Scottsdale Mayoral Forum

For those of you who thought the mayor's race in Tempe was the end of campaign season...oh, who am I kidding?  If you're reading this blog, you already know better.  :)

The Community Council of Scottsdale held a forum for the three candidates for mayor in Scottsdale on Thursday evening in the Granite Reef Senior Center.

The candidates are incumbent Jim Lane and challengers Drew Bernhardt and John Washington.

I don't have the time (or the notes) for a full write up, but I do have one major observation about politics in Scottsdale -

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

- All three candidates were asked their positions on the possibility of the construction of a light rail line in Scottsdale.

All three candidates oppose the idea.

All three candidate ignored the fact that the possibility of light rail in Scottsdale was nixed nearly a decade ago.

Edit on 5/18 - Thanks to candidate John Washington to spotting the error in the above statement (see comment below).  One candidate, Jim Lane, did say that the light rail issue has already been decided.  The point is still valid though - light rail in Scottsdale is dead and has been dead for a decade, but it is still being fought over, to the detriment of attention to issues that Scottsdale actually faces.

End edit...

- Also brought up at the forum:  firing the city manager.  It must be an even-numbered year thing.  For the record:  Bernhardt and Washington support the idea, Lane demurred, citing confidentiality concerns or something similar.  The upshot:  Scottsdale will have an opening in it city manager's office within a few months.  Interested applicants should adjust their salary requirements based on the expected brief tenure (in other words, make 'em pay through the nose.  It pains me as a taxpayer to say that, but it's the way it has to be.)

A few pics from the forum -

Candidate John Washington introducing himself to the audience

Current Councilman Ron McCullagh was in attendance

Washington making a point.  Bernhardt is on the left side of the pic.

An audience member asks a question.  On stage, from left to right:  Lane, Bernhardt, Washington.

The audience breaking up after the forum

The three candidates being introduced by Jerry, the head of the Community Council of Scottsdale.

Tempe Election Update: Mitchell ahead by 139 votes and wins!

On Tuesday evening, the preliminary returns from Tempe's election for mayor were disheartening, to say the least.

Initially, restaurant owner Michael Monti was ahead of City Council member Mark Mitchell by more than 200 votes.

Yesterday, after some provisional ballots and early ballots turned in at the polls were counted, the margin dropped to less than 150, in favor of Monti.

Today, after more provisionals and drop offs were counted, the margin is now 139, in favor of Mitchell.

Final results will be released on Friday, so stay tuned...

Update:  Apparently, today's numbers *are* the final results, except for three more provisional ballots.  Congrats to Mayor-elect Mark Mitchell!

State Representative Ben Arredondo indicted in FBI sting

On Wednesday, a federal indictment of State Representative Ben Arredondo was released. 

It alleges that Arredondo accepted slightly less than $6300 in tickets to sporting events and charity events in exchange for influence used on behalf of the givers of the largesse, FBI agents working undercover as representatives of a fake company seeking to do business in Tempe.

The matter is still unfolding, and more news will break before it is over.

Arredondo will have his day in court, and as someone who knows and likes him, I hope he is innocent and fends this off.  However, if he's guilty, he should face the appropriate penalty.

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, from Tempe, like Arredondo, has called for Arredondo's resignation, while House Minority Leader Chad Campbell of Phoenix expressed both shock at the charges and that Arredondo should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Having said all that, I've got a few thoughts on this:

- While if the allegations in the indictment are proven true it will be more than a little disappointing, it won't be all that surprising.  Arredondo was one of a number of elected officials named in the report from the Fiesta Bowl organization concerning its scandal.  The elected officials received trips and tickets to college football games prior to voting on matters that affected the Fiesta Bowl.

- Speaking of the Fiesta Bowl scandal, most or all of the electeds named in that report are probably finding that their digestive systems have turned into masonry production systems (aka "they're $hitting bricks") right about now.  Wednesday's indictment may not be related to the Fiesta Bowl scandal, but the behavior cited in it is very similar.  Just a guess here, but many of them

- The next elected on the feds' menu may not even be a state legislator.  They're still going "round 'n round" with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an investigation of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne relating to some interesting campaign finance activity, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is the subject of an investigation into allegations that he had some PCSO employees do campaign work, for his now-abandoned run for Congress, while they were on the job.

