Legislative schedule - week starting 4/3/2022

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to propagate propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority.  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language into the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one.  

We've entered "hurry up and wait" time at the Arizona State Legislature as the Republican leadership at the lege scurries about, crafting a state budget out of the view of the public and most of the membership of the lege behind closed doors, to be handed down in its entirety for a vote by the lege.

I don't expect that this process will take *too* long, as this is an election year - most politicians would rather be out campaigning than be at the Capitol.

As of right now, no regular committees are scheduled to meet at the lege.

From the lege's official calendar -

The one committee that is scheduled to meet is not a regular one.

On Thursday, 4/7 at 2 p.m., the House Ad Hoc Committee on International Affairs meets in HHR1.  No bills on the agenda (there never are for ad hoc committees), just a speaker from the German consulate in Los Angeles.

Cawthorn learns one of Cheeto's lessons - don't take responsibility for your own acts

If at first you don't succeed, blame someone that has nothing to do with it in the first place.

From NBC -

Cawthorn responds to GOP backlash over ‘orgy’ comments by blaming Democrats for his remarks

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., broke his silence Friday after days of GOP uproar over his remarks on a podcast claiming congressional colleagues were using drugs and inviting him to sex parties.

But in a lengthy statement, Cawthorn attempted to distance himself from his own comments by suggesting it was Democrats and the media that made the allegations about cocaine use and orgies.

“My comments on a recent podcast appearance calling out corruption have been used by the left and the media to disparage my Republican colleagues and falsely insinuate their involvement in illicit activities," he said in statement posted to Twitter.

Now, I may be a thoroughgoing wiseass, but even I won't speculate as to the truth of Cawthorn's "cocaine and orgies" allegations...unless "snorting K Street lobbyists' money while engaged in a group screwing over of the American people" qualifies.

Of course, Cawthorn doesn't seem like a big 'metaphor' guy.

Maybe Rep. Kevin McCarthy needs to engage the services of a colorectal surgeon

He seem to have a brash asshole to deal with, and an asshole is still an asshole.

From TalkingPointsMemo -

The Uncanny Fall of the Feral Man-Boy Madison Cawthorn

I’ve been fascinated by the evolving Madison Cawthorn ‘scandal’. As TPM Readers know as well as anyone, House Republicans saying batsh*t insane stuff pretty much weekly. They not infrequently make statements in support of fringe racist and domestic terror groups. They endorse borderline sedition (light treason, if you will). These pass with as little trace as a brief summer shower. Yet here we have Cawthorn whipping out this weird Boogie Nights reverie about cocaine-filled orgies among his colleagues in Congress, a den of iniquity the brash young man-boy Cawthorn says he is striving to keep himself pure from. And yet this looks to be on the verge of making him a political dead man walking among congressional Republicans. Kevin McCarthy said yesterday that Cawthorn has “lost my trust” and that if he doesn’t shape up he could be stripped of his committee assignments or worse.

McCarthy and Politico describe this as just the latest of Cawthorn’s misdeeds. But the truth is that I haven’t heard McCarthy or any other congressional Republican express any problem with Cawthorn until this comment. How is it this that is just a step too far? Maybe I’m naive but I don’t think anyone believes that there’s a big swinger cocaine scene up on Capitol Hill, as he claimed. A few people? Sure, maybe. But I don’t think that would spur this kind of furious response. I assume this would just be more nonsense everyone would ignore. But far, far from it. Now North Carolina’s senior Senator, Tom Tillis, says he’s backing Cawthorn’s primary opponent. In the context of electoral politics, that’s little short of a death sentence.

WebMD has a list of such surgeons in DC; of course, McCarthy and most of the members of his caucus have their craniums lodged so firmly up the butts, the surgeons may not be able to help him or them.

Dougie declares his candidacy for the R nomination for *something*; I'm not yet sure for what, but he's running for it.

From AP -

Arizona governor signs bills limiting abortion, trans rights

Arizona’s Republican governor signed a series of bills Wednesday targeting 

abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states 

pursuing a conservative social agenda.

The measures signed by Gov. Doug Ducey will outlaw abortion after 

15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation 

surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls and 

women’s sports teams.

