Jonathan Paton For State Senate

Jonathan Paton

Hats off to Arizona 8th for breaking the story on Jonathan Paton announcing the formation of an exploratory committee for the Senate in District 30.

Given Paton’s accomplishments and the likely clear path ahead, he will be a huge asset to the State Senate.

Who Is Wake Up Arizona?

The Arizona Daily Star has published a list of members of the newly-formed “Wake Up Arizona” along with a news piece.

Here is that list:

Mac Magruder, owns McDonald’s franchises
Ray Arvizu, owns Arvizu Advertising & Promotions, a Hispanic marketing firm
Tom Barnett, owns Good Egg and Eggery restaurants and Burger King franchises
Steve Chucri, president, Arizona Restaurant Association
Jim Click, Tucson car dealer
Jerry Colangelo, former owner, Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks
Brian Day O’Connor, owns a commercial real estate firm and a carwash; son of former U.S. Supreme Court justice
Nicole Dreier, representing Burger King franchises
Barry Goldwater Jr., son of former U.S. senator
Danny Hendon, owns Danny’s Family Car Washes
Steve Hilton, chief executive, Meritage Homes
Gordon James, owns public relations firm
James LeVecke, owns Carl’s Jr. franchises
Jeff Moorad, general manager, Arizona Diamondbacks
Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County supervisor, owner El Portal restaurant

KKNT & America’s Majority

Thanks to our friends over at SeeingRedAZ for blogishing this to blogosphere. 

By now, if you’re a dedicated KKNT-960 AM radio listener, you’ve heard this ad being run by a group called “America’s Majority.”

If you’re like us, you’re shocked and bewildered.

The ad basically threatens conservatives with losing political power and numbers if they don’t shut up about the illegal immigration.

We thought we’d write a letter to the General Manager at KKNT and ask for an explanation. Here’s the text of our letter to Station Manager, John Timms:

Greetings John,
 
Many of us in the conservative blog movement are wondering what is going on at KKNT-960 – the source of our conservative political daily bread? We’ve heard ads by a group called America’s Majority that claim that Hispanics are being scared or angered off from the GOP because of immigration reform efforts.
 
Already, several blogs (seeingredaz) are abuzz over what discretion is being used in airing the ads. Some of us feel as if the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, MoveOn.org or PETA could walk into the station, lay their money down and get 30-60 seconds without anyone batting an eye.
 
We are also wondering how some of the station’s sponsors or talk show hosts would interpret this unusual intrusion.
 
We would appreciate an explanation even as a few of us give a benefit of the doubt.
 
We would be more than happy to allow you space on our blogs.
 
Awaiting your reply,
 
“DSW” – Sonoran Alliance

MacBoycott?

Here’s an email from Republican activist, Rob Haney, regarding MacDonald’s mogul, “Mac” Magruder, and his involvement with the newly formed group “Wake Up Arizona.”

You may not have heard JD Hayworth today. He interviewed Mark Magruder (Mac’s brother) who was in opposition to his brother’s money-motivated opposition to the employer’s sanction law. It was also pointed out that in a response letter to a former McDonalds customer, the McDonalds respondent wrote that McDonalds was in favor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Since the opposition forces to the employer sanction law seem to only understand the green language, we have taken our green language elsewhere and told McDonalds about it. It will be healthier for us anyway. If you care to do the same, their email address is:

 

http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.custsat.custsat_form_other.htmlseeingredaz again has several articles connecting some amazing dots for us in this saga. If only the Az Republic has such talented investigative reporters. 

 

This just in … Peate NOT in

Breaking News. The recent report by Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly that Dr. Wayne Peate might get in the CD-8 race is outdated. Rumors that he will NOT run have just been confirmed directly with Peate’s office.

(Hey we just scooped the Tucson Weekly and Arizona 8th at the same time. We barely even consider the established newspapers competition at this time.)

The Left: Republican PAC donations bad. Democrat PAC donations good.

     The liberal Blog for Arizona has posted a letter criticizing Representative Shadegg for his PAC donations. When it comes to Representative Giffords the Dems are silent about the PACs and only talk about the large amount of money raised. Here is Gifford’s list of donations for the latest quarter. Looks like lots of PAC money. Giffords received $5,000 from American Crystal Sugar’s PAC. (Estimates put the cost to U.S. families of sugar quotas at billions of dollars per year.) I wonder if Gabrielle will vote with all of the sugar growers in her district of with the families and consumers that she is suppose to represent.

Oh, Arizona 8th did a nice job scooping us on Paton’s plans in LD 30. We will return the favor with some breaking news on CD 8. Maybe that the field has now been cleared for the Republican favorite.

LD 26 news.

     Emil Franzi at the Explorer News reports on LD-26. His analysis basically confirms the information that we have except we keep hearing different things about Pesquiera. Franzi says she is not going to run again. Last we heard she would run in ‘08 but our intel on that side of the isle is not very strong. Emil may be correct.

     Pesquiera does present a challenge for the Dems. Do they stick with the half-hearted incumbent or nominate someone with more fire in the belly but no incumbent status?

CD-3 update.

The Arizona Watchtower has a nice update on CD-3. Looks like John Shadegg can raise money after all.

Bob, the Democrat candidate, was born in Washington D.C., attended college in Maryland, and received his J.D. from George Washington U. in D.C. After working in New York City he moved out to Arizona. He will be attempting to unseat U.S. Representative Shadegg in the heavily Republican district. The Arizona born and raised Shadegg earned both his undergraduate and law degrees in Arizona.

Update: The East Valley Tribune has a nice article covering the race. There did seem to be one glaring error in the article though. As of 9:00 am on Thursday the storied claims that Shadegg received 55% of the vote in his 2006 re-election. By our calculations he got 59%, not a huge difference but noticeable enough to point out. Don’t they teach math in journalism school any more?

Wake up to double talk.

Business fat cats fighting the new employment law have accused some legislators of being racist. Turns out one of the businessmen opposed to the new employer sanction law, Jerry Colangelo, belongs to an exclusive country club in Central Phoenix that still enforces a sexist policy regarding their dining rooms. Nice work guys. Charge someone else with being racist while you belong to a sexist country club. How does the saying go – “Physician, heal thyself.”