- Assuming that there is merit to the feds' allegations, the question will become "who's next, and for what?"  After the Fiesta Bowl scandal broke, a number of bills were introduced by the Democrats in the legislature to tighten the ethics rules on gifts, etc. from people with an interest in matters before the lege.

Turns out some of the other legislators *really* like their freebies - the Republicans killed each and every attempt to clean up the legislature.

In other words, it's not "if" but "when" there will be a next time.

Romney may be the king of flip flops, but he is consistent about one thing: his endless supply of contempt for people who work for a living

Mitt Romney has flip-flopped on pretty much every issue under the political sun, usually changing his positions based on the audience he was/is trying to tailor his message to.

However, one thing he has been completely consistent about is his utter disregard for people who work for a living. 

When he ran Bain Capital, Bain's business MO (modus operandi) was to acquire successful companies cheap and run them into the ground in the way most profitable to Mitt and his cronies.

That way always included cutting the pay and benefits of the workers who made those companies successful before Mitt et. al. came along.

Mitt may not be "in business" any longer, at least officially, but his attitude toward people who work for a living hasn't changed one bit.

From Govexec.com (a publication of the National Journal) -

"We will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve," Romney said.

One of the great right-wing talking points is that federal workers, indeed all government workers, are paid more than private sector workers in the same fields. 

There is some debate on the subject, but there is one thing that Mitt's (and the Republicans') talking point blithely ignores -

Any "pay gap" between the public and private sectors is due, at least in part, to the stagnation and diminution of the compensation of private sector workers, not to a skyrocketing of government worker compensation.

Romney is already setting up his rationalization for gut-punching the one sector of the American middle class that has held up relatively well during the attack on the overall middle class over the last few decades.

By contrast, President Obama shows a healthy respect for people who work for a living.

From the American Society for Public Administration -

Each day, our country benefits from the efforts of dedicated federal, state and local government employees who do their jobs with pride and passion. So many of these men and women work tirelesly on behalf of their fellow citizens to confront the challenges impacting our communities and our nation. During Public Service Recognition Week, we recognize these committed civil servants and honor their efforts to ensure a brighter future for the next generation.

President Obama isn't perfect (who is?), but he understands that there is a difference between being a leader working to restore American economic vitality and being a vampire sucking the economic life out of the American middle class for personal profit..

Romney Economics: Bankruptcy and Bailouts at GST Steel

And before any Republican readers of this blog (yes, there are a few :) ) whine about "class warfare" or some such claptrap, I would remind you of observations of one Newt Gingrich, hardly a champion of the middle class -

Gingrich has maintained that negative and false ads launched by Romney supporters dragged his campaign down from a onetime frontrunner late last year.

He said Romney is a Massachusetts moderate “would be pretty good at managing the decay of Washington” with little hope of changing the culture of American politics.

Mitt Romney's business career isn't the epitome of economic capitalism, it's the epitome of economic cannibalism.

Remember the "Pearce Johnson Foundation"? Does anybody?

Last year, just after the news of his leading role in the Fiesta Bowl scandal broke and just before the petitions were submitted to force his ultimately-successful recall election, Russell Pearce formed a charity, the Pearce Johnson Foundation.  Its stated purpose was "to bring clean water to Haiti first, then other developing countries", and solicited contributions from the public for that purpose.

At the time, there wasn't much information available on the "foundation", but given the newness of the foundation, a low profile wasn't too surprising.

It's been a year, however, and the Pearce Johnso Foundation isn't just "low-profile", it seems to be "no-profile".

- The Arizona Secretary of State's charity database has nothing on it -

- Because the foundation was created with the assistance of a California-based political consultant, Kiley & Associates, a check of the California Attorney General's charity database was in order, and was equally fruitless -

- OK.  The fact that Pearce is based in AZ and his consultant is based in CA doesn't mean that they formed the foundation in one of those states.  Time to check national clearinghouses for information on charitable organizations.

- CharityNavigator.org?  Nada.

- National Center for Charitable Statistics?  Zilch.

- Guidestar?  Bupkes.

Those organizations get most, if not all, of their info from the IRS, so maybe the IRS has something they don't.

- From a search of the IRS' database of exempt organizations -

Hmmm.  Still no info, not even a hint that the foundation exists as more than a phrase in a press release.

