Recall Pearce turns in more than 18,000 signatures

Arizona had a good day today...and Russell Pearce had a very bad day.

Today was a "historic" day, as described by Chad Snow, chairman of Citizens for a Better Arizona.. 

For the the first time in Arizona history, a sitting legislator faces a recall election.

For the first time in US history (as far as anyone can find, anyway), a sitting state senate president faces a recall election.

Monday afternoon, hundreds of supporters, ages 8 to 80, of the Recall Pearce initiative gathered at the state capitol to help turn in the petitions circulated by more than 300 volunteers who gave up their weekends and evenings to work for a better Arizona.

Reports were that Pearce was at the Capitol Monday but didn't meet with the Recall supporters, nor did he answer media questions.

They turned over 18,000 signatures, more than the number of votes Pearce received last November.

Now the process of certifying the signatures begins.  My expectations are that Pearce and his allies, which include both the governor and the secretary of state, will do everything they can to derail the movement.

When this effort began in January, many skeptics (and I freely admit, I was one of the skeptics) didn't believe that Randy Parraz and the rest of the Citizens for a Better Arizona crew could pull it together and pull it off, but they did, and regardless of whatever games the Pearce and his friends play with the certification process, all of the Citizens for a Better Arizona deserve our thanks.

Arizona Capitol Times coverage here

Arizona Republic coverage here.

Phoenix New Times coverage here.


Some pics of the day today, courtesy Robert Hääscħ, via the Recall Pearce Facebook page -

Marching from the Senate building to the Executive Tower

Filling the entrance of the Tower

Randy Parraz explaining a chart showing the number of sigs gathered

Crates full of petitions

The story of the end of Pearce's political career, if this leads to that outcome, won't be titled  "For Who The Bell Tolls" (that's been taken already by some no-name hack :)) ), ir'll be "For Whom The Papers Riffle."  Not as profound a title, but it may have as profound a meaning...

Debt Ceiling Up For A Vote Tomorrow; Nationwide Default Imminent

After weeks of posturing and playing chicken with America's economic stability (and fiscal credibility), House Republicans are bringing H.R. 1954, raising the government's debt limit, to the floor for a vote Tuesday evening.

It's a vote designed to fail - they're bringing the bill to the floor under "suspension of the rules," meaning that it will require a 2/3 vote to pass.

There are 432 members of the House right now, and 2/3 of that total is 288.  That means that if all 192 Democrats in the House voted to raise the debt limit, the measure would still need 96 Republicans to vote for it in order to pass.

However, not every D will vote for it  (though the vast majority will) plus some will be absent (i.e. - Gabby Giffords).  In other words, H.R. 1954 will need the support of somewhere between 102 and 106 Rs to pass.

Probably not going to happen.  Most of them are more interested in adhering to their economic nihilist ideology than in actually governing.

The move to require a 2/3 vote, however, frees up any Republican who is from a district that is more moderate than they are to vote for raising the debt ceiling without, you know, actually raising the debt ceiling.

The vote is scheduled for ~6:30 p.m. Eastern, or 3:30 p.m. Arizona time.  The debate on the matter will be earlier in the day, late morning or early afternoon Arizona time.

Government Executive magazine, a publication of the National Journal, offers a list of likely ramifications of default here.  For readers who believe that ultimately the Republicans will do the responsible thing here, read the list.

There's nothing on the list that the Republicans harbor any serious objections toward.

Remember

Picture of Arlington National Cemetary, Memorial Day 2010, gratefully borrowed from Arlington's website.

Courtesy the National Archives,  the state-sorted roll calls of

- WW II Army and Army Air Force dead is here

- WW II Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard dead is here

- Korean War dead is here

- Vietnam War dead is here.

An Arizona Republic article from 1999, archived by BYU, with links to lists of Arizona's war dead, is here.

2012 committees update

Edited/corrected on 5/29 per an email from frequent reader and commenter Thane.  Thanks Thane!

Edited on 5/30 per an observation from commenter Steve, to clarify some poorly crafted language.  Thanks Steve!

