Arizona Republic blasts Steve May and the AZGOP over faux Greens

From an editorial in the Arizona Republic -

Beware of May's, Pullen's phony Green candidates

Steve May, a Republican activist once considered someone worth taking seriously, has performed the second-most obnoxious act of this election season.

May recruited a group of at least nine people, nearly all identified as Mill Avenue drifters and homeless people, as fake Green Party candidates - ballot place-holders who May hopes might steal votes from legitimate Democratic Party candidates, thus improving the chances of GOP opponents.

{snip}

So, illegal? No. Obnoxious? Certainly. But it was not the most obnoxious act of the political season.

No, the dubious award for Misplaced Chutzpah in a General Election Cycle goes this year to Randy Pullen and the Arizona Republican Party. Pullen and the party not only did not have the decency to be embarrassed by May's chicanery, they defended it.

{snip}

Steve May, Randy Pullen and the rest of their band of merry pranksters may be willing to pretend that toying with voters is all in good fun. We suspect the rest of Arizona takes its democracy more seriously than that.

It's a pretty strong condemnation of May and the AZGOP by the Rep's editorial board, far stronger than anything that they usually put out regarding Republicans.  I don't expect that to be part of a pattern (even when the Rs wholly deserve it, as frequently happens) because the AZRep doesn't like messing with the status quo power structure, and the AZGOP is that in Arizona. 

However, I'll savor this moment while it lasts.

Many of the faux-Green candidates dropping

From the Arizona Capitol Times -

Less than a day after a federal judge said they had the right to stay on the ballot, three alleged “sham” Green Party candidates withdrew from their races.

 

Christopher Campbell, a Senate candidate in Legislative District 10, Clint Clement, a House candidate in Legislative District 17, and Ryan Blackman, a candidate in the 5th Congressional District, officially withdrew from their races the morning of Sept. 10, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.

Three other faux-Greens had previously withdrawn (name and office [allegedly] sought):

• Matthew Shusta, LD23 State Senate
• Drew Blischak, LD20 State Representative
• Michelle Lochmann, Arizona Secretary of State

As near as I can tell, that leaves four suspect Green candidates still running - one each for Arizona State Treasurer and LD17 State Senator, and two for Arizona Corporation Commission.  Each has strong ties to one of the primary people behind the scheme, Steve May, a Republican candidate and operative.  In addition, they all share one PO box as a campaign committee address.

Even though the three mentioned in the Cap Times article have withdrawn from the race, the damage could be already done.  From later in the above-linked article -

Ironically, all three could still end up on the ballot. Maricopa County began printing ballots at 7 a.m., before the candidates withdrew. Depending on which district’s ballots were printed first, one or all of them could still be on the ballot, though votes for them in the November general election would not count, said Assistant Secretary of State Jim Drake.

 

“I can’t guarantee that they won’t be on the ballot,” Drake said.

Pardon my cynicism, but given the track record of Ken Bennett, I won't be surprised if the ballots of the affected districts were earmarked to be printed first, just in case one or some of the faux-Greens got cold feet.

Since I live in an area affected by the deception (LD17/CD5), I'll find out definitively in a few weeks when early ballots go out.

Either way it goes, I'll update at that time...

Rotellini skewers Horne during Attorney General debate

First, her opening statement -



The complete debate can be found here, courtesy KAET and Horizon.

My favorite line, and there were many good ones, came during Felecia Rotellini's opening statement:

"...look at our track record - I've prosecuted securities fraud, he's committed it..."

Personally, I think that sums up the choice for Arizona in the race - both are lawyers (Horne - private practice, Rotellini - assistant Attorney General in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions),  and both have headed state departments (Horne - Department of Education, Rotellini - Department of Financial Institutions). 

However, one has the tenacity, fairness, and integrity to do a job right, and one doesn't.

The whole debate is worth watching, and at a running time of a little more than 25 minutes, most folks can fit it into their schedules.

Later...

Crickets chirping

There's been a lot of bluster and name-calling from Republican candidates during this year's election season -

"Obamacare!"

"Immigrants!"

"Cut taxes!"

"Immigrants!!"

"Unions!"

"Immigrants!!!"

"Lather, Rinse, Repeat!"


Well, it turns out there is a quick and efficient way to get Republicans to shut up - challenge them to stand up and actually explain their positions civilly.


- Candidate for governor Terry Goddard has challenged Jan Brewer to a series of debates all over the state, but she has refused to participate in any more than the one that she was required to participate in as a condition of accepting Clean Elections funding.

She has refused to do so, but given her thorough faceplant of a performance in the CE debate, her reluctance in understandable.  Though not acceptable.

- Treasurer candidate Andrei Cherny has challenged Doug Ducey to a series of debates, but thus far, he has also declined to participate, perhaps out of fear that his financial misdeeds (here and here) would become a topic of discussion.

- Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick has challenged Republican nominee Paul Gosar to some debates, but the career dentist and tea party favorite is avoiding a direct confrontation with the incumbent in CD1.

- Jon Hulburd, the Democratic nominee in CD3, has challenged Ben "Dirty Scottsdale" Quayle to some debates, but apparently, the Republican nominee is hoping Daddy's name recognition and money connections will keep him from having to mount an actual campaign.

- CD2 Congressional candidate John Thrasher reports that Republican incumbent Trent Franks has agreed to a debate.  Just not to "minor" details like a place and a time...


