Redistricting update: New meeting scheduled

I promised an update when more info was available.  Here's some...

From Steve Muratore at the newest blog on the Arizona political scene, Eagle-tarian (quoting a letter from Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch to Kirk Adams and Russell Pearce:

I have directed staff to schedule a Commission meeting as soon as possible to address the contents of your letter.


As is the case with all Commission meetings, this will be a public meeting. I encourage all those interested in the process to attend and consider providing comment for the benefit of the Commission, as it considers the issues you have raised.

Later in his post, Steve reports:

Annette Corallo, program specialist at the AZ Supreme Court told me the meeting has been scheduled for December 29 at 9 am at the state court building, 1500 W. Washington, Phoenix.

Mark your calendars folks.

Steve has been at the interview and screening meetings, too, and he has some great insights into the Pearce/Adams demagoguery over this matter.  His blog is new but definitely worthy of a read, and is listed on the blogroll at the right of this page.

Later...

Redistricting update: They're already going to the mattresses

"Going to the mattresses" is a quote from the movie "The Godfather", meaning that a Mob organization was preparing for a war with a rival organization by looking for apartments for their soldiers to conduct operations from.  They would buy a number of mattresses for their people to sleep on while there, hence the phrase.

In the political context, it means "bring in the lawyers."  Where "process" doesn't generate desired outcomes, litigation is the alternative.

We're seeing that phenomenon happen with Arizona's redistricting process.

That's not entirely unexpected as redistricting *anywhere* usually brings lawsuits.

Usually however, they wait until maps are drawn before litigating or threatening to litigate.

Here in Arizona though, we are fortunate to have political prodigies like Russell Pearce and Kirk Adams.

They're not waiting for new legislative and Congressional district maps to be drawn.

They're not even waiting for the panel that will draw the maps to be formed.

From Mary Reinhart at the Arizona Guardian (subscription required) -

GOP threatens lawsuit over redistricting panel

GOP legislative leaders Tuesday called on a state commission to reconsider its nominations to a new redistricting panel or face a lawsuit.

A lawsuit, also known as the "Goldwater Institute attorney full employment initiative."

To be fair, the Democratic leadership is responding with its own "going to the mattresses" pledge.

From an Arizona Republic piece by Mary Jo Pitzl -

Democrats, meanwhile, said their Republican counterparts were wrong to meddle with the process.

"The whole intent of this process was to keep lawmakers out of it," said Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.

If the nominating commission reconfigures its list of 25 candidates, Campbell predicted a lawsuit.

"Once that list has been released and certified, I don't think you can go back and do it over again," he said.

I've got call calls out to the Arizona Attorney General's Office (regarding a question about who would handle a lawsuit from Adams and Pearce - lawyers working for the AG's office, the legislature, the Party (s), or someone else) and to the Appellate Court Appointments Commission (regarding a question about any future meetings to address this current GOP-generated kerfluffle).

Updates as more info becomes available.

BTW - this may be the first time in history where a written piece has both the word "kerfluffle" and the phrase "going to the mattresses" in it.  They generally aren't known for their juxtaposition.   :)

Redistricting update: GOPTaliban claims a victim

From the Arizona Daily Star -

A member of a state nominating panel is resigning amid controversy over his remarks during voting last week on an applicant for appointment to the state redistricting commission.


Tempe attorney Louis Araneta had voiced concern about blurring the separation of church and state while discussing Tucson businessman Christopher Gleason's application, which included references to Gleason's involvement with a Christian community service organization.

That didn't take long.

No word as yet on whether the Center for Arizona Theocracy Policy is cutting a notch on Kirk Adams' leash...

AZGOPer using the legislature to advertise for one of his contributors

From a press release from the Arizona Senate Republican caucus -

New Bowl Comes to Arizona


(STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – Arizona has hosted Super Bowls and National Championships. It hosts the Fiesta Bowl every year, and now a new bowl is coming to the state: the EGUMPP Grammar Bowl. Instead of football, this bowl focuses on grammar concepts and terminology.

The Grammar Bowl is open to all 9th grade students in Arizona.

