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How the Dominos Might Fall in LD 4

December 2, 2008 By 11 Comments

Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services is reporting that State Senator Jack Harper, who is currently exploring a bid for Arizona Secretary of State, is considering not taking the oath of office if he ends up as Jan Brewer’s choice to be Secretary of State.  The Arizona Constitution prohibits lawmakers from taking another office or getting a government job during the term they were elected/appointed to.  So if Harper is sworn in on January 12th and Governor Napolitano doesn’t vacate until February, Harper will be ineligible for the appointment.

The reliably conservative Harper might not be easily replaced in most districts, but LD 4 appears to be blessed with several otherwise solid alternatives who could be appointed to fill Harper’s seat should he not take the oath on January 12th.  Either State Representative would clearly be qualified as Tom Boone just finished two years as Majority Leader in the State House, and Judy Burges is one of the most conservative members of the entire legislature.  Another name that several sources identified as a natural fit would be the district’s former State Senator, Scott Bundgaard.  Bundgaard had a solidly conservative record in the Senate, he knows how to do the job, and sources indicated that feelers had already been put out to Bundgaard to gauge his interest in a return to the body in 2010 when Harper would be term-limited.

The main question is who Brewer wants to appoint to the seat.  Should she go a different direction, Harper’s choice will be made for him and no dominos will fall at all.

Filed Under: State Government

House Democrats purge state representative Phil Lopes for not being extreme enough

December 2, 2008 By 16 Comments

Anyone looking for further evidence that the Democrat Party in Arizona has been hijacked by the extreme left need look no further then the recent vote to elect Democrat leadership in the State House of Representatives. The party was led in the House the last two years by Phil Lopes of Tucson.

Now, you may think that Phil Lopes is plenty liberal, and you’d be right. He voted against the ban on partial birth abortion, opposes the right to self-defense, and voted against denying bail to illegal immigrants accused of serious felonies, which passed with 78% of the vote when it was put on the ballot.

This is just a sampling of his far left-wing voting record. However, Phil Lopes is apparently not extreme enough for the Democrat caucus in the House. He and Assistant Minority Leader Jack Brown were replaced by the duo of David Lujan and Kyrsten Sinema, both ultra left-wing Democrats. Sinema is so extreme that when she ran as an independent in 2002, even the Democrat Party labeled her an extremist.

Democrats are always trying to convince the public that they have turned the page on their liberal past. That’s why we hear about “New Democrats” and “Blue Dog Democrats” and things like that. All that is just window dressing. The Democrat party remains the party of the extreme left.

The following campaign flyer came from a Democrat candidate who ran against Sinema (click to enlarge).

Filed Under: Campaigns & Elections, Political Parties, State Government

GOP endorses Bivens and current Democrat state party leadership for another term

December 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Republicans are endorsing the Arizona state Democrat Party’s leadership for another term. Under the leadership of chairman Don Bivens and Executive Director Maria Weeg, local Democrat candidates throughout Arizona did terribly, losing seats in the legislature to conservative Republicans and getting beat badly in races for Maricopa County Sheriff and County Attorney. Keep it up Bivens & Weeg, you fooled the local newspapers (which no one reads anymore anyways, why bother when you have sites like this and this) that had predicted the Democrats would pick up seats in the legislature, not lose them. Remember the Democrats bragging over the past couple of years about how much money they had raised, and how they had registered more voters than Republicans? I couldn’t keep track of all the articles in the mainstream media gloating about this, there were so many. When the real results came in, all their bragging was was just empty bragging.

Filed Under: Campaigns & Elections, Endorsements, Political Parties

Goldwater Institute Critical of Arpaio’s MCSO

December 2, 2008 By 4 Comments

On Monday, Arizona’s prominent think tank, The Goldwater Institute, issued a report critical of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and its operations. In the 22-page policy report, Mission Unaccomplished: The Misplaced Priorities of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Clint Bolick evaluates current MCSO practices, their failings and how the Legislature and other law enforcement agencies can provide more effective and efficient services.

The press release issued by Goldwater cites specific examples in which MCSO is failing in its core law enforcement duties:

The study finds MCSO record keeping inadequate and inaccurate. For example, each year when the Sheriff’s Office provides crime clearance statistics to the county, the figures are accompanied by the disclaimer that the data “is not considered accurate.”

The paper also examines the 166-percent increase in homicide rates between 2004 and 2007, the same period that MCSO began diverting resources to other priorities, such as trips by high-level employees to Honduras for ambiguous law enforcement activities.

Mission Unaccomplished also looks at MCSO’s closing of satellite booking facilities, immigration sweeps, and lack of transparency.

The report then goes on to make recommendations that will allow MCSO to meet its goals in the areas of enforcement, support services and detention:

  • Regular audits by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
  • The legislature formally clearing up blurry jurisdictional lines
  • The legislature adopting uniform standards for clearance of criminal investigations and requiring prompt, accurate reporting of clearance rates

Read the full policy report by clicking here.

Filed Under: County Government, Crime and Punishment, Press Release