Last escapee and accomplice recaptured

From the Arizona Republic -

After nearly three weeks on the run, Arizona fugitives John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were caught in Apache County on Thursday evening.

The fugitive couple were caught at a campground near Sunrise Ski Resort at about 7 p.m.

With state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies around the country participating in the manhunt, it was the work of a keen-eyed forest ranger that did the couple in.

The ranger, whom authorities did not immediately identify, saw a car parked about 700 yards off a highway in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests near the ski resort.

{snip}

After Thursday's sighting, the U.S. Forest Service contacted the U.S. marshals command post in Phoenix, which coordinated the nationwide manhunt. Through the make and model of the car and the origin of the stolen license plate, investigators determined the couple in the car might be McCluskey and Welch.

The Apache County Sheriff's Office sent a tactical-response team and arrested the couple.

 We should all be grateful that McCluskey and Welch were captured before they could add to their body count, and should be especially grateful to the conscientious U.S. Forest Service ranger, U.S. Marshals, and the deputies/officers from the Apache County Sheriff's Office who were instrumental in the safe capture of the murderous escapee (and his accomplice) from one of Arizona's privately-run prisons.

From an emailed statement from Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and a candidate for Governor -

"We are fortunate McCluskey and Welch were apprehended without further loss of life.

This escape shined a bright light on inadequate prison security, on improper assignment of convicted murders to facilities not meant for such dangerous criminals, and Arizona's over-reliance on private, for-profit prisons. I called on the governor to take several immediate steps to prevent future escapes. She has ignored them and done little in response.

"Unless the Brewer Administration does more to tighten security and to carefully re-examine the operations of Arizona's private prisons, we should not be surprised if other violent convicts make their escape."

As of this writing, Jan Brewer, neither in her position as Governor nor in her position as candidate for Governor, has published a statement on the successful capture of the escapee from a private prison by dedicated public employees.

Last U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq

From the Christian Science Monitor -

The last US combat brigade crossed into Kuwait Thursday morning after a series of night maneuvers through the desert, marking a new chapter in the seven-year-conflict in which the struggle for political power has replaced direct combat.

More than 1,200 infantrymen and other soldiers moved out by road in 360 armored vehicles over the past five days in night-time operations kept under wraps until the last troops crossed the border. Fighter jets accompanied them along a route cleared of bombs and landmines. More than 2,000 of the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers had already flown out of the country.

The road march by the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team complies with President Obama’s Sept. 1 deadline for all combat brigades to be out of Iraq, fulfilling a major campaign promise.


They leave behind 50,000 other US troops in an unsettled Iraq still struggling to form a government, and many Iraqis fear that the prospect of US troops withdrawing entirely next year along with the political chaos could reactivate fighting here.

While it is encouraging to see the official "combat" troops exiting Iraq, the remaining troops aren't exactly "non-combat" troops.  Their offical classification might be as "trainers" or some such euphemism, many will still be fighting, and possibly dying, in George W. Bush's war of false pretenses.

While rejoicing over the developments in Iraq is understandable, it should be tempered with the knowledge that American troops, our friends, neighbors, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters, will still be fighting, and possibly dying, in a hellhole halfway around the world.

Remember with gratitude those who have already sacrificed their lives or their health in service to the country, be happy for those who have made it home, and pray that those who are still serving over there (and not just in Iraq) also make it home.

Soon.

Brewer's rationalization for privatizing prisons debunked by national media

Jan and her clan will, of course, try to spin/deny it, but since one of the sources for the article is a report prepared by the Arizona Department of Corrections more than a year into her stay on the 9th Floor...

From Fortune/CNN -

What's costlier than a government run prison? A private one

Early this month, three convicted murderers escaped from a prison in Kingman, a small town along Route 66 in northwest Arizona. According to reports, the inmates had broken free from the facility by using a pair of wire cutters. They'd escaped from a medium-security facility operated by Utah-based Management & Training Corp, a private corrections company.


The incident set off a political furor, not over the fact that the three violent criminals were being held in a medium-security prison, but over the security of the facility itself, and, ultimately, over Arizona's widespread use of private correctional facilities.

Other highlights from the article -

Arizona Attorney General Goddard says that his state Department of Corrections has nearly zero oversight over the prisons that house out-of-state inmates in his state.


"They don't have to show proof of financial responsibility, they don't have to comply with Arizona prison construction standards, they don't have to report disruptions. . .and both the training and staffing is up to the private operator," Goddard says. "There were a couple of private prisons that went on lockdown and refused to allow the Department of Corrections to come in."