Incoming Senate Education Chair Rich Crandall is a key force behind this Inaugural Grammar Bowl.

{snip}

The Grammar Bowl is sponsored by Grand Canyon University and EGUMPP (Electronic Grammar Usage Mechanics Proficiency Program), a web-based solution for learning grammar, usage, punctuation, and writing mechanics. EGUMPP was developed by Bob Safran, a publisher and business school owner who realized his incoming students had poor grammar skills.

This may be a pretty good indication of how Crandall is going operate the Senate Education Committee -

Safran publishes curricula materials for the homeschool market (and the software pimped in the press release, EGUMPP, is targeted for that market), and on 8/4/2010, he gave a max contribution ($410) to Crandall's Senate campaign committee (page 11 of the linked .pdf).

Heretofore, Crandall had been known as someone who wasn't a full-blown winger.  He would *occasionally* do something that could be interpreted as being in the best interests of his constituents and the state.  It didn't happen often, but it happened enough that the far right GOPers hate him.  Of course, if it happened even once, they'd have gone after him.

Now however, it looks like he is trying to out-Huppenthal former Senate Education chair and soon-to-be Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal.

Little old ladies standing near signs that are critical of him better be on alert...

Kyrsten Sinema looking for ways to reinstate funding for lifesaving transplants

From KSAZ (Fox 10 in Phoenix) -

For this story, the phrase, "cutting the fat" slices both ways.
Start with State Representative Kyrsten Sinema, who says liposuction is among billions of dollars in yearly tax exemptions in Arizona.

{snip}

Sinema argues taxing lipo could raise a couple million dollars a year, enough to pay for transplants.


"But I think liposuction is probably not one of those. If we had to close a loophole in order to pay for people like Mr. Felix to get his liver transplant, I think it's a fair thing to do," she said.

32-year-old Francisco Felix lost a chance at a liver transplant due to cuts in AHCCCS, Arizona's Medicaid agency .

Safe to say, Sinema won't be running for Congress in a district that covers any part of Scottsdale, the elective surgery capital of Arizona, any time soon.

Best way to rig a game: buy off the referee

From TPM Livewire:

Henry E. Hudson, the federal judge in Virginia who just ruled health care reform unconstitutional, owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in a GOP political consulting firm that worked against health care reform. You don't say!

So...which class in Hudson's law school alma mater (American University) teaches the maxim "If At First You Don't Succeed, Cheat"?

Republican approach to redistricting: If the facts aren't on your side, then lie

Last week, the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments finalized the short list of applicants for the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC).  The leadership of the Arizona Legislature have 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans to choose from, and their four eventual picks have five Independent candidates to choose from when they select someone to be the chair of the AIRC.

The Appellate Court Appointments did a pretty good job of screening the applicants and establishing a pool of well-qualified group for the legislators to select from.

So naturally, the Republicans, in the form of Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and House Speaker Kirk Adams, have objected strenuously to the process.

They want a do-over on the nominating and interview process so they will have fewer "qualified" applicants to select from and more "malleable" ones instead.

However, they're not getting too far with their technical objections to the process, mostly because the Appellate Court Appointments Commission didn't do anything incorrectly.

So, being good Republicans, they aren't letting a little detail like the facts aren't on their side stop them from agitating for a change in their favor.

From a press release from Kirk Adams -

“Last week, an applicant for the Independent Redistricting Commission was blocked by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, apparently because of his religious faith.  In an open meeting, a Commissioner opposed the application of Christopher Gleason for the sole reason that his application indicates he is a man of faith.

Ummm...this is one of those occasions where being a lowly unpaid blogger has its advantages.  I get to use the word "I".

I was there last week when the member of the Appellate Court Appointments Commission expressed his reservations regarding the candidacy of Mr. Gleason.

The reservations weren't over the fact that Mr. Gleason is a "man of faith" or even over his specific faith.  It was over his involvement in an organization, 4 Tucson, that desires to increase religious involvement and control of secular society.  The Appellate Court Appointments Commission member, Louis Araneta of Maricopa County, expressed the concern that there should be a "separation between church and state."