Did a Google search of the phrase "Pearce Johnson".  The only foundation-related results were the foundation's website or various right-wing blogs pushing the press release last year.  Nothing about good works that they've done, or even instances of teaming up with some of the more well-established (aka - "legitimate") international clean water charities.

This listing of charities working to bring clean water to various third-world countries, including Haiti, doesn't have a mention of "Pearce Johnson".

- Pearce himself doesn't have anything to say about it either.  From his Arizona Public Officer financial disclosure form, filed in January 2012, covering all of 2011 -

Given that Pearce had to "amend" some of his past financial disclosure reports due to his involvement in the Fiesta Bowl scandal, I'm guessing that even he would be hesitant give false information on a report.

What this all adds up to, I can't say for sure. 

Perhaps Pearce's foundation exists and is legit (even if it is so low-profile that the IRS doesn't know about it).  However, if it does, Pearce could have more trouble with false reporting on his disclosure forms.

Perhaps Pearce's foundation is a scam (and apparently was one from Day One), in which case he is fine with the AZSOS (he reported nothing because there was nothing to report) but may have to face some questions from the IRS (and maybe the USDOJ, depending on the amount of money contributed to his foundation and what he did with the money).

Perhaps it's something else, including the possibility that I simply missed something (but that financial disclosure report suggests that there is nothing to find).

Any way you cut it, though, he may want to make sure he has a decent defense attorney on his speed dial.


Notes:

In all searches, variations in the spelling of the name of the foundation were also used; those searches were also unsuccessful.  In addition, just for the sake of thoroughness, general searches for corporations and partnerships in CA and AZ were also performed in the event that the foundation was formed that way.  Neither state has info on such a corporation/partnership.

Also, the consulting firm that Pearce and Johnson said that they used to form the foundation doesn't have a website that I could find.  As such, I was unable to use information gleaned from that particular source.

Candidate updates -

In the "not surprised by the move, just that it took so long" department:

- Embattled Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination in the CD4 primary.  Maybe it was being outed as gay (the kiss of death to a political career in Republican circles), maybe it was threatening to use his position to have his ex deported (an allegation that Babeu has denied, but not exactly helpful to any variety of political career), or maybe it was the investigation into whether Babeu had his deputies campaign for him (the loss of a political career pales next to a possible loss of freedom if the investigation into that goes poorly for Babeu), but his exit from the race was a matter of "when", not "if".

In the "we wish he would just get the message already department" or the "don't go away mad, just go away" department:

- Rumors have spread that former state legislator Russell Pearce is dropping out of the Republican primary in LD25.  However, he has denied that and as of this writing, he is still in the race.

In the "who?" department:

David Crowe, a Republican-turned-Democrat, has dropped his primary challenge to Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva.


In other news, other candidates are dropping, dropping off nominating petitions at the Arizona Secretary of State's office.

State Senator and CD9 Congressional candidate David Schapira delivering his petitions to the AZSOS.  He's the first CD9 candidate to do so (picture courtesy the Schapira campaign)







The full list of candidates who have submitted nominating petitions to the AZSOS is here.  Some of the highlights:

- Former state senator Ken Cheuvront submitted his sigs on May 8.  He's running for a return to the state senate in the new LD24.  Current state representative Katie Hobbs is also running for that seat.

- Current state representative John Fillmore submitted his sigs for the LD16 Senate race on May 11.  Current state senator Rich Crandall is also running in that district.

- Current member of Congress David Schweikert beat current member of Congress Ben Quayle...in the race to submit sigs, doing so on April 30.


The list of Maricopa County candidates who have submitted sigs is here;

The Arizona Capitol Times is definitely not a sports newspaper - they don't know the difference between hardball and beanball

In a baseball game when a pitcher knows that the batter is going to lean out over the plate and try to lay down a bunt, and the pitcher delivers his first pitch high and tight to back the batter off of the plate.


It doesn't exactly endear the pitcher to the batter, but so long as there is no attempt or intent to cause physical harm, it's considered to be just "hardball."

There might a few hard looks exchanged, and some chirping from the benches, but not much more (ok, usually not much more :) )

Compare that to a pitcher deliberately throwing a fastball at a batter's ear, putting the batter's career, health, and even life at risk.

That's an open invitation for things like retaliatory bean balls, spikes-high slides on the basepaths, and, of course, bench-clearing brawls.

