Wednesday, September 21st, 2005...6:24 am
Pamela Gorman Fundraiser
I was sent a link, probably really for my brother, but what the heck, for a web page for a fundraiser by Rep. Pamela Gorman. Gorman is from the conservative Potemkin village of Anthem. You may remember her as the one that defeated Rep. Clancy Jayne last year in a bruising primary. Gorman ran as the “true conservative” against the supposedly moderate Jayne. Given how I don’t remember Jayne as very moderate, that tells you where Gorman is.
Gorman had a fundraiser scheduled this last weekend at the Scottsdale Gun Club (remember when these places were “Rod and Gun Clubs”? Maybe fishing is just too whimpy these days. Maybe it’s too French) The invitation is interesting, it calls on people to “celebrate diversity” and then features a picture with several different types of guns. See, its a joke, because us libburrals always mock them for their lack of diversity, but they love all guns as equal in the eyes of God. See, get it?
It’s really funny if you are from Anthem.
Gorman recently got together with her consultant Chris Baker and formed a consulting firm called Black Mountain Associates. Supposedly, she will not deal with the Arizona accounts. Yeah, that’ll happen.
While poking around for some information about Gorman, I ran across her very poor campaign site, as well as her blog. She’s a fellow member of Blogger. That makes us just the same, right?
I found an old entry where she complains about Gov. Napolitano vetoing one of her bills.
At least one of those good bills was vetoed without so much as a reading by her.
Aww, pobrecita! I would feel sympathy, if the legistlators themselves read the bills more often. The Republican leadership and their lobbyist buddies rush through so many bills that they don’t get a proper reading and hearing (anyone remember Alt-Fuels?). Heck, how many of Gorman’s colleagues read her bill before they passed it? Probably very few, and Gorman counted on that.
Here’s another complaint about a call for a special session (same entry):
Why on earth would we want to come back, upheaving work schedules and family commitments, only to create more good bills that she will then veto?
Yeah, it’s a tough drive from Anthem to the legislature*, a good fourty minutes or so. What about Democrats like Albert Tom or Manny Alvarez who have to drive from all sorts of far flung places in this state only to have the majority try to totally shut them out: not hearing their bills and even trying to not let them have their say? Yeah, no sympathy there.
Maybe if your collegues would treat the Democrats as more than a distracting way to keep a quorum, you would get a bill that the Governor wouldn’t have to veto, eh? Gorman and her colleagues don’t seem to understand that a Democratic governor got elected, and they can’t just click her heels and wish she’d go away.
It all sounds like so much whining. Sort of like what they accuse us of.
Anyway, enough complaining about all that. I got the basics on the Gorman’s fundraising and consulting from this Sunday’s Political Insider column in the Republic. I included a picture of her because she’s nice to look at, but still “ideologically impared.”
9 Comments
September 21st, 2005 at 11:45 am
Query: Is it as bad as it was in the Mass. State Leg. when the Dems finally broke the power of the Republicans by redoing the campaigns in that state in the 1930s? By bad I mean the Dems had never even been allowed into the Speaker’s suite, where anytime a Dem had to talk to the speaker they could not even let the leather of their shoe over the doorline.
September 21st, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Not quite that bad…but bad.
There is a story about Thomas Brackett Reed, who was known as “Czar Reed” when he was the speaker of the US House. A freshman Democrat asked Mr. Reed “What rights does the minority have?”
“They have the right to draw a salary and be present for a quorum.”
September 21st, 2005 at 9:43 pm
So let’s see.. she has 2 blogs called “Save Our Borders. org” which are empty, and an almost blank website which has a button for “DONATE NOW”?? Since when are she and Russell Pearce legally allowed to have a website for the purpose of soliciting money for a non-existent organization? (Let’s see, nothing registered under the secretary of state’s website..)
What the heck.
September 22nd, 2005 at 12:09 am
It is sad that the Republicans have such a tendency to be power hungry *****.
