Wednesday, January 17th, 2007...11:21 am
Hrm.
A quick visit to Randy Camacho’s website and you may notice some changes to his endorsement list.
One thing is that both Raúl Grijalva and Ed Pastor have disappeared from the list. Both had been touted early on as endorsers of Camacho, especially when it looked like the field would be open. Both of them have been at contentious “principals” meetings with the Governor where they voiced their dissatisfaction with some of the proposed staffing decisions of current chair David Waid. Some of these conflicts have been resolved, and that may be why the names have vanished from Camacho’s list.
At the top of Camacho’s list is now the Progressive Democrats of America. Last week, the Maricopa County chapter and “several other progressive organizations” voted to endorse Camacho’s candidacy. The press release doesn’t detail who the other organizations were, and there is no sign on the Sonora Progressives website that they have taken a stand in the race. Even though many of the Sonora Progressives are campaigning for Camacho, their leaders were careful to say that the group had not endorsed, at least as of last week.
I recieved an e-mail from a Camacho supporter about a rumor that Camacho was anti-gay. I had never heard such a thing but they wanted me to know that Camacho had come out against the “Protect Marriage Arizona” amendment and was even quoted in opposition in the Republic. Maybe they thought this was a rumor that would start soon? This campaign has been so low wattage that I really, really doubt it. This person thought that the rumor may have started because his brother Richard (a teacher, like his brother) had a debate on gay marriage in his class room and some of the comments around that incident might be connected to Randy.
As I said, I haven’t heard anyone say such a thing about Randy Camacho. All I hear about him from people is that he’s a tolerant and progressive individual. I have a real hard time believing a rumor like that.
12 Comments
January 17th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
The anti gay stuff is a smoke screen.
The Guv wants her people in place to assist her Senatorial campaign.
Think back to the Maricopa County Attorneys race. Warshaw was totally unfit to be the County Attorney, The Guv and Jim did not want Harris, so they sandbagged him. It was bad enough that the party got involved in a primary, but to let P. Gordon endorse Thomas was sickening. As a result We (Phx) got stuck with Andy Thomas. I knew Harris was a flawed candidate but Thomas is a fascist, and he will run for hirer office. All because the Guv State Chair, County Chair and Chief of Staff (Guv) did not like the Democrat who won the primary.
Talk about putting their needs (political careers) over the needs of the Party!!!
January 17th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
This is exactly why we are fighting and why we are happy Randy Camacho has taken up the populist banner. He is well qualified to provide the leadership we need, and we believe open debate and contested races strengthen the party.
This is the democratic wing of the democratic party speaking up for fairness and grassroots control of the party.
The governor called Grijalvva and Pastor and asked them to withdraw their endorsements. Sadly, they caved.
David Waid is a good executive director, and I am sorry he wants to quit in that role. He is worth every penny he earns as ED. As a private political consultant, i think he will have a conflict of interest at the same time running the party. We don’t need even the appearance of corruption.
And as party chair he allowed the party to snub, fail to support, or even eliminate Democrats the governor did not favor. Think Jason Williams Think Larry King. Think Herb Paine and John Thrasher. Think Mike Cacioppoli. And that’s just the few I know about. Why is Israel Torres not Secretary of State? because the state party did not go after Jan Brewer.
We have seen over and over that the governor works behind the scenes to silence honest debate, as she is doing now, to snub or even eliiminate candidates she does not favor.
Many of us believe we need to build a sustainable party that is independent of any elected official, one that fairly supports all Democrats willing to give their time and effort to run for public office.
To be fair, David Waid has helped progressives with election integrity, and we are thankful. He has put staff in places there was no staff previously, which helped to build the party, and invested in training for candidates and their staff, which we support. What makes the governor think Randy would put a stop to those good things?
Please support Randy Camacho, or at the very least speak up about the governor working behind the scenes to influence another election.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Amen RevGerry,
Left right or center this Guv has done nothing to help anyone, except her elect few. If a progressive is willing to step up and tell the elite they are not the Party this Blue Dog will support him/her (with time and $) . I am really sick of hearing “….but Janet has to be viable for the next election”
Is it the Democratic Party of Arizona or the Democratic Party for Janet Napolitano, Terry Goddard, Jim Pederson (RIP) & cronies?
January 17th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Oh give me a break, “blue dog.”
Although he was not an A-list candidate, Warshaw had far better law enforcement credentials as a former police officer and deputy county attorney than either Harris or Thomas (who has never even tried a criminal case before a jury).