As a citizen, Gleason has the complete right to participate in such an organization.  That participation is protected by the first amendment to the United States Constitution (and probably other things, but I'm not a lawyer.  If someone wishes to add to the list, comments are open.)

However, the law creating the redistricting process mandates that the district maps produced consider many characteristics; districts that are favorable to one religious denomination or another isn't on the list. 

And neither the law nor the Constitution allow the imposition of religious standards on secular society.

It's no coincidence that the Center for Arizona Theocracy Policy is chiming in on this matter, loudly.  They've demanded the resignation of Araneta, the "offending" member of the Appellate Court Appointments Commission.

The PR full court press is on, as the Republican side of the AZ blogosphere has also jumped in on this, from Greg Patterson at Espresso Pundit through the lesser lights/press release sites like Sonoran Alliance and ICArizona.

In our society, redistricting is boring, and most folks don't pay attention to it.  Religion, however, is and has always been, one of the hottest of "hot button" topics, and it has the emotional ooomph required to motivate otherwise disinterested people to take a position on the matter without knowing the real facts of the matter.

Or even caring that their faith, the part of their being that is so important to them, is being used for base partisan politics.

This tactic is being used to bring pressure to bear on Rebecca White Berch, the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court and chair of the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.  Republican though she may be, she isn't known as a pushover, especially for the likes of noted blusterers such as Pearce and Adams. 

That leaves this move, attempting to manufacture a little targeted public outrage based on false pretenses.

Time will tell if it works.


Note: Mary Reinhart of the Arizona Guardian has a story up saying that a special meeting of the Appellate Court Appointments Commission may be called for next week, but the story is behind a subscription firewall, so I can't read the whole thing.


BTW - check out Gleason's application.  He's not "unqualified" for the AIRC per se, but his primary professional qualification seems to be that he has found a way to profit from kidney stones.  Even if one ignores his delusions of theocracy, his absence from the list of finalists still isn't exactly a huge loss for the AIRC or Arizona.

Time for a change at the DNC...

Most grassroots Democrats, and even many Independents, are thoroughly ticked off at the White House over its recent "compromise" with the Republicans over tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.  Most of us could have stomached the deal (with some changes), but the fact is it's just the latest example of the White House's complete lack of a backbone.

It's been a health care reform package that was so watered-down to appease Republicans and corpra-Dems in the Senate that it stopped being a "reform" package and started being a "corporate profit margin stabilization" package.

It's been a Wall Street regulatory package that was written by Wall Street lobbyists.

It's been dozens of issues, ones where the White House staked out one position, the Republicans staked out the opposite.  When the Rs wouldn't negotiate for the good of the American people, the White House would unilaterally move to the center. (See: replacing single-payer with a "public option" during the discussion of HCR).  And then when the Rs wouldn't talk even then, the White House would self-negotiate themselves into the position that the Rs never left (see: Changing the public option into only a mandate that Americans purchase private health insurance).

And now they don't even have that much, thanks to today's ruling by a federal judge.


As a result of the spinelessness of the White House and the leadership of the Democratic National Committee, Democrats at all levels lost races this year as many voters abandoned the Democratic Party even though the Democratic positions on most issues synch up pretty completely with the majority of Americans.

However, most voters, hell, most *people* won't support a party that they don't respect, regardless of positions on specific issues, and nobody respects spinelessness.

It's time for a change.

It's the time to make the push to return Howard Dean to the DNC chairmanship.

His "50 state strategy", implemented during his tenure as DNC chair after 2004, is widely credited as one of the reasons for the significant Democratic gains in 2006 and also as a major part of Barack Obama's success in 2008.

In every state in the country, as well as the territories, the local Democratic Party organizations are holding their biennial reorganization meetings. We need to see that each state org elects officers and National Committee representatives who will support and push for a change at the top of the DNC.

Toward that end, a website, Draft Howard Dean For DNC Chair 2011, has been put up at dean4dnc.org.  There is also a Facebook page of the same name.

Both are designed to help with organization and communication in this effort.