In fact, the only R candidate who has accepted a debate challenge outside of one required by Clean Elections rules is John McCain, who will be debating Democratic challenger Rodney Glassman on September 26.

Other than that one example, however, the only sound one hears when the R candidates are challenged to put up or shut up is the sound of

Crickets chirping.

Attorney General Debate Tonight

From the Arizona Capitol Times -

A debate scheduled Wednesday evening between candidates for state attorney general is still on though it no longer is sponsored by the state’s public campaign finance system.

Since both candidates, Democrat Felecia Rotellini and Republican Tom Horne, are utilizing "traditional" campaign financing, the debate isn't sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.  Hence the reason that I missed this one when in the post earlier this week listing debates and events (it wasn't on CE's list of debates.)

The debate will air at 7 tonight on KAET (PBS 8).

Candidate appearances this week: Mine Inspector edition

Earlier this week, I sent an email to the various Democratic campaigns for statewide offices, offering to post their candidates' appearances for the upcoming week. 

The first to respond was the campaign for Manny Cruz, Democratic nominee for State Mine Inspector.  Here's the list of public events:


Wednesday 9/8 - Yuma Democratic HQ Grand Opening - 6 to 9pm - 2450 S. 4th Ave. #15, ground level, Crescent Center, Yuma, AZ



Saturday 9/11 - Navajo Nation Parade - Window Rock, AZ - 9am to 1pm


Other stops in Manny's quest to become Arizona State Mine Inspector can be found here, on his campaign website's calendar page (caveat: some of the events listed there may not be open to the public, such as the Mine Safety Professionals' meeting).

Later...

New Brewer video parody from the Arizona Democratic Party

It's based on the movie 28 Days Later, a movie characterized as "a terrifying zombie movie and a sharp political allegory."

The movie was frightening, and so is this video. 

The movie was frightening for its harrowing depiction of "what could be."

The video is frightening because it is so close "what is" the harrowing reality in Arizona.

AZGOP/Green candidate scandal coverage goes national

...It's made it all the way to the east coast now, and not in just a weekly or suburban daily that no one outside of its base market reads.

From the New York Times -

Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

{snip}

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats.

{snip}

...Steve May, the Republican operative who signed up some of the candidates along Mill Avenue, a bohemian commercial strip next to Arizona State University, insists that a real political movement has been stirred up that has nothing to do with subterfuge.


“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.”

Mr. May can insist from now until November that the "candidates" that he recruited are real, but they didn't even vote for themselves.

The article contains a number of pictures of May and the faux-Green candidates together along Mill Ave. in Tempe.  Here's a pic of May and one of the candidates, Anthony "Grandpa" Goshorn, from last week's LD17 Clean Elections debate.  Goshorn was scheduled to appear during the Senate half of the debate, but he declined to do so, because according to the NYT article, he felt a "bad vibe."

Pic below of Goshorn (left) and May, from the night of the debate.

Later...

When is age a factor in a candidate's viability? If you ask Republicans, only when the candidate is a Democrat

Has Greg Patterson of Espresso Pundit started working directly for the Schweikert campaign (if he has, it's not obvious from the campaign's most recent filings with the FEC)?  Or has he chosen to turn his blog into a Schweikert campaign press release outlet? 

I, and most Democratic bloggers, for that matter, happily republish campaign press releases, but when I do so, I always clearly identify them as such.

Patterson never publishes such a disclaimer.

Earlier this week, he published a post declaring the race over in CD5 based on the results of what was essentially a third party-funded internal poll.  This suspect poll declared Schweikert ahead in the race by 5 percentage points.  Patterson focused only on the percentages, not the questionable methodology of the company that conducted the poll.

He also rather blithely ignored the fact that in late October 2006, a SurveyUSA poll showed then-Congressman JD Hayworth ahead of Mitchell by three percentage points.

Mitchell ended up winning the race by slighly more than 8000 votes.

He backed that one up with a post published on Sunday.  Perhaps he was simply regurgitating Schweikert campaign's wishful thinking, or perhaps he is doing his part to add a little reality to some of the lies that the Rs spewed about health care reform last year, but he took the initiative to become a self-designated "death panel."

He placed a "Do Not Resuscitate" directive on Harry Mitchell and his political career.

His primary concern was Harry's age, 70.

Perhaps Patterson *is* correct in his insinuation, and Mitchell is too old for public service, but then that would then bring up another point -

Harry Mitchell, date of birth: July 18, 1940

John McCain, date of birth: August 29, 1936

Guess which one is running for a six-year term, and which one is running for a two-year term?

For the week of September 6, 2010: Upcoming debates

From the website of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission (note: there aren't any CCEC debates for statewide candidates scheuled for this week) -

District 06

September 07, 2010
Candidate Debate
6:00 PM
Hilton Garden Inn
1940 E Pinnacle Peak Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85027


District 16

September 08, 2010
Candidate Debate
6:30 PM
ASU Mercado
Room C145
502 E Monroe Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004



District 15

September 09, 2010
Candidate Debate
6:00 PM
Radisson City Central
3600 N 2nd Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85013


District 27

September 09, 2010
Candidate Debate
6:00 PM
Pima Community College
West Campus Student Lounge
2202 W Anklam Rd
Tucson, AZ


And for a non-Clean Elections legislative debate

District 8

September 7. 2010
Scottsdale Republic candidate debate
6:00 p.m.
City Hall Kiva
3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ


And for a non-legislative debate

Scottsdale City Council candidate forum
McDowell Sonoran Conservancy
September 8, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Granite Reef Senior Center
1700 N. Granite Reef Rd.
Scottsdale, AZ

Later...

