AZ Political round-up

It's not really a comprehensive look, but it sounds more professional than "killing time until the results start coming in from the special election in CD8"...


...Quartzsite: Making Arizonans of all political stripes wish that the AIRC had "accidently" drawn the new district maps with Quartzsite on the California side of the lines...

From the AZ Republic, written by Dennis Wagner -

Quartzsite residents who thought they voted in new municipal leadership found out otherwise last week when the Town Council decided not to seat Mayor-elect Ed Foster and Councilman-elect Mark Orgeron, claiming the two men are not eligible to hold office.

{snip}

The election hullabaloo is just the latest political clash in the dusty desert town along Interstate 10, the freeway to California. Years of feuding have resulted in numerous criminal and civil investigations.

Foster and about a dozen other critics of the establishment who have been jailed repeatedly say they are victims of false arrest and civil-rights violations. A town attorney was replaced last year after he refused to prosecute cases that he described as politically motivated.

Wonder if the electeds in Maricopa County say a prayer every night, thanking God for the existence of Quartzsite to make Maricopa County look functional and civil?


...And so it begins...

From AP, via KTAR.com -

A Marana man is seeking to have one of his Republican contenders in the 1st Congressional District race removed from the ballot.

Jonathan Paton filed a lawsuit Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleging that signatures gathered by Gaither Martin are invalid. More than half of Martin's 1,099 signatures either were fraudulently collected or gathered under a petition sheet that did not list Martin's actual address in Eagar, the lawsuit contends. Striking those signatures would put Martin below the 568 he needed to join the race, Paton said.

``Running for public office and gaining the trust of voters means following the rules,'' Paton said in a statement. ``Gaither Martin failed a candidate's most basic test: earn the support of residents in the district to qualify for the ballot.''

Paton should probably be careful here.  Considering that to him, CD1 is a set of lines on a map, not "home".

Having said that, this only the first of what will probably be many challenges.  Look for a one to two...dozen.


...The current list of withdrawn/removed candidates for legislative, statewide, or Congressional offices is here.

On the list so far: 

Democratic US Senate candidate David Ruben, or the guy best known to most Democrats as "who?"

Republican LD24 State Senate candidate Scott Fistler

Republican LD25 State Representative candidate Christoper Montijo


...The schedule of legislative primary debates sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission is here.  As near as I can tell, this will be it for the CCEC debates because I didn't see any districts where both the Democratic and the Republican candidates for the same office are running with CCEC funding (if I'm in error, leave a comment and I'll update the post).

...There will be a general election debate between the candidates for Arizona Corporation Commission because they are all running as CCEC candidates, but the schedule for that debate hasn't been posted yet.