Rumor has it that Senate President Andy Biggs (R-Atlas Shrugged) will be unveiling a “Tea Party” budget later today. Among other things, it reportedly includes a petulant $15 million cut to the Universities, and does not include the Governor’s proposed Medicaid expansion, despite the fact that it has bipartisan support. The proposed budget was apparently [...]
Saturday, January 26, 2013
It was only a few weeks ago when City Councilman Kozachik announced that he was leaving the Republican Party to become a Democrat. Among the things that led to his split with the Republicans were the Legislature’s consistent attacks on local governance, in Tucson in particular. So, it may come as some surprise that, in [...]
Today’s lesson is written as a service to Representative Steve Smith (R-Maricopa). A relatively recent arrival to our state, providence thrust poor Rep. Smith into a political career without the benefit of anything more than superficial knowledge of Arizona’s history, culture or economy. It is our duty as people who love Arizona to help him [...]
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
From House Minority Leader Chad Campbell’s Facebook feed: “Describing mine and Gov. Brewer’s relationship these past couple of years as “frosty” is definitely one way to put it… That being said, I give her credit for taking on Medicaid expansion and some school safety issues in her State of the State speech today. I sincerely [...]
I served in the legislature with House Speaker Andy Tobin (R-Paulden) and I liked the guy. He was first elected in 2006, when he was regarded as a pragmatic conservative in the tradition of the others in the Yavapai County delegation, namely Representative Lucy Mason (R-Prescott) and Senator Tom O’Halleran (R-Sedona). We actually worked together [...]
In a move that should have surprised nobody, but will doubtless inspire more than a little well-practiced umbrage from the legislative leadership nonetheless, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that the Legislature’s diversion of funds from the State Land Trust to balance the budget was unconstitutional. This sort of thing has happened so [...]
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
I laughed a bit when I saw that State Senate Candidate Tyler Mott had the slogan “People Not Politics” emblazoned on his signs, as if to imply that he’ll set politics aside to get to that near-mythic “common good that we all agree on.” Yes, because he’s non-partisan or post-partisan or something…and civil…yes…civil discourse. Very [...]
Monday, September 10, 2012
I heard a bit from a Mitt Romney speech yesterday, and he tackled the critical issue of secret plan to take “In God We Trust” off of our money. This issue is crucial to both our economy and the future of Christianity, since anyone that has read the Gospels knows that Jesus was way into [...]
Sunday, September 9, 2012
I ran into Dave Joseph last week, he’s one of the Democratic nominees for State House up in District 11. He handed me his palm card, and it bore the slogan “Let’s create jobs, not headlines!” Hmm. His current legislators include Al Melvin and Terri Proud, and one of the guys he’s running against is [...]
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Thank you Chad Campbell for shedding some light on la Cervecera’s shady prison deal: Campbell chides Brewer, legislators for wasting tax dollars on for-profit prisons STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX –Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix (District 14), released the following statement after learning the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was awarded a contract today to build 1,000 new, [...]