September 22nd, 2005 at 1:22 am
Actually, Clancy Jayne IS a moderate. Anyone who beleives in a functional government is branded a moderate around here.
September 22nd, 2005 at 11:08 am
Tom, I know what I am getting you for Christmas.
September 24th, 2005 at 11:19 pm
I remember last year when there was some sort of a traffic backup on I-17 south of anthem, and watching the news when they interviewed some guy stuck in it in an idling SUV, and he complained and said that they should expand the highway to six lanes.
And there, in a nutshell, is the disconnect that Republicans have from reality– they want to cut taxes (even though for most of them, the actual amount of the cut will be minimal) and then expect the state to provide first rate service to fix whatever is ailing them.
And if you call them on it, they will mumble something about how they should cut waste and fraud in the budget. (Excuse me, if there is any waste in the budget then since Republicans have been writing the budget for at least the last generation, the people complaining about it should quit voting for more of the same).
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:06 pm
It seems that a certain North Valley State Senator, or a Arizona Senate employee working on his behest, want disparately to misdirect the voters from the Senator’s own campaign finance scandal, by exploiting a small mistake, that a legislative candidate in District 6, made on his web site.
The State Senator in question is Dean Martin, Republican from District 6, and the target of his attacks is former Arizona House member, Clancy Jayne, also a Republican and also from District 6.
Mr. Jayne, posted on his web sit, an example of a pre-printed nominating petition to instruct his volunteers on how to fill it out. Unfortunately for Mr. Jayne, the example he used had the names of real voters printed on it. Use of a voter list for anything but a political purpose, is illegal. One of Mr. Jayne’s opponents, complained to the Secretary of State’s office and the Secretary of State’s office ask Mr. Jayne to take down the pre-printed nominating petition page, which he did, within two hours. No crime was committed because Mr. Jayne did not profit from the posting, nor was there intent to profit or break the law.
That didn’t stop someone from making postings all over the Internet claiming that Mr. Jayne and his campaign chairman, Mr Vath, committed a felony, which nobody has accused them of or charged them with.
Senator Dean Martin on the other hand, has some explaining to do.
After the 2004 election, it was discovered that the young senator from the North Valley made a hefty profit for himself and his wife, Kerry Martin, by pocketing thousands of dollars worth of campaign contributions from lobbyist that regularly have business before his Senate Finance Committee.
I’ll let the fact speak for themselves.
As they say in court, the facts are irrefutable. According to Sen. Martin’s own campaign finance reports, that anyone can verify by going to the Arizona Secretary of State’s web sit.
The Facts,
(1)Sen. Martin is the owner of Digital Print Design,
(2) Sen. Martin’s wife, Kerry Martin, is the owner of Grassroots Programs
(3) Both Digital Print Design and Grassroots Programs are just mail drops at Paradise Valley Mail and share the same rented mail box. Neither business is listed in the phone book.
(4) Sen. Martin steered $9,022.01 in campaign funds through Digital Print Design and then into his own pocket.
(5) Sen. Martin steered $ 7, 331.54 in campaign funds through his wife’s, Grassroots Programs, for what he called “Voter outreach,” and then into his own pocket.
(6) Sen. Martin disbursed $6,922.33 to himself from campaign funds which he reported as a “Repay of a loan” but there is no record of this loan ever being made from Senator Martin to his campaign fund.
(7) Sen. Martin bought $ 12,175.16 worth of electronics and computers for himself with campaign funds, tax free.
(8) Sen. Martin spent $2,281.61 of campaign funds for cell phone service, tax free
(9) Sen. Martin spent $2,202.74 on food and booze with campaign funds including a $1,040.46 bar tab at his favorite watering hole and $100.19 for pizza and $30.21 at Krispy Kreme.
(10) Sen. Martin has profited from public office and is therefore corrupt and unfit for public office.
Maybe people that live in glass houses, shouldn’t through stones, especially if the only reason they were elected was because they were named after a famous singer.