About the recent CD5 poll numbers (and CD1 and CD8)

Serving to fill in the deafening silence from the RW blogs (zero posts and counting so far) regarding Jan Brewer's performance has been the recently released poll numbers purporting to show that the R candidates in CDs 1, 5, and 8 are head of or tied with the Democratic incumbents in those districts.

What the R blogs haven't mentioned in their crowing about the poll are the partisan biases of the groups behind the poll.

The poll was commissioned by a 501c(4) group called the American Action Network (AAN).  It's part of an organization of different groups created to serve as a Republican advocacy effort "independent" of the Republican Party in its quest to regain control of the federal government.

Among those involved with AAN -

Rob Collins, president of AAN, and former chief of staff to Eric Cantor, Minority Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum (one of the related groups mentioned above) was a senior adviser to John McCain during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign

Norm Coleman, CEO of AAN, a Republican former U.S. Senator (lost to Al Franken.  YES!)

Fred Malek, an AAN board member, was a Nixon administration operative who has become a big fundraiser for the Republican party (and John McCain)

Haley Barbour, an AAN board member, is the Republican Governor of Mississippi and head of the Republican Governors Association

The polling was conducted  by the firm Ayers McHenry, a company that openly, even proudly, proclaims that it is partisan and supportive of Republican candidates and causes.  Not that reading their website's list of clients isn't a dead giveaway.

The polling data has been released through AAN's affiliate group, American Action Forum (AAF).

I'm not qualified to discuss the technical aspects of the way that the poll was conducted, but there seem to be issues with the methodology of the poll - a small sample size, a universe that seems to be skewed toward self-identified conservatives out of proportion to their presence in the population as a whole, and questions, that if not quite of "push poll" quality, definitely look to be designed to elicit certain desired responses.

All of which serve to undermine the credibility of the results, making it seem likely that the "poll" is less "scientific research" and more "messaging research" or even "wishful thinking."

At best, this should be considered to be a third party-funded "internal poll."  As the Parraz campaign (and I) learned in the just-completed primary cycle, internal polls have a tendency to match the spin that is placed on them and not to reflect real sentiment.

To be sure, the Democrats in question - Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1), Gabrielle Giffords (CD8), and Harry Mitchell (CD5) - have tough races ahead of them.

Giffords and Mitchell both face significant Republican registration advantages in their districts (~18K in CD8, ~ 40K in CD5).  Kirkpatrick has a Democratic advantage (~ 20K) to work with in CD1, but her district is heavily rural and as recently as 2006 elected a [corrupt] Republican (Rick Renzi).  It's a district that has been able to elect conservative Democrat Jack Brown and (relatively) moderate Republican Bill Konopnicki to the Arizona House of Representatives (LD5, each).

In short, all three knew early on, even before their first races for the seats in Congress that they now occupy, that they would *never* have easy paths to reelection, and have been running intelligent, energetic campaigns ever since.

Caveat:  I have volunteered for the Mitchell campaign in the recent past, and will again in the near future.

When more reputable and independent polling organizations, such as Gallup or Behavior Research Center (aka - Rocky Mountain Polls), weigh in on AZ's congressional races, those results will have much more credibility than a glorified internal poll.

Recap of the LD17 Clean Elections debate

On Wednesday night, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission held its debate for the candidates in the LD17 races for state senate and state representative.

While only one candidate in each race is a Clean Elections candidate, all of the candidates were invited.  Most, but not all, took advantage of the opportunity to speak to the approximately 200 voters in attendance.

As pure theater, the senate debate was boring - only one candidate, State Representative David Schapira, showed up.

Anthony "Grandpa" Goshorn, the faux-Green write in candidate, was expected (the CCEC went so far as to print up a name tent for him) but he didn't appear at the forum.  He was in the audience, however. (working on obtaining pics) 

Republican candidate Wendy Rogers was a complete no-show, not even bothering to attend to watch the debate and meet with interested voters.

She put up a message on her Facebook page saying that "Voters OVERWHELMINGLY tell me they appreciate a candidate on their doorstep rather than having to take time to attend a forum to view a candidate from a distance."

I don't know what "distance" she is talking about - one could meet and greet any of the candidates present before and after the forum.

Of course, Rogers could have been pinned down and asked to explain her answer on this questionnaire from the Center for Arizona Policy.

When asked if she supported or opposed "Prohibiting abortion except when it is necessary to prevent the death of the mother," not only did she circle "Support," she expanded upon that answer by adding "Honestly, I do not support abortion even to prevent the unfortunate death of the mother."

Ummmm...yeah.  That one doesn't even fit in with the mainstream of her own party, much less the mainstream of Tempe and south Scottsdale.

In any event, the candidate "debate" became a conversation between Schapira and Russ Knocke, the moderator of the event (See above pic)

Schapira used his time to lay out his political resume and past accomplishments and his vision for the future.

His trademark issue and political passion, both historically and in his future plans, is protecting and strengthening Arizona's education system.