From NPR -

Arizona Republicans enact a controversial new proof-of-citizenship voting law

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday signed legislation to expand U.S. citizenship voting requirements in the state, a measure that critics warn will jeopardize the voter registrations of thousands of Arizona residents.

In signing House Bill 2492, Ducey disputed testimony from local officials and voting rights advocates who say an unknown number of voters — predominantly older, longtime Arizona residents — will be purged from the state's voter rolls because the last time they registered to vote, there was no requirement to provide proof of citizenship. Critics say those voters would then need to register again.

If nothing else, Ducey has announced that he's got at least one thing in common with each member of the GQP base - he's as much a hater as any of them.

Candidates aren't the only choices that will be on the ballot

This post isn't meant to a competitor to Blog for Arizona's post on the same topic; it's more a supplement.

It's unlikely that all of these will obtain enough signatures to make it to the ballot; these are just open filings with the Arizona Secretary of State. 

There were some efforts to recall specific elected officials (which failed) and to refer some legislative misdeeds to the ballot (many of which succeeded, but have been litigated in court).  Those are not included here.

The initiative and referenda applications:

Name: Arizona Spartan Amendment 

Organization behind the initiative: Arizona Spartan Amendment Project

Petition Serial Number: C-01-2022

This one seems to based on right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Name: THE ARIZONA GENOMES STEWARDSHIP ACT, 2022

Organization behind the initiative: C.O.W.W. (Citizens Of Western Watersheds)-PAC

Petition Serial Number: C-02-2022

Name:  Prevent Cruelty To Farm Animals

Organization behind the initiative: Arizonans Against Farmed Animal Cruelty

Petition Serial Number: I-01-2022

Name: This Voters' Right to Know Act

Organization behind the initiative: Voters' Right to Know

Petition Serial Number: I-04-2022

Name: Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act

Organization behind the initiative: Arizonans Fed Up with Failing Healthcare (Healthcare Rising AZ)

Petition Serial Number: I-05-2022

Name: Arizonans for Voter ID

Organization behind the initiative: Arizona Free Enterprise Club

Petition Serial Number: I-08-2022

The AZ Free Enterprise Club competes with The Goldwater Institute and the Republican caucus of the Arizona State Legislature for the "We're all about enhancing corporate profits at the expense of real people" Award; as such, I'll be opposing this one if it makes it to the ballot.

Name: Students for Affordable Tuition

Organization behind the initiative: Students for Affordable Tuition (Arizona Students' Association)

Petition Serial Number: I-09-2022

Name: The Arizona Fire District Safety Act

Organization behind the initiative: Support Arizona Fire Districts (Sponsored by the PFFA)

Petition Serial Number: I-12-2022

This one may make it to the ballot another way - there's a striker, or strike-everything amendment, to SCR1049 floating around the legislature that does the same thing.

Name: Easier to Vote, Harder to Cheat

Organization behind the initiative: Easier to Vote, Harder to Cheat Committee

Petition Serial Number: I-15-2022

This one is fronted by Lee Miller, who is a lawyer who works with Dennis Wilenchik, who repped Cyber Ninjas during their fraudit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.  If this one makes the ballot, I will be voting against it.

Name: Arizonans For Free and Fair Elections

Organization behind the initiative: Arizonans For Free and Fair Elections (ADRC Action)

Petition Serial Number: I-16-2022

A federal judge ruins Cheeto's day

From CNN -

Judge: 'More likely than not' that Trump 'corruptly attempted' to block Congress from counting votes on January 6

A federal judge said Monday that former President Donald Trump and right-wing attorney John Eastman may have been planning a crime as they sought to disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the presidential election.

"Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021," Judge David Carter wrote Monday.

Now, I'm far from being an expert on the legal system (as anyone who knows me can attest :) ), but it sounds like that the probable cause threshold has been reached.  Just a guess here, but I think subpoenas are about to become warrants.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. :) :)

The AZGOP may some need some lessons on both history and delivering insults

From Twitter -

Two points here:

1. Equating Joe Biden to an underrated president (and the best ex-president ever) isn't necessarily a bad thing for Biden.

2. Don Rickles may not be available for "insult" lessons (he died in 2017) but journalist Robert Caro *is* available for "history" lessons; of course, the AZGOP may not be willing to hear from him - as far as I can tell, he never worked for the Washington Examiner (the source of the story in their tweet).

