Proof that there is a God in Heaven...

If the rumor is true, anyway...

From PolitickerAZ -

Rumor on the streets is Vice-President Dick Cheney is coming to Arizona for a fund raising event with AZ-5 Republican David Schweikert. Evidence points to a fund raising event by either Cheney or George Bush in the near future.

Ya know, Harry Mitchell's opponent in 2006, JD Hayworth, was hardly a choir boy, but compared to Dick "Go F*ck Yourself" Cheney (R - Halliburton), he was a paragon of virtue.

And if the Schweikert campaign wants to bring Cheney in, I'm sure as hell not going to try to talk them out of the notion.

It'll be an early Christmas gift for Democratic bloggers everywhere, though especially in CD5. :)

Letter to Congressman Mitchell re: the Wall Street bailout proposal

Surprisingly enough, occasionally I *can* exercise some self-restraint, and a letter to my Congressman is one of those occasions.

The letter -

Dear Congressman Mitchell,

I am writing on the subject of the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that the Congress will be considering this week.

I urge you to not support any package that doesn't include stringent oversight provisions, both for the firms receiving assistance and for the Secretary of the Treasury, who has demanded almost-dictatorial powers regarding the disbursement of the funds.

In addition, any bailout package should include provisions that bar 'golden parachutes' for the executives of any firm that receives assistance in any amount.

Lastly, any package that involves taxpayer monies must include fiscally responsible safeguards to ensure that any assets acquired under the bailout are purchased at fair value, not at a value chosen by Wall Street or its cheerleaders in the Bush Administration. In addition to that, the package should be structured so that when the affected firms return to solvency (as most will), the taxpayers are the first investors in those firms to receive a return on their investment.

Thank you for your consideration of this.

Regards,

[cpmaz]

Some of the stuff that I didn't put into the letter (you know, the 'amazingly self-restrained' part :) ) -

Congressman Mitchell, please don't allow your colleagues or yourself to be stampeded into approving the blank check that the Bush Administration has demanded. Since January 21, 2001, these people have been lying to the world, to the American people, and most importantly for the purposes of this letter, to Congress.

They've lied us into an unjust war (weapons of mass destruction and more here),through an inept natural disaster relief effort ("you're doing a heckuva job, Brownie"), and into undermining the Constitution (Patriot Act and FISA renewal).

In short, the people behind the crisis, the bailout package, and the insistent hysteria surrounding both are men and women without honor, integrity or even the barest shred of civic conscience. There might be individuals within the group that are worthy of trust and respect

In some form, the proposed bailout may ultimately be necessary to minimize the damage that Wall Street's greed causes on Main Street. That doesn't mean that America's taxpayers or their elected representatives in Congress give up the keys to the treasury and walk away, regardless of the dire predictions of Bushies like Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke.

There's a saying that Republican President Ronald Reagan used in reference to the old Soviet Union that fits pretty well here -

"Trust but verify."

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Time for another edition of the award for political flip-floppery that every politician dreads even being considered for, much less receiving.

Apparently, the plaque that commemorates this award, with its real mounted Crappie, becomes "aromatic" rather quickly, distracting the staffers who work in the offices where the winners so proudly display it. :)

There was a spirited competition for the award this week, with John McCain, the namesake of this thoroughly uncoveted award, making a run for it.

From an article about the candidates' personal cars, in the latest edition of Newsweek magazine -

"I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud," McCain said in the interview with Detroit's WXYZ-TV.

Then the article goes on to list the McCains' *fleet* of vehicles -

"There's a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan. Otherwise, there's a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup truck, which might come in handy on the Sedona ranch; a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep; a 2008 Jeep Wrangler; a 2000 Lincoln; and a 2001 GMC SUV. The McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities."

In addition to the imported VW convertible and the Honda sedan listed in the paragraph, the article mentioned another import, a Toyota Prius, that was purchased for the McCains' daughter. There's yet another import, a Lexus, that's used by Cindy McCain, but that one doesn't count because it is registered to her family's beer distributorship.

I would love to go on about how McCain's flip flop on American-made products and jobs for American workers, but in this week's finned follies competition, this is nothing but "normal" campaign hyperbole.

