Primary Ballot Time - 2012

Well, for those who vote by mail, this week was a big week - ballots for the August primary election have started hitting mailboxes across the state.

Here's mine -

In the contested races that are visible in the pic, I voted for David Schapira for Congress (more on that below), Katie Hobbs for State Senate, and Chad Campbell and Lela Alston for State House.  On the other side of the ballot, it was Paul Penzone for Maricopa County Sheriff, John Washington for Mayor of Scottsdale, and Denny Brown for Scottsdale City Council (so far, I'm single-shotting Brown, but we can vote for up to three candidates in that race.)

As for the race for Congress -

While all three candidates have their good points, and all are basically on the right side of the "big issues", only one will do the best job of representing the Ninth Congressional District. That one is David Schapira. He is a "what you see is what you get" kind of candidate - honest, direct, and straightforward. His primary concern is working to make this a better community, by supporting education, health care opportunity, small business, and all of the things that help make a community a *home*. I'm proud to call him my state senator and prouder still to call him a friend.

He will be Arizona's next great Congressman.

The Pearce emails: the deeper you dig, the more nuggets you find

I know it's been a few weeks since they came out, and this is a bit of "old news", but the hundreds of pages of Russell Pearce's bigoted emails are still turning up nuggets.  In this case, he is thoroughly willing to misuse quotes and science to serve his bigoted ends.

To whit:  on page 20 of the linked .pdf file, Pearce quotes a Democrat, President Harry S. Truman -

I think that the line was actually first used in the 1948 presidential campaign, but to be fair to Pearce, that issue of Look magazine may have contained an interview or quote from Truman.  Given that Pearce was born in 1947 (or so says his Wikipedia bio), he was probably too young in 1948 to pay attention to presidential candidates, and by 1956, if he was soaking up wisdom at the (metphorical) knee of any "Democrat", it was probably Bull Connor.

But whether it was 1948 or 1956, either way, Truman wasn't talking about immigration or immigrants.

To whit2:  On page 45 of the same file, Pearce forwarded material that admits the reality of global warming and other environmental concerns, matters that Republican orthodoxy either minimizes or calls an outright hoax -

Now, it seems as if the phenomena cited were meant to serve as points arguing against all immigration (not just the undocumented variety that Pearce claims is all that he is concerned with), but hey, it's a start.  :)

Andy Tobin: AZ House Hypocrite-In-Chief

Laurie Roberts, a columnist for the Arizona Republic has mounted a public awareness campaign/series of columns called "De-kookify the Capitol".  In it, she shines a light on some of the looniest members of the lege.

And being a pretty honest person, Roberts' had to select Republicans as the kookiest members of the lege (one of the downsides of having a supermajority is that the kooks get to run wild.  And run they did...)

Naturally, House Speaker Andy Tobin had to weigh in on the matter, even though he wasn't named as one of the "kooks" (and trust me, if I had written the list, it would have had 61 names on it, including his).

He responded with an op-ed piece published in the Republic, excoriating Roberts for daring to criticize the members of the lege, and the Republic for publishing that criticism.

Most All of it is utterly hypocritical BS, and Tobin sets the tone for his piece in the opening sentence (emphasis mine) -

Only The Arizona Republic would allow one of its employees to disrespect public servants...

Tobin and his cohorts have spent years disrespecting teachers, police officers, firefighters, highway workers, and any other people who serve the public by working to make society a more educated, safer, and smoother-functioning place.

Tobin et. al. have mounted repeated attacks on teachers (union busting bills), all state employees (turning the state's merit protection employment system into a winner-takes-all spoils system controlled by politicians), public safety (guns on campus), democracy (birther bills, interfering in municipal elections), women's rights to control their own bodies (anti-choice and anti-contraception bills), Arizona's future fiscal stability (massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy) and Arizona's Latino population (creating a state-sponsored militia force to target Mexican immigrants, among *many* other bills).

What they haven't done is pass any bills that actually *help* the public, even refusing to change a couple of words in Arizona law that would have allowed long-term unemployed Arizonans to receive a few more weeks of federal unemployment benefits.  A change that would have cost the state absolutely nothing.

However, Tobin tries to wrap himself and his gang caucus in some sort of mythical "public servant" cloak that he apparently believes immunizes him (and the rest of the wingnuts in his caucus) from criticism.

