight to protect the Governor's veto. She also said that she has been hearing a lot of people in the district are considering her race a near shoo-in for her, but she isn't one of those people. She is taking Rose Crutcher's candidacy very seriously, and expects the Republicans to expend a lot of money and effort toward taking the D17 Senate seat away from the Dems.
She also expects that "as temperatures start cooling down the race will start heating up."
Candidate for Kyrene District Constable Jon Levenson also spoke for a moment.
A write-in candidate for Kyrene Justice of the Peace, Elvis Richardson, announced his candidacy and asked for support.
Note: His opponent on the primary ballot is Elizabeth Rogers.
The D17 candidates for the State House of Representatives were given the opportunity to answer the question "Why I will win in November."
Rhett Wilson - He talked about his work ethic (and lauded the other candidates for theirs, too), doing lots of walking and knocking. He will fight for what's best, not what's best for the party. He also talked about his non-partisan (and presumably, bi-partisan) experience when he was part of the Kearny Town Council.
In his campaign update, he announced an event on August 16th. Details to be put up on his website within a day or so.
David Schapira - He told us that there are two components to a Democratic victory, with one easy to achieve, and one difficult to achieve. First, present a stronger message than the Republicans (easy part) then get the message out (not so easy.) He is also working to get out the vote of "low efficacy Democrats" (i.e. - Dems that don't vote often). He also spoke on the passion he brings to the issues, and to campaigning.
In his campaign update, he also mentioned that he too is doing a lot of walking and knocking and other outreach activities.
Angie Crouse - spoke about how Republican incumbent Laura Knaperek is very vulnerable due to her extreme voting record. She thinks it is very possible (from me: with a little luck and a lot of work) for the Dems to sweep the 3 D17 seats in the Lege. She went on to discuss her work ethic, that running has been a full-time job, on top of the full-time job she already has; her large base of dedicated volunteers; her 10 endorsements; the demographics of the district (>50% of the voting population is made up of women).
In her update, she mentioned walking and knocking, as well as the forums from last week (Clean Elections forum here - the candidates are working to get the EV Tribune forum posted on their websites) as well as the number of endorsements she has received. See her website for the complete list.
Ed Ableser - He detailed his contacts in the community and the many civic boards and agencies that he has worked with. He called LD17 a "progressive hotbed, a Democratic hotbed." He also told us that he has a new role model, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, whom he met in Denver this past weekend.
As with the other candidates, in his update, he talked about 'walking', though in his case, he talked about "walking with the 'stars' ". In this case, the 'stars' are other Democratic legislators (and others) coming out to walk the district on Saturdays with him.
After that, the meeting moved on to more 'nuts and bolts' types of topics.
The county needs paid poll workers for both the primary and the general. Contact the Maricopa County Recorder's Office for details, either at the office's election worker webpage, or by calling 602.506.1511.
The party also needs poll watchers, both official and unofficial. Contact Randall Holmes for details.
Robin Stamp of the Working Young Democrats spoke for a minute about what they are about, and what they are doing. They have an upcoming fundraiser at Terry Goddard's home on the 15 of August and a regular Friday happy hour in downtown Phoenix. The details of both are on their website, or will be once the Young Democrats website is back up.
As the elections near, the events calendar is filling.
Upcoming events include:
A Happy Hour for Harry Mitchell on August 18 at the clubhouse at ASU's Karsten Golf Course. Contact the Mitchell campaign for details. (Personal note: this would be a perfect opportunity to play a great course in the afternoon, shower in the complimentary locker room {the other guests will thank you, lol}, and meet Harry Mitchell. A good day with just the golf, made great with meeting Harry. :) )
On August 22, there will be a Happy Hour with Mark Manoil (running for Corporation Commission) at the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe. Festivities start at 7:00 p.m.
August 26 - There will be a potluck get-together for LD17 and LD18 at the Escalante Community Center in Tempe. Candidates Ed Ableser, Angie Crouse, David Schapira, Rhett Wilson, Meg Burton-Cahill (all from D17), Tammie Pursley (State Rep. candidate from LD18) and Harry Mitchell (CD5) are scheduled to attend. Festivities begin at 1. *Indoors*. :))
Other stuff today:
- - - A number of emails were making the rounds today, encouraging people to visit the website of Senator John Edwards' OneAmerica Committee to vote for Harry Mitchell and the Eventual Nominee from CD8 as 2 of the candidates he will support and campaign for.
Already voted. Everyone should. 'Nuff said.
- - - The National Association of Manufacturers is urging its members to support the repeal of the estate tax and to lobby senators to pass the Jon Kyl-sponsored bill that repeals it. (Color me shocked. Really. :)) )
Personal observation: I did a search of the Internal Revenue Code for the phrase "death tax". The search parameters returned 4 results (sections of the IRC that had the phrase "death tax."
Specifically, US CODE: TITLE 26,2642. INCLUSION RATIO, US CODE: TITLE 26,2053. EXPENSES, INDEBTEDNESS, AND TAXES (2 hits), and US CODE: TITLE 26,2501. IMPOSITION OF TAX
Those sections all referred to "state death taxes", "foreign death taxes" or "state or foreign death taxes."
There is no federal "death tax" section.
Just something to remember when your favorite Republican starts ranting about the "unfairness of the death tax", or something similar.
...Charlie Cook of the National Journal, in a column on GovExec.com, wrote about the uncertainty in trying to predict the outcomes of the U.S. House and Senate races this fall. Among his observations of the causes of this is that a number of incumbents, including Jon Kyl, are "facing more competitive challenges than anyone thought six months ago." Nothing really new here, but it's nice to see a race besides CD5 and CD8 getting some national attention.
Good night!
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