{snip}

Despite claims from companies like CCA, the jury seems to be out on whether private prisons end up saving governments money. An audit by the accounting firm MAXIMUS conducted for Arizona compared the cost of public and private corrections facilities in 2007 and found that, on average, private facilities ended up saving the state $5.49 per inmate per day.


But more recently, an internal Arizona Department of Corrections report released in February 2010, found that, in 2009, those savings narrowed to around $2.75 per inmate per day, and in certain instances, private facilities were found to cost even more per day than public ones.

The ADC report mentioned in the article can be found here; reports for prior years can be found on this page.

More on the Brewer Administration's ties to private prison companies here (KTAR.com) and here (Rachel Maddow via Crooks and Liars.com)

Fox News makes it official - they're here to help the Republican Party

No, it's not exactly shocking news to anyone who has followed the mainstream media for the last couple of decades, but up until now, they had tried to maintain at least the pretense of being "fair and balanced."

From the Washington Post -

Rupert Murdoch, who has never been shy about making his political views known, has voted with his sizable checkbook.

Murdoch's News Corp. has made a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association, triggering swift criticism from Democrats that a contribution of that magnitude casts a shadow on his media properties, particularly Fox News.

"For a media company -- particularly one whose slogan is 'fair and balanced' -- to be injecting themselves into the outcome of races is stunning," Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said Tuesday.

The RGA's financial filing with the IRS shows the contribution (page 54). (link courtesy Politico's coverage)

OpenSecrets.org coverage here.

Fox News' parent company also owns the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, hardly bastions of jounalistic neutrality.  Now that News Corp is officially out of the partisan closet, don't expect any improvement on that front.

It's one thing for an MSM organization to have a theme in its commentary shows (MSNBC definitely leans left, Fox News definitely leans right, and CNN is pretty much neutral) because those are supposed to have an opinion, but when an MSM organization openly chooses a side, with both its financial resources and by using its credibility as a news organization to push false stories to inflict political damage on those they view as opponents, they lose all credibility as a news organization.

While Fox News had no credibility with me personally, they still had the support of some of the other members of the MSM (witness their promotion to the front row at in the White House press briefing room).

The next few days and weeks will show whether or not this direct financial support of a partisan organization will undermine that support.

Later...

Goddard challenges Brewer to series of debates...

...but Brewer says "Nope.  Only the one that I am legally obligated to attend."*

*That's not a real quote, but it's the real meaning of the press release that I'll quote later in this post...

Earlier today, Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Governor, challenged unelected incumbent Jan Brewer to a series of debates. 

From his letter to the Brewer campaign  (with minor adjustments to the format for readability here) -

The people of Arizona deserve the opportunity to see for themselves which candidate has the vision and experience to lead Arizona back to prosperity.

I propose the following topics and host communities. Of course, I will work with your schedule to maximize this important opportunity for Arizona:

Balancing Arizona’s Budget - Tucson

Public Safety and Protecting Arizona - Kingman

Immigration and Securing Arizona’s Border - Sierra Vista

Jobs for Arizona - Yuma

Creating a World Class System for Education in AZ - Phoenix

Tourism, Energy, the Environment and Reviving Rural AZ - Flagstaff

Her response, from a emailed press release -

"Terry Goddard is Obama's Arizona apostle.

"Governor Brewer will participate in the televised debate sponsored by the Clean Elections Commission on September 1st. The scheduling of any possible future debates will be revisited after that time. In the meantime, we anticipate that Mr. Goddard will use his campaign funds to try to redefine 30-year record of failure. We look forward to seeing his TV commercials in the weeks to come."

Yeah, I'm biased, but one of the things that struck me is that the Brewer campaign doesn't understand the difference between "challenging" (which is what Goddard did , respectfully [read the linked letter]) and "insulting" (the Brewer response.)

I didn't actually expect her to go for six debates, especially the one in Kingman, location of the privately-operated prison that housed the recently-escaped murderers, but to be so openly contemptuous of her adversary and the people of Arizona?  I most definitely did not expect that.

Oh, and in case someone thinks that Brewer was being nice when she deigned to agree to the Clean Elections forum (full schedule here), you should remember that she *has* to appear at that one.  It's a requirement for those candidates who accept Clean Elections funding.

The "No S#!t Sherlock" Headline Of The Day

And while I am highlighting something from the Arizona Republic, I'm not criticizing them - some days, I think that it takes complete bluntness to get the message through.