Such immunity from criticism doesn't exist, even for actual public servants.  If it did, much of the time, the lege would have nothing to spout off about.  OK, other than women, Latinos, members of the LGBT community, other racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural minorities, people who disagree with them, black helicopters, UFOs...

And the only way that Tobin et. al. can be considered "public servants" is if "public" is defined as "lobbyists ranging from Cathi Herrod to Chuck Coughlin and all of the wingnuts and corporate stooges in between".

Last Day To Register To Vote In The August Primary

Pic courtesy Mi Familia Vota - Arizona

Today, July 30, is the deadline to register to vote in the August primary election in Arizona.  One can register online here at ServiceArizona.com.

In Maricopa County, an early/mail-in ballot can be requested here.
In Pima County, an early/mail-in ballot can be requested here.
In Pinal County, an early/mail-in ballot can be requested here.
In Coconino County, an early/mail-in ballot can be requested here.
In Yuma County, an early/mail-in ballot must be requested in writing.  The form for that can be downloaded here.

For the other counties in AZ, contact your county's Elections Department (hint:  the search terms should be your county's name, the word "county", and the word "elections") and follow the procedures laid out.  In all cases, you should be registered to vote before you request and early ballot.


Later...

It should be an active third party expenditure year

...I don't mean that the Libertarians, Greens, or some other party will experience significant electoral success, but that there will be a *lot* of "third party" spending to influence elections (meaning spending from non-candidate and non-political party groups).  And not just at the federal level, either (which is what this post is about).

There have been a large number of new state-level committees formed this year to serve as conduits for election-influencing money.  A sampling, with filer ID number (for now, I'm only looking at committees with filer IDs issued in 2012, and leaning toward those that have reported accepting/expending money, though there will be exceptions to that) -

PACs -

Arizona Entrepreneurs, 201200147, chaired by Meredith Munger, who appears to be an operative for the AZGOP.  No candidate-focused expenditures reported as yet.    

Arizona Leadership Fund, 201200486, chaired by Doug Ducey, Arizona's state treasurer.  Just speculating here, but it looks like something set up to provide cover for him to dole out money to GOP candidates/buy supporters for a 2014 reelection run/possible run for governor.  Not illegal (so far as I know); not even terribly unethical.  Just not terribly subtle, either.  No non-operational expenditures/disbursements reported as yet.

Arizona Liberty Project LLC, 201200104, chaired by Mark Spinks, a former Congressional candidate and indecent exposer.  Has already given money to candidates Steve Smith, Steve Montenegro, and Russell Pearce, R wingers one and all.

Arizona Project PC, 201200242, chaired by Debra McGrew, who appears to be a tea party-type.  No non-operational expenditures/disbursements reported as yet.

arizona teachers association, 201200416, chaired by John Jay Hedgepath.  No expenditures reported as yet, but already infamous - it turns out this "teachers association" doesn't include people who are "teachers" by the normal definition of the word (you know, the definition that includes a classroom).  Possibly formed to serve as a front group for Russell Pearce.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck Arizona PAC, 201200148.  It's a law firm's PAC, chaired by Janna Day, an attorney with the firm, and "treasurered" (is that even a word?  :) ) by Michael Preston Green, a widely-known AZ lobbyist/legal hired gun.  They've already doled out thousands of dollars in contributions to office holders and candidates.  The recipients of their largesse are mostly Republicans, though a few corpora-Dems are on the list, too.

Healthcare Professionals for American Rights, 201200415.  No expenditures reported as yet, but it was created on the same day as the "arizona teachers association" above, by the same two people.  Don't expect authentic "healthcare professionals" to be involved with this; do expect pro-Russell Pearce snipes and press releases.

People's Rights, 201200459, chaired by Peter Bayardi, who apparently is a tea-party type.  No expenditures reported as yet.

Southern Arizona Conservative PAC, 201200522, chaired by Donald Woolley.  Some activity, but the most interesting is a two-step where the committee accepted money from State Sen. Frank Antenori's constituent services account and then turned around and made contributions to Antenori's failed campaign for Congress (June 30th report).  There was also a transfer from Antenori's federal committee to the state-level PAC.

There may be a couple of "oopsies" here.