Calling the Republican majority in the legislature "pennywise and pound foolish," a line that he borrowed from Republican John Kavanagh, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, he sharply criticized the way that the Rs have [not] handled the state's fiscal crisis, particularly in regards to education funding (Arizona has a "terrible model on how to run an education system") and health care (the lege has "raised the bar" on AHCCCS eligibility when ever-more people need its safety net).*

* - Don't fret R readers, Kavanagh is still drinking the Kool-Aid - within days of urging during a committee meeting that the state not to be "pennywise and pound foolish" he voted to cut education funding, close state parks that were a net revenue generator, and end KidsCare.

The House debate was far livelier.  Six candidates - Democrats Ben Arredondo and Ed Ableser, Republicans Don Hawker and Steve May, Green Gregor Knauer, and Libertarian Damian Trabel - were there, though only Ableser has accepted Clean Elections funding.

While Knauer and Trabel laid out their respective positions well (or not-so-well, depending), the debate became focused on the differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Even at that, most of the open animosity was between Ableser and May.

Hawker spent most of his time piping up to blame all of AZ's (and the country's) ills on abortion and "unbridled liberalism" and Arredondo spent his time focusing on Arizona's devastated education system and "jobs, jobs, jobs."

I'll give Hawker credit for one thing - he may be a one-issue candidate, but he is focused enough on that one issue to turn any answer to any question into a diatribe against abortion.

And "diatribe" is the right word too - when CCEC puts up the video recording of the debate, watch it.  He uses lines like "scissors removing the brains of babies" and does so with a straight face.

Ben Arredondo spent his time on one thing, too - talking about what he will do in office if elected.  Like Schapira (and Ableser, too), the career teacher and public servant will be focused on education.  He also pledged to work "across the aisle" for the benefit of the district, teaming up with Republicans on issues that they can agree on.  That is something that Arredondo may be uniquely qualified to do, as the former school board and Tempe City Council member, and former Republican, has a long history of working for real world solutions for real world problems.

However focused those two were, the featured attraction in the House debate was Steve May constantly lobbing rhetorical bombs (and personal insults) at Ed Ableser.

Apparently, May must believe that Ableser is the one who uncovered his involvement with the burgeoning AZGOP/sham Green candidates scandal,

I don't really know who did figure out May's involvement, but since May wasn't exactly hiding his involvement with some of the suspect candidates, his involvement could have been uncovered by almost anyone.

Anyway, May started right in on Ableser, claiming that Ableser's biggest failing as a legislator is his unwillingness to work for "with" the Republican majority in a bipartisan manner.

Ummm - I can state unequivocally that the R caucus doesn't want any Democrats to work with them.  During 2009's budget dust-up when the Rs couldn't get enough votes from their own caucus to pass a budget, attempting to "work with" Democrats meant that the Governor, President of the State Senate, and Speaker of the State House met in the Speaker's office and proceeded to call in each member of the D caucus to *tell* them to vote for their budget.  It didn't work.

May kept taking his shots at Ableser, until he was not-so-subtly schooled by Ben Arredondo, who, to the approval of most of the audience members, pointed out that he was there to talk about his vision and candidacy, not to take swipes at the other candidates.  After that. May cut back (but didn't cut out) the direct attacks.

According to May, the best reason to vote for him is that he is a Republican, and would be part of the majority party. 

Seriously, that was the best he had to offer.

Ableser took his time to point out his record of accomplishment and advocacy for the district. 

Among other things, he supports broadening the state's tax base (the sales-tax centered model currently used by Arizona is "very archaic"), using incentives to push entrepeneurship in Arizona, especially around "green" and solar technology, and, of course, buttressing the state's education system.

Finally, a curious thing occurred after the forum was over -

From the stage, May started barking at fellow blogger Randy, the author of Dry Heat Democrat.  Not sure why.  Randy barked back (a little) in response, but it didn't escalate beyond that.  I'll leave it to him to tell the story on his blog.  It should be up in a day or two.

Interested voters can go to the website of the Clean Elections Commission to view the debate online (once the CCEC posts the video record)

More pics from the forum -

Left:  The House candidates (L to R): Ableser, Arredondo, Hawker, Knauer, May, and Trabel.

Left:  The crowd, pic taken during the break between the two debates, when everybody could stand and stretch their legs.

Later...

Note: apologies for the formatting of this post.  Apparently Blogger doesn't like it when you put multiple pics into one post...

Goddard wins debate over Brewer

...And not just on content of his positions (yeah, I'm biased, so I'm not getting into those, too much). 

Tactically, the debate was a solid win for Goddard, and not just because Brewer did such a horrible job ("we has did"!! YES!).

Like many folks, my opinion on the race is already well-defined (GO GODDARD!).  He did a good job on Wednesday night, but even if he had turned in a mediocre performance he'd still have my support.

Likewise, Brewer supporters would still support her even if she had just stared into the camera and drooled (which might have been an improvement over the performance she turned in, but I digress...)


The Citizens Clean Elections Commission must really have had it in for me when they scheduled both the LD17 and Governor's debates for the same time.

Thank God for the wonders of technology.

Went to the LD17 debate at ASU and watched the debate between the candidates for governor via DVR.

In addition, the debate can be found on the website of KAET, the PBS affiliate in Phoenix, and on YouTube (the YouTube video is embedded below).



After viewing the debate, and pondering Brewer's grammatical gaffes (i.e. - "we have did what was right for Arizona.." at the 4:45 mark), deflections (i.e. - blaming unions and SB1070-inspired boycotts for Arizona's long-cratered economy and the decades of damage to Arizona's education system wrought by the decades of unrelenting attacks on it by Republicans in the legislature) and outright lies (Brewer at the 39:00 mark:  "We have balanced the budget!"), one clear observation emerges -

As bad as Brewer did during the debate, the Rs' biggest tactical mistake was allowing their faux-Green candidate, Larry Gist, anywhere near a camera and microphone.