From the Rep -

Valley parents upset by larger class sizes due to budgets

The effects of the state's budget crisis are showing up inside packed classrooms in Scottsdale and Fountain Hills.

As school started Aug. 9, the two districts had larger class sizes in every grade, including kindergarten classes of 27 to 30 children.

Some Scottsdale parents became alarmed the week before school started, meeting with district administrators to express their concerns. In Fountain Hills, a group of parents addressed the governing board at its meeting last week.

OK, I'm going to stereotype a little here, but given that the "upset parents" in the article are from Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, they are likely to be Republicans or Republican-leaning independents*, and have wholly embraced the R ideology of "cut MY taxes no matter what the cost!  Everybody knows that teachers and people on state assistance are just leeches!"

Now that they find out that the "cost" of the tax cuts, the costs that they didn't worry about, actually impacts them, they get upset.

Welcome to the real world. 


You get what you pay for, and if you  pay for crap, you get crap.


*Scottsdale: Rs outnumber Ds by 20 percentage points; Fountain Hills: Rs have a 26 percentage point advantage.  In \both municipalities, Independents outnumber Ds, though Ds and Is combined outnumber Rs. (Source: Maricopa County Recorder's Office)

BTW - I've heard anecdotally that activity fees, even general ones that aren't related to a specific sport or something similar, are way up this year, resulting in a lot of parents with sticker shock.  Unless more Democrats are elected to the legislature and Terry Goddard wins the race for Governor, expect more increases in both direct fees and class sizes.

FEC Reports - Congressional primary races

Some of these are eye-opening...

All info courtesy the website of the Federal Election Commission, reporting period 7/1/2010 thru 8/4/2010 (three weeks before the primary)...

In order of interest to me (call it "blogger's privilege" or something :) ) -

CD5

Schweikert: $225529.45 cash on hand, raised slightly less than $36K during the period, spent over $244K.  Debt of $500K (to himself).

Ward: $172944.21 on hand, raised $28657, spent $264K, $315548.83 in debt.

Bitter Smith: $48454.60 on hand, raised less than $20K, spent slightly less than $83K, $81329.02 debt.

Salvino: $27.6K on hand, raised less than $10K, spent more than $91K, debt of $210958.04.

Spinks: $41.82 cash on hand (not "41.82K" but forty-one dollars and eighty-two cents), raised $170, spent $557, no debt.

Gentry:  I couldn't find a report for the most recent reporting period.

Analysis*: It isn't over per se, but Salvino, Spinks and Gentry are toast, and Bitter Smith is on life support.  Ward has a shot, but Schweikert seems to think he has it wrapped up, and is coasting a little, ticking off supporters of some of the other candidates.

These folks seem to be Republican B-teamers - perennial wannabes looking for one last shot at glory or carpetbaggers looking for a district where they can buy a nomination.  Not talking smack here, one of these folks could move up to A-team status (Bitter Smith and Schweikert have held offices before, and Ward has access to cash), but they've got it to prove.


CD3

Crump: Less than $7300 on hand, raised $11456, spent slightly over $17K.  No debt.

Gorman: Less than $26K on hand, raised $14K, spent $5371.  No debt.

Morris: Slightly more than $40K on hand, raised $16K, spent $74K, $50K debt.

Moak: $121K on hand, raised a little more than $15K, spent more than $577K.  Debt of more than $592K ($300K in this period alone).

Parker: $63K on hand, raised $36K, spent $123K, debt of $26431.60.

Quayle: $429K on hand, raised $218K, spent $473K, $1223 debt.

Waring: $29.5K on hand, raised $17K, spent $81K, debt of $41K.

Winkler: $24.5K on hand, raised $5225, spent $8253, no debt.

I cannot find reports for the other candidates (Branch, Hull).

Analysis*: Based on the money numbers, the race is between Quayle (tapping Daddy's friends for cash) and Moak (placing a big bet on his own candidacy), but Parker, Waring, Gorman, and Morris still have a heartbeat.  In a free-for-all like this one, money for mailers and ad buys may not mean as much as an effective street-level GOTV machine.  Crump, Winkler, Branch, and Hull are done.  Quayle should be just as done after his recent gaffes, but Daddy's money and name may purchase some short memories among GOP primary voters.