1.  None of the available reports from Antenori's constituent services account shows the expenditures.  They should.  If a nickel is spent on a piece of penny candy (what can I say?  Inflation has taken its toll :), it must be tracked and reported.

2.  State law covering officeholder accounts.

From ARS 41-133 -

F. An officeholder shall not transfer officeholder account monies to any other account or committee except for another officeholder account for that same officeholder.

Not a lot of wiggle room with "shall not transfer".

There are also questions about the transfers of funds between a state-level PAC and a federal campaign committee.  It is allowable under certain, limited, circumstances, but I'm not sure if this is one of them or not.  I have an email out to the FEC, and will update when/if they reply.

Update on 30 July -

Christian Hilland, a spokesperson for the FEC, replied to my emailed inquiry by pointing out some possibly applicable areas of the FEC's rules:

Page 52 of the FEC's Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees: http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf

Non-Campaign Related Expenses
Campaign funds may be used for the following purposes that are not related to the candidate’s campaign for federal office:

• Unlimited transfers to any national, state or local party committee. 113.2(c).

• Donations to state and local candidates, subject to the provisions of state law.


Page 61 of the FEC's Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees: http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf

Transfers from Candidate’s Nonfederal Committee Are Prohibited
A candidate’s authorized (federal) committee may not accept funds or assets transferred from a committee established by the same candidate for a nonfederal election campaign. At its option, however, a nonfederal committee of the same candidate may refund its leftover funds to its contributors and may coordinate arrangements with the federal campaign for a solicitation of those same persons. The full cost of this solicitation must be paid by the federal committee. 110.3(d). See also AO 1996-33.

I'm not sure, and perhaps one of the attorneys in the AZ blogosphere, will add their knowledge and experience to this discussion, but these sections don't seem to apply directly to the situation here, at least not entirely.  They do seem to allow the transfer of federal money to state-level committees under certain circumstances, but I don't think that this situation is quite covered by these sections.

However, the transfer of $295.44, with a memo "date of contribution" of March 6, 2012, was not reported on his Congressional committee's "pre-special election" report which covered that period of time, or in the "July Quarterly" report, which covered the period including May 17, 2012, the date of the entry in the receiving PAC's report.  The two contributions *from* the state-level PAC *to* the Congressional campaign were reported, however.

This stuff doesn't actually clear up much, but it's a start.

In the event the above two links don't work to bring up the reports, go to this FEC search page, and input the name "Antenori".  On the next page, select C00500926.  After that, select the appropriate report.

End update...

Southwest Solutions, 201200457, formed by the same people on the same as "People's Rights", above.  No expenditures reported as yet.

Veterans Against Losing Our Republic (V.A.L.O.R.), 201200538.  The organizers are a tea-party type and a Republican former candidate for the lege.  No expenditures reported as yet.

Vote No Arizona, 201200392.  Not sure what they want us to vote "no" on, but since one of the organizers is a tea-party type, they're probably against anything that would benefit Arizona.  No expenditures reported as yet.



Independent expenditure committees -

Arizona Deserves The Best, 201200063.  This one was formed by GOP "consultant" Constantin Querard to funnel money to Russell Pearce during the recall election last year.  Through May 31 of this year, they don't report any expenditures on 2012 races, but it's still early.  And Pearce is in some desperate straits in his campaign to return to the legislature.

Arizona Voter Education Fund, 201200584.  Chaired by Max Fose, a GOP operative/former McCain staffer.  Just guessing here, but something tells me that this would be better named the "Arizona Voter Mis-education Fund".  The committee is so new that no reports have been filed yet.

Arizonans for An Honest Government, 201200583. Chaired by one Floyd Brown, who the guiding light behind a faux journalism (and stridently anti-Obama and anti-Democratic) website.  No reports filed as yet.

Coalition for Freedom and Prosperity, 201200152.  Chaired by one Jeff Smith of Gilbert, who I think is the same Jeff Smith who has tried to mount a primary challenge to Jeff Flake, attacking Flake from the right (not exact a lot of room to work with to the right of Flake).  I'm not sure because his name serves as spectacularly poor search terms.  :)


Look for many more such committees to spring up between now and the elections.

Later...

Fun with campaign signs, part 2

Spotted in Scottsdale on July 28 -

Three of the candidates in Scottsdale; not going to vote for any of them, but those are some sharp looking signs - simple, colorful, and eye-catching.