His positions of "privatize prisons" and "health care reform violates states' rights" and more, he gave strong evidence that he's nothing more than a Republican plant in the race.

Any Green party voters watching that debate would have realized that if they vote for Gist, they'll just be allowing themselves to be used by cynical Republican operatives like Derrick Lee.

According to the Secretary of State's latest voter registration count, there are 4585 registered Greens in Arizona.

Most of those voters were almost certainly pushed into the Goddard column by the debate.

Pics from the LD17 Clean Elections debates

Will do a more complete recap tomorrow (I need to get some sleep now), but here are a few pics...

Ed Ableser and Ben Arredondo, Democratic candidates for LD17 House, prior to the debate

David Schapira, Democratic candidate for LD17 State Senate, prior to his "debate" (more on that in a minute)...

Schapira and his opponents Wendy Rogers (R) and Anthony Goshorn (G*), with Rogers and Goshorn disguised as empty chairs.  Seriously, neither one showed up.  Apparently Rogers notified organizers prior to the event, even though originally she was expected to appear, but Goshorn was a pure no show (check out the name tent next to Schapira's). 

Well, not a *pure* no show - he was in the audience.  Just not on the stage.

All of the House candidates who appeared at the debate.  From left to right: Ed Ableser, Ben Arredondo, Don Hawker (R), Gregor Knauer (G), Steve May (R), and Damian Trabel (Libertarian)

Arredondo making a point.

Later...

Don't serious candidates at least vote for themselves?

Steve May, the former Republican legislator who is running in District 17 (Tempe/south Scottsdale) for state representative, has been insisting that the Tempe homeless folks that he recruited to run as Green Party write-in candidates are *serious* candidates who deserve the Arizona Green Party's support.



From the blog of Luisa Evonne Valdez, a legitimate Green candidate in LD15, a Facebook "conversation" she had with May -

Steve May

Luisa, i can't speak for all of them....but the five guys I helped were not Republicans. They are legitimate candidates and will be wonderful assets to your party. You guys should be supporting them.

Well, the Maricopa County Recorder's Office has posted both the summary vote totals for "official" write-in candidates as well as the precinct-by-precinct totals for each of those candidates.
 
The summary page just lists the net vote totals in Maricopa County for each candidate.  Among the suspect "Green" candidates, the leading vote-getters were Thomas Meadows (running for State Treasurer) at 21 votes and Michelle Lochmann (Secretary of State) at 17.  Most of the other candidates received between 1 and 4 votes.
 
What was interesting was the way the precinct totals broke down.  While the specific names of those voters who cast their ballots for the faux-Greens cannot be divined from the precinct-by-precinct totals, one can tell who *didn't* vote for them.
 
- Ryan Blackman, a write-in for CD5, and Clint Clement, LD17 State Rep, same committee address which is the voter registration address for Clement.  That address is located in the Salt River precinct in south Scottsdale.
 
Grand totals of their votes from their own precinct -
 
0.
 
- Anthony "Grandpa" Goshorn, write-in candidate for LD17 State Senator, registration address in the Paiute precinct in Scottsdale.
 
Grand total of votes for him from his own precinct -
 
0.
 
- Drew Blischak, write-in candidate for LD20 State Rep, registration address in the Bullmoose precinct in Chandler.
 
Grand total of votes from his own precinct -
 
0.
 
- Benjamin Pearcy, write-in candidate for Arizona Corporation Commission, registration address in the Tempe 25 precinct.
 
Grand total of votes from his own precinct -
 
0.
 
A number of the candidates gave an unclear address, meaning that the address of 420 S. Mill Ave. is considered an "invalid address" by the "district locator" function of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office's website.   However, looking at a map of the district, that address will be in either the Tempe 5 or Tempe 6 precincts.
 
Grand total of votes for the faux-Greens in those precincts -
 
0.
 
 
May and the Republicans can issue all the protestations of innocence that they want, but it's becoming ever clearer that most of the candidates that they enticed to run as Greens not only don't take being a member of the Green Party seriously, they don't take their own candidacies seriously.
 
Nor do they even take basic civic responsibilities, like voting, seriously.

AZGOP using AZ Green Party as patsies

...by doing something that they did in 2008 in a few select districts.  It worked then (costing then-Rep. Jackie Thrasher her seat), so they've expanded it.

From the AZ Republic -

The state Democratic Party is alleging possible voter fraud in what it called a scheme to undermine its candidates by recruiting "sham" Green Party hopefuls.

In a complaint filed late Monday, the party seeks an investigation by federal, state and county law-enforcement officials.

The complaint names Rep. Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix; Steve May, a Republican candidate for the Legislature; and a House Republican staffer as complicit in an effort to register at least a half-dozen people as Green Party members so they could run as write-in candidates in last week's primary election.

Note: Weiers is a candidate in the same district as Thrasher.

The Republicans are denying any wrongdoing, but their disdain for the standards of behavior (aka - "laws") that govern elections seem to have led them to be less than subtle when they went about their machinations.

