Thu 6 Nov 2008
Sources tell us that Kirk Adams has been selected to be the new Speak of the House.
McCommish has been elected Majority Leader.
Andy Tobin has been elected as Majority Whip.
Thu 6 Nov 2008
Sources tell us that Kirk Adams has been selected to be the new Speak of the House.
McCommish has been elected Majority Leader.
Andy Tobin has been elected as Majority Whip.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Wow, so they threw overboard the guy who had raised all that money to keep the majority and picked the guy who spent his time raising money for Sposito, Bouie and the mods? Wierd. So the Senate goes right and the House goes left?
When will this party ever get things going in the same direction?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
That’s really good news! I know Kirk from volunteering with Salmon’s campaign. He was a guest at my wedding! I hope this is a signa that Arizona’s Republican party is taking a right turn. It is much needed.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
What will Weiers do now? With predatory lenders going out of business and now his Speaker’s salary…
November 6th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Wow, a guest at your wedding and he volunteered for Salmon? Well then, I guess that settles that! With qualifications like that, he should definitely be Speaker of the House.
He’s a delegation guy for sure, so that’s good for the Flake’s of this world.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Raised money to keep the majority? How much money did he raise? How much money did he spend? Or was his strategy to raise so much less so they couldn’t be criticized for trying to buy the election?
November 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Jim Weiers being removed as Speaker is the best thing that could have happened to this State – with the exception of Janet possibly leaving for DC.
Adams will do a great job – to accuse Adams of being part of the “left” is laughable. His vote history shows he is far more to the “right” than Jim Weiers.
Jim Weiers hasn’t done squat to raise money for the Republican Party. He put the squeeze on some lobbyists to raise money for freshman whom he was courting their vote, and then hopped in bed with Randy Pullen and the Republican Party to save his own hide. And that’s the only thing Jim Weiers has ever cared about: himself.
As soon as we can get rid of the current regime over there on 24th St., the sooner we can get our Party back on track and start raising some serious cash.
I haven’t seen it posted anywhere else, but with apologies for possibly repeating something thats already been made clear, here’s the Dem Leadership on the Senate side:
Garcia
Rios (Asst Minority Leader)
Lopez
So in the House, the Leadership is all Central Phoenix. In the Senate, it’s all Tucson (with the exception of Rebecca who has some Pinal). Boy those are going to be some fun budget meetings….
November 6th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
In the rating for the previous legislative session, Adams is slightly behind Jim Weiers on the AZ Federation of Taxpayers rating and is farther behind on the Pachyderm Coalition rating.
Considering that leadership positions usually weaken a legislator’s ratings because of compromises leaders must sometimes make (they can’t always just vote their conscience because they have to actually get things done), Weiers’ record is good.
On those two evaluations, he was more conservative than Adams even though he was burdened with a leadership position. What rating shows Adams more conservative than Weiers? Plus, Adams supported Bouie, a guy who changed his registration from D to R just 5 days before filing to run for state House of Representatives in LD6, when two conservative, long time Republicans were running.
As for the State GOP needing to be changed, we need to consider that with all the money the Chamber of Commerce was giving to the GOP under Matt Salmon, the GOP managed to lose seats in the legislature and we had more liberal “Republicans” who gave the Democrats working majorities in the legislature. This resulted in ruinous state budgets.
With very little money, Randy Pullen managed to increase Republicans in the legislature against the Obama tidal wave. We also have a more conservative Senate, and I thought, until seeing this leadership vote, a more conservative House.
We should at least have better fiscal responsibility since the GOP majorities are more solid than in the previous session.
If the Chamber of Commerce stopped pouting about illegal alien enforcement and focused on the general improvement in freedom and the business environment (for legal residents), Randy Pullen would have the money to be able to do an even better job. As it is, he still outperforms former GOP leaders who acted as though the state party was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, Matt Salmon’s Executive Director resigned right after the disastrous 2006 election to go to work officially for the Chamber instead of unofficially as he had been when he was the state GOP Executive Director.
Randy Pullen, like everybody, has his faults, but he has done a far superior job than his predecessor and in a more challenging environment.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
A change was in order. Kirk Adams will appeal to the arch conservatives (like Anti) and the moderates of the party (Bouie). This is important going forward if this party is to survive in a world were GOP registation advantages are slipping away as is our youth.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Hunter,
What did Pullen have to do with increasing R’s in the legislature? That was wholly the work of the candidates and the grassroots that backed them up. The guy is a narcissistic windbag that gives me the creeps when he walks in a room. Good riddance, is all I can say. Elect him chairman again and you can kiss any chance of a Republican Governor goodbye and look for the Dems to turn this state blue by 2010. For all the badmouthing about Salmon, it pales in comparison to how Pullen has run this party into the ground.
Weiers inability to think past his narrow vision led to the worst budget disaster in years! He might have been Speaker but a leader, not hardly. Adams is a stand-up guy and will do right by party and our state.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Congratulations to Kirk. The change of leadership provides hope.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Kirk will do well as Speaker.
