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James Disputes Voter Registration/Fundraising Claims

January 18, 2009 By 50 Comments

If you’re a Republican State Committeeman, by now, you’ve received a letter by Republican State Chairman candidate, Lisa James, disputing claims on her ability to register voters. In addition, State Committeemen are also hearing conflicts over fundraising by the State party over the last two years.

Here is an excerpt from the letter and a few visual aids as to James’ claim:

You’ve no doubt heard conflicting reports on the issues of voter registration and fundraising from the current AZ GOP. There is no debate when examining the real numbers of voter registration and fundraising for the AZ GOP. I would like to take this opportunity to give you the information as attained through the Secretary of State’s Web site, so you can determine for yourself if we can do better at registering Republicans and strengthening our finances.

During the 2006 cycle, when I served as Arizona Victory Director, the Republican Party registered 32,158 MORE Republicans than Democrats. During the 2008 Pullen Chairmanship, nearly 70,000 more Democrats registered than did Republicans. In fact, 8 out of 10 people who registered to vote this cycle decided against being a Republican. I’ve included a graph below with information attained through the Secretary of State’s office.

James continues:

In terms of fundraising, you’ll see that from 2002 through 2006 we steadily increased fundraising through the Party. I am proud to say that in 2006, when I was director of the Victory campaign, the AZ GOP raised more money than at any other election cycle on record (See the graph below).

Again, these numbers have been attained through the Secretary of State’s Web site and the Web site of the Federal Election Commission. The justification for the decline in fundraising for the Party during this time has been that Arizona’s money was directed elsewhere. Yet we had candidates who raised record amounts of money for their races (former State Senate President Tim Bee in his campaign for Congressional District 8). The economy has also been blamed, but in fact, during this same time period Democrats raised record amounts of money. In addition, there are no limits on how much money the Arizona Republican Party can raise for our state account. This means our potential to raise money to help our Party is unlimited and we should not only meet, but exceed, fundraising goals every year.

James’ letter than revisits the 2008 Election Cycle and hits back on the party’s failure to mount an early ballot campaign:

Two of the most important functions of the State Party are to register voters and raise money to support all of our Republican candidates. In 2010 we have all of our statewide constitutional offices on the ballot as well as a US Senate race, Congressional Races (and our best opportunity to take back CD1) and all 90 legislative seats. The 2008 election was the first time in memory that the AZ GOP could not fund a statewide early ballot mail piece to support our slate of candidates, nor could it fund an aggressive voter registration program. We lost 50% of the statewide seats on the ballot—not a good record for a red state.

The race for GOP State Chairman is now less than a week away. Boths sides are continuing to hit each other on registration and fundraising issues. Both have also called into question the other’s dedication to conservative causes such as the sanctity of life although Arizona Right to Life’s PAC has noted both candidates are equivalent on this position. Both campaigns have said little publically on the issue of immigration/amnesty and this may signal a hesitancy to bring that issue into play in this race. Regardless, expect this race to heat up even more in the remaining days.

You may read Lisa James’ entire letter by clicking here.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance, Campaigns & Elections, Political Parties, Voter Registration

How the New Times Publishers Destroyed Alternative Weeklies

January 18, 2009 By 6 Comments

L.A. Weekly's Marc Cooper
The Phoenix New Times doesn’t hesitate to write mean things about everyone else, so it’s just desserts that one of its own has published an expose on publishers Lacey & Larkin. Former L.A. Weekly longtime reporter Marc Cooper (and brief employee of Lacey & Larkin) has penned a lengthy critique of how Lacey & Larkin destroyed the Village Voice and other alternative news weeklies they touched. Here are some excerpts:

…In 1996 they moved into L.A. to directly confront the L.A. Weekly – more or less the way Michael Corleone moved in on Moe Green’s Las Vegas. Lacey and Larkin bought out and closed two smaller local weeklies and went out of their way to insult the laid-off staff in the process. There are numerous witnesses with harrowing stories of the day Lacey came in and berated (and fired) the staff of The Reader which he had just bought.

Within months, it was clear that Lacey and Larkin were banking on the perceived talents of their lead columnist Jill Stewart. Once a respected L.A. Times metro writer, Stewart had become a snarling bulldog infected with a rather strange world-view which came to dominate The New Times Los Angeles….This sort of unfounded snarling and sniping from the local New Times Los Angeles, as embodied in Stewart’s writing, built no significant audience, never really bit into the Weekly’s readership or advertising revenue and eventually led to the slow, long decline and uneventful quiet folding of the local New Times paper in 2002.

That jalopy officially got towed to the junkyard when the Lacey-Larkin management fired the last remaining “name writer” at the Voice this last New Year’s weekend – the venerable Nat Hentoff. He was probably the one reason why half of the paper’s remaining readership even bothered to pick up the rag.

And into 2006, the new merged company run by Lacey –which took the name of the vanquished Village Voice Media– found its own Vietnam in the Village Voice and was too distracted to screw around with the L.A Weekly. The Voice was bleeding cash and no one could be found to edit what had become a fish-wrapper. As of this date, the paper remains a ghost of its prior self.

Jill Stewart gleefully set about immediately dismantling the L.A. Weekly’s news department….In their place, laughable “reporters” were brought in to scribble highly ideological pieces that reflected Stewart’s world view. How about a reporter named Zuma Dogg who “wrote” this little ditty? I put that word in quote marks as it was an open secret that it was Stewart who actually wrote most of Dogg’s otherwise illegible piece ( A rapper/ranter, Mr. Dogg had once boasted: “I don’t like to read”). And no matter that this was the same Mr. Dogg who was an eccentric gadfly who repeatedly disrupted local agency meetings for which he was now being paid to report on.

The full article is here.

