Arizona's ballot questions

With early ballots soon coming to a mailbox near you, I thought it was time to do a post like this.

During some election years, the state legislature refers some measures to the ballot that are worth voting for.

This isn't such a year.

Some of the schemes referred to the ballot by the lege are thing they *have* to refer to ballot; some were referred to get around a veto by Governor Hobbs; but all are bad for the people of Arizona.

Every measure referred by the legislature falls into one of two categories:

1. Shameless power grabs by the lege.

2. Shameless espousing of propaganda.

As such, *all* such measures (those referred by the Rs in the legislature) should be opposed by voters.

The list of state-level ballot measures, from the Arizona Secretary of State, is here.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has a list here. (select "2024 - General" and "All Counties " and click on "See All".)

Note: neither of these espouses a position on any measure.

The guide from the group Civic Engagement Beyond Voting is here.

Note: this one takes a position on each measure.

The list of analyses of the ballot measures from the Legislative Council's office is here.

Note: officially, they don't take a position on any of the measures.  Practically, Lege Council is a bunch of lawyers who work for the Republicans in the state legislature.  Anything they produce regarding ballot measures (and many other topics) should simply be viewed as partisan garbage.

Note2:  When I write about a similar bill in the other chamber, I only looked for a CR introduced in the same year.

On to the questions themselves -

Prop 133 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to allow the legislature to override all municipal laws regarding primary elections.  Started life as HCR2033, sponsored by Austin Smith (a similar measure was introduced in the Senate, SCR1036. It was introduced by Justine Wadsack and Anthony Kern.). NO.

Prop 134 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to limit the ability of voters to put questions on the ballot by requiring that a certain number of signatures be gathered from each legislative district.  Started life as SCR1015, proposed by JD Mesnard, Ken Bennett, Steve Kaiser, Sine Kerr Warren Petersen, Timothy Dunn, Travis Grantham, and Ben Toma. (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2041, proposed by David Marshall, Sr., Lupe Diaz, John Gillette, Liz Harris, Laurin Hendrix, Rachel Jones, and Austin Smith

The one that made the ballot was supported by the Republican leaders in both chambers. NO.

Prop 135 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to limit the governor's emergency powers.  This looks to be a two-fer - it's both a push-back against Covid mitigation efforts and the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs to the job of governor.  Started life as HCR2039, introduced by Joe Chaplik and Alexander Kolodin (no similar Senate bill).  NO.

Prop 136 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to allow anyone to sue to make a voter-proposed ballot go away.  Another attempt to limit the ability of voters to propose laws. Started life as SCR1041, sponsored by JD Mesnard (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2049, proposed by Neal Carter).  NO

Prop 137 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to eliminate judicial retention elections.  There's a sneaky clause in it to exempt the anti-choice justices on the Arizona Supreme Court who are up for retention this year (and face a campaign to remove them from the bench) from this year's election.  Started life as SCR1044, proposed by David Gowan and Janae Shamp (no similar House bill).  Hell NO.

Prop 138 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution to pay tipped employees 25% less than minimum wage.  Supported by industry; opposed by decent human beings.  Started life as SCR1040, sponsored by JD Mesnard (no similar House bill).  Hell NO.

Prop 139 - referred to the ballot by the public.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution.  Would create a constitutional right to an abortion.

Hell YES.  The only measure worthy of support.

Prop 140 - referred to the ballot by the public.  A proposal to amend the state's constitution.  Would create a jungle primary where all candidates would run in a single primary, regardless of partisan affiliation, and twice the number of candidates as offices to be elected would go on to the general election.  Do I believe that AZ's primary needs fixing? Yes.  Do I believe that a jungle primary will do it?  No.

Like ineffective term limits, this is just a lazy way to address a problem.

NO.

Prop 311 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023.  A proposal to amend the state's laws to create a cash death benefit for the spouses or children of first responders killed in the line of duty.  The measure would pay for the death benefit by imposing an additional fee on people convicted of crimes.  It also characterizes police officers/sheriff's deputies/etc. as "first responders".  Started life as SCR1006, proposed by David Gowan (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2025, proposed by Kevin Payne).  As defendants convicted of crimes already have many fees imposed on them and firefighters/EMTs/etc. aren't known for killing unarmed civilians and don't deserve to be equated to police officers of any sort, NO.