(And for the sake of giving this week's award to the person I wanted to award it to anyway, I'm going to ignore McCain's spinal cord-shearing flip flop on regulation of America's financial markets this week. During the yet-to-be-penned election post-mortems, this past week will go down as the point when the McCain campaign succeeded in locking his "I'm a maverick. Trust me!" wool over America's eyes or as the point where America finally realized how full of Crappie McCain really is. Check back in a month and a half for an update. :) )


The second and more serious contender for the award was President George W. Bush. He and his Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, are pushing a plan to bail out Wall Street that will cost taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion.

This is after a year during which Bush spent most of his time opposing and threatening to veto any plans to help out Main Street homeowners dealing with the mortgage crisis.

I'd speak (at length! :) ) about how Bush's concern for those facing financial stress seems to be directly proportional to their tax bracket, but since he actually broke down and signed a mortgage relief act, the Wall Street bailout isn't quite a flip flop of "crappie" proportions.


Nope, this week's award goes to another regular contender for the award, Congressman John "Calgon, take me away" Shadegg.

First, he spent most of August bloviating in an empty House chamber, "protesting" the failure of Congressional Democrats to pass a measure authorizing more oil drilling near America's coasts.

So when the House considered a measure to do just that, did Shadegg support it? He decried the bill as a Democratic "hoax" and voted against it.

For that shameless flip flop of the "reverse one-and-a-half somersaults with a twist" variety, Congressman John Shadegg reels in this edition of the John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

For more Southwestern finned follies, check out Desert Beacon in Nevada for a possible Sunday Morning Deck Bass sighting.


Later!

Presidential debate schedule

Since I've been getting a lot of traffic recently from people Googling "general election debate schedule" or something similar who are finding my post on the *Clean Elections* general election debate schedule, here is what those people are likely looking for - the schedule of debates for the Presidential election.

Courtesy the Commission on Presidential Debates -

First presidential debate

Friday, September 26

The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.

Jim Lehrer Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS


Vice presidential debate

Thursday, October 2

Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Gwen Ifill Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing
Editor, Washington Week, PBS


Second presidential debate (town meeting)

Tuesday, October 7

Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.

Tom Brokaw Special Correspondent, NBC News


Third presidential debate

Wednesday, October 15

Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. Bob Schieffer

CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation


Each debate will begin at 9:00 p.m. EST.

While each debate will be moderated by someone from an MSM organization, the debates will be broadcast on multiple cable and broadcast networks. I recommend C-SPAN.

According to the Navy, daylight saving time doesn't end until November 2 this year, so all of the debates should begin at 6:00 p.m. AZ time, though you should check your local listings to be sure.

Later!

I shoulda paid more attention in CCD...

From AP via the Tacoma News-Tribune -

JUNEAU – Alaska’s investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power ran into intensified resistance Tuesday when the attorney general said state employees would refuse to honor subpoenas in the case.

{snip}

Also Tuesday, five Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit against an investigation they called “unlawful, biased, partial and partisan.” None serves on the bipartisan Legislative Council that unanimously approved the inquiry. They want it pushed past the election or top Democrats removed from the probe.

Liberty Legal Institute, a Texas-based legal advocacy group, was working on the lawsuit. The institute has taken on a variety of cases in defense of conservative Christian positions.

OK, so the first paragraph isn't really much of a surprise - Bush's henchmen and -women (and other D.C. big-leaguers) have been ignoring subpoenas for years and getting away with it so we should have expected Republican minor-leaguers to start adopting the tactic.

And the second quoted paragraph shouldn't be a surprise either - it's a standard criminal defense tactic to attack the accuser when you don't have a real defense (like innocence!).

But the third paragraph is rather eye-opening.

Why would a group whose track record is one of opposing any restrictions on Christian activists and organizations (suing to stop zonings laws that affect churches, threats to a church's tax-free status due to political activity, etc.) choose to defend brazen political corruption? How is misuse of office a "Christian" position?

OK, I'm the first to admit that I'm not an expert on the nuances of the Bible, but could someone clarify this one? Please?