Things have been fairly quiet on the committee formation front, but a few new ones sprung up since the last update.

For U.S. Senate -

Douglas McKee of Ft. Mohave has filed for the Republican nomination.  Ft. Mohave (population ~14K), between Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City in the northwest corner of the state probably isn't the best place from which to launch serious statewide campaign, but I did a quick Google search on him.  His Twitter feed is here, his "fathers' rights" website is here.

Richard Grayson of Apache Junction has filed for the Green Party nomination.  He's run against Jeff Flake, the expected Republican nominee next year, in the past and is making another run.


For U. S. House -

No new committees that I could find


For statewide office -

Ken Bennett has filed an exploratory committee for a 2014 run for governor.  Not "new" news, but I hadn't found the committee on the Secretary of State's, aka, his, website.


For Arizona Legislature -

Adam Kwasman has filed for the Republican nomination for LD26 House.  According to his Linkedin page, he was the campaign manager in 2010 for Jesse Kelly's failed bid for Gabby Giffords' CD8 House seat.  The LD26 House seats are currently held by Republicans Terri Proud and Vic Williams, though after redistricting they could all end up in separate districts.

Robert McDonald Jr. has filed for the Democratic nomination for LD18 Senate.  He ran in 2010, coming in second in the Democratic primary to Andrew Sherwood.


Other state-level committees -

The Republicans have formed a committee to oppose the recall of Sen. Russell Pearce.  Yes, it's officially "non-partisan" but it is chaired by Matt Tolman, Pearce ally and friend, and more importantly for this post, former 2nd Vice Chair of the AZGOP and Chair of the LD18 Republican Party.  His Linkedin page is here.


City of Phoenix -

Phoenix' general election is in August, with the runoff (if necessary) in November.  Candidate petitions are due June 1, so I won't go over the whole list of candidates yet (mostly because it hasn't been finalized yet), but some candidates have already been certified for the ballot -

Greg Stanton for Mayor

Eric Frederick, Gary Whalen, and Thelda Williams for City Council, District 1

Jim Waring for City Council, District 2

Brenda Sperduti and Daniel Valenzuela, City Council, District 5

Arthur Olivas Jr., City Council, District 7


Tempe and Scottsdale -

There don't seem to be any new committees that I could find.



Later!

Legislative Republicans Still Scheming To Topple Voter Protection Act

The 2011 session of the legislature just ended but the Republicans in the lege are already planning for 2011.

One of the few things, perhaps the only thing, preventing the legislature from laying complete waste to Arizona's already weak societal infrastructure has been the Voter Protection Act.  The VPA, also known as "Proposition 105" was an amendment to the Arizona Constitution approved by the voters that effectively bars the legislature from interfering with any voter-approved initiatives (there are exceptions, but it takes a 3/4 vote and must further the intent of the initiative).

That safeguard has prevented the legislature from utterly destroying public education, early childhood health care, and AHCCCS, Arizona's Medicaid program (though they are trying that last anyway).

The Republicans in the lege have made periodic attempts to circumvent or overturn the measure, but those attempts have been rebuffed each time.

However, those Republicans are nothing if not persistent.  They are talking about going after the VPA again next session.

From the Arizona Capitol Times, by Jeremy Duda -

The chorus of lawmakers calling for an overhaul of the Voter Protection Act quieted to a low murmur in 2011, but supporters say the dormant issue will be back on the Legislature’s agenda next year.


Several Republican legislators said they will revive their plans to change Proposition 105, the 1998 ballot measure that strictly limits the Legislature’s ability to tamper with voter-approved measures. Legislative wins on a pair of big-ticket ballot measures, along with a standard informal agreement to steer clear of referenda in non-election years, helped keep the issue on the shelf.

Rep. Chad Campbell, House Democratic leader, was quoted in the article.

“The voters have shown time and time again that they do not want the Legislature undermining their ability to run initiatives and protect their interests. And I don’t blame the voters for that. I would agree with them.”

