Tearing Up the Secret Ballot

Jennifer Burns Calls It Quits

Representative Jennifer Burns from District 25 is calling it quits this year leaving very little time for a Republican to jump in the race. However, this largely untapped area is ripe for Republican dominance as Republican clubs continue to spread across the northwest section of CD8.

Frank Antenori On Inside Track

Frank Antenori, Candidate for the Arizona State House, District 30, and always an enjoyable voice on the radio, joins Emil Franzi's Inside Track tomorrow (Saturday) at 2:00pm. Here's his website pitch: "Tune in and hear Frank’s views on the budget, immigration, school reform and how to unshackle and let loose the full power of the Arizona economy."

It sounds like Emil will have to give him the full two hours.

Will a Dem run for 26 Senate?

Correction: Looks like it will be Cheryl Cage and not Don.

Matt from SED links to a bunch of local candidate web sites. It is pretty will laid out but our sources indicate that Democrat Don Jorgensen will jump to the senate race. Our sources could be incorrect but if a Democrat doesn't get in soon this race will be decided in the primary.

Crackdowns Extend Beyond Arizona

Those who say nobody cares about the illegal immigration issue anymore are like the kid in the ice cream shop who looks at his empty bowl and says "it's all gone." Last year, 1562 bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country to address this issue. 240 became law said to be three times the number in 2006.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri aren't messing around with the few whining employers like those in Arizona. They simply issued Executive Orders the past few months to deal with the issue. Both slammed congress and the federal government for not taking care of the problem.

The Rhode Island Executive Order requires state agencies and "all companies, contractors and vendors doing business in the State of Rhode Island to use the federal E-Verify program" to ensure that their employees are legally eligible to work in the state. Carcieri made it clear that "Rhode Island is setting an example for others to follow. This will encourage the private sector to comply."

Hopefully we will see leadership like that in the next governor's term.

Deciding Who Lives or Dies

While hyper-environmentalists jump for joy over the push for more ethanol, the added gas means less fuel for people who depend on grain for life more than cruising around town. Grain prices continue to top the charts while stockpiles are whittled down to nothing. Throw in a tsunami and a drought and you have recipe for starvation.

In the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Haiti, and other countries, riots and unrest over the issue consume the news. And most countries are clamping down on grain exports to keep everything at home. Most Americans don't realize that the U.S. is the rice capital of the world. But even here in the country Japanese refer to as Rice Country, flooding in the Southern states have wiped out rice crops for the year. As a shortage of corn pushes people to other grains, the shortages there become much more evident.

I'm not trying to clang the alarm bell for another Y2k panic, but it will be interesting to watch how the politicians juggle this political hot potato trying to decide which is more important: green gas or food.

New Northwest Side Republican Club

Another new Republican Club has emerged on the Northwest side. Welcome to the Dove Mountain Republican Club. It has had two meetings, one being an organizing meeting, and has had some of the candidates speak. We will provide more news as things develop.

Budget Deal Ignores the Real Problem

So the state legislators, or rather, leaders, have swung another back room deal with the Governor. Isn't this the same process that got us the deficits when Napolitano made and reneged on commitment after commitment?

As a result of weak compromises, the legislature continues to fund irresponsible programs like the governor's pet all-day kindergarten program. It wasn't too many years ago that the legislature talked about cutting half-day kindergarten and the citizens who complained were those griping about losing their babysitters for half a day. Not a single letter to the editor suggested it would hurt education. In fact, the fact that some top states with continually high test scores have no kindergarten at all, putting the responsibility for school preparation on the parents, suggests that maybe letting parents take some responsibility for their childrens' educations might be a good thing. Now, taxpayers get to pay for babysitting for the full day, and because the budget doesn't get the full debate it deserves, we will continue to pay for it in the midst of looming multi-billion dollar deficits.

The real problem here is the lack of leadership that acknowledges the binge spending that occurred the past several years and has the courage to roll back unnecessary programs that were added. And Democrats who hide behind the "we're not in charge" excuse simply acknowledge their own lack of will to solve the real problem.

Whittling off a little here and there is like the commercial where the workers put the chewing gum in the hole to stop the leak in the dam. This election cycle offers hope for new legislators who will openly debate nice-but-not-necessary programs and be tough enough to remove them to fix the real problem. As voters, we should take take advantage of it.

Legislative Conventions going smoothly

Legislative District 26 selected their State Convention delegates this morning. Politico Mafioso and Sonoran Alliance were bickering about McCain but the mood at LD 26 was very congenial. The opposing slates being handed out even had several names in common, leading some to wonder what was the point.

