Thursday, October 03, 2013

Candidates and committees update

...In unsurprising news, AZ House Speaker Andy Tobin (R-Paulden) announced that he is running for the CD1 seat currently held by Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick.

In the press release touting his candidacy, Tobin took a page from DC Republicans and blamed Kirkpatrick for the Republicans' shutdown of the federal government, including operations at the Grand Canyon.

From the above-linked Tucson Weekly story, written by Jim Nintzel -
"Kirkpatrick is so committed to protecting ObamaCare and supporting Nancy Pelosi, she has literally voted to shut down the Grand Canyon.”
 It's not true, and I daresay that Tobin is intelligent enough to know that it isn't true, but this tactic of pointing accusatory fingers at others (like, say...Democrats) to distract from their own failings.

We saw a prime example of this locally in 2007 when Tobin's former legislative colleague Jack Harper accused then-Congressman Harry Mitchell, a Democrat, of ignoring deplorable conditions at the Arizona *State* Veterans Home.

At the time, Mitchell was a newly-minted member of Congress and chair of the investigation subcommittee of the US House's Veterans' Committee.

Harper was a long-time member of the Arizona legislature and the chair of the AZ Senate's Government Committee.

Guess which one had more jurisdiction over the conditions at the AZ State Veterans Home?

Hint: it wasn't Mitchell, but the truth didn't slow down Harper then any more than the truth is slowing down Tobin now.

Housekeeping stuff: Any FEC filings by Tobin aren't on their website yet.  Remember that government shutdown that Tobin blames on Kirkpatrick? :)

...Republican Mark Brnovich has made official what has long been expected:  the prison industrial complex "fixer" has formed a committee for a run at the Republican nomination for Arizona Attorney General.

...In LD24, the races for the Democratic nominations for legislative seats promise to be colorful.  Don't know yet if the races will be *close*, but *colorful* is all but guaranteed.

- Austin Head, lately a failed candidate for a seat on the Phoenix City Council filed for a run at a nomination for state representative.

His claim to fame?

"Interesting" campaign signs -





 I'm guessing that he's a "serious" candidate, in that he wants to win, but he's not a "serious" candidate in that he doesn't take this seriously (see: his campaign signs).

- Michael Lyon has formed a committee to run for the seat in the state senate currently held by Democrat Katie Hobbs.

He faces an uphill fight in his quest to unseat the highly popular and highly respected Hobbs no matter what.

However, his candidacy has two factors already dragging it down -

1.  His close ties to Head - they share a campaign address and phone number, and Head is Lyon's campaign treasurer.  Perceptions of Lyon will be influenced by perceptions of Head.

2.  The name of his campaign committee, "Lyon In The Sun", sounds unfortunately like "Lying In The Sun".


...In Mesa's LD25, Jerry Walker, a Russell Pearce acolyte, has formed a committee for an R nomination for state rep.  Walker has been around for a while - he was an embarrassment while a member of the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District and he ran for the Mesa schools governing board last year.  There were four candidates for three seats.  He came in fourth.



...More to come...

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