Note: Due to my changed work schedule, posting will be light and brief until I adapt (I am most definitely *not* a 'wake up at 4 in the morning' kind of guy :) )...

Later!

I guess loan sharking pays well...

I may be going out on a limb here, but it seems that the payday loan industry is a *highly* profitable one. They certainly have an awful lot of available cash to throw around.


According to the AZ Secretary of State's website, the Arizona Community Financial Services Association (ACFSA) contributed $2,395,063.31 to their political committee in support of Prop 200.

Just on September 15.

And that's on top of the $4.9 million on July 16, the $927K on July 21, and the hundreds of thousands every couple of weeks since the beginning of the year.

According to the committee's latest financial report of activity through August 13 (dated August 21, 2008), they've spent more than $6.8 million in support of their ballot measure to permanently allow payday loan schemes in Arizona with $8.9 million in contributions from ACFSA.


Folks, I may not know what any of you are doing for a living, but I can state unequivocally that we are all in the wrong lines of work.

Well...wrong lines of work if base avarice is our primary motivation for doing what we do.

Later!

Phoenix weather forecast - sleet, freezing rain, and icing conditions

Signs that hell has frozen over and the cold snap is heading further south to the Phoenix area -

...The New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals are each 2 - 0 after the first two weeks of the NFL season. That the Patriots are undefeated is no surprise, even with the loss of QB Tom Brady for the season - with or without Brady, the team is incredibly talented on both sides of the football. But the Cardinals???? If they took a poll every year of the "team most likely to suck", the Cards would win it more years than not.

...Instead of complaining about people "whining" about a "mental recession," McCain's economic advisers (in the person of Carly Fiorina) have blamed the financial market's crisis on a lack of regulatory oversight by the Bush Administration. (AFP)

...The Arizona Cardinals are *2 - 0*.

...Karl Rove (*Karl Rove*!!) criticized the McCain campaign for running ads that were less than truthful. (AP via KVOA)

...The freakin' Cardinals are 2 - 0 !!

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

John McCain spent the morning channelling the spirit of Herbert Hoover (circa 1929) and the afternoon trying to spin away from his comment.

I'll leave it to others to discuss the Hoover analogy in depth. Let's just quickly talk about the economy.

...Unemployment is up to the highest levels in five years and is up almost 30% in a year (4.7% in August 2007; 6.1% in August 2008.) Historical info here.

...Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index is the 2nd highest it's been in more than a decade.

...Retail gasoline prices are almost 2.5 times what they were when George W. Bush took office in January 2001. (data available here)

...The housing market remains completely in the tank. It is worse in McCain's home state of Arizona than it is in most places, but since McCain has more homes than he can keep count of, he hasn't noticed how badly his constituents are hurting.

...The U.S. dollar has lost much of its buying power internationally. When George W. Bush took office, one dollar would purchase approximately 1.06 Euros; today that same dollar nets less than .71 Euros. That's a 33% drop. (Historical data here)

...The stock market, as measured by the New York Stock Exchange's Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell more than 500 points today (the largest drop since the attacks of 9/11/2001) on news that Lehman Brothers, an investment back that was a fixture on Wall Street for more than a century and a half, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

...Consumer Confidence, as measured by the Conference Board, is hovering just above historical lows...


In light of all this evidence that apparently (apparent to people who live in the real world, anyway) contradicts McCain's pronouncement, what kind of "fundamentals" could McCain be talking about?

Well, corporate CEOs are receiving compensation packages that are ever larger and oil company profits have remained at record levels...

Republican candidates - running full speed away...

...from public service...

Let me be clear here - John McCain's presence at the top of the ballot *will* make it more difficult for the Democrats to win control of one or both chambers of the state legislature this year.

Having said that, however, don't be surprised if the Dems pull it off this year anyway, and be very surprised if they don't pull it off by the end of the 2010 elections.

Simply put, Republican candidates, in AZ and nationally, have for the most part given up any pretense of running to represent the people of their districts.

Instead, they are running to represent the Republican Party in the lege, promising to support "Republican values" and positions. Many do not even mention the word "constituents" in their campaign platforms and stump speeches.