This week, the Arizona Capitol Times published a story, written by Jeremy Duda, taking the position that the Democratic primary in CD9 has quickly become the nastiest in the state this cycle (subscription required).


There have been condemnations of some apparently race-baiting mailers in a previous election, allegations that the other candidates are engaged in dirty politics, duelling calls for a clean, issues-oriented campaign, and more.


And while the race has gotten more colorful and more quickly than I (and many others) would have predicted, most of it seems to within the realm of "hardball", but nothing more.

The candidates and their campaign staffs may be thinking bad thoughts about each other, but sooner or later (probably sooner), they'll settle down to an issues-oriented campaign discourse.

And if any of them are, ummm, "recalcitrant", about that?  The voters will set them straight, because they are both the paying fans and the umpires in this game.


On the other hand, what is taking place in the Tempe mayor's race is more like one-sided beanball..  It's not about "clean" or "hardball"; it's about personally destroying the opponent by any means possible.


A week before the election, the Monti campaign, aided and abetted by Jason Rose, have gone into "beanball" territory by loosing an allegation that Mark Mitchell, a member of the Tempe City Council and the other candidate on the ballot, sexually assaulted a girl almost 30 years ago.

To his credit, Mitchell has denounced the allegations while not engaging in similar tactics, as seen in this video from Thursday night's candidate open mic session in the Tempe City Council chambers.

Also as seen in an email from Mitchell -

Angry doesn’t begin to describe how I feel this morning. Disappointed doesn’t do it justice. But one word does seem to fit my mood.

Determined.

I am determined not to let the people hell-bent on stealing the Tempe Mayor’s election get their way. I am determined not to let their lies take root, determined not to let the most vile political smears imaginable hand my opponents the leadership of our City.

By now, you’ve seen or heard the garbage they’re spreading. Let me be perfectly clear:

I've done nothing wrong, not now and not 30 years ago, when I was 12 years old.

For 30 years, there has never been a complaint against me, never been a police investigation into these false claims, never even been a smear suggesting something like this, until now, on the eve of the mayoral election.

This is politics at its worst. The kind of politics I’m determined to defeat. To do that, however, I need your help. I need your phone calls. I need your shoe leather and word of mouth. I need you to spread the word – that a vote for Mark Mitchell is a vote against lies, false attacks and politics taken to a disgusting new low.

If you have a ballot sitting in your mail pile, please grab it and vote. Circle Tuesday, Election Day, on your calendar and go vote. If you have voted, thank you. Now, please, convince one of your friends to go to the polls and support our campaign.

I’ve worked hard to keep contest for Mayor on the issues we care about, like creating jobs and making neighborhoods safer, just as I’ve worked hard to be a leader who makes Tempe proud. I’m determined to keep fighting for you, to keep doing what it takes to make Tempe special. But right now, I’m even more determined to do one thing.

Win a race that has me pitted against people who will do absolutely anything, including lie and smear, to win.

Thank you for your support. And thank you for standing with me. Just like every vote will count in this race, your kind words to me and to my family have meant the world.

-Mark

As disgusting as Monti's tactics have been (and to be clear, this may be the worst, but it isn't the first, of Monti's forays to the darkest side of politics), this kind of move often is more damaging to the candidate doing it, not the intended victim.

As of right now, the primary effect has been to motivate the Arizona Republic to endorse Mitchell in Tuesday's election; we'll see on Tuesday what the voters, the ultimate arbiters of this conflict, think of Monti and his tactics.

More AZ Republic opinion on this matter here.  Credit where credit is due time:  the Republic is usually on the wrong side on most political matters, but they've set the right tone on this subject.

Mark Mitchell in late April, before the latest bit of sleaze from the Monti campaign










A couple of quick thoughts:

- This ugliness may be a preview of Scottsdale's campaign season.  The aforementioned Jason Rose has a history of "consulting" candidates into engaging in some pretty sleazy tactics, and he is helping Jim Lane run for reelection as mayor.  Scottsdale voters are going to need goggles and hip waders because the mud will be flying and the s**t will get deep here before it's all over.

- During the same open mic session in the Tempe City Council chambers, Monti also spoke.  I can't read his mind (or his heart), but Monti may have given voters a clue as to where his true loyalties lie - in his last campaign speech to a wide audience, he made sure to work in a plug for his restaurant.