P. S. Senator Martin’s Democratic opponent spent a grand total of $26, of which $10 was a late fee.
There is more about this on
www.newszap.com
November 11th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
ARIZONA SENATOR DEAN MARTIN, A CAMPAIGN FINANCE CON-ARTIST
PROFITING FROM PUBLIC OFFICE
Have you ever wondered what the members of the Arizona Legislature do with all that campaign money they get from lobbyist with business before the legislature? It’s not just the political signs on our highways or the political mail filling your mail box that they spend that money on. Some members of the Arizona Legislature have found a way to make a big profit from running for office.
Elected officials are prohibited from directly receiving money from people with business before them, but that doesn’t stop them from putting money from lobbyist in their own pocket.
Election laws in Arizona require all candidates for the legislature to file periodic campaign finance reports with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, showing who contributed to their campaigns and where they spent those contributions. The problem is, no one takes a close look at those reports.
One member of the Arizona Senate has found a creative way to profit from running for office, he pays himself first.
North Phoenix Republican Senator Dean Martin had no opponent in the 2004 Republican primary for the Arizona Senate in his overwhelmingly Republican district where Republican registration outnumbers Democrats 46.6% to 27.5%, so the winner of the Republican primary is pretty much assured of election to the legislature. The incumbent, Senator Martin, did have a Democratic challenger in the person of Marla Wing, who describes herself as a professional petition gatherer.
Senator Martin, the Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, spent $63,323.82 to defeat his Democratic Party opponent, who spent a grand total of $26, of which $10 was a late filling fee with the Secretary of State’s office, but Senator Martin didn’t spend all that money on signs and postage.
Senator Martin’s campaign finance reports indicate the his largest expenditure was $9,022.01 to a company called Digital Print Design, with the address of 4718 E Cactus Rd # 159.
The owner of Digital Print Design, Senator Dean Martin, the address for Digital Print Design, a rented mail drop in Paradise Valley Mall.
Senator Martin’s second largest campaign expenditure was $7,331.54 to a company called Grassroots Programs for, “Voter outreach.” Grassroots Programs has the same rented mail drop address as Digital Print Design. The owner of Grassroots Programs is, Kerry Martin, Senator Martin’s wife.
If you don’t have a calculator handy, that’s $9,002.01 to Digital Print Design and $7,331.54 to Grassroots programs for a total of $16,353.55, but that’s not all.
Campaign Finance reports indicate that Senator Martin loaned his campaign committee $2,854.68, of which $517.35 was for tools, but his expenditure reports show that he gave himself $6,922.33 as “Repayment of loans.” Senator Martin made a profit of $4,067.65 on his loan to his campaign, that’s not counting the $517.35 for tools, which he gets to keep for himself. That’s a nice, tax free, profit. I don’t think any payday loan business charges that much.
Add on $4,067.65 to the $16,353.55 on your calculator and you have $20,421.20.
You might think that steering over $20,000 in campaign contributions from lobbyist into a legislators own pocket was bad enough, think again.
Senator Martin’s campaign finance records indicate he bought $12,175.16 worth of electronic equipment and computers with campaign funds, which he gets to keep, tax free.
He spent $2,281.61 on cell phone service for himself with campaign funds,
Senator Martin spent $2,202.74 on food and booze with campaign funds including a $1,040.bar tab at Tom’s Tavern in downtown Phoenix, $100.19 for pizza and $30.21 at Krispy Kreme.
Add all the goodies to that $20,421.20 and you get $37,080.71, which is 58.5% of his total campaign expenditures or one and half times a legislators, $24,000, yearly salary. So who does the Arizona Legislature represent, the taxpayer or the lobbyist’s that pay them more?
Interesting side information on Marla Wing, there are rumors that she has worked for Senator Martin in the past and that he asked her to run against him. I have not been able to locate Marla Wing.
Eric Thor
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