Prop 312 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's laws to create an ability of people with homes to apply for a property tax refunds if they feel that their municipalities don't do enough to hide homeless people.  Started life as HCR2023, proposed by Ben Toma (a similar measure was introduced in the Senate, SCR1006, proposed by veritable rogues' gallery of sponsors - Warren Petersen, Shawnna Bolick, Frank Carroll, John Kavanagh, Sine Kerr, Wendy Rogers, TJ Shope, and Justine Wadsack).  NO.

Prop 313 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's laws to require that someone convicted of child sex trafficking receive a punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Started life as SCR1021, sponsored by many members - Bolick, Bennett, Borrelli, Carroll, Farnsworth, Gowan, Hoffman, Kavanagh, Kern, Kerr, Mesnard, Petersen, Rogers, Shamp, Shope, Wadsack, Biasiucci, Bliss, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Cook, Diaz, Dunn, Gillette, Grantham, Gress, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Livingston, Marshall, Martinez, McGarr, Montenegro, Nguyen, Parker B, Parker J, Payne, Peña, Pingerelli, Smith, Toma, Willoughby, and Wilmeth (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2042, proposed by Bliss, Biasiucci, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Cook, Diaz, Dunn, Gillette, Grantham, Gress, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Livingston, Marshall, Martinez, McGarr, Montenegro, Nguyen, Parker B, Parker J, Payne, Peña, Pingerelli, Smith, Toma, Willoughby, and Wilmeth).  As the legislature thinks this is a good idea, so NO.

Note3: I had to use copy-and-paste for lists this long.

Prop 314 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's laws to enshrine bigotry.  If passed by the voters, it would make undocumented immigration into the U.S. a locally-enforced crime.  There are other clauses in the measure, but all are about the R mantra of "fear the other".  Started life as HCR2060, proposed by Ben Toma (no similar Senate bill).  Oh, Hell NO.

Prop 315 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024.  A proposal to amend the state's laws to all but eliminate rulemaking by state agencies. Would mandate that the legislature approve any rule created by a state agency that would increase regulatory costs by $500K over five years.  Started life as SCR1012, proposed by Anthony Kern, Jake Hoffman, Wendy Rogers, Justine Wadsack, Laurin Hendrix, Rachel Jones, and Alexander Kolodin (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2052, proposed by Cory McGarr, John Gillette, Gail Griffin, Justin Heap, Rachel Jones, Alexander Kolodin, Barbara Parker, and Austin Smith).  NO.

Legislative schedule - week starting 9/29/2024

Nada, as in there is nothing scheduled at this point. 

Clay Higgins' comments about Haitian immigrants were utterly bigoted and vile...but he's right about one thing.

Oh, not the comments themselves, which I've already said are utterly bigoted and vile, but something else he said while (fruitlessly) attempting to defend the comments.

From NPR -

Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins walks back racist comments about Haitians after backlash

Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins on Thursday retracted comments he made about Haitian immigrants in a now-deleted social media post.

"You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings, and that post was intended for Haitian gangs, you understand?” Higgins, a Republican, told reporters. "The unintended impact that was expressed very sincerely from one of my colleagues very graciously, that touched me as a gentleman.”

Well, one thing's clear - he's got the whole "non-apology apology" thing down pat.

He was right about one thing, though he didn't go far enough. 

From later in the same article -

Asked about his comments on CNN later Wednesday, Higgins defended the tweet.

“It’s all true,” Higgins said, according to the news organization. “I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want.”

He *does* have the right to say what he wants.

The thing is, the rest of us can evaluate his personal character based on what he says.

We have.

FBI crime stats are out, and crime is down. So whatever will Rs campaign on?

Oh, who am I trying to kid?  They're pretty notorious  - when the facts don't agree with their preferred talking points, they simply ignore the facts.

From ABCNews -

Murders down 11.6% in US as crime remains key election issue

Murders in the United States were down 11.6% in 2023, according to statistics released by the FBI Monday morning.

The murder rate went down from 6.2 per 100,000 people in 2022 to 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2023.

From the FBI's press release on the topic -

FBI Releases 2023 Crime in the Nation Statistics

The FBI released detailed data on over 14 million criminal offenses for 2023 reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program by participating law enforcement agencies. More than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies, covering a combined population of 94.3% inhabitants, submitted data to the UCR Program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Summary Reporting System.

The FBI’s crime statistics estimates, based on reported data for 2023, show that national violent crime decreased an estimated 3.0% in 2023 compared to 2022 estimates:  

• Murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded a 2023 estimated nationwide decrease of 11.6% compared to the previous year.  
• In 2023, the estimated number of offenses in the revised rape category saw an estimated 9.4% decrease.  
• Aggravated assault figures decreased an estimated 2.8% in 2023. 
• Robbery showed an estimated decrease of 0.3% nationally. 