This tendency was in full view at last week's candidate forum at MCC, sponsored by MCC's chapter of the honor society Phi Theta Kappa. At the forum, there were candidates from LDs 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, and one candidate for Maricopa County Supervisor.

Republican LD18 Senate candidate Russell Pearce didn't mention his home district of West Mesa in his presentation. He talked about reducing the state's budget deficit by "lowering taxes" and "reducing regulations". (In a sign that perhaps he learned some things from the primary challenge he faced from Kevin Gibbons, this was the first optional forum that anyone present could remember Pearce attending, and it was also the first time in an equally long time that he didn't mention immigrants in his stump speech.)

Democrat Judah Nativio, by contrast, spoke of "working for all LD18 constituents." Pearce probably thought he was a wild-eyed radical for that. :)

The disconnect between serving people and serving only ideology was evident among the House races, too.

Where LD18 Democrat Tammie Pursley spoke of the joy of watching students learn and grow, and the need to fully funding public education to ensure the future of the district and the state, Republican Cecil Ash spoke of protecting people and their liberties from government intrusion in their lives, a position he held until asked about Prop 102, the lege's anti-same sex marriage amendment that's on the ballot in November.

For that one, he offered up the line of the night, in support of Prop 102 -

"The State has the right to emphasize relationships that benefit society."

Ahhh...there's nothing like bigotry dressed up as shameless hypocrisy to rile up a crowd, especially a college crowd - the organizers of the forum had to cut short discussion of the topic in order to keep the forum on schedule.

The divergence between the motivations of the candidates was also obvious - the Democrats all spoke of wanting to serve or give back to their communities; Ash and his LD18 ballot-mate Steve Court each spoke of how they "were looking for something to do" now that they were retired.

Yes, they *both* admitted that they want to be elected to the lege because they have nothing better to do.

The "running to represent the party, not the district" phenomenon isn't restricted to the East Valley either.

In LD26, Republican Al Melvin is still running against Pete Hershberger, according to his campaign's website. His campaign platform for the primary was a "more Republican than thou" one.

Maybe someone should tell him that he's now facing Democrat Cheryl Cage. He might want to consider running as the best *candidate* for the general election.

Not the best *Republican.*

As an aside, Melvin supports a "free market" approach to solving environmental problems.

Speaking as someone who lives in the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site, I have to say that letting industry profit margins determine environmental-safety measures may not be the brightest idea.

Jus' sayin'...

The phenomenon is even visible at higher levels and where the Republican candidate is challenging a Democratic incumbent.

In CD3, Democratic challenger Bob Lord is hitting once (and future?!) Congressional retiree John Shadegg on issues like his record of voting for pay raises for himself while opposing pay and/or benefit increases for American troops and veterans. Shadegg's response has been to criticize Lord for telling the truth about his (Shadegg's) record and to leave his constituents and jet off to Las Vegas to collect an award for being a conservative.

In CD5, Republican David Schweikert and his pals at the NRCC are running ads touting Schweikert's positions and criticizing Mitchell's positions (essentially saying "Hey! I'm a Republican who's deep in the pockets of Big Oil and he's not, and that's why you should vote for me!").

The responses from Mitchell and the DCCC? Spots from the Mitchell campaign that touts his record of work on behalf of veterans (available on this page), and a spot from the DCCC that criticizes Schweikert for his job performance failures as Maricopa County Treasurer.

Anyway, the Republican obsession with ideology over competence and professionalism will undoubtedly lead to a more contentious legislature, regardless of which party controls a majority of the seats. While some of the extremists will be defeated by the Democratic opponents in their races, still others will emerge from the election victorious. The losses of hard-working and well-respected Republican moderates like Pete Hershberger and Tom O'Halleran (LD1) in favor of pure ideologues like the aforementioned Al Melvin and rancher Steve Pierce only serves to move the Republican caucus of the lege further to the right and farther from the mainstream Arizonan.

As an Arizonan, I regret that.

As a Democrat, I'm thankful for that.

And since this post originally started as a recap of that forum at MCC last week, here are a few more of the highlights -

...Republican State Senator John Huppenthal (LD20), in a move that induced much head-scratching among audience members, touted "smooth roads" as something that he is proud of and then he criticized the mainstream media for not reporting on the topic.

