Tuesday, November 17th, 2009...12:22 pm
Burton-Cahill Retires, Schapira to Move Up?
Meg Burton-Cahill announced last night that she will be stepping down from the Senate at the end of this term. Burton-Cahill has been a tireless advocate for programs for the neediest of this state. When I was sitting in the gallery for Sine Die, her remarks made me proud to be a Democrat. I could also tell that she was drained by the fights of the last session.
I also should point out that when my brother was first appointed to the State Legislature, Burton-Cahill and her family opened up their home and allowed him to stay there for a while.
The most likely candidate for her seat is Rep. David Schapira. Schapira’s seatmate, Ed Ablesser, was once talked about as a possible replacement for Burton-Cahill, but he may be looking for a position in the leadership in the Democratic Caucus. Besides, he’s already been in the Senate once before.
(One still wants to speculate on whether the two of them had some sort of contest to pick who would move up. Was it done by height? Arm wrestling? Rock-Paper-Scissors? Klaberjass? Penalty kicks?)
Now, here’s the fun part: a press conference is scheduled for one o’clock to announce that Tempe Councilman Ben Arredondo will be switching parties to the Democrats to run for Schapira’s seat. Ah yes, this must be because of all of those gains that the Republican Party has been making in the Hispanic community.
1 Comment
November 17th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Ben Arredondo is probably the most popular elected official in Tempe with the possible exception of Harry Mitchell, and comes from a long line of dons in Tempe’s Latino community. A really remarkable win for one of our Party’s strongest district organizations/legislative teams.