The signs are two-sided, which isn't unusual, but they have different candidates on the opposite sides of the signs.  Which is very unusual.

A bit of an explanation for the similarity of the signs - all three signs have the same "paid for by" line on them.

Interestingly, the PAC that paid for the signs formed on July 24, filed the paperwork on July 27, and had signs designed, printed, and up by July 28?  Even saying that the committee was OK to operate on the 24th (a point in the law that I couldn't get clarification on today, being a Sunday and all :) ), four days to design the signs, contract with a printer, get the signs printed, accept delivery of the signs, and actually put some up, well, that is incredibly fast.

Either they were paying for some serious OT at the printer (which is OK) or they accepted and expended funds on election-influencing activities before the committee was formed, legally speaking (not so OK).

One of the other campaigns may find this something worth looking into.

Of course, the signs may not last long during the Arizona monsoon season -

 No grommets.  The first strong breeze will cause the wires holding up the signs to slice through the signs.

Later...

AZ Secretary of State's website down

Update: as of approximately 10:30 a.m, the website is back up.  However, getting into the campaign finance reporting database is problematical.  Other parts of the website may be difficult/impossible to access.  End update...

Early ballots for the August primary election drop on Thursday, and the voter registration deadline for that election is tomorrow, and since sometime Saturday afternoon, the AZSOS' website has looked like this -

I'm not sure when it went down, not exactly.  I've seen estimates that it went down around 3 p.m. Saturday.  I know that at approximately 2:30 p.m. it was still working, because I was doing some research and took a break.  A few hours later, there were some posts on FB from friends noting that it was down.  A quick check confirmed their posts, and as of this writing, the SOS' website is still down.

I'm not the first, or only, person to notice this, as David Safier at Blog for Arizona noted here.

Nor will I be the only one to question the timing of the outage, or the length of it.

The way to Victory

This is the first in a series of guest posts from occasional contributor and steady friend (and friend of the blog) Jerry Gettinger concerning the Democratic National Convention taking place in Charlotte in September.  Jerry won a spot in Arizona's delegation to the convention earlier this year.


The delegates elected to represent the Democrats of CD5.  Jerry is fourth from the left.

He has submitted the first piece in the series.  This one is on the genesis of his run for a delegate spot.

More will follow.

From Jerry:

A few months ago, my wife Ruth, who is as apolitical as you can get, was reading her email. An announcement from the State Democratic headquarters asking for applications for State Committee persons who would be interested in an appointment as a delegate to the national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Up until then, I hadn't thought about it. However, at my wife's urging, I began thinking. (That may sound bad, but I tend to leave the thinking part to my wife). This time, I decided to look into the matter on my own. The editor of Random Musings has been kind enough to allow me to tickle my ego by writing a travelogue detailing my experience. If all works, I will be writing in a Random (get the pun?) time frame inviting you to share. Anything in particular you would like to hear about, let me know.

Here is what I found out in order to be a delegate to the Democratic Party convention this year: First of all, the purpose of a convention is to nominate a candidate to be president and a vice president. that is what the Party officers want you to think. But...there is also the matter of having fun. And a convention is fun. anyone who has attended one comes back with the same description..."wow, did I have fun".

However, you have to get there. So I looked around and found the page that explained what I needed to do to become a delegate. In order to be a delegate one has to be a Democrat. That is a registered Democrat on the state of Arizona.  In order to become eligible, I had to submit a statement of candidacy.

What does it mean to become a delegate? Quite simply it means you can vote to nominate the Party's candidates to be president and vice president along with any other business relating to the state. That said. I was curious as to how many and what determines the number of delegates from each state.  Each state has a number of delegates according to the number of registered Democrats in that state.

   Part of my statement of candidacy was if I were to be elected a delegate, for whom would I vote. So there I was, telling everyone that if you elect me a delegate, I will vote for OBAMA. I'll tell you why that makes a difference in my next epistle.

 

For now, adios and hasta la vista, baby



Dear UK, we're not all rude boors.

...OK, we can be boorish, and a little rude, but that's part of being an American, and we are a little proud of that.

However, even we draw the line at treating our best friends with contempt.  Loud shirts and loud voices are one thing; gratuitous insults are quite another.