...Long-time community activist and Democratic candidate for the House Kathy Romano (LD19) brought her energy and insights to the forum; unfortunately, she couldn't bring her Republican opponents in the LD19 race - Kirk Adams and Rich Crandall.

They blew off the forum.

...Phil Hettmansperger, Democratic candidate for LD21 State Representative may actually be too smart for the legislature. The organizers of the forum asked that the candidates speak on this topic - "The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges, Consequences." His answer, while too long and involved to go into here, was thoughtful, insightful, and well-formed.

In other words, the sort of stuff that never comes out of the Republican-controlled Arizona lege. :)

...Based on a t-shirt count, Democrat Glenn Ray, House candidate in LD22, had the largest number of volunteers at the forum with dozens* of supporters present.

* = OK, so it probably wasn't more than three or four, but Ray and his supporters were *everywhere*, so it seemed like there were dozens of them. And seriously, he did have the largest contingent there. :)

...Particularly impressive was the turnout of Democratic organizations - the GEMDEMS, Obama campaign, AZ Dems, and the MCC chapter of the Young Democrats all had tables. In addition, CD5 candidates Harry Mitchell and David Schweikert had representatives there, and there were informational tables from the folks supporting Props 100 (no sales tax on real estate sales) and Prop 102 (no same-sex marriage).

Both of those tables were sparsely attended.

The Clean Elections debate for LD18 is on Wednesday at EVIT in Mesa; the complete schedule of CCEC debates can be found here.

Later!

Gotta love those campaign websites and their creative 'facts'

Yesterday, the Republican blog IC Arizona posted a notice about a campaign fundraiser for a candidate for the Governing Board of the Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS). The board oversees the operations of the county hospital and other facilities, and their $1.3 billion budget.

The candidate involved is the infamous former LD8 State Representative Colette Rosati (R-Scottsdale).

A little background -

Mrs. Rosati is famous for her scorched-earth campaign tactics, highlighted by her emails in 2004 insinuating that two of her opponents (one mail, one female) were closeted homosexuals because one was single and the other was married with no children.

The targets of her wrath? Fellow Republicans Michelle Reagan and Royce Flora.

Rep. Reagan responded to the attack by laughing it off, saying that her being gay would be news to her boyfriend. As for Mr. Flora, the future chair of the LD8 Republicans, it turns out that his wife, Ann, is a cancer survivor and because of medical issues, was unable to have children.

In other words, Mrs. Rosati stepped in it.

*Deep* in it.

With that as background, let's get on to the "creative facts" part of the post.

In the 'Biography' section of her campaign website, she has this line -

"After a short break from politics Rep. Rosati is now running for the Board of Directors of the Maricopa County Special Health Care District in district 3."

As far as it goes, that statement is an accurate one.

However, it *is* a little less than complete.


That "short break from politics" wasn't exactly a voluntary one.


After her 2004 exercise in "winning friends and influencing people", she was so confident in her electoral prowess, she decided to take on Republican State Senator Carolyn Allen, a fixture in LD8 politics, for Allen's seat in the State Senate.

Rosati got spanked in the primary by more than 10 percentage points.

In another example of creative use of the facts, her campaign website touts her "R.N" credentials, a label that might convince the casual voter that she would bring experience as a health care professional to the Board. That glosses over the fact that her career experience is less that of a 'health care' professional and more as a *sales* professional.

From her ZoomInfo profile (emphasis mine) -

"An R.N. since 1979, Rosati has a B.A. degree in health services administration and also have a master's in business administration. Between 1980 and 1995, she was a pharmaceutical/medical sales representative, first for Abbott Laboratories; then for a division of C.R. Bard, Inc.; then for Ciba,Geigy. She obtained a realtor's license 15 years ago..."

I have to admit, my first instinct when I read about Rosati's candidacy was to sarcastically wonder why a career pharmaceutical sales rep would want to sit on the board of an organization that spends millions of dollars per year on pharmaceuticals. However, knowing what I do of Mrs. Rosati, that aspect may just be icing on the cake.