Probably the strongest set of candidates that the GOP has fielded this year (3 former legislators, 2 former mayors, 1 son of a former USVP, a well-funded businessman, and Morris, who is moderate, female, intelligent, articulate, attractive, Jewish, and Cuban.  In Florida, they'd have already cancelled the election and administered the oath of office to her, but in AZ she'll be lucky to break out of single digits), but they are slicing each other to ribbons and whittling down the funds that donors will have available in the general election.  Look for lots of independent expenditures from GOP-friendly groups as they try to retain this seat in the general.


CD8

Paton: almost $187K on hand, raised $46K, spent $146K, debt of slightly less than $13K.

Kelly: almost $79K on hand, raised $78K, spent $159K, no debt.

The other candidates have dropped out or haven't filed reports that I can find.

Analysis*:  This race could be the one to watch - Paton is the candidate of the GOP "establishment" and may be the better general election candidate, but Kelly has enough Tea Party support to pull the upset, and enough cash to make a last minute push.


CD7

McClung: $15K on hand, raised slightly less than $11K, spent slightly less than $18K, debt of $2300.

Myers: more than $23K on hand, raised $1820, spent $56K, debt of more than $95K.

I couldn't find reports for the other candidates. 

Analysis*: The top GOP candidates to unseat Raul Grijalva raised less than $13K between them.  Candidates who are toast in other districts were able to raise more.  Any other questions? 


CD1

Bowers: A little more than $10K on hand, raised $11K, spent a little less than $15K, no debt.

Gosar: Nearly $41K on hand, raised slightly less than $40K, spent $130K, no debt.

Hay: More than $116K on hand, raised $32K, spent $60K, debt of $100K.

Jensen: Reporting $1195 cash on hand on the summary page, but also reports $1595 raised and $1595 spent.  Hand-written reports, wife or other relative as treasurer.  'Nuff said.

Mehta: Less than $2600 on hand, raised $7300, spent $25K, debt of slight less than $11K.

I could not locate reports for the other candidates.

Analysis*: Hay's got the cash, Gosar seems to have the momentum.  Hay may be holding on to the cash to pay down her debt after the primary.  If the CD5 Rs are B-teamers, these folks are C- and D- teamers.


CD4

Contreras: $2500 on hand, raised $6800, spent $4300, $25K in debt.

Penalosa hasn't filed a report that I could find, but his July report showed numbers in line with Contreras'.

Analysis*: Either one could win the R nomination, though considering that incumbent Ed Pastor has $1.5 million on hand, I'm not sure that qualifies as a good thing for whichever one wins the nod. 


CD2

Black reports $69 (not $69000 or even $6900, but *$69.00* cash on hand in his quest to unseat fellow Republican Franks (cash on hand of $69K).


CD6

Smith reports cash on hand of $5593 in his quest to unseat fellow Republican Flake (almost $800K on hand).

Analysis*: Both Franks and Flake face primary challenges from the right, of all places, but other than the hardcore Tea Party types, no one can say (with a straight face, anyway) that Franks and Flake are "too liberal" to be "good" Republicans.  The lack of financial support for the upstarts indicates that both are safe from serious intra-GOP challenges.

Key:  "Analysis*" equals "opportunity to let loose a little snark."

Note: The candidates who didn't file reports that I could locate are all long shots anyway, so I'm not worrying about them.  If one of them pulls out a primary victory, I'll eat my computer**.

** = Not really.  I will admit to making a mistake, however.  Call it "eating crow instead of a computer."

Note2: I didn't really cover the Democratic races because there aren't any primary races for Congressional seats.

The prison escape and passing the blame

Hat tip to Donna at Democratic Diva for unearthing this nugget...

In the aftermath of the abysmal failure of one of Arizona's privately-run prisons to protect Arizona (and the rest of the country) from violent inmates (and the deafening silence on the subject from Governor Jan Brewer and the private prison lobbyists "advisers" in her cabinet), one of the Republican themes has been to blame former governor and current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.  The inmate classification system that allowed violent inmates to be placed in a privately-operated prison meant for DUI and low-level drug offenders was originally created while she was governor of Arizona.

There's only one problem with that.

As Donna found, available on the website of the Arizona Department of Corrections, the current classification system was revised and updated on February 25, 2010.

Guess who was Governor on that date, and had been Governor for more than a year at that point? 

Give you a hint - it wasn't Janet Napolitano.


BTW - the push for privatization continues unabated.  The ADC's website still contains a page for the information associated with a "request for proposals" (RFP) for the complete privatization of correctional health services.

