Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

If you don't Run, you can't Whine...

Republicans love to complain to me about the State Bar.  My response is...well, run for the Bar and make sure you point of view is represented.  But you had better hurry, the deadline is this Wednesday...

Well, now is the time.  Here's the announcement about the upcoming elections.

Run for Election to the Board of Governors

Elections will be held this spring in District 2 (Yavapai County), District 6 (Maricopa County), and District 8 (Pinal County). For the first time, elections will be conducted online. For more information, an official nomination packet, and a nominating petition,
go to www.azbar.org/newsevents/newsreleases/2011/02/2011bogelections.

We hope you will consider running for election to the Board.  To do so:

  You must be an active member in good standing with the State Bar of Arizona who has been admitted to practice law before the Arizona Supreme Court for not less than five years;
 
  You must submit a nominating petition,a brief biographical sketch or candidate's statement, a discipline disclosure statement, and a photograph;
 
  Your nominating petition and materials must be received no later than 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at either of the State Bar's offices:

4201 N. 24th Street, Suite 200
Phoenix, Arizona 85016-6288
 
or
 
270 N. Church Avenue
Tucson, Arizona 85701-1113

 

 

Dan Quayle to Buy Frys

I bought Sweet Potatoes at Fry's this afternoon and it hit me that Dan Quayle is the new owner.

 

There Ought to Be a Rule...

I was at the Capitol today and some guy was standing in the court yard yelling into a bull horn.  I had two thoughts while trying to cross the mall...how can I get across without having this guy burst my ear drums and isn't Kovacks V. Cooper still good law?  In Kovacks, the Supreme Court ruled that it's not a violation of the freedom of speech to stop someone from using an amplifier as long as the rule is content neutral.

Surely Legislative Counsel which sets the rules for the area between the House and the Senate could make a rule to prohibit protestors from yelling at people through a bull horn.   

What have you done for me Lately?

Whenever I talk to my moderate friends--yes, I have moderate friends...well, they are more like moderate acquaintances...ok, I once rode in an elevator with Grant Woods.  Either way, as I was saying.  Whenever I talk to moderate Republicans who want to raise taxes, they always have two reasons.  The first is that they think that certain services need additional revenue.  The second reason they want to raise taxes goes something like this "At least the Left--led by the Arizona Republic, Morrison Institute, education establishment and the unions--will stop claiming that we are all knuckle dragging Neanderthals who refuse to fund vital services."

At that point in the conversation, I laugh so hard that coffee comes out of my nose.

If you think that the state needs additional revenue and you want to raise taxes, great.  I disagree, but I respect your point.  If you think that the left is going to actually acknowledge that you raised taxes, then you have a lot to learn about politics and the media.

Remember in 2000 when Republicans led by Jane Hull put Prop 301 on the ballot in order to raise sales taxes by half a billion dollars a year and pump the money into education?  Me neither. 

That's because that huge tax increase didn't cause the aforementioned left--led by the Arizona Republic, Morrison Institute, education establishment and unions--to miss a beat in their Republican knuckle dragger chant.

If you want further proof, check out this article that the Republic's Kathleen Ingley wrote last Sunday.  She's discussing steps that have been taken to address the current budget crisis and includes this item:

A temporary 1-cent-per-dollar hike in the sales tax, which the Legislature took unconscionably long to put on the ballot, got overwhelming approval.

Then she moves on to this conclusion:

Voters didn't say they wanted the budget balanced solely through cuts. Yet that's the strategy in Gov. Jan Brewer's budget proposal...

Solely through cuts?  What about that $1 Billion tax increase that Ingley mentioned two paragraphs back!  That's classic.   

The Left will tell you that we got into this fiscal mess because Symington cut taxes in the 1990s.  They ignore the billions of additional taxes that Republicans raised in 2000. (And of course, they ignore 6 years of massive spending increases under Napolitano.)

But Ingley and her fellow travelers also ignore the $ 1 billion (annual) tax increase that Governor Brewer and the Republicans in the legislature passed less than a year ago.

So the next time I'm in an elevator with a moderate and he claims that we need to raise revenue to fund vital services I'll simply roll my eyes.  But if he claims that the left will actually stop referring to Republicans as mouth breathers who have yet to evolve a thumb---I'll introduce him the Kathleen Ingley. 