She and another candidate, Harlan Stratton (running in district 2), are campaigning together as pro-life candidates, and MIHS has been subjected to a long-running campaign to force it to end training on abortions as part of its medical education program.

Training that it is required to provide in order to mainain its ACGME accreditation as a teaching hospital.

Note1: I've got a call out to the Maricopa Integrated Health System for a specific number on the amount it spends on pharmaceuticals; no call back as yet.

Note2: Rosatti's opponent for the district 3 seat on the MIHS board is Sue Gerard, formerly director of the Arizona Department of Health Services (and former Republican state representative from Phoenix).

Note3: The candidates in the other districts are -

District 1 - Bil Bruno, currently a member of the Board; Rex Altree, chair of the Arizona Auto Glass Association.

District 2 - Robert B. Carey (a lousy name for a Google search), Greg Patterson (someone many readers may be familiar with :) ), and Harlan Stratton (Rosatti's ideological saddle partner).

District 4 - LD4 Republican Elbert Bicknell (a gun owner and former NH state legislator) and Gerald Cuendet, chairman of the current board.

District 5 - Todd Hansen (another lousy name for a Google search; his organizational paperwork states that he is a Republican and an investment representative), Alice Lara (a Republican lobbyist), Joan Kelchner (an ER doctor in Yuma), James Marovich (lawyer), Jonathan Weisbuch (former Maricopa County Health Officer).

AZ Rep coverage of the race here.

The candidacies of Rosati and some of the others are the reason why voters need to pay attention to even the most obscure offices - even one like this has a great impact on many people. And in one like this, that impact falls disproportionately on poor and working families.

I'm not endorsing any of the candidates as yet (need to do more research), but some of these candidates seem less interested in doing the work of the board than in foisting off their ideology on unsuspecting patients, many of whom have no other health care resource.

Later!

Events Calendar

Wednesday, September 10 - The Grand Opening of the Arizona office of the Obama/Biden campaign.

Join Kelly Paisley, the Arizona State Director for the Obama campaign, at the newly-opened office at 922 N. 6th St. (corner of Roosevelt and 6th Street) in Phoenix. The event starts at 4:00 p.m. RSVP here.


Saturday, September 13 - Turning the County Blue!, a candidate meet-and-greet/fundraiser for candidates Dan Saban (for Sheriff), Tim Nelson (for County Attorney) and Ed Hermes (for County Supervisor).

Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: The home of Alison Shannon in Tempe.

For info and directions, contact Alison Shannon at 682-554-0726 or allison.shannon[at]@gmail.com.

Suggested contribution: $25/candidate ($75 total) or whatever you can afford; for Young Dems, $10/candidate ($30 total.)


Monday and Tuesday, September 15 and 16 - The Arizona chapter of the National Jewish Democratic Council will be presenting the documentary "Farewell Israel," a highly-regarded study of the relationship between Israel, the West, and Islam. For directions and more info, contact Jerry Gettinger at 480-563-3206 or email at njdcphx[at]cox.net.


Monday, September 15 - The GEMDEMS Victory '08 Dinner, with special guest Governor Janet Napolitano. The dinner will be at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater, 5247 E. Brown Rd., in Mesa. Doors open at 5 p.m., VIP reception at 6 p.m., and dinner at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $110 for the VIP reception and $50 for the dinner only. Tickets can be purchased online here or in-person at the GEMDEMS office in Mesa (7141 E. Main St.)

In addition to Governor Napolitano, a number of the candidates from LDs 18 - 22 will be there.


Thursday, September 18 - The District 8 Democrats will be holding a forum on the propositions on November's ballot. The featured speaker will be Eric Ehst of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. The forum will take place at the Via Linda Senior Center, 10440 E. Via Linda, Scottsdale. For more info, contact LD8 Chair Margaret Hogan at mhoganaz[at]msn.com, Vice-Chair Laura Copple at lcopple[at]cox.net, or Vice-Chair Jerry Gettinger at jget[at]cox.net.