Political Tidbits...

Kind of like "Short Attention Span Musing", but without much musing. :)


...The Democratic candidates for the new Ninth Congressional District all attended, spoke, and took questions at Tuesday's meeting of the LD26 Democrats.  Because I support State Sen. David Schapira in that particular race, I won't comment on the event other than to say that he did well.

Note the lack of comparative words (i.e. - "best", "better than", etc.) favoring Schapira.  They aren't appropriate for this forum (not going to denigrate other Ds...unless they start acting like Rs), and they aren't needed.  His words and actions in office and on the campaign trail speak for themselves.

...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) appointed Kyle Jones, a former member of the Mesa City Council, to serve out the term of Lester Pearce as the North Mesa Justice of the Peace.  Pearce resigned to pursue a run at a seat on the MCBOS.

Jones on his appointment:

“I am honored by this opportunity to serve my constituents in this new role.  I grew up in Mesa, and raised my five children in Mesa. My four grandchildren are now growing up in Mesa. I am thrilled I can continue to serve this great community.”

Jones filed to run for the office in late 2011.  Given that he and Cecil Ash, a state legislator, are the only candidates for the office with significant name recognition in the area, this appointment may give him a leg up in the primary.

...I received an email touting a candidate training school taking place next Thursday.  It is a little late in the cycle, but it's not an unusual occurence during an even-numbered year.

The training session is being sponsored by an organization called the American Federation for Children (awwww...).

It sounded all well and good, other than being a little late in the cycle, until I noticed a few things about the flyer announcing the session -

- It talked about helping "pro-education reform candidates" (as the phrase is currently used "education reform" is a euphemism for "privatize public education and siphon tax money from public purposes to line the pockets of the corporate benefactors of certain legislators")

- The session is scheduled for all day on a week day (not the kind of scheduling if the target audience is Joe and Jane Average Citizen)

- It's being held at the Phoenix Corporate Center ('nuff said right there)

Hmmm...

A quick check found that the American Federation for Children is actually an ALEC-affiliated front group dedicated to undermining the public education system for fun and profit.

HmmmmClarified...

...In lege-related developments, the Arizona Capitol Times is reporting that State Sen. Frank "Don't Make Me Mad" Antenori is strongly considering dropping his run for Congress and instead running for reelection to the state senate (subscription required)

Coming in fourth in a four-way primary in a special election can cause anyone to rethink their plans, even someone as ego-drive as Antenori.

Also reported by the Capitol Times (and also requiring a subscription to access the full article), Republican state senator Lori Klein had been considering a move to a different legislative district due to redistricting because her home in Anthem (just a little north of Phoenix) is now in a district dominated by Prescott (more than just a little north of Phoenix).  Her new district is also home to Steve Pierce, the president of the state senate.  The Cap Times' article talks about how she is now mulling a run for the House, setting up a possible three-way primary with current state reps Andy Tobin and Karen Fann.

Tobin is the speaker of the House, so it would be something of a surprise if Klein defeating him in the primary, but Klein is trying to make the case that Fann is vulnerable.

I don't know that district well enough to even speculate on what would happen in a primary there, but I'd love to find out. :)


...And in case you haven't heard (OK, it's the biggest political story of the day), President Barack Obama expressed his support for the right of same-sex couples to get married.

Most of his detractors (and likely a few of his supporters, too) believe that the move is a political ploy designed to attract more votes, but since the opponents of same-sex marriage were already unlikely to vote for him (and the supporters were already likely to vote for him), this seems to be more the maturation of his thoughts and beliefs on the issue.

Tobin out of CD4 race; Borowsky jumps into CD9

...Not that he was ever *in* the race, but House Speaker Andy Tobin had been the subject of many rumors that he was going to jump into the Republican primary in CD4.  On Monday, he put those rumors to rest, announcing that there is too much left to do to the state at the state level.

More likely, he saw the calendar for collecting nominating signatures getting short (due at the end of the month) and he would be trying to raise money in a field that already has three experienced Republicans running. 

On top of all that, it's simply just easier to get on the ballot as a legislative candidate than as a Congressional candidate (compare the signature requirements for LD1 with the requirements for CD4)

...Rumors have been swirling about the possible Congressional candidacy of Lisa Borowsky, a Republican and a member of the Scottsdale City Council.  She has put those particular rumors to rest by announcing that she will be running in the new CD9.