The GOP has got to start talking about winning ideas and issues but most important, putting it together in an agenda that can be easily understood and sold to the public.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Hunter – you state your case well, but I’m really not concerned with voter rating guides form any organization, the political pressure tools they may be.
when it came down to principle and voting the way he believed his constituents would want him to, that title should go to Adams. Granted, being in leadership is probably pretty difficult and you have to make a lot of compromise in order to keep your caucus happy. But a change was needed nonetheless. Weiers has spent the last 4 years obsessed with the fact that “she lied”. We all agree – she did, but his unhealthy obsession and inability to control his caucus has allowed her to come out on top again and again.
With respect to Pullen, the Republican Party is not raising money. Plain and simple. And even when it does, it has to give it back because it’s illegal. These candidates would have been elected without their help – that which was is short supply no less.
The real issue is being competitive with the Democrat party in this state…which if you haven’t noticed we’re getting our asses kicked. The Democrat Party is spening millions in this state (albeit unsuccessful this election cycle) and we’re running “masturbation” ads.
Think of what we could accomplish with half the financial resources the Dem party currently has.
We have the message. Now we need the money. This is about evolving or dying.
The Shadegg race is the perfect example. He was outspent by more than 2-1 by the most liberal elements of society, and he still won by 12 points. I’m not saying he ran the best campaign, but he had enough money to fight back, and voters ultimately rejected the negativity.
We should expect the same.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Regarding what Randy Pullen did to increase Repbulicans in the legislature: Randy focused voter registration in key districts rather than just anywhere in the state like his predecessor. Randy did this to help our legislative candidates win.
He has had some success in spite of the Republican congressional delegation and Chamber of Commerce sabotaging his efforts. At least one member of our congressional delegation FORCEFULLY told prominent Republicans from other states NOT to be guest speakers at state party fund raising events.
The losses of the Corporation Commission seats are bad, but they are probably the result of running “moderate” Republicans instead of conservatives.
Contrary to what some people think, the national party has a huge responsibility for funding congressional races. There was little or no money from the national party. Tim Bee, though, did benefit from a President Bush fundraiser, but it wasn’t enough money to help him. I don’t recall John McCain or Jon Kyl doing any serious fund raising for any of our congressional candidates, but they were busy on McCain’s presidential race.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Tim Bee’s campaign had visits by Congressman Marsha Blackburn (TN), Secretary Mary Peters (Transportation), Congressman John Shadegg, Congressman Trent Franks, Congressman JD Hayworth, Congressman Jeff Flake, Congresswoman Mary Fallin (OK), Secretary Elaine Chao (Labor), Steve Forbes, Congressman John Boehner (OH), Congressman Tom Cole (OK), Senator Fred Thompson (TN), Senator Jon Kyl, Vice President Dan Quayle, and President George W. Bush.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
#14 is correct and its amazing when you see the list of notables that our delegation and the White House sent to help Tim Bee. Of course, Bee got killed, but when you compare his results to Pullen and the AZGOP’s results while being starved of resources by the very same people putting all that money into Bee/Sproul’s pockets, one can only imagine the kinds of gains we could have made if those “Party” folks had worked with the State GOP instead of against it. Shame on them for this lost opportunity.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Hunter, you wrote, “Contrary to what some people think, the national party has a huge responsibility for funding congressional races. There was little or no money from the national party.”
Did you know that the RNC laid off most of its fundraising staff in the spring of ‘08? They couldn’t raise enough money to pay their salaries. Traditional R donors were fed up with the RNC and told them so when they called up.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:20 am
If ron is accurate and I have no reason to doubt him, do we have a double standard when the same situation has happened right here?
It sure sounds like it. When there is no money at the state level it is because the people are stupid and conspiracy theories abound, but the leadership is blameless.
November 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Congratulations to Speaker Elect Kirk Adams.
He will be able to bring leadership back to Arizona with the help of Senate Elect Bob Burns.
Both will have an uphill battle in bringing bring back the good name of Republicans. Let’s support these two courageous men in breathing life back into the state.
October 4th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
jim weiers is a child molester of young boys. he prefers teen age boys. he molested MANY young boys in corsicana texas when he owned and operated a steak house named k bobs. he molested arthur vitasek back then along with numerous other young boys as well. arthur vitasek was a nieve young boy who made straight A’s in high school in corsicana texas. he was decent and nieve until jim weiers got his hands on arthur and turned him into a monster which is what jim weires is–a MONSTER. watch out for jim weiers he will continue to have sex with and rape young boys! he will not stop ever he is a pedofile of the worst possible kind!
October 4th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Hey Anonymous,
If you make incredible accusations like you just did in #19, you better be able to back it up with some bona fide legal documentation. Don’t you think that that info would have come out by any political opponents prior to his first electoral win?
Of are you looking for a place to post such an outlandish statement so that it can get picked up by a future political opponent?
We have your IP address and if a lawsuit arises, we will be glad to provide that to attorneys for civil prosecution.