Harris was a complete nut job as evidenced by his rambling and incoherent statements in debates and to the Republic’s editorial board … especially when asked about the sole high profile case he had back in 1973 that the AG had to take away from him. (Nice.) The guy only won the primary because he sucked up to the Leisure World types by wistfully reminicing about the good old days at every turn. Warshaw’s biggest problem was that he was too darn nice to call Harris out for the whack job he was. It was Harris who was totally unfit to be County Attorney and he had the history to prove it.
I will grant you, however, that Janet puts her needs before the needs of the party. Might that chief of staff you malign be Maricopa County Attorney today otherwise? He’s certainly got the creds.
Who knows? Did he even want the job? But we’re stuck with Thomas now so what’s the use in monday morning quarterbacking?
January 17th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Harris won because he had a better ballot name…activists think that they have so much control over the process….we don’t…people generally have no clue who they are voting for.
January 17th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I say this, still not knowing who I will in the end vote for between David Waid and Randy Camacho on Saturday:
Do you have any evidence that the Governor told Reps. Grijalva and Pastor to withdraw their endorsements? Because this is the first time I’ve heard that, and frankly I don’t see them as ‘caving’ in to anybody. To be honest, I’ve been immensely happy with the job our Governor has done in running circles around a hostile legislature. I want to see what she does now with a less-hostile one.
Also, I don’t buy that stuff about the party not supporting the candidates you mention. Williams ran a strong race against an incumbent, and it was in the end his choice to try and raise money privately (i.e. not run as a clean elections candidate). That IMO did him in– he wasn’t able to raise enough of it. But he’s only 30– and I believe he will be back if he wants to be.
Larry King? He could have continued running if he wanted to but then again do you honestly believe, that starting with more people thinking of the TV host, he’d have been able to squeak by J.D. (as Mitchell did?) And I used to be ‘represented’ by J.D. and I am eternally grateful to have him gone.
Cacciopoli? I in the end supported him and endorsed him because I liked his bluntness about Iraq, immigration and other issues, and felt he was the most charismatic candidate. The reason it took me so long was because I was waiting for him to say publically that he would support the nominee, which he eventually did. But let’s be honest– he finished fourth in a field of five, so it’s hard to argue that what the state party did or did not do had much effect on his congressional ambitions.
I’ll probably listen very intently to what both Waid and Camacho say on Saturday, but I don’t believe that leveling baseless attacks against the Governor or our other elected officials is a way to convince me to support anyone. And I’m sure I’m not the only ‘neither part of the establishment nor a member of PDA’ Democrat who is still mulling this decision over but is 100% a supporter of the Governor (who is not, incidentally, on the ballot Saturday.)
January 17th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Let me get this right,
Harris won because:
1 The old people voted for him? You have a prob with that?
2 Warshaw was too nice? A nice Mesa cop?
3 Because of his name? (that has to take the cake)
If the election is between a nut and a Fascist who do you vote for…
RevGerry has a valid point, we should elect Democrats, even nuts they are better that Nazis
January 17th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I’m not going to say that Harris was perfect, but between him and Warshaw, at least Harris had tried a felony.
Warshaw was an absolute joke. Democratic voters weren’t quite stupid enough not to realize it and they didn’t vote for him. The Democratic party completely abdicated his campaign in favor of an absolute lunatic named Andrew Thomas. Thomas, were he to to get the kind of press he so desperately craves, would be a national embarrassment. I would have far greater interest in this race if I had any, repeat any faith remaining in the people who have given us such absolute zeroes as Gabby “I married an astronaut” Giffords and Jim “I’m rich, so I should be Senator” Petersen. Why do Republicans continually win races in this state? Bad Democratic candidates and a total lack of support for any one who doesn’t absolutely toe the party line. We’re a joke. But not the funny, ha ha kind.
January 18th, 2007 at 11:19 am
The endorsements were not pulled because of anything Randy said or did. And the rumor that Randy is anti-gay is completely ridiculous, but I’d love to know who planted it.
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:55 am
Jonathon Warshaw is a friend of mine and I’d appreciate it if people didn’t malign him with second hand and false information.
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
You pegged it revgerry.
And I’m as curious as you jane arizona.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:06 am
To clarify:
ALL of Arizona’s DFA and PDA groups were represented at the meeting where Camacho was endorsed unanimously. Sonoran Pregessives were represented by Jeff Latas and another gentleman whose name I didn’t get.
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