Note - the LD17 Democrats will be featuring a brief feature on the props at their monthly meeting, Tuesday, September 9 at the Pyle Center in Tempe. Each member of the D17 Issues Committee has selected one or two of the ballot propositions on which to present a short synopsis. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m.

Both forums are free of charge and open to the public.

Later!

Meet the LD18 candidates at MCC

The Mesa Community College chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society will be holding a "Civic Engagement Forum" on Wednesday, September 10 from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. The event will be held in the Navajo Room of the Kirk Student Center at MCC's Southern and Dobson campus.

The first part of the event will be a 'meet and greet' mixer with the candidates from 4 - 6, followed by the official forum at 6. At the official forum, the candidates will address the topic "The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges, Consequences."

It's unofficial at this point, but sources say that Judah Nativio and Russell Pearce, the Senate candidates in LD18, have confirmed their attendance.

The House candidates are Democrat Tammie Pursley and Republicans Steve Court and Cecil Ash.

For more info, contact Duane Oakes at oakes[at]mail.maricopa.edu.

Preliminary General Election Debate Schedule

With the results of the primary elections in the books, now the general election season begins, and with it, the general election candidate debates/forums have been scheduled.

Courtesy the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission -

Note: only the forums in the Tempe/Scottsdale/West Mesa area are listed here; the complete list of Clean Elections debates is at the link.


Monday, September 15 -

1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Corporation Commission Debate
Location: Rio Salado College Conference Center, 2323 W 14th St., Tempe, AZ


Wednesday, September 17 -

6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. LD18 Candidate Debate
Location: East Valley Institute of Technology Lecture Hall, 1601 W. Main St., Mesa, AZ


Monday, September 22 -

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. LD8 Candidate Debate
Location: Kerr Cultural Center Studio, 6110 N Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ


Wednesday, September 24 -

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. LD17 Candidate Debate
Location: Sky Song Convergence Rm 1475, N Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ (SE corner of Scottsdale and McDowell Roads)


As info about more debates becomes available, particularly those in LDs 8, 17, and18, for Corporation Commission, or for Scottsdale, I'll post it here.

Short Attention Span Musing - Primary Edition

...It's looking more and more like absolutely nothing was settled in Scottsdale on Tuesday. According to the City's results page, challenger Jim Lane leads incumbent Mayor Mary Manross by 217 votes. However, there are 849 ballots where the City races were left blank (undervotes), so it appears that he didn't receive the "50% + 1) vote total necessary to win the election outright. In addition, none of the City Council candidates reached that threshold either.

Hence, it appears that we get to do this all over again in November, with two fewer candidates for Council. Oren Davis and Joel Bramoweth, as the two candidates with the fewest votes, will be dropped off of the general election ballot. The other six candidates - Lisa Borowsky, Betty Drake, Nan Nesvig, Suzanne Klapp, Tom Giller, and Ron McCullagh - will fight it out for the three open seats.

Predictions: none for the Council race, there are too many variables, but as for the mayoral contest, Manross should win reelection. She was hurt by the large Republican turnout for the CD5 primary; in November, she will benefit from the increased Democratic turnout.

BTW - if the mayoral results stand without a run-off, Lane owes John Washington. Washington was a write-in candidate for mayor until he dropped out just before early ballots were sent out. If he had stayed in the race, he would have garnered enough votes to force the race to a run off, or even have given the race outright to Manross.

AZ Republic coverage here.

...Republican bloggers all over the state may be gleeful right now because of the large number of moderate Reps who were defeated in primary races, but that glee may be short-lived. It will be much easier for moderate Democrats like Cheryl Cage and Judah Nativio to defeat their extremist Republican opponents (Al Melvin and Russell Pearce, respectively) than the more moderate Reps who were defeated in the primaries (Pete Hershberger and Kevin Gibbons, respectively.)

No smack talk here (I'm not making any predictions. Yet), just an observation.


...Saving the worst for last, but have the Reps chosen David Duke as their national chair? I mean, whatever veneer of civility they might have had has been rubbed off during the pressure of a tough election cycle.

First, there was the abuse levelled at one of their own in LD6, Tony Bouie.

Then, there was Sarah Palin's VP-nominee acceptance speech where she denigrated community organizers in urban communities, but later praised folks in rural, and presumably paler, communities.