•  

The FBI's Crime Data Explorer is here.

AZDPS' stats are here.

A couple of AZ-specific items, courtesy the FBI -

I expect Cheeto, Kari Lake, et. al to keep running ads that can be summed up as "Fear this!" and "Only I can fix what you fear!"

Arizona's public schools are leading the way...in the race to the bottom

Earlier this week, the magazine Consumer Affairs published a study that ranked public education systems in each state, and Arizona came in dead last.

From AZFamily, written by staff and Sarah Robinson, dated 9/16 -

Report ranks Arizona worst in nation for public education

A new analysis claims that Arizona ranks the worst in the nation for public education, citing examples like average ACT scores, graduation rates, overall funding and higher education quality.

ConsumerAffairs, a consumer research firm and customer review platform, analyzed data from all 50 states and found that the Grand Canyon State falls short of delivering quality education.

Tom Horne, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, pooh-poohed the results.

From the same story -

“We are last in the country, I think, in our funding per pupil,” Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said.

[snip]

Arizona also has the fifth-lowest high school graduation rate.

Horne questioned the use of graduation rates as a key metric.

“You can increase your graduation rate just by lowering your standards. And you would be graduating kids who can’t read,” he said.

[snip]

“I don’t think this is an accurate study. I think some of the aspects are,” he said

From the study-

Of course, the low ranking for public ed didn't stop Horne from running ads that shamelessly tout school vouchers to take funding from public schools and give it to private schools.

Legislative schedule - week starting 9/22/2024

With only one meeting scheduled, it's shaping up to be another relatively quiet week at the Capitol.

On Thursday, 9/26

  -

Vulnerable Adult Study Committee meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1. There's no bills on the agenda, so they're hearing and discussing a presentation from the state's Auditor General (an entity of the Rs in the legislature) on "Examining the Delivery of Services to Vulnerable Adults in the Arizona Adult Protective Services System,"

Another Cheeto (alleged) assassination attempt: Pardon, my cynicism is showing

Let me be clear:  politically-motivated violence has absolutely NO place in our society.

Period.

Not even if the alleged target is an utterly vile human being.

Having said that, I find it rather curious that when Cheeto has a bad week (and his debate performance was epically bad) he experiences an "attempted assassination" that may serve to alter his media coverage.

Cheeto may be the one person who can make Americans more cynical about politics than Richard Nixon.

Your tax money at work: Charter schools discriminate against English Language Learners

From AZFamily, written by David Baker -

Legacy Schools in Arizona discriminated against English learners

Changes are coming to 22 charter schools in Arizona after federal investigators say the network of schools discriminated against students who didn’t speak English.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced on Friday it has reached a deal with Legacy Traditional Schools after finding the violations.

Officials say the schools didn’t offer equitable learning opportunities to English language learners, failed to have qualified teachers and didn’t track their progress.

Legacy Traditional also didn’t tell parents about programs and activities in a language they could understand.

Some non-English speaking students were also given instruction in the cafeteria instead of the classroom

Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani has even praiseed one of their locations.

Wonder if his opinion of Legacy will change because of USDOJ's announcement?

Legacy Schools hides behind a byzantine collection of LLCs (and I haven't unraveled them all), but one thing is obvious - Aaron Hale, touted by Legacy Traditional as the founder of Legacy Traditional, is still involved with them 

According to the letter from USDOJ to Legacy, contained in the article, Legacy schools are managed managed by Vertex Education.

Hale owns Vertex.

From a filing with the Arizona Corporation Commission -

Hale regularly gives money to Republican candidates (and wannabes) -

David Schweikert -

Kyrsten Sinema -

Karrin Taylor Robson -

There are others, but readers get the point.  It certainly appears the Hale has received a positive return on his investment.

Still looking for ties between Vertex, Legacy, et. al., and Tom Horne, a noted bigot.  He hates English Language Learners and may approve of what Legacy did while despising the the feds caught them at it.

Legislative schedule - week starting 9/15/2024

There's actually some legislative activity this week (maybe not much, but it's still activity) -

I'm as shocked as you.

On Wednesday, 9/18 -

Joint Legislative Audit Committee meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  No bills on the agenda, but of the six items, two involve the Arizona Department of Child Safety, one involves the Arizona Adult Protective Services System, and one involves federal money to schools.  I expect this meeting to be an anti-society propaganda-fest.

