Thursday, May 1st, 2008...7:48 pm
Weiers & Co Get Their Wish
Jennifer Burns has announced that she is not running for re-election.
This is the culmination of her getting shunned by her party for, horror of horrors, actually voting with her constituency. Her constituency, by the way, is the oddly gerrymandered District 25, which is fairly conservative for a Democratic district. So, according to the political calculus popular among our state’s Republican leaders, a Republican who can earn the votes of Democrats, even Pinto Democrats, is obviously too liberal.
Burns first ran afoul of her party’s legislative leadership when she voted against a budget that would have been horrible for her constituents. Jim Weiers and his allies were so irritated by Burns that they recruited a candidate against her, hoping to defeat her in a primary. They recruited Gail Griffin, who is their model of a good legislator: her previous service at the capitol was marked by acting as a lap dog for Phoenix-area leaders over the needs of her constituents. It didn’t work well. Because of the vagaries of House races, Griffin’s prefered running mate didn’t make it and Burns and Griffin were the Republican nominees. In the end, Griffin came in fourth place, with only a wing-nut running as an independent keeping her from coming in dead last.
Despite winning, she was very much the Typhoid Mary of the Republican caucus for the unforgiveable crimes of representing her constituents and being interested in policy. She’s quitting now, no doubt, because she is tired of the cold shoulder she gets from leadership.
Well, the old boys get their fondest wish: Burns will not be running for re-election. The funny part is, the seat will, more than likely, now go to a Democrat. Burns’s initial election was narrow and due in large part to the undervote on the Democratic side because of dissatisfaction with Bobby Lugo. Her advocacy on behalf of her constituents (the advocacy that she was being shunned for her) is what made it possible for her to get re-elected twice. Burns is, by the way, the only Republican to win election in that district since it was rejiggered from the old LD 8. The two Democrats that are running, Pat Fleming and Richard Boyer, already have campaign experience under their belt. Fleming nearly won last time and Boyer ran a capable statewide race. So, Weiers has driven a Republican out of his caucus, and now she’ll be replaced by a Democrat. Do we call that irony?
NB - I’m told that Burns will be making an appearance at a meeting in Willcox tonight. Yeah, she’s making a drive all the way from Phoenix to Willcox to keep up with people and she doesn’t need their votes. There’s something a few of her colleagues can learn from.
6 Comments
May 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I have worked for various progressive causes as a lobbyist at the legislature and Rep. Burns has always been thoughtful, intelligent, and passionate about service to her constituents. She will be missed!
May 1st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Having worked at the Capitol for a number of years, Jennifer is definitely one of the smartest people I’ve run across. It’s very disappointing she is leaving and the state as a whole will suffer at least for one session. Thanks, Jennifer; see you on the lobbying side in ‘10.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
Kevin, which session? Certainly not any session where LD25 is capably represented by Fleming and Boyer!
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Jennifer is so hated by her party that she is going to work for the Tim Bee campaign hummmm!
May 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Walt -
Yep, smart of Tim Bee to bring her on board, but still doesn’t change the fact that Jim Weiers and friends had little use for her.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I can’t help but put a plug in for the Boyer campaign seeing as there is talk about LD 25 and the fact that Representative Burns has decided she has had enough.
During the 2006 election cycle, Ric Boyer, was heavily recruited by the leaders of the local Democratic organizations to resign as Bisbee’s municipal judge and run for LD 25 with the hopes to remove Burns. He declined when he learned they had also recruited someone else to run, Pat Fleming.
Not wanting to create a competitive Democratic primary, Boyer, with the encouragement of the state party, instead ran for a seat on the state-wide Corporation Commission board. Despite being the only state-wide candidate from outside of Maricopa County, the first time being on the ballot and running against a Republican incumbent, Boyer surprised all the pundits coming within 2 % pts of winning. More importantly was his performance in LD 25, where he came in just behind Representative Manny Alvarez, and exceeding Representative Burns’ vote total by nearly 2,000 votes, and the other candidates to include Fleming by almost 3,000 votes.
This did not go unnoticed by the state party that realizes now that Ric would be Representative Boyer today and running for re-election had he run in LD 25 in the last election cycle. This is undoubtedly why he was heavily recruited early on in this election cycle by both the local and state party to be one of our candidates for LD 25.
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