BTW2 - The warden of the private prison and a security chief/staffer have resigned in the wake of the escapes.  However, as they work for a private prison company, I don't know if they are out of the prison/corrections field altogether or will be reassigned to another location within the parent corporation's portfolio.

Short Attention Span Musing

Just a few quick hits for a Saturday...

...Just how crazy/bad does a Republican have to be for Russell Pearce not to endorse him?  I don't know, but apparently Jack Harper does.

...Ben Quayle, one of the gaggle of R candidates jockeying for a shot at replacing Congresman John Shadegg in CD3, received a lot of press coverage this week.  And contrary to the popular saw, not all publicity is good publicity.

First, he denied, then admitted, to writing for a "racy" website, TheDirty.com (at the time, it was called "TheDirtyScottsdale.com").

Then he gained notoriety for airing what has to be the most content-free TV spot of the election cycle wherein he labelled Barack Obama as the "worst President in history."  At no point did he ever talk about CD3 or its needs...or why he would be the best one to serve those needs.

Of course, considering that he recently sent out a "awww, isn't he a great family man?!?" mailer showing him with his kids...only he doesn't have kids, this weeks screwups should have been expected.  Still, with his family name recognition and the vast amount of money from out-of-state contributors that he has access to, he may still pull of winning the R nomination in CD3.

No matter which of the many Rs running in CD3, Democrat Jon Hulburd stands firmly in their way.

...The Parraz campaign is touting some poll numbers in the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.  Their numbers show them behind Rodney Glassman by 3 percentage points, which is within the margin of error.  Those numbers are consistent with other polls, so that is not news.  What is interesting is the data that Latino voters are going for Parraz by a 6 or 7 to 1 margin.  And that Latino turnout is up.

Now, campaigns only release internal polling numbers when they show (or can be spun to show) their candidates' strength, so take the release with a grain of salt.

However, if it is true, especially the part about Latino turnout increasing, it shows a possible path out of the electoral woods for AZ Democrats. 

The Republicans' whole-hearted embrace of the nativist ideals of Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer to gain support in primary races could come to backfire on them in November.

Here's hoping....

...Finally, while the last of the three escapees from one of Arizona's privately-operated prisons is still on the loose (maybe in Montana, though by now he and his cousin/fiancee/drug mule for a white supremacist gang could be anywhere) and Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and a candidate for governor, has called for reviewing and revamping prison security in AZ, Governor Jan Brewer has been out picnicking "campaigning", with nary a word about private prisons, her administration's ties to private prison operators, or even hearings to look into the failure of the private prisons to protect the public from murderers.

Just another Saturday roundup in the desert...

Tune in Monday for the next stage in the infighting at Maricopa County

More goings-on in Maricopa County...

From the Arizona Republic -

Maricopa County officials will subpoena records that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has refused to hand over to U.S. Department of Justice lawyers for a civil-rights investigation, according to a county letter.


Cari Gerchick, a county spokeswoman, told The Insider that the move is meant to prevent federal officials from taking away funds from the county. Last year, she said the county received $113 million in federal funds; she could not immediately say how much went to the Sheriff’s Office.

"Certainly we want to try to minimize any exposure we have on either the legal or financial front," Gerchick said. "We believe the Sheriff’s Office should comply with the Department of Justice’s investigation on the basis of the civil rights investigation. We don’t know why they wouldn’t comply. And, our letter to the DOJ is to let them know that Maricopa County will assist the DOJ in its inquiry."

The next broadside in the ongoing battle between the County Supes and the Maricopa County Sheriff will take place on Monday when the supes hold a special meeting to consider to consider but a single item -

1. RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF MARICOPA COUNTY REGARDING AN ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

Consider an action, if applicable, to adopt a resolution entitled, “Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County to Issue an Order to Show Cause to Maricopa County Sheriff's Office - Joseph Arpaio to Appear and Show Cause Why the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Should Not be Held in Contempt for Failure to Comply with Board Issued Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated July 29, 2010.” (C-06-11-053-M-00)

 
Earlier on Monday, there will be an "informal" meeting with the normally juicy (in a "get the Kool-Aid drinkers worked up" sort of way) topics of property tax levies, but most of the attention will be on the "special" meeting.
 
Wednesday's "formal" meeting of the supes includes an item to terminate early the lease with Wells Fargo, at Wells Fargo's request, for the MCSO offices in the Wells Fargo building in downtown Phoenix.  They have leased space in the Luhrs Building at Central and Jefferson.
 