I'll be your Huckelberry.

2011 is going to be remembered as the year of revolution.  This is the year in which the people finally rose up against petty tyrants in places like Tunisia, Egypt...Pima County.  I'm sure you have seen the coverage of Tunisia and Egypt, but perhaps you have missed the Pima County story.*

It was the Star's Rob O'Dell--famous for exposing the disaster at Rio Nuevo--who brought us the story of Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry withholding $80 million in voter-approved road construction funds.  The Star editorial board followed up.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry might have a lot of clout, but that doesn't make it OK for him to hijack the will of the voters.

Indeed Huckelberry--who has run Pima County since 1993--does have a lot of clout and while he may thumb his nose at the County Board of Supervisors, voters and the Star, he's about to meet his match in Senator Frank Antenori and the rest of the Pima County Republican delegation. 

The last couple elections have been essential to the upcoming revolution.  Pima County Republicans serving in the Legislature used to be milquetoast enablers whose idea of governance was higher spending and more pork--thus the dual disasters of Rio Nuevo and Tucson-based Spring Training.

Former Senator Johnathan Paton was in the vangard of the new Pima County leadership.  Paton and Adams worked to reform Child Protective Services while Tucson moderate Pete Hershberger advocated on behalf of government at the expense of children by fighting to maintain the status quo. 

Hershberger and the rest of the Pima County moderates have been replaced by Senators Antenori, Griffin and Melvin together with House members Vic Williams, Terry Proud, David Gowan, Ted Vogt, David Stevens and Peggy Judd--all conservatives and none likely to tolerate Huckelberry's antics.

The conflict between the Pima County old guard and the Pima County Republican Delegation is manifesting itself in an unusual place--sewage.

Pima County has a special exemption in state law that gives the county a monopoly on providing sewage service.  Since no municipality in Pima County can provide its own sewage service, all of the cities have to go hat in hand to Pima County in order to receive a connection--and without a connection, there's no construction permit and without a permit, there's no project.  That means that Chuck Huckelberry has veto authority on economic development throughout the entire county. 

The Town of Marana wants the Pima County monopoly ended and provides the time line of its efforts to work with the County and also provides a list of projects rejected by Huckelberry's shop.  Including the Northwest Hospital as well as other projects like: Honea heights III, Earhart equipment, Marana Towne Center Ranch, Marana Block 4, and  Marana Mechantile. 

Sen. Antenori and the rest of the Pima County Republicans have had enough and have jointly sponsored SB 1171 which would put an end to the Pima County sewer monopoly--the bill was voted out of the Senate 23 to 6, and now moves to the House.

The folks on the Pima County Board of Supervisors need to take notice.  There's a revolution brewing and they are on the wrong end of it.   "Republicans" Ann Day and Ray Carol have served as enablers for Chuck Huckelberry's antics and now even the Star has noticed.  The entire Republican Legislative delegation is lining up against them--and 2012 is an election year. You don't think that Antenori, Vogt, Williams et al want to serve in the Legislature forever do you?  Those Supervisor seats look mighty comfortable....

The beauty of the American political system is that we don't need tanks in the streets.  The old guard can last a long time, but petty bureaucrats and the politicians that enable them can only last for so long until they are purged from the body politic.   Come to think about it...maybe it is appropriate that the revolution starts with a sewage system. 

Footnote: 

*With this being the Year of Civility and all, I thought long and hard before I compared Pima County to Egypt.  One of them of course is a poorly governed backwater in which an unelected ruler has used intimidation and patronage to dominate the populace, ignore the will of the people and thumb his nose at the press for decades.  The other one is Egypt.

First Solar To Announce Major Manufacturing Facility in Mesa

The State's economic development efforts are beginning to bear fruit.  Sources confirm that First Solar is set to announce a major manufacturing facility in Mesa.

It will be interesting to see how the announcement plays out politically.  The Republican party has two major camps--Immigration and the Economy.  The race for Jeff Flake's seat will likely feature Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, House Speaker Kirk Adams and Senate President Russell Pearce.