The Arizona Green Party itself caught on to the scam, as evidenced by this press release listing which candidates that they actually endorse, and which ones that they consider to be "carpetbaggers" -

Claudia Ellquist, AZGP state co-chair, stated, "There are several Green Party candidates that are actively opposed. We strongly advise all registered Arizona voters to not waste their votes on these individuals during the August 24th Primary Election or the November 2nd General Election (assuming they advance)." The offices include: Governor, Secretary of State (write-in), Treasurer (write-in), Corporation Commission (2 write-in candidates), U.S. Congress (CD 5, write-in), State Senate (LD 10, 2 write-in candidates), State Representative (LD 17, write-in), State Senate (LD 17, write-in), State Representative (LD 20, write-in), State Representative (LD 22, write-in), and State Senate (LD 23, write-in).

Some interesting patterns emerged from a little research from a few weeks ago (so it is possible that some of this has changed, though that doesn't seem likely) into the candidacies cited above -

- Ryan Blackman, the faux-Green running as a write-in for CD5, gave the same address as the faux-Green running for LD17 as a write-in, Clint Clement.  Which isn't illegal.  What is interesting, however, when one finds out that Blackman isn't registered to vote anywhere in the state, much less at his listed address.  Clement *is* registered to vote.  He has never done so, however.  In addition, while he filed as a Green Party write-in on July 13, he modified his party enrollment on July 19.

- Thomas Meadows, the faux-Green running as a write-in for State Treasurer, filed on July 15, giving a Tempe P.O. box as his campaign's mailing address and 420 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe as his committee address.  He registered to vote on July 16.

- Theodore Gomez and Benjamin Pearcy, the two faux-Greens running as write-ins for the Arizona Corporation Commission, gave the same combo of mailing/committee addresses as Meadows.  Both registered their candidacies on July 15.  I couldn't find any evidence that Gomez is registered to vote at all (caveat: that's a common sort of name and he could have registered under a nickname like "TJ" or something similar); Pearcy was registered to vote prior to getting involved in this scheme and just updated his partisan affiliation on July 14.

BTW - for those readers who aren't familiar with Tempe, "420 S. Mill Ave." is the location of Starbucks store #11573.  Umm...Starbucks' locations aren't known for either their office or residential components.  Just sayin'...

Bonus BTW - "4/20" is a popular verbal shorthand is some videos linked later in this post.  It refers to the unofficial "National Pot Smokers Day" of April 20.  "Two birds, one stone" and all that - they can refer to a favorite place and a favorite activity at the same time. 

- Anthony "Grandpa" Goshorn, the faux-Green running for LD17 State Senate, lists the same mailing address, but has a committee address in Scottsdale.  He changed his partisan affiliation on May 17.  That is the earliest change date for those in on this scheme, but he was also one of the first involved.

Originally, he was going to run as a ballot-qualified Green candidate for LD17 State Representative, but his petitions were challenged and he withdrew from the race on June 16.

- The faux-Greens running for LD10 State Senate, Christopher Campbell and Gail Ginger, modified their partisan affiliations on July 15.  According to the AZRep article linked above, Ginger has dropped out the race in favor of Campbell.

- Drew Blischak, the faux-Green running for LD20 State Representative, modified his registration on July 13.

- Michelle Lochmann, the candidate for State Treasurer, modified hers on July 15.

I wasn't able to do similar research on the suspect candidates from outside of Maricopa County, though they exhibited the same pattern in regards to their filing dates, filing their candidacies on July 14 and 15, the last two days that someone could declare a write in candidacy for the August primary election.


In addition to the write-ins, the ballot-qualified Green candidate for Governor, Larry Gist, also looks to be part of the scheme.  While his campaign has almost no cash on hand, it has loads of debt, mostly to ethically-challenged R operative Derrick Lee (info here and here).

Many, but not all, of the suspect candidates, are acquaintances of Republican former legislator Steve May.  For example, his video talk with ACC candidate Pearcy can be found here (but view it soon, before May takes it down).

May's ties to Goshorn are illustrated on this screenshot of his Facebook page -

May has displayed his contempt for the laws of this state and those who enforce them, as shown in this video, where he encourages someone to damage public property (@1:50 in the video) and has given the same person a t-shirt (@ 2:39) that May has designed and sells that says "Welcome to Mill Ave.  Our Cops Suck".

Note: All of May's uploaded videos can be found here on YouTube.  Catch 'em while you can...

It seems that the AZGOP is running on empty this year.  Their positions of "no taxes for the wealthy", "no regulations for large corporations", and "bupkus for everybody else" are unsupportable in Arizona's cratered economy, so they have settled on a campaign plan of demonization (SB1070), distraction (lies and name-calling), and sleaze (this scheme).

They are hoping that the state's voters won't notice that they have nothing positve to offer to Arizona.

More to come...

Billionaire wingers from New York trying to buy elections in Arizona

Since Tuesday's primary results came in, showing David Schweikert to be the Republican nominee in CD5, television viewers have been inundated with ads deriding Democrats in general and Representatives Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick in particular. 

The spots are the product of a Republican front organization named "Americans for Prosperity." (AFP)(The spot specifically targeting Mitchell and Kirkpatrick is here.  I won't embed it here, but will be referring to it later. :) )

AFP is dedicated to protecting the short-term financial interests of large corporations and the ultra-wealthy, organizing and funding campaigns against health care reform, efforts to address climate change, tobacco regulations, balanced state budgets, and anything resembling a social safety net (like Social Security).  It has also played a big part in funnelling money and direction to the tea party movement within the Republican Party.