The big issue at the district was finding enough delegates and there are only a few alternates. The State Convention may have some fireworks but it doesn’t look like they will come from the Southern Arizona delegates.

Line Shifting with LD29 Candidate

Pat Kilburn, Chairman of LD 29 Republicans, has shifted from running as a candidate for the House to contention for the Senate. Although LD29 has long been a Democrat stronghold, Kilburn looks to be a strong candidate in a district suffering from weak representation. Kilburn will have to capitalize on this weakness to make a serious run at taking this Senate seat from the Dems, but probably made the switch sensing the opportunity.


UPDATE/CORRECTION: We had it backwards. We should have reported that Pat Kilburn was running for the Senate and is now running for the House. Also, Bruce Murchison who was running for the House in District 29 is stepping out of the race.

Homeowners Spared Tax Increase...For Now

A lone Democratic state senator saved an important property tax bill today. Sen. Ken Cheuvront (District 15, Central Phoenix) joined 15 Republican senators in voting for House Bill 2220, which would prevent a $250 million property tax from being reinstated next year.

Two Republican senators-Sen. Carolyn Allen (District 8, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills) and Sen. Tom O'Halleran (District 1, Prescott and Yavapai County)-refused to vote to protect property taxpayers.

Here is the vote tally: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/includes/filemanager/files/az/hb2220senategoodbad.pdf

Regardless of your party affiliation, please send a note to Sen. Cheuvront (kcheuvront@azleg.gov) and thank him for having the courage to break with his party's majority and with the special interests who insist on increasing your property taxes, even during a recession.

Maybe Sen. Cheuvront can show some of those emails to Gov. Janet Napolitano while she is deciding whether or not to veto the bill...

(Cheuvront's comments in defense of his vote are pasted below.)

For Liberty,

--Tom

Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org

Here is what Sen. Cheuvront said in the Senate on Monday to explain his vote:

"[Regarding] House Bill 2220, state equalization of property tax: I just want to tell members that I am supporting that bill and I will be voting Yes. No matter how people talk about this bill, if we do not put this forth it will be a tax increase on businesses, homeowners, and others. I have fought down here for many years on tax equity. I had a bill in the House and one in the Senate dealing with GPLETs [a special-interest property tax giveaway to certain businesses]. Unfortunately, my colleagues in the House voted it down, and [the No vote] was engineered specifically by many of the Democrats, which I'm very disappointed in.

"But in the last year, we have seen the valuations of our homes go down, but as a business owner, I have seen the valuation of my businesses go up. If this tax is reinstituted, it will be a huge shift on our small businesses, because our large businesses are pretty much exempt from paying property taxes, or pay significantly lower [taxes]. They're in enterprise zones. They're in GPLETs. They're in free trade zones. They're in many other areas.

"We need to ensure that our small businesses are taken care of and we don't see a tax shift or a tax increase that will put them out of business. Thank you."


NOTE: Thanks to Marilyn Zerull, State House of Representatives candidate from LD26 for providing this information.

Kris Mayes Stays Put

Although we tend to focus on Southern Arizona politics, we thought someone might be interested to know that Kris Mayes has backed out of the race in Congressional District 1 and intends to remain on the Corporation Commission.

Bisbee School Board Says "YES" to Irresponsibility

If on Prom night, your high school officials handed your teenager a nice, clean syringe and a package of sterile needles along with a picture frame, a few candles, and a mint, what would you think? Their logic goes something like this: Many of the kids are going to do drugs that night, so we should make it as safe as possible.

Bisbee's school board seems to think the same way. In among the niceties the school will hand out in their Prom bag will be two condoms. Since sex is a lot more PC than drugs, they expect little opposition. In a 4-1 vote, the board decided that the kids are all immoral sex fiends and can't be expected to exercise self control. So, the best thing to do is make it as safe as possible. 

Sadly, board members not only lowered the bar of expectations, but condoned and even encouraged irresponsible actions most parents would advise against. In fact, I know a lot of parents who will decide the prom is not such a good thing for their kids after hearing about this. I wonder who among the board will take responsibility when a condom fails and a teenage girl finds herself pregnant. Even aside from the federal laws preventing this from occurring without parental permission, this has lawsuit written all over it.

One board member seemed to have enough common sense to vote "nay." Let's see how many parents join that board member by stepping up and taking a stand for the safety of their kids.

Pima Young Republicans New Blog

Young elephants hold up the Big Top as they step up efforts to beef up communications through their new blog at http://pimayrs.blogspot.com.