Not a total surprise.  Her council seat is up for reelection this year and she hasn't formed a reelection committee yet, and the timing on that is the same as the timing on a run for Congress.

However, unlike the Rs in CD4, the Rs in CD9 aren't as experienced, half never having held elected office and the other half never having held office higher than city/town council.  And none of them seem to be pulling away in the race.

Combine that with the fact that she would need more signatures to get on Scottsdale's ballot (1000) than to get on the CD9 primary ballot (616)

Taking a shot at the rare truly open Congressional seat isn't a difficult decision under the circumstances.


...There may be more people to jump into Congressional races, but at this point, look for those people to be well-funded enough to hire signature gatherers at premium, "last minute" rates, or to be simply crazy.

In other words, I believe the fields in the various CDs are pretty much set; it's just a matter of seeing which candidates actually qualify for the ballot.

Speaker Tobin - what kind of cheese would you like with that whine?

Nearly every Sunday morning at 8 a.m., Channel 12 in Phoenix airs Sunday Square Off, a weekly political discussion show.  When discussing issues and matters where there is a partisan divide, host Brahm Resnick will bring in a lineup of guests that crosses that partisan divide; when discussing issues and matters that are less partisan and more observational, a panel of journalists and Capitol observers are brought in.

This week's episode was primarily focused on the wrap-up of the legislative session, so the panel was less political and more neutral.

The neutral panel was critical/skeptical of a few things - the lack of transparency surrounding the budget, the no notice passage of a huge tax cut for the wealthy, the move to remove oversight of private prisons - but overall, they were pretty gentle with the lege and its shenanigans, but that wasn't good enough for Andy Tobin, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. 

When Resnick linked to the video archive of the episode on his Facebook page, Tobin chimed in -

This was a follow-up to a post that Tobin put up on his own FB page where he complained about the Arizona Republic declined to publish an "op-ed" that he wrote.

He might have left it at that, taking advantage of the benefit of the doubt to maintain at least a vestige of credibility.

Of course, he didn't.  He posted his "op-ed" and removed all doubt.

His piece was less "op-ed" suitable for a newspaper and more "hit piece" suitable for a mailer.  Apparently, Tobin was interested in saving some postage and is upset that the Republic isn't giving him an in-kind contribution for his Congressional/legislative campaign.

Not quite sure which he is going for, at least based on the hit piece op-ed, but he spent the entire piece blaming Arizona Democrats, President Obama, national Democrats, and the federal government for all that ails AZ, while blithely ignoring the fact that he and his Republican associates have controlled the Arizona Capitol for generations, and even had a supermajority in both chambers for the last two sessions.  They were able to push through absolutely anything they wanted in Arizona.  In addition, he ignored the fact that his associates have controlled the US House of Representatives for the last two years, and have done everything to attempt to block an effective economic recovery.

Note: I saved a copy of his hit piece in the event he pulls it down, but I don't expect him to do that.  He's too proud of his contempt for reality to ever do something like that.

Real campaign season about to start: Sine Die here

The legislative session has adjourned sine die, meaning that on Thursday, the lege engaged in a marathon session (though not as "marathon" as some sine die sessions from years past).  They passed some very bad bills, but at least it's over until January

The end of the legislative session marks the unofficial start of campaign season (ok, people have been campaigning for months, but now it's really going to ramp up).  However, some folks have been getting a head start.


...In CD9, the gloves are coming off. 

- Word broke that Democratic candidate Andrei Cherny sent out some apparently racist mailers during his unsuccessful 2002 campaign for the California Assembly (equivalent to the House of Representatives in Arizona).

- The Cherny campaign responded by sending out an email blasting fellow Democrat Kyrsten Sinema for taking a "I was for it while I was against it" stance on a military response to the 9/11 attacks (no link, but if you're interested, drop me an email and I'll forward it to you).

...In LD25, Russell Pearce, the former senate president who was ignominously recalled by the voters last November, is running, both for a return to the Senate and to distance himself from his infamous ally, mass murderer JT Ready.  We'll have to wait until August (primary) and November (general election) to see about the "return" part of his scheme, but we already know the "distancing" part isn't going so well.

Methinks that blaming the media for actually covering his relationship to Ready may not have been the way to convince the media to ignore said relationship.