As this article from The New Yorker documents, AFP is the brainchild of David Koch who, with his brother Charles, owns almost all of Koch Industries, one of the country's biggest polluters (hence their opposition to industry/environmental regulations).  Aside from AFP, the Koch brothers are literally two of the biggest contributors to Republican/corporate causes, donating approximately $100 million over the years.

That's all just background to the latest attack ads that they are bombing Arizonans with.

The spot that targets Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick specifically has, shall we say, a rather "weak" relationship with the truth (focusing on the Mitchell-related stuff) -

Lie:  The spot refers to Mitchell as a "Washington liberal."

Reality: Mitchell was born and raised in Tempe.  He married his high school sweetheart there and has lived in the same house in Tempe for almost 50 years.  He taught at Tempe High for 28 years.  He served Tempe (and Scottsdale and the rest of CD5) as a member of the City Council, Mayor, State Senator, and Congressman for almost 40 years.

Reality: Harry Mitchell is hardly a "liberal" (a fact that occasionally infuriates actual liberals in CD5, like yours truly :) ).  Don't take my word for it - the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action graded Mitchell's voting record as 60% liberal, with the average Democratic grade as 85% and fellow AZers Pastor and Grijalva at 100%.  Mitchell is one of an ever-shrinking group in Congress - the moderates.


Lie: When Harry Mitchell voted in support of the health care reform, he voted for something that will cost a trillion dollars,balloon the federal deficit, limit medical choices, and gut Medicare.

Reality: HCR will reduce the federal deficit by $143 million, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Reality: According to WebMD, HCR doesn't limit choice any more than the current system does.

Reality: According to the AARP (hardly a partisan organization), HCR actually strengthens Medicare by, among other things, reducing prescription costs for seniors.

Reality:  David Schweikert, the AFP-supported Republican candidate in CD5, is actually the candidate in the race who supports Republican Representative Paul Ryan's plan for privatizing Social Security and ending Medicare.


Lie (or fib, at least): Arizonans "overwhelmingly" oppose HCR.

Reality: They are citing a poll from Rasmussen Reports.  Rasmussen is known for being somewhat biased and partisan, favoring Republican positions in their polling results. (OK, if the RNC decided to say that Magellan and centuries of scientific observations are wrong and the world is actually flat, Rasmussen would come out with a poll that says that 70% of Americans agree...but I digress :) ).

Reality: More objective polling organizations, such as Gallup, show that the country is sharply divided on the issue.


Lie: The spot claims that Mitchell votes for the positions and interests of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leadership, ahead of the interests of Arizonans.

Reality: As this Washington Post study shows, Mitchell is the sixth-most independent member of Congress, voting with his party's leadership less than 80% of the time.  He's easily the most independent member of the AZ delegation, Republican or Democrat.


...OK, that's just the wonky, facts-centered stuff.

The juicy, gossipy stuff from analyzing the ad is this -

One of the actors in the spot (pic from the spot below), Greg from Scottsdale (I think)

is "sort of" well known within local tea party circles -

Not just a paid demonstrator/actor he. 

He's a true believer and has a website where he offers to "coach" interested folks on living his philosophy...over the phone...at $45 per hour.

Gotta pay for the photoshopped photos of President Obama in white-face somehow...

AFP and the Koch brothers may think this guy and David Schweikert are typical CD5ers, but they lens through which they view Arizona is a rather long one (Oklahoma, D.C., and NYC) and rather scratched.

Of course, with Schweikert's penchant for vulture investing, picking the bones of desperate Arizona homeowners, Schweikert is probably what they *hope* the typical CD5er is like.

Harry Mitchell, with his lifetime in and dedication to Arizona, is far more representative of CD5.

Brewer campaigning on wishful thinking. Now she's insisting that Arizona's economy is healthy.

From the Arizona Republic -

Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Terry Goddard, fresh off primary-election victories this week, shared the podium at the annual League of Arizona Cities and Towns meeting Thursday, painting completely opposite pictures of the state's economy and direction.

Brewer, a Republican, and Goddard, a Democrat, are vying for election to the Governor's Office in November.

In her remarks, Brewer described Arizona as a state in the midst of a comeback and touted her economic-development efforts and her work to bring thousands of new jobs to the region.

Ummm...just a few numbers for everybody's perusal -

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Arizona's unemployment rate in January 2009 (when Brewer ascended to the governor's office): 8.0%
Arizona's unemployment rate in July 2010 (the month with the most current info available): 9.6%

Number of unemployed people in Arizona in January 2009 - 252,224
Number of unemployed people in Arizona in July 2010 - 305,941


From the US Courts website:

Number of Arizona bankruptcy filings for the quarter ending December 31, 2008 (the last period before Brewer became governor): 5,792

Number of Arizona bankruptcy filings for the quarter ending March 31, 2010 (the most recent period for which data is available): 9,652


From the website of Arizona Indicators, from the Morrison Institute for Public Policy:

Monthly taxable sales in January 2009 (when Brewer took office): $4.831 billion
Monthly taxable sales in April 2010 (most recent available data): $3.64 billion


From the website of the Arizona Legislature's Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC):

The State of Arizona's General Fund revenues in January 2009: $662.5 million
The State of Arizona's General Fund revenues in July 2010 (latest date available): $622.1 million, including $64.6 million from the sales tax increase enacted by the voters in May. (Revenue would have been $557.5 million if the voters of Arizona hadn't stemmed the bleeding.)