And as much fun as watching Wells Fargo throw Arpaio out of his preferred, and rather tony, digs in their building will be, that will be nothing compared to the fireworks at and after the special meeting on Monday.
 
The latest Arpaio antics, courtesy the Phoenix New Times' Valley Fever, here.
 
 

Wednesday's Forum For Scottsdale City Council Candidates.

On Wednesday, August 11, five of the six candidates for Scottsdale City Council gathered in the City Hall Kiva for a forum sponsored by the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.

The candidates in attendance were Wayne Ecton (incumbent), Linda Milhaven, Ned O'Hearn, Guy Phillips, and Dennis Robbins.

(pictured from left to right: candidates Ecton (incumbent), Milhaven, O'Hearn, Phillips, and Robbins)

The sixth candidate, incumbent Bob Littlefield, had a statement read before the forum to explain his absence.  A somewhat longer version of that statement was emailed to various members of the community, and it was forwarded to me**.  To quote, in part:

Last week Scottsdale's Channel 11 Programming Commission voted 4-3 to allow the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce to host a candidate forum on taxpayer-funded Channel 11. Although I am running for re-election in this campaign you did not see me at that forum.

You will see me at all the other forums, such as the Realtors forum and the Arizona Republic forum. You may even have already seen me at forums hosted by the Scottsdale Community Council and Scottsdale Healthcare.

But not this one.

Why? Because my participation would have condoned allowing an organization that is guilty of campaign finance law violations to promote itself at taxpayer expense on Channel 11.

Once his statement was read to the audience, the forum proceeded as these things normally do. 

The sponsoring group, the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce in this case, asks a series of questions focusing on issues near and dear to that group.

At Wednesday's event, the questions ranged from...

Scottsdale's participation in regional economic partnerships (Ecton, Milhaven, O'Hearn supported, Robbins reminded people that would-be partners are also competitors, and Phillips said that neighboring cities "want to get into our coffers")...

Through the various proposed amendments to Scottsdale's charter (Milhaven, Ecton, and O'Hearn have reservations about some of them, Robbins basically supported them all, and Phillips opposes any changes to the way that the "founding fathers" wanted the city to operate)...

To attracting new businesses to Scottsdale (Phillips - lower taxes...and that's it; everybody else was more vague, but to be fair, it's a subject that lends itself to generalities)...

To transportation issues (Phillips - privatize buses and synchronize traffic lights...and that was it; the others basically spoke about things like bus rapid transit and implementing the 2008 Transportation Master Plan)...

And so on.

Impressions: At least on the questions that the Chamber asked, candidates Ecton, Milhaven, and O'Hearn tended to have similar positions.  Robbins, while polished (as befits his status as a former member of the Council), was closer to the current Council regime (Lane, Littlefield, Nelssen, and Borowsky).  Phillips, well, to be blunt, if the name hadn't already been used, I'd label him as a "Not Ready For Prime Time Player."  His responses ranged from "the Chamber is bad" to boilerplate Republican/Libertarian ideology.  He exhibited no understanding of the issues that face Scottsdale, nor did he show any inclination to learn about those issues.  John Washington, an activist and friend of the blog*, thought that Phillips made some good points, but I respectfully disagreed. 

If anyone should have skipped "protested" the Chamber's sponsorship of the forum, it should have been Phillips, not Littlefield.  Littlefield is someone I will never vote for, but I have to give him his due - he can handle himself in the spotlight and can spout boilerplate ideological orthodoxy without *sounding* like he is spouting boilerplate ideological orthodoxy.

*John and I don't agree on much of anything politically, but we can talk civilly about it.  That's unusual in AZ these days.

** I could respect Littlefield's stand for honest and transparency and a candidate not associating with a group guilty of campaign finance violations. 

I could, if he wasn't still part of the leadership of one such group.  Littlefield is a member of the State Committee of the Arizona Republican Party.

Anybody remember Joel Fox? SCA? The 2008 election?  Profoundly sleazy ads? Huge fines?


The candidates' written responses to Chamber questions can be found here.

A video archive of the forum is here.

The City is soliciting questions from the public to be answered by the candidates with the answers broadcast on CityCable11 during September.  Details here.

The City of Scottsdale's Elections Information page can be found here.  It includes info on the various ballot questions that will be before the City's voters in November.

Upcoming candidate forums:

September 20, 2010, sponsored by the Brown Avenue Merchants Association

September 27, 2010, sponsored by the Arizona Republic

There will be others.  As info becomes available, I'll publish it here.


Later...