To whit: 

EJ Montini of the Arizona Republic

Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times

Nick Martin of TalkingPointsMemo

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center


...In CD4, the influential corporate lobby group (with deep pockets, which is why they are so influential in R circles) has endorsed Ron "Confederate Flag" Gould.  The interesting part of the endorsement was the way CFG totally ignored disgraced-but-still-Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and just lambasted freshman GOP member of Congress Paul Gosar.  Look for the negative but expensive mailers and TV spots to start hitting mail boxes and airwaves soon.

...To be sure, there will be more to come...

Bad Day In Arizona...

...Four people, including a 2 year-old toddler, were killed by infamous Arizona neo-Nazi/white supremacist JT Ready.

From the Arizona Republic, written by Jim Walsh and Lindsey Collom -

A border militia leader on Wednesday shot and killed four people at a Gilbert home, including a toddler, before committing suicide, sources said.

Sources identified the shooter as Jason "J.T." Ready, a reputed neo-Nazi who made headlines when he launched a militia movement to patrol the Arizona desert to hunt for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

At least one person survived the shooting, and was being treated at Maricopa Medical Center.

Authorities have not identified the other victims, but reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Hugo Maderos said the victims were his ex-wife, Lisa; their daughter, Amber; Amber's boyfriend, whose name The Republic is withholding until his next of kin could be notified, and Amber's 18-month-old baby, Lilly.

First and foremost, my deepest condolences and prayers go out to the family and friends of Ready's victims.

While today's events aren't really surprising to anyone who has followed Ready's activities over the years (one of my FB friends referred to him as a "ticking time bomb"), they are no less horrifying for the lack of surprise.

...Other events today would normally fall into the category of "horrific", but compared to Ready's mass murder...

Note: In addition to condolences and prayers, my apologies go out to the friends and family of Ready's victims.  I planned to write about the following items before the news of Ready's mass murder broke.  In no way do I intend to state or imply that the following items are as horrible as the killings in Gilbert.

- In an effort led by his allies in the legislature, Russell Pearce, former senate president and a friend and ally of Ready) is in line to receive more than $260K of taxpayer money to reimburse him for expenses related to the successful recall of him in November.  A conference committee made of two Democrats and four Pearce supporters amended SB1449 to include a path to payment for Pearce.

Three are in this picture, from election night in November as the Pearce camp realized that the voters of LD18 hadn't fallen for the usual smoke and BS-storm -

Pearce is at the mic, Rep. Eddie Farnsworth is to his right (left in the pic as we are looking at it), Sen. Steve Smith is directly behind Pearce, Rep. Steve Montenegro is to Pearce's left (right, when viewing the pic).  Also on the committee, but not in the pic: Sen. Andy Biggs.  I'm not sure, but I think he was there that night, but just isn't in this particular pic.  In this pic, however, are Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio (pic right, gazing at Pearce), Rep. Carl Seel (behind Arpaio), and Rep. John Kavanagh (barely inside the pic on the right, sort of behind Arpaio).


So far, Steve Pierce and Andy Tobin, the current Senate President and House Speaker, respectively, haven't said much about the scheme to give Russell Pearce a s---load of taxpayer money, but since they select the members of the conference committees, my guess is that they are completely on board.


- The House gave final approval to HB2503, a measure that exempts companies from punitive damages relating to defective or inadequate products or services if those products or services meet government regulatory standards.

Left unsaid in the bill:  The fact that industry lobbyists already write most regulations, watering them down to the point of being ineffective or even counter-productive.

- The Senate passed HB2571, Governor Brewer's plan to turn the state's merit employment system into a political patronage/spoils system designed to enrich her and her associates/handlers.  It returns to the House for a rubber-stamp vote on a minor amendment passed by the Senate.

- Republican legislators are working to join lawsuits seeking to overturn the recently-precleared legislative district maps, saying that the maps don't do enough to protect minority voting power.

This in spite of the fact that minority legislators are saying "the maps are fine, and since when do you folks look out for minorities, other than looking to demonize them for fun, profit, and votes whenever you can?" (OK, they didn't use those specific words, but it's a good summary.  :) )

...All in all, a bad day made tragic by events in Gilbert, which are still unfolding at this hour.  Federal agencies are on the scene handling a hazmat situation.  Apparently, Ready had a stockpile of chemicals and munitions at the house.