That pretty much sums up my take on this.  The Republicans will posture all they want, and maybe do even more to cripple the state's fiscal situation in an attempt to scare the voters into rolling over for the anti-society agenda pushed by the GOP pooh-bahs. 


However, the voters haven't done so before now, and with the growing dissatisfaction with the cold-heartedness (cutting education to pay for tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy) and corruption (Fiesta Bowl junkets, anyone?), they aren't likely to trust any ballot measure the legislature pushes targeting the voters' will.

Note:  right now, the Cap Times' piece isn't behind a paywall, but it soon could be.

The Arpaio Scandals: It's getting where you need a scorecard to tell them apart

With the latest scandal to hit Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office this week, the arrest of three MCSO employees for involvement with drug and human-trafficking cartels, it seems as if the scandals could form their own baseball team.  Here's the lineup:

Leading off and playing center field, the fleet-footed rookie above

Batting second and playing second, the politically motivated investigations and indictments of Maricopa County supervisors and Arpaio political adversaries Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox

Batting third and playing left field, the politicall motivated investigation of and charges levelled against a county judge who failed to kiss Arpaio's behind

Hitting cleanup and playing first, the news that Arpaio and his office misspent almost $100 million of jail funds

Hitting fifth and playing the hot corner (3rd base for the heathens out there :) ), former Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, who's as famous for taking one for the team as he is for hitting them out of the ballpark

Batting sixth and catching, Joel Fox and the SCA laundered campaign contributions/depraved attack ad

In the seventh spot and playing shortstop, the new linchpin of Arpaio's defense, Bill Montgomery and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of campaign finance violations

Batting eighth and playing right field, the Taj Mahal of buses, ostensibly purchased to transport prisoners, but now used to throw loyalists under in hopes that the bodies will stave off a federal indictment

And batting ninth and pitching, the master of distraction, Joltin' (rhymes with Revoltin'), Joe Arpaio.

The MCSO scandal bench is pretty deep - dead bodies at the hands of his detention officers, millions of dollars in lawsuits, junkets to Honduras to "train" the military there, just months before a right-wing military coup there, and more await their turn at the plate.

His team does have one glaring weakness - his star relief pitcher and biggest ally at the legislature, State Senator Russell Pearce, has troubles of his own.  Like a growing recall effort and a son who has been sentenced to a year in prison.  Wonder if he's going to do his time in  a luxury hotel room one of the private prisons that his father so ardently supports?

Fortunately for Arpaio, if this lineup ever sees a game, the umpire will be a federal judge, not any of the Maricopa County judges that he has tried to intimidate.

Unfortunately for him though, if this lineup ever sees a game, the opposing team captain won't be the prosecutor he's hired for his team, it'll the the US Attorney.

Schweikert makes pronounceement: Gutting Medicare is "honorable"

Big hat tip to David Safier at Blog For Arizona for noticing this.

ABC News featured an interview today with CD5's Congressman David Schweikert.  He spent his time whistling past the graveyard over the Republican loss in NY-26 last night, something which most observers (including me) attribute to the Republican candidate's whole-hearted embrace of the plan to turn Medicare into a corporate voucher plan.

Among the "highlights" -

Destroying Medicare is "based on the math."

Destroying Medicare will "save the republic."

Destroying Medicare is "the honorable" thing to do.

At the end of the interview, there was a staged, "awww, isn't that cute moment" moment with Schweikert's dog, Charlie.  Schweikert called to the dog to get him to jump up, but had to tug on his leash to get Charlie to move for the camera.

Wonder if Schweikert will be surprised when the seniors and working families that he is throwing under the bus tug on his leash?

There's a new third rail in American politics tonight

Social Security used to be called the "third rail" of American politics, implying that any politician that tried to touch it would see their political career shocked to death.

While Social Security is still vitally important to most Americans, a Republican in upstate New York learned tonight that there is a second "third rail" - Medicare.

From Talking Points Memo -

Democrat Kathy Hochul Wins Upset In NY-26, Medicare Vote Key To Victory


Republicans are going to have plenty of questions about their plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program tomorrow morning after Democrats romped to an improbable victory in a special election focused almost entirely on the issue.