Pearce owns the immigration issue so any news that helps focus voters on the economic issue helps Adams and Smith. 

Fitz to Star Management: Drop Dead.

This year's political buzzword is "Civility."  The Giffords shooting has led politicians and the media to re-evaluate political rhetoric and determine if the vitriol has crossed the line.  Here's a portion of the Arizona Daily Star's call for Civility.

Whether or not the gunman was motivated by a particular political ideology or pumped up by the trash that passes for discourse is, in the most fundamental way, immaterial.

And it's not the reason to stop the pervasive and corrosive rhetoric. The reason is so much simpler - the demonizing is tearing apart our country from within. When we see each other as the enemy, we cannot rise above and come together for the greater good.

I've pointed out before that the Star is not calling for general civility, the Star is simply demanding civility from the right.  The Star's cartoonist David Fitzsimmons spews vitriol with impunity.  Fitzsimmons admits that he dislikes the religious right and has special dislike for Mormons.  Here's how Fitz describes his feeling about the Church.

All of the political leadership in this state emanates from one district and one religion and one ethnic group and as a consequence, with that philosophy this state is a disaster. A joke. A tragedy.

That particular rant was before the Giffords' shooting and before the Star's call for civility.  You will also recall that immediately after the shooting, Fitz went on CNN and describe the shooting as "inevitable."  This was his reason.

Because the right in Arizona, and I'm speaking very broadly, has been stoking the fire of heated anger and rage successfully in this state.

In addition to being broadcast on national TV, that rant was featured in the Wall Street Journal as an example of the unhinged left seeking to blame conservatives for the shooting.  Ultimately, Fitz appologized for his CNN rant.

So where does Fitz stand now?  One could argue that his anti Mormon comments should be excused because they were pre-Giffords.  And one could argue that his CNN rant was in the heat of the moment and he's appologized. 

Since then we have had a move toward civility and the Star Editorial Board has issued a call for civility.  In fact the star hosted a panel on civility and asked Fitzsimmons to participate. 

Here's Fitz' response to the calls for civility.

Fitzsimmons, who called himself a professional master of slurs, called civility a wonderful sentiment but a fantasy. "The majority of Americans don't have the time, the attention span or the interest to sustain any kind of reasoned exchange of ideas. Thusly, we are left with name-calling as our highest form of argument,"

Let's get this straight.  The Star is the paper of record in the District where Giffords was shot; the paper is ground zero in the call for civility.  The paper has issued a call for politicians to tone down the rhetoric.  Yet the paper employs a cartoonist who hates Mormons, went on national TV to blame the right for the shooting and who describes himself as a "professional master of slurs."

Fitz' statements on the panel were essentially telling the Star Management to F*%& Off.  He's had time to consider his forced apology.  He's read the call for civility and if they are looking for civility, they can get a different guy.

Obviously the quest for civility ends there.  There's no reason for any politician to tone down the rhetoric knowing that he's going to be pummelled by the Star's professional slur master. 

So now the Star Management has to make a decision.  Fitz has made it very clear that he has no intention of toning things down and I can guarantee you that the political community isn't going to unilaterally disarm.

So is management serious about this civility stuff or not?  Fitz has publicly slapped them in the face and dared them to fire him.  The rest of us are watching. 

Will the Star Management bow to their Mormon-hating, CNN-Ranting, Professional Slur Master, or will they escort him to the door and wait while security scrapes the parking decal of his windshield?

If they chose the former then I hope they have the decency to stop lecturing the rest of us about the need for civility.

If it walks like a RINO...and it votes like a RINO...

I've been getting a lot of feedback on my recent Flake post, and one question caught my eye...Is Flake really a Republican?  Obviously, he's not a traditional Republican In Name Only.  We've all seen traditional RINOs--Democrats living in Republican districts who think it would be really cool to be in the legislature, get elected and then vote with the Democrats on key issues.  All of those guys are gone.

Flake's not a Democrat, but he may actually be a libertarian.  His view of the role of government is certainly Libertarian, but no one really notices because that view is also widely held among Republicans. 

However, Jeff was one of only 15 Republicans who voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. And how about his views on immigration?  Flake opposes SB 1070 and supports "Comprehensive" immigration reform. That's a classic economic Libertarian position.  Carbon Tax?  Again, an economic solution to a perceived problem.

