Thursday, April 23rd, 2009...9:50 am
Left Behind?
There’s an article in the American Prospect about the lurch that Barack Obama left some state Democratic parties in due to his cabinet picks. The article has a short bit on Arizona and features a photograph of our own Janet Napolitano.
As per usual, I have to take issue with something:
Meanwhile, high-profile Arizona Democrats are queuing up for various runs in 2010; a likely gubernatorial candidate is Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, known as a progressive on public transit and immigration.
Eh? Has anyone named Gordon as a possible candidate for governor over the last eight months? I realize that this guy is a national reporter with a lot on his plate, but if he wants to name a gubernatorial candidate, is it to much to ask that he call someone out here to find out who might be running? And that he make that call in, I don’t know, the same calendar year as the article is published?
This would be roughly equivalent to me saying that Eliot Spitzer can use the New York Governor’s office to make a presidential bid in 2012.
Yes, I’m being hard on the guy, but it seems some of these national reporters get pretty lazy when it comes to covering politics out here. I get equally frustrated when their sourcing is limited to one or two people with an obvious axe to grind (for example, writing that there is no dissention in Republican ranks based on a quote from a Republican Party employee). It makes me distrust any national coverage of state politics when writing outside of the media’s home base in the Boston-Washington corridor.
Gotta give the guy credit though: he named Gordon as “progressive” on the only two issues where he has behaved that way.
4 Comments
April 24th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I know he’s not journalist, but I’m still shaking my head over Stephen Colbert’s softball interview with Joe Arpaio. I realize I shouldn’t expect Colbert to know the specific issues of Maricopa County but it was unnerving to watch Arpaio be given ample time to spin and justify his behavior to a national audience.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Of course I meant “not A journalist”. I can haz editing privileges on R cubed, Ted?
April 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Clearly he is reading stuff from about a year or two ago, when the rumor was that Phil Gordon might run for Governor.
Now, I might actually vote for him if he ran for Senator.
I’m afraid we will get into the same pickle that Democrats may be in in Pennsylvania. In that state national and state Democrats haven’t made getting Arlen Specter much of a priority but a poll out yesterday shows Toomey, the nutbag right candidate opening up a large lead on Specter (though it is still early sledding.) The nightmare scenario is that Toomey wins that primary and then faces a token Democrat (who people figured would run against Specter) and gets a free pass into the house.
Granted, Toomey as a former Congressman is a more serious candidate than Chris Simcox and McCain hasn’t come close to Specter in terms of ticking off Republicans by being moderate (especially not lately), but with the brand of extreme Republicans we have in this state I sure hope we get a serious Democrat running for the Senate (even aside from the fact that I believe that it is very possible that McCain could still be taken down directly during a general election– he’s won big mainly because he hasn’t had a credible Arizona opponent in years.)
April 24th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Whoops. a “free pass into the SENATE”. I second Donna’s sentiments about how desirable it would be to be able to edit your post, or at least preview it for typos and misstatements.)