Democrat Kathy Hochul lead 48-43 with over 83% of the votes counted and her victory looks to be a strong one -- the Associated Press called the race within an hour of the polls closing.

Look for Republican wags across the nation to blame the loss on the presence of a third candidate, a tea party type, in the race.

Just remind them that Hochul received approximately twice as large a percentage of the vote (48%) as the Democratic candidate in the same district received just six months ago (24%).

That's not the fault of the tea party type.

In spite of the loss, look for R office holders and seekers to double down on the "destroy Medicare" plan - they'd rather go down in flames than to admit they're wrong.

To those Republicans I say this (and I'm showing my age :) ) -

Keep on keepin' on - 2012 will be here soon.

Kirk Adams and Sal DiCiccio pass on the Kool-Aid in favor of a tall glass of Whine

And the Night Of Picking On Republicans continues... :)

On Thursday, the Goldwater Institute,  Arizona's corporate lobbyist organization masquerading as a right wing "think tank," will host Steven Greenhut, the writer of the anti-worker propaganda tome book called  Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.

The "special guests" on Thursday?

- Sal DiCiccio, the member of the Phoenix City Council who was behind SB1322, the misbegotten proposal to privatize city services in Phoenix and Tucson (which passed the lege, only to be vetoed by Jan Brewer.  Turns out that she likes him as much as the rest of us. :) ).

- Kirk Adams, former Speaker of the Arizona House and current candidate for Congress (in a district to be determined later) and sponsor of a pension "reform" bill during this past session of the lege that erodes the pensions of public employees.

The name of the event is "How Public Servants Became our Masters & What We Can Do about It".

Wonder if anybody at GI noticed the irony there? 

Both DiCiccio and Adam have been, are, and will continue to be "public servants."

I'll leave it to blunter people than me to speculate on the quality and price tag to the public of that "public service" but the simple fact is that both of them collect publicly-funded paychecks or have in the past and are campaigning to do so in the future.

I have no question that Adams and DiCiccio will gloss over that little fact during their "discussion" but I do have one question -

Which one is going to bring the crackers, and which one will bring the cheese?

Republican leader: No help for Joplin unless there are cuts elsewhere

From Politico, written by Jake Sherman -

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

Cantor is one of the 233 House Republicans who voted to protect subsidies to Big Oil and one of the 235 who voted to destroy Medicare.

Well, say what you want about Cantor and his ilk, (like Arizona's Jeff Flake, David Schweikert, Trent Franks, Ben Quayle, and Paul Gosar) nobody can deny his consistency.

Travis Waldron at ThinkProgress has his take here.

Jan Brewer and Tom Horne seek to overturn November's election results

...Of course, they only want to change the part of the election results they don't like, not the part that gave them their current jobs...

From the Tucson Sentinel, by Dylan Smith -

Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne will ask a federal court to determine if Arizona's new medical marijuana law is legal, they announced Tuesday.

The two said court action is needed to determine if the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act violates federal law.

The state will seek a declaratory judgment regarding the measure, Brewer said.

It's kind of interesting that Republicans are all for "following the will of the people" - except when the "people" support something they don't approve of, like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, comprehensive immigration reform, or, as in this example, medical marijuana.

Brewer's press release is here.

BTW - Ummm...didn't we just get through a legislative session where Republicans all over the Capitol spent their days proudly thumbing their noses at the feds?  You'd think they'd be proud of something that the AZ voters did that those feds may not like...

Maricopa County Politics: the very definition of "small world"

Item one:  Witness one Mark Goldman, attorney.  A former deputy Maricopa County Attorney, he was heavily involved in the case ginned up by former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas against Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley, a political rival of Thomas' biggest political ally, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Item two:  Witness Dennis Wilenchik, attorney.  At one point in time, his firm employed Thomas.  When Thomas became county attorney, Wilenchik's firm received oodles of private contracts from MCAO, essentially using public funds to pay Wilenchik et. al. to serve as Thomas' political hatchetmen "special prosecutors".  Cases included (but were hardly limited to) the persecution and arrest of the publishers of the Phoenix New Times for their coverage of Arpaio and his misdeeds.

