Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005...9:15 pm
More Silly Allegations Fly
Judi White, Chairwoman of the Pima County Republican Party, is leveling all sorts of allegations at her Democratic counterpart. Up until Tuesday, these were confined to e-mails sent to Republican activists and supporters. Now, its out in public and she says that Paul Eckerstrom is “vocal and obnoxious.”
Well, yeah. That’s what we pay him for. Well, he isn’t actually paid, but you know what I mean.
White calling anyone “vocal and obnoxious” is a little like Paris Hilton accusing someone of being an exhibitionist. She is always happy to get quoted in the paper trashing one Democrat or another. Just like Eckerstrom, this is part of her job description.
White is also accusing Eckerstrom of misusing his position with the Attorney General’s office. Eckerstrom is a political appointee, which means he can do what ever he wants, as long as his boss doesn’t have a problem with it. This is the sort of thing that the Republicans never had any problem with when they controlled the Governor’s and Attorney General’s offices. It would be interesting to see if any staffers for Mayor Bob Walkup or Councilmembers Kathleen Dunbar and Fred Ronstadt, who are under much more severe city regulations, are helping out with the campaign.
One thing that White said was particularly revealing:
The complaint is being lodged now, White said, because Eckerstrom has become increasingly “vocal and obnoxious” in the run-up to the Nov. 8 City Council election.
So, in other words, there is no problem with Eckerstrom being party chair, until he irritates White. As long as Eckerstrom kept his mouth shut, she didn’t care. She’s mad because he is willing to fight.
This, along with Dunbar’s quasi-lawsuits last week, seems to be part of a pattern on the part of the Republicans. Don’t speak up for candidates or issues, or we’ll file charges against you. These sort of tactics should scare all of us who care about democracy.
It also means that the Republicans feel like they are up against the wall. Would they be calling the lawyers if they thought they were winning?
2 Comments
November 2nd, 2005 at 10:42 pm
Indeed!
November 4th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
The provision the GOP Chair wants to enforce is 41-772 (B) which says:
“An employee … shall not be a member of any national, state or local committee of a political party…”
You’d think she’d have a point until you read ARS 41-771 (B), which says:
“this article (i.e. 41-772) do[es] not apply to those positions determined by the director to meet any of the following criteria:
…
3. Persons who provide legal counsel.”
Assistant Attorneys General, including Eckerstrom, provide counsel.
This was the same exemption used by two GOP state employees who ran for state legislature up here last cycle.