Saturday, February 18th, 2006...6:50 pm
Poorly Sourced Rumor of the Day
Folks at the capitol are saying that the troubles in David Petersen’s office are worse than reported and he may resign before his term is up in January.
This creates a strange situation. The Governor appoints a replacement should there be a vacancy, but the replacement would have to be a Republican. I’m putting my money on Betsy Bayless. I really have no reason to say that other than intuition, but Bayless is a capable Republican that the Governor has shown she’s comfortable with.
There is no reason to think that the two Republicans that have already expressed an interest in running, Rep. Laura Knaperek and Sen. Dean Martin, would change their minds if Petersen were to leave early. In fact, the Republican mahouts would love to take out any Republican that Napolitano would appoint. I wonder, however, if they really want a primary between two of their legislative leaders. Heck, I’d be glad to see them both as far away from lawmaking as possible, even if it means one gets a nice desk and better salary.
My understanding was that Knaperek was their choice to run for Sen.Harry Mitchell’s seat. Mitchell’s seat has to be part of any calculus that leads to their dream of a “veto-proof” majority. They must be putting some pressure on her to stop a possible primary with Martin (especially if it splits the vote with a Napolitano appointee), and also to keep her in what is a must win race for them for Senate.
NB - I reported before that the Democratic party hadn’t made recruitment for the Treasurer’s race a priority. I recieved an e-mail stating that there is a candidate: Richmond J. Vincent, a bank executive from Phoenix. I hope he becomes a little more active. Rich, the iron is hot right now!
By the way, Knaperek is the one who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to allow a vote to modernize our state’s spousal rape laws. Just so y’all know.
13 Comments
February 18th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Hey, is it true that Pederson’s son was arrested on drug and weapons charges? In the vain of all the jokes about Cheney will you be making jokes about this one?
I sure hope Jim Pederson holds a news conference as soon as possible to explain this to the residents of Arizona. We don’t want a cover-up.
I know this is off topic but since everyone has been saying Pederson is such a strong candidate I want to know what my next U.S. Senator thinks about this issue. Is this what you meant by his new staff using strong-armed tactics?
February 18th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Wasn’t is true that George H.W. Bush’s son was arrested for drunk driving and this info didn’t come out until years later (during the campapign)? Wasn’t it also true that George W. Bush would not answer the reporter’s question “Have you ever tried cocaine?”?
February 18th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Wow. I thought maybe the story was not true because I found only one article on www.kvoa.com but I found a second article on www.kpho.com saying the same thing but with more detail, right under Top Headlines.
The elder Pederson, the candidate, did release a statement. He asked the public to respect his family’s privacy. Yeah right. He’ll get about as much respect as Cheney just got. OK you say, Cheney is a public official and this is someone’s kid. Then Pederson will get as much privacy as the Bush twin’s got when they could not stop drinking in public.
Another important fact, according to the article on the kpho web site, is that the elder Pederson owns the house in which the drugs were found. Is this his property at 1545 W. Glenn Drive in Phoenix? If this is true then it is fair game to bring the elder Pederson in on this.
If this were a Republican the headline in the paper might read “Senate Candidate Owns Drug Stash House!”
February 18th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
cc burro Very good point but George H.W. Bush is not running for U.S. Senator from Arizona.
I am not sure if it matters at this point what questions George W. Bush did or did not answer. He will soon be on the downhill of his second term, probably never again to run for office.
The current story is about Pederson. With Cheney’s friend alive and out of the hospital the press might even cover the story about Pederson for a few minutes until they move onto the next scandal.
February 18th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Knaperak is going for Senator Mitchell’s seat? This is the first I have heard of that.
The word I keep hearing is that Mark Thompson is going for it. He had at one point filed the preliminary paperwork. I could not find anything regarding the filing on the Sec. of State’s website so he may have changed his mind.
If Laura goes for that seat, who is going to run for the state rep ones on the Republican side? (Rhetorical question, I can and will ask Bruce about it.)
February 18th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
To PHX KID–
[laughter]
Yeah–That doesn’t sound too good for a candidate. However, didn’t state Senator Bennett’s son get in trouble with the law recently? I don’t blame Bennett for what his son does, nor do I blame Pedersen for what his son does.
At least Pedersen didn’t shoot his friend in the face!!!
February 18th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
No he didn’t shoot his friend but his son may have just shot him in the foot.
February 18th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Phx Kid-
Of course I won’t be making jokes about it, because I am a partisan weasel.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
That’s true! His son has VERY bad timing.
The damage may depend on whether the gory details come out and the story has legs. More likely this is just a blip.
February 19th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Knaperek wasn’t alone in opposing a repeal to our archaic and ridiculous marital rape law. That wingnuttiest of wingnuts, Warde Nichols, actually said, out loud during the committee in which he, Knaperek and Mark Anderson all voted against the repeal, that a woman becomes the property of her husband when she marries and therefore is subject to having sex with him anytime the husband wants.
Somebody slapped some sense into those ninnies, because Nichols moved to reconsider in committee a few weeks later and the repeal passed out of committee unanimously.
Still, a perfect example of the attitudes of that crew - including Laura Knaperek. Makes me shudder to think what she’d do in a Senate seat or in the Treasurer’s Office. Not that Dean Martin is much of a bargain either…
February 19th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Didn’t Ted Downing vote against the Spousal Rape Bill?
February 19th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
I personally don’t get why K-Nap would want to be treasurer. How can she ensure men don’t get arrested for raping their wives?
February 20th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Yeah, Ted did vote against the repeal. He said it was based on some wrong information one of the bill’s opponents gave him just before the vote. He apologized profusely. Make what you want of that. He’s been solid on every other piece of sexual violence legislation. And the margin was rightly large enough that his one misplaced vote didn’t matter on this one. Still…
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