But the topper has to be Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-CSA), as quoted in The Hill -

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

And when asked to clarify, Westmoreland confirmed that he indeed meant to use the word 'uppity.'

Yes folks, whether it's Maricopa County Republicans (Arpaio and Thomas) campaigning against Mexicans, or national Republicans campaigning against black people, this is going to be an ugly two months.

Thanks to Tedski for the heads-up on the Westmoreland quote.

Early results are trickling in...

And they are *very* early results; in many cases, the numbers represent early voting results (EV) or EV results and just a few precincts.

The guaranteed winner for "Best Sense Of Humor" is Republican CD5 candidate Jim Ogsbury (and I'm not being sarcastic when I say that), According to PolitickerAZ, earlier this evening, the Ogsbury campaign sent out a press release proclaiming his victory.

Oh no, not in the CD5 primary, but in the race for Republican PC in Paiute precinct in LD17.

Something about being unopposed and having enough signatures. :))

...On to early results...

In Scottsdale, with 39 of 87 precincts reporting (and I think these numbers include EV totals) -

For mayor, challenger Jim Lane is leading incumbent Mary Manross 12,671 to 12,488. If the race stays that close and write-in candidate Bill Crawford receives enough votes, that one could go to a November run-off.

In the contest for the three available seats on the City Council -

Lisa Borowsky - 8980
Joel BramOweth - 4607
Oren Davis - 4186
Betty Drake - 10638
Tom Giller - 6643
Suzanne Klapp - 10003
Ron McCullagh - 11278
Nan Nesvig - 6626

Based on these early results, expect at least two, if not all three seats, to go to a November run-off.

For further updates, click on the appropriate link on the City of Scottsdale election results page.


...On to early Maricopa County results, courtesy the Maricopa County Recorder's election results page...

In the Democratic race for County Attorney, Tim Nelson holds a commanding lead over Gerald Richard, 58636 to 29458, 766 of 1142 precincts reporting. The winner goes on to challenge incumbent Republican Andrew Thomas in November.

In the Republican race for County Assessor, Keith Russell holds a strong lead over Kevin Ross, 77212 to 62813, 766 of 1142 precincts reporting. The winner will take the office, as there is no Democratic candidate.


In Congressional and state legislative races...

In the Republican primary in CD5, 191 of 248 precincts reporting, David Schweikert is holding a slim lead over Susan Bitter Smith, 11560 to 10690. The other candidates are trailing significantly, with Mark Anderson at 5064, Jim Ogsbury at 4342, Laura Knaperek at 5946, and Lee Gentry at 582.

In the LD4 Rep primary for state senate, incumbent Jack Harper is breezing to victory over challenger John Zerby 13448 to 5783, 59 of 80 precincts reporting.

In the hotly-contested Republican primary for the LD18 seat in the state senate, nativist Russell Pearce appears to be winning easily over Kevin Gibbons, 4978 to 2296, 38 of 51 precincts reporting.

Over in the LD18 Republican primary for state representative, Cecil Ash is leading with 4651 votes, followed by Steve Court at 3069, Ron Middlebrook at 2944 and Kanani Henderson at 1512.

In the CD6 Democratic primary, in something of a surprise, Rebecca Schneider is trouncing Chris Gramazio (who was endorsed by the AZ Republic) 13817 to 4719, 219 out of 259 precincts reporting.

In the Democratic primary for Corporation Commission, Sandra Kennedy and Paul Newman look like they will be moving on to the general election, receiving 117764 and 99205 votes respectively. Sam George holds a slim lead over Kara Kelty for the third slot, 85262 to 79280. However, almost no votes from Pima County have been tallied as yet, and Pima has the second most polling places in the state, behind Maricopa County.

In the Republican primary for Corporation Commission, Marian McClure and Bob Stump look like they will be moving on, with Barry Wong and John Allen jockeying for the third slot. Same caveat about Pima County numbers as above.

The AZ Secretary of State's results page can be found here.

I'll try to update tomorrow, particularly on the too-close-to-call mayoral race in Scottsdale.

Later!