Let's not forget that Jeff ran the Goldwater Institute prior to being elected to Congress.  I don't think my friends at GWI would be offended if I said that the Institute was more Libertarian than Republican.   While I agree with most of GWI's cases, I'm at odds with some of the legal theories that GWI espouses...such as applying Substantive Due Process to economic issues.  (I think that SDP is just as illegitimate in the economic realm as it is in the social realm.) 

Jeff's record looks to be entirely libertarian and happens to overlap with Conservative Republicans on fiscal issues--which is exactly where Libertarians and Conservative Republicans traditionally overlap.

I'm not the only one to notice.  I'm hearing a lot of calls--especially from social conservatives--for Trent Franks to jump in the race.  I think that Franks is leaning that way.  I think he can self fund the race.  And most of all, I think he's actually a Republican.  He will have a lot of support. 

Arizona has a vibrant Libertarian party, and if Flake wants to support gays in the military, encourage open borders, tax carbon and aprove judges who are "Economic Activists"....then he should be honest and run as a Libertarian.

Of course honestly hasn't always been Jeff's strong suit. 

Flake to Announce Today

Jeff Flake is announcing his Senate bid today.  Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal  certainly had great things to say.

The decision by Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) not to seek re-election in 2012 has caused a flurry of interest in a possible run by Rep. Jeff Flake for the seat. Mr. Flake, whose district covers suburban Phoenix, has a reputation as a super-hawk on spending and led the fight against earmarks in the House. He has a near-perfect record on fiscal issues with the National Taxpayers Union.

Indeed, Flake's fiscal record is perfect.  He was almost single handedly responsible for turning the world against earmarks.  In fact, the first time I heard the term "earmark" was in a 2004 article about Jeff's efforts.

Flake will certainly be the initial front runner, but there are a few things that may trip him up.  The first is that he opposes SB 1070.  He also sponsored a carbon tax bill that doesn't look good on a Republican resume, and he reneged on his term limit pledge.

Flake also has movie star good looks,  but I don't know how that will play out.  I think if this picture were a candid shot taken by a journalist, it would add to his rock star status.  But the fact that he was alone...setting the camera on rock, doing a quick 50 push ups to get that pump, making sure the self timer worked, clicking the shutter and then running around to grab the hatchet and coconut, waiting for the click, and then running back to see how it looked...well, let's just say I have trouble picturing Barry Goldwater in the same situation.  I think the most impressive part was timing the picture so he had some beard, but his chest was still clean shaven.  I'm sure his itinerary said "Morning of Day Three:  Coconut Shot."

Assuming that the movie star good looks and the teen-aged narcissism cancel each other out, Jeff's biggest issue will probably be money.  Sure, the club for growth is all in, and that's a big factor.  But what other sources will he have?   Flake doesn't play the pork game, so it's not like the big defense contractors will be hosting fundraisers.  More importantly, from the reports I get, Jeff hasn't spent his years in DC building the financial network that it takes to raise serious money.  The serious candidate has lunch with 3 or 4 potential contributors a week for a decade and then those thousand people become his financial base.  Without that ground work and no natural financial constituency, I'm not sure how much money Jeff will be able to raise.  Of course, Primary Elections are much cheaper than general elections, so his Club for Growth connections may get the job done.

I don't know if Flake is going to win or not, but he is one of the few people who have actually gone to Washington and not become part of Washington.  For that reason alone, he deserves his place as the front runner.

Meet the New Civility...same as the Old Civility

Republicans in the Legislature are working with Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio on a series of bills that would set an upper limit on the number employees that cities can hire as well as the salary that the city can pay them. 

Some would argue that these bills provide an extra level of oversight that would prevent cities from spending too much money once the economy returns to full strength.

However, some would argue that these measures are unnecessary since city official are accountable to the voters.

When contacted by the Arizona Guardian, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon expressed concerns with the proposed legislation.

"These are the same people who have brought the state down and now they want to bring down the cities," Gordon said during a telephone interview. "This has become a dictatorship, a reign of terror."

Ouch, I guess that new "civility" stuff was pretty short lived.