Filed Under: Media

Arizona State Education Budget Storm Looms for 2009

January 18, 2009 By 2 Comments

Gayle Plato-Besley, M. Ed.

With alarming news coming from the state legislature about potentially drastic budget cuts, local media and state educators are scrambling to either explain or blame current politicians, outgoing Governor Napolitano, or the economic downturn in general.  Little discussion exists as to what to do about the reality. 

Scottsdale Unified School District‘s Sherry Celaya, Director of Finance, handles daily workings of district-wide budgeting.  She summed up the reality facing many school districts in her response to Sonoran Alliance about pending budget woes: 

 “If SUSD loses full day kindergarten funding we will lose 51 teaching positions.  This will take effect immediately at the start of the 2009-10 school year. The only way we could continue to accommodate full day kindergarten is through our K-3 Override.  Moving full day kindergarten to the K-3 Override will negatively impact the current class size ratios in grades K-3.”
 

 

Arizona‘s budget/financial crisis is no surprise with national economic depression looming.  Yet, dire projected business failures, rising unemployment, and overall tax base decline for future state revenue makes this financial implosion a fiscal F5 tornado.

Ms. Celaya of SUSD, voiced a concern all educators face; districts statewide are going to face cuts, shufflings of staff, and potential class size increases.  Staff cuts seem inevitable.  As many teachers in Arizona are members of the Arizona Education Association, they may look to the AEA for guidance in this difficult time. AEA has members on the coalition noted in this article. 

The home page of the AEA has an enlightening comment from their president, John Wright:


 “Arizona’s leaders are willing to shoulder the burden of their own financial mismanagement over the years on the backs of our students.  This kind of false solution is worse than shortsightedness; it borders on malice.  The decision to keep Arizona at the bottom of education funding continues to be a deliberate one.”

Can the AEA face the reality that every other leader of industry faces today?  Or, are teacher unions truly hurting it’s members by the teeth gnashing, partisan pack-like behavior?   The storm is coming and the best thing to be done is to jump in and help steer the ship out of the worst chop.

Blame may be the choice for the moment, but united action and review of policy will be necessary.  The Arizona Business and Education Coalition (ABEC), started in 2002, is designed to review exactly how organized discussion and partnership could offer effective change to meet the needs of schools.  For years, this group has advocated for better funding and promoted a joint effort:
 
“Policy makers, educators, citizens, and business leaders must hold each other jointly accountable for improvements in the financial and academic condition of our schools by working proactively to create long-term funding that supports long-term investment in Arizona and its future. ” (ABEC, http://www.azbec.org/schoolfinance.cfm)

This reality of the budget is painful for any educator. Administrators will eat this and many a superintendent will be thrown overboard once cuts come down. The formula for raising money in the state may be outmoded too as the Average Daily Membership (ADM) funding marked by the 100th day attendance report for each district is the foundation for funding.

“The 27-year-old school funding formula couldn’t have foreseen the challenges we face today.  It’s time to take another look.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a solid funding structure in place that would meet the needs of 21st Century learning?” -Susan Carlson of ABEC Blog (http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/scarlson/16463)

Yet, the message beat home by all who advocated for the current plan is that more is better, and students benefit as state funding increases. But that’s not necessarily true.  According to the State of Arizona office of the Auditor General, there has been a steady decrease in classroom dollars by school districts statewide.  Even though there has been a significant infusion of state-provided funds for classrooms, over half of the districts provided less classroom dollars per student in 2007 than they did in 2006. The report from February 2008 stated the following:

 ” Within Arizona, higher per-pupil spending does not equate to higher classroom dollar percentages. Although these (larger) districts have more resources available to spend per pupil, on average, they put a smaller proportion of each dollar in the classroom. As a result, districts with the highest per-pupil spending, on average, have lower classroom dollar percentages.”

(http://www.auditorgen.state.az.us/Reports/School_Districts/School_Districts.htm)

Proposition 301 is an example of voter mandate to fund classrooms, and increase teacher salaries.  Yet, according to the report, the majority of it has been used on salary increases and somewhat nebulous practices. The report also noted irregularities and misappropriation over the last few years.   The accountability and overseeing of districts’ usage of the funds is in question according to the Auditor General. 

Could Proposition 301 monies, or an Arizona Lottery revamp be utilized? A lottery is always a voluntary tax and generates funds even in recession.   Does the legislature have the right to freeze all 301 funds and re-direct the money to help the state weather the storm?  Could all school lunch and breakfast prices double for regular education students not considered free or reduced?   Could all school districts close down operations from late June to late July to shrink operation costs; follow up with a  cut all in administrative salaries by one month of pay? Could all school counseling and health/nursing services be contracted out with private agencies?

The ABEC offered a paper on school finance reform and quoted a well-known state expert regarding school budgets.  Alan Maguire helped create the current laws and financial model.  His recommendation follows:

ABEC School Finance Reform
http://www.azbec.org/SFR_Progress_Report_June_08.pdf

1) Understand “what is”: conduct an accurate,
thorough examination of current actual spending
levels and practices
2) Consider “what ought to be”: determine what the
“right” level should be to support achievement
3) Develop a tax proposal
4) Develop the mathematical allocation process

 Coalitions, think tanks, and parents with good ideas could help, flooding the state legislators in a massive brainstorm.  Maybe there is a need for districts to work the problem and freeze all committee discussion of any future programming.  Everything discussed in each meeting is about the budget only; nothing else matters if kids truly do come first.

 

Gayle Plato-Besley is a certified social studies teacher, and counselor with over 20 years experience working with children and families. Her experience includes work as a school counselor in Arizona and Washington school districts, private practice, and a secondary level teacher of U.S. Government, Economics, and History. She works as a freelance writer on topics of education, politics, and social commentary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_Plato-Besley)

 

Filed Under: Education, State Budget, State Economy, State Government