In this context, "Favorite" means "vile, but at least it's honest about it."
We knew it was going to be bad, what with the Reps' gain of a few seats in the lege, the rightward shift of the Rep caucus as a whole, and the move of Janet Napolitano to D.C. and the ascension of Jan Brewer to the ninth floor.
We knew the annual three dozen or so anti-immigrant bills would be joined by anti-choice, anti-government (aka - TABOR), and anti-democratic (and anti-Democratic) bills, and they have.
Those will be covered in the coming weeks during the "Legislative Loon" competition and evaluation.
During one of my periodic perusals of bill submittals (766 and counting so far!), I came across SB1268.
It's an open declaration of war upon organized labor.
Sponsored by newby state senators Steve Pierce, Sylvia Allen, and "Cap'n Al" Melvin, along with veteran legislators Pam Gorman and Jonathan Paton, it would bar labor unions from using dues or membership fees to fund political activity, including "supporting or opposing any candidate for public office, political party, referendum, initiative, political issue advocacy, political action committee or other similar group."
Given that unions were the primary organizers behind last November's Prop 201, the Homeowners' Bill Of Rights, which was stridently opposed by the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA) and various realtor and developer groups, it should be no surprise that legislators who benefitted from the campaign largesse of such groups are leading the effort to ensure that unions can never try that again.
Of course, the fact that this bill would also cripple unions' abilities to help out (what turns out to be mostly Democratic) candidates is just gravy.
Call the bill "The Home Builders Retaliation Act."
Wow! A whole post about a wingnutty bill in the AZ lege, and not one mention of Russell Pearce, Jack Harper, John Kavanagh, or Ron Gould to be found anywhere.
I must be slipping. :))
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