Thursday, January 4th, 2007...6:29 am
Legislative Roundup
After I wrote yesterday about the possible fight over the minimum wage, I recieved an e-mail from a Republican staffer. He told me that the leadership wasn’t too excited about calling a special session and he didn’t think there was much that the legislature could do anyhow.
This hasn’t seemed to stop the e-mails. If there is nothing that legislators can do about it, why has this e-mail and press campaign continued?
Sen. Jack Harper sent out an e-mail asking for co-sponsors for a bill loaning money to the schoool facilities board. It is common to hunt for co-sponsors, legislators can often be seen going office to office looking for people to sign onto their bills. What I found unusual was how this particular plea ended:
I need some R’s on this one or I may not drop it.
That’s either a typo or a really strange construction. What is he saying here…does he only want Republican co-sponsors? If there are too many Democrats supporting a bill it isn’t worth running? Nice to see that this election has heralded a new era of bipartisanship.
Rep. Ted Downing, who is still officially in office until Monday, is still opening bill folders. What this means is that he is attempting to keep writing bills in the hopes that others will run them for him. Reportedly, he is trying to get Republicans to run the bills; I haven’t heard if he’s had any takers. This isn’t unusual, a retiring or vacating member may have a project that they have been working on for a while that they will, of course, want someone else to take over. But Downing, according to two members that I talked to, has opened fifty folders. What is he planning to do here?
11 Comments
January 4th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Is it true that Downing got slimed at the end of the campaign with robo-calls stating he supported spousal rape? Did Paula Aboud really do that or is it an unfounded charge.
Please advise
January 4th, 2007 at 11:03 am
The robo-calls were by an independent committee and were over the top. Downing did, along with two Republicans, vote against a bill making spousal rape a felony. This vote confused a lot of people, particularly those who had fought so hard to get the bill past the hold that a couple of Republican members had it under. I think the issue should have been brought up in a campaign, but the actions of the independent committee were way out of line.
January 4th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Thanks
January 6th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
yeah, im not gonna be so nice.
He deserves every single bit of pain he got for losing his race.
He essentially said to everyone in Arizona:
“Please, rape your wife because after all, its her wifley duty”
screw downing and may he never be elected to dog catcher as there are many of us out there that will be right there to remind voters that he voted to keep it legal to rape your spouse.
January 7th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Hey,
I am not a fan of his politics, but he had a problem with “being guilty until proven innocent” Didn’t he? Ted Downing is not the type of Democrat who thinks sex is a wifely duty. My pals in Pima told me he was a Maoist.
Why do you dislike the guy, please don’t tell me you are a fair play and “call it like you see it” guy. If you were you would have screamed foul about the end of the campaign robos screaming DOWNING SUPPORTS RAPE!
As for the Independent committee defense, that is a crock, you know it. Ms Aboud has a rep for dirty campaigns; I believe the phrase is scorched earth.
I have to call bull hockey, what is the real reason you detest the guy and why don’t you have the same bile for the trash that was pulled in the midnight hour??
January 11th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
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January 11th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
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January 11th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
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January 11th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
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February 15th, 2007 at 10:01 am
[…] One may remember that in the closing days of his term, Ted Downing was still at the capitol, requesting “bill folders” in the hopes that, one assumes, he could find someone to carry the result…. […]
February 15th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
The official word from the State Republican Party secondhandedly removed was that they ran the robo call to hurt Democrats in general because Republicans were so mad that the National Democrats were running ads in the local Republican primary for Congress. They snickered when they said, “They just randomly picked Downing to run the ugly robo call.” No one can figure out what good or bad it did. That race of Downings wasn’t close anyway.
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