Item three:  Goldman, like Thomas, worked for Wilenchik at one point (see the link in the first item).

Item four:  Goldman is the attorney for State Senator Scott Bundgaard in his "domestic violence" case.

Item five:  Jason Rose, the AZ Republicans' resident PR guru, is Bundgaard's PR guy, helping him deal with the fallout from the domestic violence incident.  Bundgaard's case is still pending, in Phoenix Municipal Court, but I'm not sure.  Their records don't seem to be available online.  However, I can find no mention of the case in the Maricopa County court system's records.

Item six: Arpaio incurred fines of over $75K over illegal campaign finance activity when his campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising that supported Bill Montgomery, a Thomas ally, over Rick Romley, a Thomas and Arpaio adversary, in the race to fill Thomas' unexpired term as CA.

All of which leads to item seven:

A Paradise Valley-located fundraiser for Montgomery, scheduled for Wednesday evening.

Organized by Goldman, it boasts a host committee (aka - list of big $ contributors) that includes Goldman, Wilenchik and Rose.

It also boasts of a "special appearance" by Arpaio, and curiously, Joe Miller, the candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska who lost to Lisa Murkowski, who ran as a write-in candidate.  Maybe Miller will take the time to bring a housewarming gift to his friend Sarah Palin at her new digs in north Scottsdale.

Goldman's political fundraising LLC, GoldmanSmith, was incorporated in April, shortly after folks started figuring out that Bundgaard's "domestic violence incident" wasn't going to go away.  It's got a bare-bones website, and only one event listed - this one.

I don't know what sort of concoction they are brewing up over in PV, but given the ingredients include a number of people with large amounts of money and a personal or professional need for a "friendly" county attorney, whoever is standing over the cauldron better be able to stir with one hand.

The other holding will be holding their nose.

Have any Arizona legislators taken a trip to Maine recently?

From the Morning Sentinel (of Maine), written by Erin Rhoda -

WATERVILLE -- A state representative from Garland was arrested Saturday morning for pointing a handgun at a man at point-blank range in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot.


The legislator, Republican Frederick L. Wintle, 58, faces a felony charge of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon for pulling a gun on Morning Sentinel photographer Michael Seamans, of Sidney, in a public area near a busy road.

One can reasonably expect this sort of behavior out of some of Arizona's Republicans, given their history of gun-fetishist behavior, and it's not much of a surprise when you see it in certain Western or Plains states (i.e. - Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc.), but the farther north and east one goes in this country, the less one expects to find occurrences of it.

And you don't get any more north and east than Maine.

Of course, it's easy to see the difference between Maine and Arizona (aside from Maine having winters straight out of a Jack London novel :) ) -

- In Maine, when a lawmaker engages in violent behavior, the leader of his caucus (in this case, the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives) wants him barred from the House.

- In Arizona, when a lawmaker engages in violent behavior, the leader of his caucus (in this case, the President of the Arizona State Senate), declares that he is the victim and defends the lawmaker in question and not the real victim.

Short Attention Span Musing

...Late this week, the state elections director announced that she made a "mistake" in the timetable for forcing a recall election of Russell Pearce in November, meaning that any such election is now delayed until March of next year.

Has anyone else noticed that Amy Bjelland, the state elections director made the "mistake" benefitting Senator Russell Pearce, the current president of the state senate, was formerly the legal counsel for the Republicans in the state senate? 

Before she went to work for her current boss, Ken Bennett, who used to be a former Senate president himself? 

That many coincidences strains credibility.

I know a lot of good people (in other words, not people who support Pearce) who truly believe Bjelland made an honest mistake.  However, and maybe this just means that I'm not a good person, or perhaps just simply too cynical, but I don't believe that.

