Arizona Politics for Conservatives: Sonoran Alliance
Arizona Politics, News, Commentary and Information with a Blatantly Conservative Worldview Presented by an Alliance of Writers, Activists, Consultants and Government Insiders.
It’s official, Mayor Steve Berman has been defeated in the Gilbert Primary election but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the political arena.
According to an article in today’s Republic, Berman admitted he has his sights on another political office and will run again for either a Gilbert council seat or for Thayer Verschoor’s State Senate seat.
Can’t keep a politician out in the cold too long.
Some excerpts –
They philosophically disagree with Arpaio’s use of deputies to enforce immigration law aggressively. A lot of folks do. But to suggest that he has acted with blatant disregard for people’s civil rights or worse? That’s a stretch.
Opponents don’t like sheriff’s deputies using traffic violations as probable cause to stop a vehicle and then questioning those inside about immigration. Still, not liking such a practice and suggesting that it’s illegal are two widely different things. Cops use traffic violations to nab all types of bad guys. (Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was captured after being stopped for not having a license plate on his getaway car.)
If Arpaio’s policy is to be changed, it should be through an election, not with a politically motivated mob. You can’t catch a witch by making a pact with the devil.
We heard through the grapevine that the Maricopa County Superior Court will be laying off around 60 employees by April or May. Hopefully some of them will be a few of the bad liberal judges, but unfortunately we suspect it will all be lower-level staff who will be hurt harder than the wealthy judges by a layoff (Superior Court judges make at least $140,000/yr last we checked).
It doesn’t need to happen. The Superior Court is building a $340 million brand new Taj Mahal court tower. That could be delayed in order to save those jobs – because you know as soon as the recession ends, those staff positions will all be recreated again. We suspect the reason why not a single penny is being cut from the Taj Mahal is because the construction companies and other vendors involved in the contract contributed heavily to the campaigns of the county employees carrying the purse strings.
by Grover Norquist
The Arizona Taxpayer Protection Pledge is a commitment to the voters of Arizona that the signer will “oppose and vote against” any tax increase.
Sending a tax hike to the ballot is supporting the tax hike. Voting against sending a tax hike to the ballot is opposing the tax hike.
Voting to move the tax hike forward and put it on the ballot is the equivalent to a Senator voting for a tax hike and referring the tax hike to the House of Representatives. A senator could argue that he didn’t vote for the tax hike, he just sent it to the House. They pulled the trigger. Or visa versa for a House member.
The idea that moving a tax hike forward by putting it on the ballot is not part of passing a tax increase has never passed the laugh test.
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform. This originally appeared in the Goldwater Institute’s Daily Email.