Right now, the effort is focused on the various state parties, which are going through their biennial reorganizations.


If you are a Democrat, lobby your local state committee members. Talk to DFA members and encourage them to do the same.  Let them know that you support electing state party officers and National Committee members who support a change.

The current chair of the DNC has helped turn an organization that is supposed to be dedicated to electing all Democratic candidates into an organization that is focused on one candidate.

Even if that focus is detrimental to the success of all of the other Democratic candidates on the ballot.

This is the time for a strong grassroots effort to start moving the party, and the country, forward again.

And if you aren't a Democrat, do the same things - we're all in this together.

We need everyone who cares about the future of the country and the people of America to lend their voices to this.

Help return Howard Dean as chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Stay tuned, and stay active.

Government Transparency Taking An Early Christmas Break In Arizona

When Kirk Adams took over as Speaker of the Arizona House in 2009, he and the rest of the Republicans pledged that Arizona's legislature and its operations would be more transparent than it had been.

After years of dealings conducted in an environment so murky that even legislators had just a few minutes or hours to study legislation before them, it sounded as if *something* was going to improve on West Washington.

Then reality hit, with the crafting of "budgets" behind closed doors without public input and feedback, a massive number of "stealth" legislation pushed via strike-everything amendments or slipped into budget reconciliation bills, and the ramming through of bad bills despite massive public opposition.

That disregard for transparency and the public is continuing this week.

- Tuesday at 10 a.m., the Joint Legislative Income Tax Credit Review Committee will meet in House Hearing Room 3 (HHR3).  They'll be reviewing seven income tax credits.

Six of those will be reviewed in executive session, meaning there won't be any public observation of the proceedings, nor will the public have access to the records of the proceedings.

- Tuesday at 1 p.m., the Joint Committee on Capital Review will meet in Senate Hearing Room 109 (SHR109). 

They'll be considering six items, one of which will be conducted in executive session.  That doesn't sound *too* bad, until you realize that the item that they'll be hiding from public scrutiny is a contract for an "Energy Management System" for the Arizona Department of Corrections.

- Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., also in SHR109, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee will meet.  They'll consider five items on their agenda.

Consideration of four of those items will be cloaked in secrecy.

Those items include a Request for Proposals for 5000 private prison beds and consideration of Correction Health Services Per Diem rates.

An interesting pattern of trying to obscure the machinations of certain public officials, especially in light of the fact of the close ties between Jan Brewer, (Senate President-elect) Russell Pearce, and private prison lobbyists.

While the lack of transparency is deplorable, I actually understand the need for it in this situation -

If the people of Arizona to notice that Brewer and Pearce (and Senseman, Coughlin, et. al.) are sacrificing the lives of other Arizonans by redirecting the $4.5 million that they are "saving" by cutting out transplants from AHCCCS coverage in favor of funnelling the funds (and more) into the pockets of private prison operators, the gravy train on West Washington could be derailed.

Here's hoping...

Republicans looking to change the nomination process for the Redistricting Commission

From the Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) -

Republican legislative leaders aren't happy with their choices for the Independent Redistricting Commission and are asking that a nominating commission reconvene and reconsider.

Kirk Adams, the Republican Speaker of the Arizona House, and Russell Pearce the Tea Party Republican President of the Arizona Senate, profess reservations about the eligibility of three members of the pool - two, Republicans Mark Schnepf and Stephen Sossaman. are members of water district boards, and one, independent Paul Bender, has held offices in a couple of tribal courts.  Redistricting commission members cannot have held public office within the last three years.  However, the tribal courts are part of sovereign nations, not Arizona.
Whatever the letter to Chief Justice Berch says, however, the Republicans seem to have two real main objections to the list of candidates that they have to choose from.

1.  Nine of the ten R candidates are from Maricopa County.  Under the law, only two of the four members can be from the same county.  As both Kirk Adams and Chad Campbell (the House Democratic leader) are expected to pick Maricopa County residents, that would leave one eligible person for Russell Pearce to pick, Benny White of Tucson.