...Now that the latest "rapture" is over, it's time to take stock.  Of the 61 legislative Republicans, most of whom trip over themselves proving their devoutness whenever the opportunity presents itself...in front of TV cameras, anyway...how many are missing?  Surely at least a dozen or so must have been scooped up, right?

...Rumor has it that Sarah Palin is moving to north Scottsdale.  I don't know if it is true, but if it is, David Schweikert, Jeff Flake, and Jan Brewer better watch their backs.  One of them will have a target on it.

...Too funny for any words that I can add to it:  Newt Gingrich, Dancing Queen.


Later...

Pearce recall update: state elections director does what Pearce couldn't - delay his recall election

Arizona has long been a "pre-clearance" state, subject to US Department of Justice oversight of the state's elections and processes.  While the latest "incident" probably won't garner specific attention from the DOJ (read: an investigation and an indictment), it does illustrate the reason why Arizona has spent decades as a pre-clearance state -

These people are morally incapable of simply just doing the job right and letting candidates succeed or fail on their own merits.

From the Arizona Republic, written by Jim Walsh -

Arizona's elections director said she inadvertently gave an incorrect timetable to the organizers of a drive to recall controversial Senate President Russell Pearce, forcing a change in strategy in the historic recall effort.

Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she initially told recall organizer Randy Parraz that if he filed his signatures by May 25, there would be enough time to verify them and schedule a November election.

But Bjelland since has notified Parraz that Gov. Jan Brewer has 15 days to officially call an election if the signatures check out, not five. The difference of 10 days in the recall timetable means Citizens for a Better Arizona already has missed the actual deadline, May 10, to turn in the signatures for a November election and can only hope for a March 13, 2012, election.

{snip}

Parraz said Citizens for a Better Arizona was hoping to force a November election by turning in far more than the required 7,756 signatures by May 25, based upon Bjelland's original timetable.

"We know it was not intentional. We needed more time anyway," he said.

Parraz is far more forgiving, and tactful, than me.

I don't know if Bjelland is taking the blame over this on her own volition or if her boss, Secretary of State Ken Bennett, gave her a little push, but tactics this heavy-handed won't help Republicans in general or Pearce in particular.

Before the "oopsie," the Rs were going to have a year to work with/live down the fallout of the Pearce recall.  In addition, before this, it was all about Pearce and only Pearce.

Now, there will be five more months of stories about Pearce and his depredations, stories that will be prominent during the campaign season (remember, there will be a presidential primary around that time - there's going to all kinds of political coverage going on).


...In other recall news, Pearce is getting a little testy over the recall.  At an anti-recall rally with Joe Arpaio, John Kavanagh and other leading lights of Arizona's nativist subculture, he dropped a really curious quote.

From AZFamily.com (Phoenix TV 3), by Stacy Delikat (emphasis mine) -

..."You take everything seriously, people know who these folks are, they've tried it before," said Pearce. "They're simply open-border anarchists who have no respect for the rule of law, we'll deal with it."

Just a quick refresher for those unfamiliar with Pearce's MO of "do as I say, not as I do," particularly when it comes to the "rule of law" -

Just this year, he's...

...proclaimed that sitting legislators are above the laws that govern the rest of us when it comes to carrying weapons in the public buildings of the legislature

...created a "blacklist" of people he arbitrarily barred from the Senate building for the "crime" of daring to disagree with him on immigration issues

...supported Scott Bundgaard, his ally in the Senate, and his use of "legislative immunity" to avoid arrest because of a domestic violence incident along a Valley freeway

...dissembled, denied, and just plain lied about his involvement with the Fiesta Bowl scandal, where a number of Arizona's lawmakers took gifts and laundered campaign contributions from Fiesta Bowl lobbyists, in violation of many state laws..  Most of the lawmakers involved have now quietly repaid the Fiesta Bowl and amended their financial disclosure reports. 


Many words can be used to describe Pearce and his activities.

"Quiet" isn't one of them.  Neither is "repentant."

As for "law-abiding"?

It's only used by him, his cronies, and his followers, and only to describe him.