Representative Ed Ableser:
Ed was mentioned in a few stories this week -
There was one in the AZ Capitol Times on February 9th titled "Bill would plug lobby 'pool' loophole" about his bill to restrict the influence of lobbyists at the lege. I don't subscribe to the Capitol Times, so I can't get past their firewall to read the article, but it can be found here after you log in to the site. The bill is HB 2644.
On edit: thanks to Zelph's comment, I was able to access the article.
Quotes from the article -
"There's always been a perception on the part of the public between lobbyists expenditures and what the members do," House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-27, said.
That notion was the impetus behind H2644, says Rep. Ed Ableser, D-17. The bill will severely restrict the ability of lobbyists to purchase gifts for lawmakers, and would also limit entertainment and travel costs for non-educational events.
"This is an attempt to take away the Jack Abramoff-type of lobbying that occurs on the national level and some of the things that we’ve seen on a local level," he said, referring to the infamous congressional lobbyist at the center of a high-profile scandal in 2005.
The article can be found here. I'm sure the Capitol Times will find a way to defeat this work-around, but that's OK with me - I don't really want to infringe on their copyrights, and they don't usually publish articles of interest to Democrats anyway.
Though that may change when the Democrats are in the majority in the Lege. :)
End edit.
On the same subject, John MacDonald, a professional lobbyist, featured Ableser in his column for the AZ Rep, published on Sunday, February 11.
From the column:
State Rep. Ed Ableser, a bright and earnest Tempe lawmaker, is the main sponsor of a bill that would enact new restrictions on gifts from lobbyists.
"I was pretty much shocked at the influence lobbyists have on some members of the Legislature," said Ableser to reporters on Monday.
"Bright and earnest"??
Ed is certainly both of those things, but I have a feeling that Mr. MacDonald means it in a "yeah, you're bright and earnest, but so is a Boy Scout, kid. Now go away and let the adults talk about adult things" sort of way.
Ableser was also in an article on February 8 in the ASU State Press covering a bill (SB 1160) to alleviate tuition hikes at state universities.
From the article (emphasis mine) -
These concerns will be addressed as the bill moves along, said Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe/Scottsdale.
"I signed on because I wanted to be able to influence it," Ableser said, who co-sponsored the bill. "Tuition increases are extremely hurtful for students in Arizona.
"If the bill were to make it to the House, there would be changes, including covering incoming freshmen, Ableser said.
"It's hard to see what it's going to look like," he said of the bill.
For Ableser, the bill is more about financial aid and forcing the state to better fund the universities, he said.
"The students shouldn't have to be burdened with the bulk of the bill," he said. He would add an amendment for a large amount of financial aid, Ableser said.
"If that's not there, I think we have no business asking students to pay," he said.
The concerns mentioned in the quoted section refer to the fact that the ASU student government is opposed to the bill in question because the bill wouldn't help out-of-state students or incoming freshmen.
Rep. David Schapira was mentioned in a couple of articles about his bill HB2206, the Teacher Shortage Student Loan Program. Both the AZ Daily Star and AZ Daily Wildcat (U of A's student paper) featured an article written by Djamila Grossman.
From the article -
"I was just tired of seeing classrooms without teachers," said Tempe Democratic Rep. David Schapira, sponsor of HB 2206 and a former high school teacher.
"I was tired of seeing huge class sizes and schools not able to find teachers."
Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill had a quiet week, in terms of MSM coverage anyway.
Later!
2 comments:
Some say that if you know the title of the Arizona Capitol Times article and google it, you can read the article from the resulting link in the search. Some say.
Thanks for the idea.
I tried it, but it didn't work; however, one of the links that came back in the Google search was the 'email this article' page.
So I emailed it to myself; upon receipt of the email, I clicked on the link in the email, and presto! There it was.
Thanks! I'll update my post with quotes.
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