2. OK, they reallllllly don't want Bender in the pool of applicants.  Apparently, his personal politics make most Democrats look like the second coming of Barry Goldwater. 

The word from sources is that Pearce and Adams don't have much of a shot with this, but since we are in Arizona, the place where the principle of the rule of law has been replaced by the principle of IOKIYAR, anything could still happen.

Stay tuned...

ADP Chair race: Cherny close to announcing

Sources close to Andrei Cherny say that he is likely to officially announce that he will be a candidate for the chairmanship of the Arizona Democratic Party when it meets in January for it biennial reorganization meeting.

Cherny was the Democratic nominee for Arizona State Treasurer this year and he has been an Assistant Ariizona Attorney General, White House adviser/economic policy wonk, author, and officer in the United States Naval Reserve.

Assuming the sources are correct, Cherny will join Rodney Glassman (subscription needed) and (sort of*) Don Bivens in the race for the chairmanship.

* - At the meeting of the ADP's state committee in November, Bivens "sort of" announced his candidacy for reelection.  However, many observers at the time thought that the announcement was intended to fend off fringe candidacies.

If so, it seems to have worked so far - haven't heard of any fringe candidates yet.

Tedski at R-Cubed has his take on the race in this post from November.

Later...

Filibuster...

...of the old-fashioned, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" variety.

This one stars Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is making a stand against the "compromise" that the White House made with Congressional Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

I don't know how long it will last, but you can watch it on the C-SPAN2 video feed on the cspan.org website.

Sad to say, the best Democrat in the Senate may not be a Democrat at all...

Candidates for MCDP officer spots

On Saturday, after the funeral services of teacher, lawyer, author, and  long-time community and Chicano activist Cecilia Esquer, the Maricopa County Democratic Party will convene its biennial reorganization meeting where they will select officers for the 2011-2012 election cycle. 

The funeral service will be at the Newman Center in Tempe at 10:30 a.m.  The MCDP meeting will be at 1 p.m. at IBEW Local 640 in Phoenix.

While other candidates may be nominated from the floor, the following people have announced their candidacies for the various offices -

Chair - Ann Wallack, current MCDP chair, from Phoenix (LD11)

1st Vice Chair - Jerry Gettinger, from Scottsdale (LD8) and Lauren Kuby, from Tempe (LD17)

2nd Vice Chair - Arif Kazmi, from Chandler (LD21)

Treasurer - Steven Slugocki, current MCDP Secretary, from Phoenix (LD7)

Secretary - Lawrence Robinson, from Phoenix (LD16)

Sergeant at Arms - Ken Barner, from Mesa (LD21)


MCDP, in conjuction with Representative-elect Ruben Gallego, is conducting a toy drive for the children of Guadalupe and is asking interested attendees to bring a new unwrapped toy to the meeting to help make the toy drive successful.


See you Saturday!

And the first one out of the gate is...

...State Sen.-elect David Schapira (D-LD17).

The first bill proposal posted on the Arizona Legislature's website for the 50th Session is Schapira's SB1001, relating to transplant services and AHCCCS.

If passed (and I'm under no illusions that it will be), it would remove the exclusions of various transplant services from being paid for by AHCCCS, Arizona's version of Medicaid.

It's too late for Mark Price, one of the first people who were denied a needed transplant, but it may not be too late the other patients who have been endangered by the Governor's quest to destroy Arizona's social safety net.

Later...

Arizona Democrats call on the Governor to restore transplant funding

David Schapira, Senate Democratic leader-elect, Chad Campbell, House Democratic leader-elect, transplant patients, and health care providers called on the Republicans in the legislature and the Governor's office to correct their "mistake"* of cutting AHCCCS funding for transplants.

The press conference video from earlier this week -


12/07/2010 - AHCCCS Transplant Program Press Conference from ACTV on Vimeo.


The press release from the Arizona House Democratic Caucus is here.

* = They call it a mistake, but I think they are being overly charitable toward the Republicans.  I think it was a decision made after a careful calculation, one where the Rs determined that they were less bothered by dead poor people than by corporations paying a marginally higher amount of taxes.