I mean, we might argue that baseball is a far superior game to cricket, and that the Three Stooges are funnier than Benny Hill ever was (we will grant that Monty Python was just sublime).  However, we would never claim that the UK is incapable of putting on a fine Olympics.

I know Mitt Romney insulted the UK, and people in the UK are justifiably upset.

For what it's worth, many, perhaps a majority, of us here in the United States have a similarly low opinion of him.  He's insulted us many times (and keep him away from your dogs).

We won't object if you mock him as much as we do.  We would offer to let you keep him for a while (a country that's been around as long as the UK *must* have some law about insulting the head of state or something like that), but we want to send him to the dustbin of electoral history during this autumn's elections, and need his presence here.

So mock him and demand an apology, but please send him back. 

Then you can have him back.  The wait will give you time to make the darkest and dankest prison in your country, well, darker and danker.

Thank you for your patience.

In friendship,

A wiseass American blogger

Harry Mitchell endorses David Schapira in the CD9 primary

I haven't written much about endorsements in the CD9 primary.  Generally, endorsement competitions degenerate into a "tit for tat" fight.  Most people and organizations that issue endorsements have their own agendas, agendas that may not synch up with the needs of a particular constituency or district.  That's not necessarily a bad thing; it's just the way it is.

Most politically active people don't pay attention to them - we like it when our favorite candidate receives an endorsement, but most endorsements aren't deal-makers or deal-breakers for activists. 

However, there are a few endorsements that rise above the crowd.

Harry Mitchell's endorsement is one such that stands out.

He's been a part of Arizona as a public servant, friend, and mentor for more than four decades.

He is a former high school teacher, city council member, mayor, state senator, and member of Congress.

And during all of that, he has been a husband, father, and grandfather.

In short, when Harry talks, people listen (sorry EF Hutton)

The respect for him is so widely held, and the affection for him is so deeply felt, people who don't care about endorsements care about *his* endorsement. 

Well, in the CD9 primary, he has endorsed David Schapira, a state senator, school board member, father and husband himself.  From an email -

The primary in Congressional District 9 has pitted three of the brightest members of the Democratic Party in Arizona against each other. All three candidates are leaders in our state and I am honored to call them friends. I believe that each of them would serve admirably – and the creation of this new Tempe-centered district has presented a great opportunity to send a strong community-based representative to Congress.

Tempe has always been different than other cities, especially when it comes to elections. Yes, we’ve disagreed on issues and done so passionately. Yes, we’ve debated and we’ve fought hard. But the nature of our politics has become increasingly polarized and divisive. We witnessed it in the last mayoral race. It was discouraging, to say the least. This is also why I didn’t wade into endorsing a candidate in this race lightly.

I believe it is important that we elect someone who understands and values our community – and will work hard to represent it. This is why I’ve decided to cast my primary vote for Tempe’s State Senator, David Schapira.

I’ve often said that you can’t be successful unless other people want you to be. For the better part of 40 years, I’ve held the titles of teacher, councilman, mayor, senator and Congressman. I’ve been blessed to have so many people in our community be supportive of me. This is why I hope you will join me in supporting David Schapira for Congress.

Harry Mitchell 

          


Later...

Romney: No new gun laws because they won't prevent all 'bad things'

Interesting.  Mitt Romney's response to calls for discussion of possible new gun laws, calls stemming from last week's massacre in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado is that we shouldn't do so because no laws will remove all "bad things" from society.

From Yahoo! News, written by Holly Bailey -

Mitt Romney suggested new gun control legislation likely wouldn't stop a massacre like last week's movie theater shooting in Colorado, but "changing the heart of the American people" possibly would.

Romney made the comment during an interview with NBC's Brian Williams in London, the first stop of the presumptive Republican nominee's seven-day overseas tour.

NBC released an early excerpt of the interview, scheduled to air on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News:

{snip}

[Quoting Romney in the interview] And so we can sometimes hope that just changing the law will make all bad things go away. It won't.

Under that line of reasoning, we wouldn't have drug laws (it's not like drug use has decreased under those laws, much to the immense joy and profit of the prison industrial complex), we wouldn't have traffic laws (people still do unsafe things with motor vehicles, no matter what the law says), or, for that matter, we wouldn't have most criminal laws (murder, rape, robbery, etc, still happen even though all of those things are "illegal").

The attitude exhibited by Romney in this matter is almost Libertarian.

