Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Somebody nominated me for the “Blogger’s Choice Awards.” I’m listed in the Political Blog category.
For some reason, the vote of the person who nominated me didn’t get counted. So, as of “press time” (do we bloggers ever have that?) I only have two votes: mine and the person I told about the nomination (thanks Amber!). […]

An interesting group of Republicans voted against the budget yesterday. Three moderates voted against it: Lucy Mason, Pete Hershberger and Jennifer Burns. They were joined by three very conservative legislators: Andy Biggs, Eddie Farnsworth and Trish Groe. This is why it made me laugh when someone posted the “level headed Republican” comment after the vote […]

Okay…I take back everything I said. It appears that Pete Rios and Linda Lopez decided not to vote for the Republican House budget. In fact, no Democrat did. The vote was 27 yeas and 31 nays.
Since I gave them so much grief when it looked like they’d jump, I’d like to thank them and all […]

Things happen quickly…
Despite the rumors afoot at the Capitol, Dave Bradley is now stating categorically that he opposes the House Republican budget. Good for him!

Rumors are afoot that three Democrats are prepared to vote for the Republican House budget, Linda Lopez, Pete Rios (who both spent significant time in Jim Weiers’s office yesterday) and of all people Dave Bradley.
I campaigned with Bradley last year when I was running in the Democratic House primary, and I’ve known the guy for […]

Ward 2 Council candidate Rodney Glassman turned in his signatures yesterday, becoming not only the first to qualify for the ballot, but turning in the maximum number of signatures (767) on the very first day of filing.
Democratic primary opponent Robert Reuss only filed his paperwork to begin collecting the minimum 384 signatures a couple of […]

The budget being pushed by House Republicans will be brought up before the Committee of the Whole today, the first step to getting it passed but also one more chance to amend it. The folks I spoke with aren’t sure if Speaker Jim Weiers has the vote to pass it, even with Pete Rios and […]

Carolyn Allen is ticked off at the Democratic caucus, and the Governor too.
What made her angry was the lack of support from Democrats for a bill she was running that changed the burden of proof in some malpractice cases to beyond a reasonable doubt. She was running a bill on tort reform but thought she was […]

People on the South and West sides are reporting that they are now getting anonymous pro-Linda Lopez and pro-Olivia Cajero Bedford calls. They don’t seem to have gone out to nearly as many people as the initial round of calls questioning their votes for the Republican House budget. These congratulate them for making the budget […]

A story that has been bubbling up for the last few days from Iowa is that Rudy Giuliani snubbed a farm family in Iowa after they had taken up his request to have a campaign rally at their home.
Giuliani was hoping to do an event on the so-called “Death Tax,” but as it turned out, the […]

Ernesto Portillo Jr. wrote me last week to tell me about his new blog on StarNet. I neglected to write about it. I have a thousand excuses for this. I’ll just say that I didn’t forget to write about it, I was just letting his blog steep.

I’m sure that many of you have heard about this ad being run by VoteVets in the states and districts of vulnerable members of congress. It features Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the First Infantry Division, the Big Red One, in Iraq. He also commanded troops in the first Gulf War and led an […]

These are two of the ads that Bill Richardson is running in Iowa, “Job Interview” and “Tell Me.” Not knock down funny, but they do cleverly present Richardson’s impressive resume. Message: Pay attention to me, I’m qualified!

Anyone remember how for the last couple of years we have heard cries of “Governor No” and “Veto Queen” every time Janet Napolitano exercises her constitutional perogative and vetoes a Republican bill? The real comedy always came when the legislature would pass an identical bill weeks later and she’d (gasp!) veto it again and they’d […]

A piece in this morning’s Star describes the deprivations that our legislators will have to go through at the capitol now: their per diem is being cut.
I joke about this, but it is the way that many “out-county” legislators are able to pay for a place to live during the session. “Out-county” legislators get $60 […]

Story is still developing, but a group of eleven Republican congressmen visited the White House this afternoon, met with the President and high ranking members of his staff and told him that he has no credibility on Iraq. Think Progress has the story.
I have only heard two names (Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent […]

I wondered a few weeks back if the speculation about Mary Kim Titla runing for congress was ginned up mostly by folks who thought it was a great idea, but hadn’t spoken to her about it. In fact, one prominent Democrat who had talked her up had even admitted that she hadn’t spoken to her […]

Eleven members of the legislature came down to Sunnyside High School for a forum to discuss the state budget. David Lujan, from Phoenix, gave a detailed explanation of the budget, in particular the differences between the House Republican budget and the Senate’s bipartisan budget.
Interestingly, the names of the three Democrats who voted for the House […]

The Politico, a site I don’t reference much because their ownership leaves me wondering about their sense of balance and I’m not into their overdependence of Matt Drudge as a source, ran a story today on House Democrats who are part of the “Out of Iraq” caucus and their struggle between wanting to end the war as […]

In the last couple of weeks, the Republicans have gone full bore on their push to dominate the internets. Recently, the Pima County Republicans finally took down the “coming soon” legend and have a brand spanking new website. I’d complain about the length of the URL, but I’m one to talk, eh?
The State Republican party has […]