Ready (left) and Pearce, in happier days

Ready getting, well, *ready* for one of his immigrant hunts "patrols"

Ready in all of his glory











The above three pics courtesy the Phoenix New Times; the press conference pic courtesy a FB friend.

ALEC continuing to lose support, even in AZ

Turns out that pushing legislation that racks up a body count isn't considered good PR by many of ALEC's corporate supporters...

Late last week, Russell Smoldon, lobbyist for SRP and one of ALEC's lead fixers in AZ and Debbie Lesko, AZ state representative AZ chair for ALEC, organized an emergency meeting of roughly 140 Arizona lobbyists to try to coordinate a response to the nationwide outcry over the ALEC-written and pushed Kill At Will "Stand Your Ground" law used to rationalize the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, a law that is on the books in many states, including Arizona.

The email invite was pretty bland (courtesy a friend of the blog) -

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 9:37 AM

Subject: meeting regarding ALEC

Debbie Lesko and other ALEC legislative members both present and past would like to invite you to a meeting thisThurs. (April 26th), 11:00am at AGC to get the latest update on the fight that ALEC is waging in the media against its detractors. We would really appreciate your attendance

 

Russell D. Smoldon

Senior Director Government Relations

SRP

The problem?  According to sources, nowhere near all of the lobbyists asked to attend showed up, but a news crew from Channel 5 and Stephen Lemons, a reporter from the Phoenix New Times, did show up.  Apparently, Lesko got wind of the media attention before arriving, so she skipped the meeting.  The unlucky ones who didn't get the heads-up were left to try to duck the spotlight.

The Arizona Capitol Times had some coverage of the meeting in Friday's Yellow Sheet Report (pricey subscription required).  From that report -

ENJOYING THE FIRST AMENDMENT, NOW GO AWAY

Supporters and members of ALEC, which has come under a publicity blitz by opponents, today found themselves hiding from members of the press who received word about an ALEC-related meeting held at the Associated General Contractors’ office. Sources say that about 30 to 40 representatives of ALEC’s Arizona corporate sponsors met at the AGC to discuss the publicity campaign that has put the group on its heels and under public scrutiny over the close ties between elected officials and corporate entities.

 

The purpose of the meeting may have been to organize a response to the withering criticism that ALEC is facing, or it may have been called simply to "buck up the troops" as a number of ALEC's corporate sponsors have been distancing themselves from ALEC.

 

It doesn't matter which, because having to duck, or duck and run out of, the meeting doesn't help with either goal.

 

Later....

Another Pearce out of office: Lester Pearce resigns from office

For the first time in 15 years, brothers Lester and Russell Pearce are out of elected office at the same time.

Both are attempting to win office in November (Russell, state senate; Lester, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors), but until then, the amount of bs and hatred spewed into the atmosphere by AZ's elected officials by a huge middling OK, a tiny amount.

Russell was removed from the senate by a now-legendary recall vote in November; his brother Lester resigned from the office of North Mesa Justice of the Peace on Monday in order to pursue a run at the East Valley seat on the MCBOS.

From the press release announcing the resignation -

Lester Pearce, Presiding Judge of the Maricopa County Justice Courts, has announced his resignation from the Justice Courts Bench. In his resignation letter to the Board of Supervisors, effective at midnight tonight, Judge Pearce cited Rule 4.5 of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct, which states that a judge shall resign from judicial office upon becoming a candidate for a non-judicial elective office.

"It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Maricopa County as a Justice of the Peace for the past 15 plus years," said Judge Pearce. "I have enjoyed my role in providing justice at the level closest to the people. However, as I will be announcing my candidacy for another elected position, I unfortunately must resign as the North Mesa Justice of the Peace."

{snip}

Associate Presiding Judge Clancy Jayne will assume the duties of the Presiding Judge.

There are 25 justice courts in Maricopa County that hear a combined caseload of more than 400,000 cases each year, including civil lawsuits where the amount in dispute is $10,000 or less, landlord and tenant controversies, small claims cases and civil and criminal traffic offenses, including DUIs. Justices of the Peace also resolve other types of misdemeanor allegations and handle requests for orders of protection and injunctions against harassment.

While both Pearces are running in R-heavy districts where the winner of the Republican nomination is likely to win the general election, both face formidable opponents in the Republican primary.