I know that Romney changes his policy positions almost as often as the rest of us change our socks, but does anything about Romney scream "Libertarian", except when laissez-faire policies benefit him personally?

Presidential Debate Schedule Set

The schedule for this fall's series of presidential debates has been announced, and while only one of them will be held west of the Mississippi, at least that one will be in a state in the Mountain West region.

From the Commission on Presidential Debates -

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., and Michael D. McCurry, co-chairmen of the non-partisan, non-profit Commission on Presidential Debates ("CPD") today announced sites and dates for three presidential and one vice presidential debates during the 2012 general election. The dates and sites are:

First presidential debate:

Wednesday, October 3

University of Denver, Denver, CO

Vice presidential debate:

Thursday, October 11

Centre College, Danville, KY

Second presidential debate (town meeting format):

Tuesday, October 16

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Third presidential debate:

Monday, October 22

Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL

Washington University in St. Louis, MO will serve as the backup site. The CPD has asked Dominican University to lead an international project which will be announced early in 2012.

The Commission also released the 2012 Candidate Selection Criteria, which will be used to determine who is invited to participate in the general election debates. In addition to being Constitutionally eligible, candidates must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College, and have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly-reported results at the time of the determination. The Gallup Organization will advise the CPD in the application of its Criteria to polling data as it did in 2000, 2004, and 2008.

Registration deadline looming for the August primary election

Monday, July 30, is the deadline to register to vote in Augusto's primary election (August 28). 

Many Independent voters will choose to sit this one out, but they shouldn't, and they don't have to - they can vote in either major party's primary simply by requesting that party's ballot.

Also, while most people refer to this upcoming election as a "primary" election, it is also the general election in non-partisan municipal elections, and sitting this one out could lead to four years of bad government officials at the level of government that has the most immediate impact on voters' quality of life.

If you want to register to vote, or to update your registration (i.e., if you have moved), you can do so here at ServiceArizona.com.

Note to folks who will reach their 18th birthday before the August election but after the deadline: You can still register to vote in the August election, but you must still do so by next Monday.

Candidate forums tonight and tomorrow

After ranting last night about how too many voters just don't pay attention, it probably would be a good idea to remind folks of upcoming opportunities to get to know some of their candidates.

...Tonight, Wednesday, July 25, from KJZZ.com -

Residents of Arizona’s newly formed 9th Congressional District will have an opportunity to meet the Democratic candidates running for this office during a community forum hosted by KJZZ Managing Editor Al Macias and Politics and Government Reporter Mark Brodie.

Wednesday, July 25 at 6 p.m.
Arizona Historical Society Museum
1300 N. College Ave.
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 929-9499

Admittance is free but reservations are required. Please reserve your seats by contacting Claire Kerrigan at (480) 774-8444 or ckerrigan@rioradio.org.

What do you want to know about the candidates? Share your questions in advance.

The three candidates are Andrei Cherny, David Schapira and Kyrsten Sinema.

The newly formed district will serve the Ahwatukee Foothills, west Chandler, west Mesa, Tempe, parts of Paradise Valley, south Scottsdale and north-central Phoenix.

KJZZ will broadcast the open question/answer session with the Democratic candidates on Thu., July 26 at 11 a.m. Audio of the entire forum will be posted on KJZZ.org.

KJZZ hosted a forum with the Republican candidates on June 25. You can listen to the entire forum at KJZZ.org.

...It may be a little late to RSVP to tonight's forum, but there will be another tomorrow on KAET's Horizon, live at 5:30 p.m. on channel 8.  No RSVP required.  In fact, no driving required - just tune in to channel 8 on your TV.

...Also tomorrow night (Thursday, July 26), the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale is hosting a forum for mayoral candidates at the Mountain View Community Center, 8526 E. Mountain View (between Pima and Hayden, south of Shea Blvd) from 6:30 p.m until 8 p.m.  All three candidates for mayor of Scottsdale were invited; John Washington and Drew Bernhardt will attend while incumbent Jim Lane won't attend, protesting the political arm of COGS' endorsement of Washington.

Rant time: Apathetic voters

{Begin rant}

This may tick off a few folks of all political persuasions, but that which ails Arizona society in general and politics/government in particular, isn't the voters/candidates in the Democratic Party (though one may find a few "problem children" who happen to be registered as Democrats), or the voters/candidates in the Republican Party (though one may find more than a few "problem children" who happen to be registered as Republicans), or even Independents.