Home prices are still declining in Arizona, with no real indication of when the housing market is going to stabilize:

AZRepublic article, dated August 15, 2010, on the continuing decline in Phoenix home prices here; EV Tribune article on the lagging housing market in Arizona here; ABC15 piece here.


So let's summarize the economic performance of Jan Brewer so far -

Unemployment - UP

Bankruptcies - UP

Economic activity - DOWN

Home prices - DOWN

State finances: STILL PLUMMETING


Insisting that there is an economic recovery in Arizona isn't the same thing as there actually being an economic recovery in Arizona.

Her performance on economic issues is like her performance in debates with Terry Goddard -


Nonexistent.

Musings on yesterday's primary results...

Since I so willingly spouted off with predictions before the vote results came in, it's only right that I dissect the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of those predictions.

On to the post-mortem...


R Senate primary prediction: McCain, with a caveat that it might not be the blowout that it should be.  Reality: At a 24 point margin (almost 122K votes), this race *was* the blowout it should have been.

D Senate primary prediction: Parraz in a squeaker, though I left open the possibility that Glassman could hold on.  Reality:  turns out that the caveat about Glassman was a good one.  He, in fact, did hold on to win...over Cathy Eden.  Parraz came in fourth, and it wasn't even a close fourth.  Even though I knew better (internal poll numbers are *always* suspect...argghhhh!), I bit hard on the numbers that the Parraz campaign released showing him in a solid second place, within the margin of error.

I can promise that I won't make that mistake again during this election cycle.

R CD3 prediction: "Got no clue, other than it won't be Quayle. Even R primary voters want more substance in a candidate."  Reality: an even bigger miss than with Parraz in the D Senate primary.  That's what I get for overestimating Republican voters.

I can promise that I won't make that mistake again, during this or any other cycle.

R CD5 prediction: Dead on with Schweikert.  Questioned whether Ward would hold on to 2nd place, which he is right now by approximately 570 votes over Bitter Smith.

D SOS prediction: Wercinski.  Reality: Deschene, and it wasn't close.  The margin is more than 60K votes right now.  Wercinski ran an energetic campaign, and I saw more of his campaign than of Deschene's.  Turns out that there is more to the state than Maricopa County.  Who knew?  :)

D AG prediction: Rotellini.  Reality: so far correct, but Rotellini's lead over Lujan is only 1375 votes.

R AG prediction:  Horne. Reality: Horne's ahead, but this race makes the Democratic race look like a blowout.  Horne is currently up 454 votes statewide.  Attribute the closeness of this one to Thomas' fame (and access to Joe Arpaio's deep campaign coffers) in the largest county in Arizona, Maricopa.  Thomas finished ahead in Maricopa County by 4669 votes.

R Superintendent of Public Instruction prediction: Huppenthal.  Reality: Huppenthal.  I didn't think it would be close, and it wasn't.

D Superintendent of Public Instruction prediction: too close to call.  Reality: Kotterman easily.  The margin surprised me, but Kotterman's victory did not.  The reason for my hesitance when making predictions was that four years ago. Slade Mead seemed to have the D nod locked up and most observers underestimated Williams' campaign skills.  Yes, I made a mistake, but it was an understandable and even reasonable one, I think.

R Maricopa County Attorney prediction: Romley, though Montgomery could make it interesting.  Reality: Montgomery won easily.  The biggest surprise was that while this was a "turnout" win (meaning that the hard right wing of the Republican Party was motivated to get out and vote), it didn't help JD Hayworth (politically, very similar to Montgomery).  In the Senate race, Hayworth lost Maricopa County by 24 points, the same margin as he lost statewide.

For at least the next two years, Joe Arpaio has another patsy in the CA's office.

Overall evaluation of my predictive abilities:  Mixed.  Mostly OK, with appropriate caveats in the races I wasn't sure about, but also made a couple of glaring pure misses (Parraz not finishing higher in the D Senate race, Quayle winning in CD3).

Live and (hopefully) learn...

Cherny challenges Ducey to a series of debates

Andrei Cherny, former Assistant Arizona Attorney General, White House staffer, and Democratic nominee for Arizona State Treasurer, in a letter today challenged the Republican nominee Doug Ducey to a series of debates.

The letter, from an emailed press release -

Dear Douglas,


Congratulations on your victory last night in the primary. Yesterday’s outcome sets up the clearest choice Arizonans have ever had in a Treasurer’s race and I look forward to a vigorous discussion of our respective backgrounds and approaches to the position.

This new campaign gives you the opportunity to come clean with the people of Arizona and release a full disclosure of your financial and business holdings. I ask you to not only comply with the letter but the spirit of Arizona's Public Official Financial Disclosure Law. Arizonans deserve to have a full picture of each candidate’s financial history, so they have all the information they need to decide who is best suited to protect the billions of dollars of state assets held in trust and to guard against conflicts of interest.

In order to fully discuss all the important issues facing our state, I am proposing a series of four or more debates over the next 69 days before the general election. These debates would be held in different parts of the state with a different theme for each debate. I am proposing debates around the topics of job creation, government transparency, investment strategies, and using the audit power of the Treasurer's office.

My campaign manager, Bill Scheel, will be in touch with your staff to begin making arrangments for these debates. Thank you in advance for being willing to discuss these important issues with Arizonans.

Sincerely,

Andrei

Yes, you can tell that primary season is over - Democrats and Republicans are going after each other directly now.  Keep the popcorn handy. :)