Updates to "The coming week..."

The post is just a day old, but there have already been some significant changes to the schedules this week.

...Over at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the previously-scheduled uneventful week now has a Special and Executive session scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m.

...And in the court case of State Senator John Huppenthal, the jury trial in another case that had been scheduled for the San Marcos Justice Court (the court where Huppenthal's case is assigned) has been cancelled/postponed (not sure which), so Huppenthal's case is back in the San Marcos Justice Court's courtroom.

Until it is changed again, anyway. :)

Some interesting info has come to light concerning the "pro tem" JP assigned to hear the case, Daniel Washburn.

He ran for Superior Court Judge in Pinal County last year, losing in the Republican primary.

After he lost in the primary, he left a message on his website -

Of course I am saddened that I did not win the primary election; however, I am grateful to have time once again to spend with my family and friends. Additionally, as a judicial candidate, I was restricted from publicly supporting the Republican Party and its candidates. I am no longer a judicial candidate; therefore, I now publicly support all Republican candidates and encourage all Republicans to support the Republican ticket that is now set for the general election in November.

Washburn also wrote this law school journal article regarding student religious speech in schools.

Washburn was also cited in a Phoenix New Times' article documenting "questionable" expenditures of Clean Elections monies. From the article -

John Fillmore, a Republican running for state representative in Apache Junction, didn't even bother writing a check to a company he owned. Instead, he simply paid himself $2,861 in "petty cash/miscellaneous." Fillmore says he used the cash to avoid his bank's "exorbitant" checking fees.

Fillmore also paid $17,350 to Mesa attorney Daniel Washburn for "communications," according to records. Washburn was "helping me a lot, helping me orchestrate polling places throughout the district," Fillmore says.

Hmmmm....I don't know who assigns pro tem JPs to cases in Maricopa County, but Judge Washburn is an interesting choice for a politically-charged case involving a Republican politician as a defendant. Especially given that the original JP, Judge Keith Frankel, recused himself because of his own political involvements.

Note: I did hear other things regarding Washburn's political involvements, but couldn't independently verify them. There was nothing earth-shattering anyway, just more details.

Wednesday morning should be interesting, if only to see if the case is assigned to yet another judge.

Later...