Romley squares off against Arpaio and Thomas

From the Arizona Republic -

Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley on Thursday released hundreds of pages of grand-jury testimony and other documents showing failed attempts by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas to obtain criminal charges against county officials.

Grand-jury proceedings are secret, but a Superior Court judge unsealed the records "in the furtherance of justice."

The whole article, as well as the attached documentation, is well worth a read.

As is the article in the Phoenix New Times' Valley Fever.

From that article -

Bombshell stuff at a press conference just completed in downtown Phoenix at the offices of interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley.


The biggest news was that a county grand jury last March rejected efforts by one of then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas' special prosecutors to issue major felony indictments against Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe, county manager David Smith, and several other county officials.

"This is outrageous behavior, absolutely outrageous, and this miscarriage of justice stops now," Romley said a few minutes ago.

Let's be clear on one thing - the *timing* of Romley's presser was almost certainly motivated by political considerations, at least in part.

Arpaio has been using his vast campaign war chest to fund anti-Romley and anti-Tom Horne (Andrew Thomas' primary opponent for the R nomination for AZ Attorney General) and Romley's primary is less than two weeks out.  And in what is sure to be a low turnout election, many folks are still undecided (statewide ballpark figures that I've heard on early ballots are that roughly 1/4 have been returned at a point in the cycle when normally closer to 1/2 have been returned).

Today's press conference by Romley, who's running a "professionalism vs. blind ideology" campaign against his opponent, the Arpaio-endorsed former Thomas deputy Bill Montgomery, needed to reach out to some of the undecideds.  This does that.

Having said all that, however, let's be clear on one other thing - the *content* of the press conference is nothing that surprised any seasoned observers of the goings-on in Maricopa County.

Folks have known for months and years that Thomas' and Arpaio's investigations and indictments of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and various county employees and judges were more about intimidation and retribution than about justice and truth.

Folks have known that the outside prosecutors who looked at the cases declined to accept the cases on the grounds that there was no "there" there.

Folks have heard whispers about all of this, but now those whispers are documents.

I think that the ideal situation in government is that officials who are relative equals behave as independent yet respectful colleagues.

Right now in Maricopa County, we are seeing a situation where relative equals are ardent adversaries (the Supes and County Attorney on one side, the Sheriff and former CA on the other).

Still, it beats what we had just a few short months ago - County officials who were less "independent" and more "co-conspirators."  And the co-conspirators were something other than "respectful" toward their other equals.

Andrew Thomas has a press conference of his own scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to respond to Romley's information release today.

Stay tuned...

A great pic...

...and one that I shamelessly stole from the Republican blog, Sonoran Alliance.

The owner of a Cadillac SUV (SRP for 2010 base model: $62,495; compare to a 2008 median US household income of $52.029) is ticked off at Barack Obama?

Works for me....

Legislative Republicans put anti-union measure on the ballot, again

From the AZ Republic -

The Legislature Wednesday squeezed one more measure onto the fall ballot, approving a bill that asks voters whether the right to a secret ballot should be preserved in union elections.

The vote was almost entirely on party lines. Two Yuma Democrats broke with their party and joined Republicans to refer the matter to the Nov. 2 ballot.

The votes were 18 - 11 - 1 absent in the Senate and 36 - 19 - 5 in the House.  The final version passed was SCR1001.

The two Democrats who voted in favor were Sen. Amanda Aguirre and Rep. Lynne Pancrazi, both from Yuma (is there something in the water there?)

Sen. Aguirre received the primary endorsement of the Arizona AFL/CIO earlier this summer.  I don't know if/how today's vote affects that.

It should be noted that neither Aguirre nor Pancrazi is likely to be hurt or helped politically by today's vote  - Aguirre faces only token opposition for her seat (no D opponent, 1 Libertarian, and 1 write-in Republican) and Pancrazi is in a three-way race for the two House seats (1 other D, 1 R, and the R is an incumbent who voted for the measure too).

Silver lining time:  As bad as this lobbyist-written (and -paid for?) measure is for Arizona's working families, there is one good thing to come out of it.

It's not an issue that will turn out the Republican base (witness the lack of supporters chiming in at the legislature).

It is, however, an issue that will turn out a significant part of the Democratic base, a part that may not have been totally energized before this blatant attack by Big Business and their pets, the AZGOP.

For that, we should all thank the AZGOP and their unswerving loyalty to their real constituents, corporate lobbyists and CEOs.