Nope, it's what are euphemistically referred to as "low information" voters.

Those are the people who are too "busy" or have too many "more important" things to do to pay attention to politics.  They look at politics, politicians, and people who are politically active with unconcealed disdain.

Those are the people who can't name their representatives in Congress or the legislature, but can tell you "important stuff" like the names and complete life histories of the contestants on The Bachelor/The Bachelorette/Survivor/some stupid cooking show/etc.

Well, as Plato said,

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Those are the people who pay no attention to what is going on in government until it directly affects them, who can't be bothered to participate beyond casting a ballot in ignorance every four years or so, and who whine when someone in an elected office does something that they don't like (or as is often the case in AZ, does something completely embarrassing).

As a result, we end up with "leading lights" like Russell Pearce (who blamed the victims of Friday's mass shooting in Aurora for the death and destruction there; he has since apologized...more or less). Lori Klein (who aimed a pistol at a journalist in the lounge area of the AZ Senate building, just to show off the "purty l'il laser sight" on her pink pistol) and Sylvia Allen (of "strip mining Uranium is OK because the Earth is 6000 years old and doing just fine" fame).

And they're just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps the biggest reason that AZ politics (and national politics, for that matter) is so dysfunctional is that so many people, many of whom are "voters", don't pay attention to politics, or say that elected officials and candidates are aloof and unapproachable.

Yet that just isn't the way it is.

Some people are trying to changes things in their own small way - Columnist Laurie Roberts of the AZ Republic has her "De-kook the Capitol" campaign going and one of the ballot questions going before the voters this fall is a "top two" primary question that is supposed to reduce partisanship at the Capitol.

However, neither effort will address the underlying issue of voter apathy; the efforts are like trying to save the Titanic by rearranging the deck chairs.

Without trying too hard, in the two weeks between July 4 and July 18, I met -

Five Congressional candidates

Four legislators and nine legislative candidates

One Corporation Commissioner

One mayor and one city council member in Tempe

At least four school board members, and two more school board candidates

One former city council member, mayor, state senator, Congressman, and teacher, all rolled into one (yes, Harry Mitchell, and happy belated birthday to him, too)

A number of likely future candidates and office holders, and a whole lot of friends

And one Arizona blues legend, Big Pete Pearson (not politics, just seriously cool).

It didn't require going to any government meetings, or paid campaign fundraisers, or insider, "invitation-only" sort of events.  Everything was open to the public and was free (except for the fireworks in Tempe, but that was about a lot more than seeing public officials and candidates for office).

Some pics -

Big Pete Pearson (Tempe fireworks)

Corporation Commissioner Paul Newman helping a young voter (Tempe fireworks)

David Schapira, current AZ state senator and candidate for Congress, with the boss of the operation (Tempe Fireworks)

Kyrsten Sinema, former state legislator and current candidate for Congress (LD18 Democrats meeting, July 9)

Corey Harris, candidate for state house in LD18 (July 9)

Darin Fisher, candidate for state house in LD18 (July 9)

Janie Hydrick, candidate for state senate in LD18 (July 9)

Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell (LD26 meeting, July 10)

Kolby Granville, the newest member of the Tempe City Council (July 10)

Andrew Sherwood and Juan Mendez, candidates for state house in LD26 (July 10)

Ed Ableser, current state representative and candidate for state senate (July 10)

Alexis Tameron, campaign manager for US Senate candidate Richard Carmona, and probably a future candidate for office herself (at least, a lot of people think she should be) (July 10)

Tempe icon Harry Mitchell greeting friends at the beginning of the meeting (July 10)

Rebecca DeWitt (CD7) and Andrei Cherny (CD9), candidates for Congress (LD24 Democrats meeting, July 12)

Congressional candidates David Schapira, Kyrsten Sinema, Andrei Cherny, along with moderator John D'Anna at a forum at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe (July 17)

It was a *very* packed house at Changing Hands, full of people who want to make informed choices when they cast their ballots (yes, I know that was as subtle as a jackhammer :) )






In other words, it's easy to get to know public officials, candidates, and other curious people.  You just have to show up and pay a little attention, maybe ask a few questions, and get to know them as *people*, not as *them*.

{End rant}