I'm not going to write (much) about the content of the debate. Others will do that, and be far more eloquent than me

At least through 90 minutes

1. Harris has been great.  Facts are her friend.

2. Cheeto only spews BS when his lips are moving.

3. The hosts/moderators have an uphill battle when Cheeto is onstage.

4. I swear that as he's gotten more flustered, Cheeto's face has gotten darker.  Jus' sayin'.

I won't say that the pressure is on VP Harris but the surest way for Cheeto to lose the debate is for him to moon the camera...

...of course, I'm not sure he won't do just that.

Ron DeSantis does to one state what Cheeto wants to do to the entire country

As this is something of a family friendly blog (quit guffawing now :) ), I won't say precisely what DeSantis did to Florida (and what Cheeto wants to do to the US, but it rhymes with "truck over".

From The New Republic -

Ron DeSantis Insists Voter Intimidation Tactics Are No Big Deal

The governor defended turning Florida into a police state over the abortion rights ballot initiative.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis doubled down Monday on his decision to dispatch state police to investigate thousands of verified signatures that helped to put a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion on the ballot in November.

Following a roundtable discussion with condominium owners in Miami Lakes, Florida, DeSantis was asked to respond to reports that state residents felt “intimidated” after police officers were instructed to show up at their homes to verify signatures collected supporting an amendment that would overturn Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.

Arizona's legislative Rs attempt to influence another body

[Begin sarcasm]

I know, you're as shocked as I am that they've overstepped their bounds. Or tried to use their positions to put their fingers on the scale.

[/end sarcasm]

:)

From KTAR -

Arizona Senate Committee accuses Clean Elections of unlawful debate rule change

The Arizona Senate Committee claimed on Thursday that the Clean Elections Commission has illegally barred the Green Party’s U.S. Senate candidate from participating in upcoming general election debates.

Eduardo Quintana, 2024 Arizona Senate candidate and chair of the Green Party in Pima County, won his side of the primary as a write-in candidate but is not featured in the Oct. 9 debate to be broadcasted across several platforms by Arizona Media Association. As is, the scheduled debate will feature Republican Kari Lake and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego.

The accusation was submitted via letter by Committee Chairman Jake Hoffman in response to Clean Elections’ recent rule change that requires a candidate to have received at least 1% of total ballots counted in their primary election. According to Arizona Media Association, that 1% minimum threshold was 12,400 votes for Quintana, who only garnered 282.

I presume that the "committee" in question is Senate Government; Hoffman is chair of two Senate Government and Senate Executive Nominations aka Senate Inquisitions Committee.  And this isn't about a nomination.

Cheeto again pledges to go full dictator if he gets a 2nd term as POTUS

The story didn't mention if his statement was accompanied by foot stamping and whining.

I'm guessing that it was.

From USA Today -

Donald Trump rails against cheating in 2024 election without evidence, threatens prison sentences

Former President Donald Trump is again threatening to use executive power to jail political opponents if he's elected this fall and fraud is documented in the 2024 election, expanding his target list to include election volunteers and poll workers this fall.

In a Truth Social post late Saturday, Trump said his lawyers and other allies would be watching polling stations for alleged "cheating," echoing the false claims he has long made about the 2020 election.

Republican VP nominee JD Vance thinks that mass shooting are a "fact of life": Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz disagrees

Vance made his comment, minimizing school shootings, in Phoenix.

From Politico -

It’s ‘not a fact of life’: Walz responds to Vance’s school shooting comments

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sharply criticized Sen. JD Vance’s response to this week’s school shooting in Georgia, telling an LGBTQ+ advocacy group Saturday evening that such events are “not a fact of life.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz and Democrats have fiercely condemned Vance’s comments about the shooting after he responded to a reporter’s question Thursday by saying: “I don’t like that this is a fact of life.” A 14-year-old boy is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two fellow students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. At least nine others were wounded.

[snip]

On Saturday evening, Walz recalled Vance’s comments as he addressed the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBTQ+ advocacy group, during its annual dinner in Washington.

“It’s a fact of life some people are gay. But you know what’s not a fact of life? That our children need to be shot dead in schools,” Walz said.

“That’s not a fact of life,” he added. “Folks are banning books, but they’re okay with weapons of war being in our schools.”

Vance's comments:

From the linked AP story, emphasis added by me -

JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ and calls for better security

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Thursday that he lamented that school shootings are a “fact of life” and argued the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia.

“If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance said at a rally in Phoenix. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”

Vance has an interesting definition of dealing with it - deride and oppose efforts to address mass shooting.