While the Governor, her staff, and the GOP caucus of the lege enthusiastically answered the call when the lobbyists called for a special session on the anti-union amendment to the AZ Constitution, thus far she and they have completely ignored the calls for a special session and hearings to looking into the security issues at Arizona's privately-operated prisons.

Brewer et. al. aren't even making public an already-completed security review (2nd-to-last paragraph of linked article.)

They're probably hoping that the remaining escapee doesn't kill anyone else and that the story goes away. 

I sincerely hope that no one else dies for the Rs never-ending quest to siphon public monies into corporate coffers, but there is no way that they should be allowed to skate on this.

BTW - Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and a candidate for Governor, issued the following statement on this week's developments -

"Jan Brewer is wasting time and money on a special session that is nothing but a political sideshow. This special session will not produce one Arizona job or do anything to deal with a budget that is $1.7 billion out of balance. It does not fix our prisons. It does not fix our schools.


Arizonans are reeling, our unemployment rate has gone straight up since Brewer assumed office. She should be focused on restoring lost jobs, not playing political games.

I call on Jan Brewer to start dealing with the real problems facing Arizona: a dangerous prison system, a horrifying budget deficit, a bottom-of-the pack educational system and a badly broken economy. There is too much serious work to do to be wasting the Legislature's time on this political game."

Later...

And the train kept a rollin'...

Quick update from the special session...

The Republican railroad squeaked a little today, but their drive to put an anti-union amendment to the AZ Constitution on November's ballot is still on track.

Today, they held the Committee of the Whole, or COW, sessions on the matching bills that are before the House and Senate.  COW is where bills can be amended from the floor and actual debate takes place.  During the final vote (aka "Third Read") on a bill, no amendments are allowed and the only "debate" is various members "rising to explain" their votes.

During today's Senate COW session on special session SCR1001, Senator Meg Burton Cahill proposed an amendment to the SCR that would have guaranteed workers the right bring someone with them when an employer tries to "discuss" union activity with the worker.  It would have prevented the one-on-one intimidation by employers that usually takes place during workplace organizing efforts.

When her amendment was voted down (sad to say, but not a surprise there), Sen. Burton Cahill tried to request a roll call vote on the matter.  During COW, a roll call vote is allowed (upon request)* but is not required.  Generally, all matters are decided by a voice vote.

In contrast, all Third Read votes are required by the state constitution to be roll calls.

*Technically, a roll call vote on a COW matter takes place immediately after COW when the legislative body is back in regular session, but I'm trying not to get too technical here. :)

Perhaps recognizing that such a recorded vote could only hurt their members, the Senate's Republican leadership (if it really can be called such) used the time-dishonored tactic of pretending to not see the request.

Even though Sen. Burton Cahill had pushed the call button on her desk, notifying Senate President Bob Burns that she wanted to speak.

Even though the Senate Democrats' attorney was at the dais to make sure that they knew that Sen. Burton Cahill had something to say.

At first, I thought perhaps the Rs' move was intended to hide the fact that they didn't have the necessary 16 votes present needed to pass anything, but a call to the Senate's Rules Attorney confirmed that the 16-vote threshold only exists during Third Read votes.  All other roll call votes require just a majority of the members present.

While not all of the Rs were present (Antenori, Tibshraeny, and Carolyn Allen, and possibly one or two others were out), they still had a majority of members present.  Since no final passage votes were going to take place today, the lack of 16 votes didn't impact anything.

It looks like today's lack of transparency, like yesterday's refusal by House Commerce Chair Rep. Michele Reagan to read the names of those who signed in in support of/opposition to the proposed amendment (and Senate Judiciary chair Sen. Chuck Gray did so in the Senate only after being shamed into by the Democratic members of the committee), was all about minimizing public attention and political damage to the R members of the Senate over their activities on behalf of Big Business and their lobbyists.

Most of the public activity is completed for the day, though there will be a meeting of the Joint Committee on Capital Review at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109.  It is a regular meeting, not associated with the special session.

Edit to add...

Just received a press release from the AZ Senate Democrats.

From the press release -

“In the Senate, we have rules of procedure and these rules should be abided by in order to keep the process fair and diligent,” said Burton Cahill. “By ignoring the light, the Senate President circumvents the stated rules of procedure. I verbally asked to be recognized and was still denied the opportunity to make a motion. If it was a matter of the Senate President overlooking the light, he should have taken corrective action and allowed me to speak. If he saw the light and ignored it, that action is an abuse of our own rules.”

End edit...

Later...