Note: the linked video is from 2003, but I loved his LBJ books, so I'm including it.

Matt Gaetz proves that he's an idiot. Again.

From Twitter -

Guessing that right about now, Cheeto is throwing a tantrum...or asking Vlad for some Russian hookers

From Newsweek -

Trump's Georgia Rally Sees 'Smallest Crowd' in State Since 2016: Reporters

Former President Donald Trump's Georgia rally on Saturday failed to draw the

 

number of supporters he has been accustomed to in the southern state,

 

according to multiple journalists covering the event.Trump held the event 

 

in support of several of Georgia's Republican primary candidates in 

 

Commerce, Georgia, which is about an hour drive northeast of

 

Atlanta. While the former president has regularly seen tens of thousands attend

 

his events in the state, as well as other states across the country, journalists assessed

 

that the crowd size was underwhelming this weekend.

Of course, Vlad has his own problems.

Legislative schedule - week starting 3/27/2022

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to propagate propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority.  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language into the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

This post will be at once easier and more difficult - there will be fewer agendas to go over (that's the "easier" part), but some of those agendas will be much longer (that's the "more difficult" part). :)

On Monday, 3/28 -

House Appropriations meets at 9:30 a.m. in HHR1.  18 bills on the agenda, but no strikers.  Included are SB1211, requiring school to make available for parental review all learning materials used in the school; SB1566, dinging the Arizona Bar Association, SB1718, appropriating $1,140,800 from the state's general fund to a "border security fund"; and SCR1018, expressing the legislature's gratitude for Arizona's essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.  My guess is that while most of the Rs will vote for this measure, most won't actually mean it.

Senate Government meets at 4 p.m. in SHR1 where chair Kelly Townsend will conduct her 2020 election-related inquisition questioning of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.  My expectation is that this will be less a fair hearing and more an exercise in a modern version of auto-da-fé.

On Tuesday, 3/29 -

Senate Appropriations meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  A daunting 41 bills on the agenda, with 21 strikers to be offered.  With many of the strikers, the text isn't available as yet.  Language *is* available for few.  Some of those are a striker to HB2050, related to licensing marijuana dispensaries; a striker for HB2528, taking $100,000,000 from federal American Rescue Plan funds and giving it to the state's housing trust fund; a striker to HB2543, creating a tax credit for craft distillers, farm wineries, and microbreweries.  This is a zombie version of SB1408, which was assigned to House Ways & Means, but there was no action on the measure there, so it died; a striker to HB2637, barring financial institutions from discriminating against someone based on their political or social values. This is a zombie version of HB2656, which died twice on the House floor;  a striker to HB2278, expanding school vouchers;  a striker to HB2675, mandating that DPS collect data on crimes based on antisemitism.  Guessing that Sen. Wendy Rogers won't vote for this one if it makes it to the Senate floor; and a striker to HCR2017, removing merit selection of judges in Pinal County.  This is a zombie version of SCR2018, which was assigned to Senate Judiciary but not considered there.  The current population threshold for merit selection of judges is 250K.  Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties meet that, with Yavapai County being close.  This proposal would raise that threshold to 800K, leaving only Maricopa and Pima counties with state-mandated merit selection.  Coconino County has merit selection, but that was implemented via a county referendum, not a state requirement.

Other bad bills on the agenda: HB2473, barring the state from contracting with a company that discriminates against a gun entity; and HB2166, exempting guns, ammunition, and gun safety equipment from sales tax.  JLBC estimates that this measure would result in the state, counties, and cities losing more than $10 million in revenue annually.

The  strikers offered that don't have language available as yet have titles like "charter schools; CTE" and "custody; parenting; child preference".

On Thursday, 3/31 -

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  No bills on the agenda, just some executive nominations to consider/rubber stamp.

Federal Committee update

From the website of the Federal Election Commission -

Republican Callan looks to be a finance guy at a car dealer.

Libertarian Likins is running for Congress in AZ2.

Committee update - County edition

I wasn't going to do one of these posts, as this isn't an election year for major county offices.  However, with the resignation of county attorney Allister Adel, two major offices will be on the ballot this year - County Attorney and District 2 County Supervisor.

The one Democrat in the group, Julie Gunnigle, is an attorney and was a candidate for Maricopa County Attorney in 2020.  I went to sign her petition online, but it was closed as she as already gained enough signatures to get on the ballot.

Pic courtesy her website.

Foster is an attorney and an insider.  Adel may have been Bill Montgomery's choice for the office; Foster may be Doug Ducey's.  Not exactly a positive character reference.  Plus her campaign committee paperwork is also filled with insiders.

Twist is characterized as a "GOP power broker" by the AZ Mirror; I would characterize him as a "fixer".  Ragan is a former aide to former US Senator Jon Kyl,  someone with strong ties to Kirk Adams, former chief of staff to Doug Ducey, and the current treasurer for gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, another insider.

Republican Godbehere is a career prosecutor, with MCAO and now, the City of Goodyear.

ABC15 (Phoenix) has an article about the race that lists three additional candidates, but as of this writing, only the above-named three candidates have committees listed on the county's website.

Caveat: committees are about raising and expending funds. Sigs can still be collected without the formation of a committee.

Candidates just can't spend money while doing so.

As Supervisorial District 2 is not my district, I'll skip over that race for now.

Epic fail: Cruz brings kids' books to the Senate. Again.

From CNN -

What the children's books Ted Cruz referenced at Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing really say

Ted Cruz thrust several books into the spotlight after his puzzling line of questioning at Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

In a hearing ostensibly meant to assess whether Jackson is qualified to serve on the highest court in the land, the Republican senator brought up critical race theory -- an academic concept taught primarily at the university and graduate levels that has since turned into a political flashpoint -- in K-12 schools.

As part of his questioning, Cruz presented a handful of books that he claimed were taught at Georgetown Day School -- an elite, private school in Washington, DC whose board Jackson serves on. Among the titles he mentioned were "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction" by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; "The End of Policing" by Alex S. Vitale and "How to be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi.

Cruz focused the bulk of his questions, however, on two children's books -- "Antiracist Baby" and "Stamped (For Kids)." And his characterizations of those titles were largely distorted.

Of course, he *does* have something of a track record.

From The Daily Beast in 2013 -

Ted Cruz Recites 'Green Eggs and Ham'

Around 8 p.m. EST, Ted Cruz’s fauxlibuster took an odd turn when he decided it would be appropriate to read his daughters a bedtime story. The Texas senator began to recite Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham on the Senate floor, with dramatic pause and all. “Green Eggs and Ham has some applicability, as curious as it may sound, to the Obamcare debate,” Cruz said once he had finished. Americans “did not like green eggs and ham, and they did not like Obamacare either.” Watch Cruz’s entire rendition here.

There was one major difference - in 2013, when Cruz read Green Eggs and Ham, he didn't have a beard.

And he did a really good impression of a putz.

pic courtesy The Daily Beast

Now, he has a beard, so when he reads from a children's book, he does a good impression...of a putz with a beard.

pic courtesy CNN

There's no word on if he brought the books to Montana with him, or if he brought one (Green Eggs and Ham?) to Cancun.

Hey, it could be worse - the feds could have offered the would-be Whitmer kidnappers Busch beer and hamburgers from McDonalds.

Of course, the wannabes probably would have followed the example of their leader, His Royal Cheetoness, and referred to them as "hamberders".

From the Detroit Free Press (behind a paywall) -

Witness: Feds set up Whitmer kidnap suspects by promising beer, Buffalo Wild Wings

An undercover informant offered jurors a more detailed look at how the FBI pulled off a sting that led to the arrests of the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plot suspects: They promised them beer and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Tweet from Rafe Bartholomew, an author -

I've got a brilliant idea for Cheeto's next gig!

From Reuters -

Brazil's Bolsonaro says VP Mourao will not be his election running mate

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that Vice President Hamilton Mourao will not be his running mate in October's election, but declined to name his choice for the role.

Bolsonaro, who will seek a second term, said in an interview with TV Jovem Pan that Mourao - a retired army general - will run for Senate in the state of Rio Grande do Sul with his support.

At least a Senate seat is better than what Cheeto's supporters (and Cheeto?) intended for Mike Pence.

I *do* think that Cheeto would take the Brazilian VP gig...if they throw in a couple of porn stars...and build something named after him.

Of course, there was a bit of a "problem" with that last when they tried to build something there named after him.