FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2010

Goddard & Dems Choose Partisanship Over Statesmanship
Goddard Patronizes Women in Public Service and Remains Unwilling to Help Solve State’s Challenges

PHOENIX –– Attorney General Terry Goddard was disappointed in Governor Brewer’s State of the State speech yesterday. One of his biggest concerns? Brewer’s speech didn’t identify state and legislative leaders by their party label or focus on their differences in ideology.

According to the Arizona Capitol Times Yellow Sheet Report, Goddard is quoted saying, “I was waiting for the words, ‘bipartisan effort’ and they never came out… I found that very surprising given the extraordinary challenges we have.”

What is more surprising is that Goddard missed Brewer’s call for everyone to “gather in the field” and to “be honest with each other and worthy of the trust” that all elected officials have been granted by the voters.

“Statesmen solve problems, politicians call for bipartisanship,” replied former Attorney General Grant Woods, “Who did he think the Governor was referring to when she said ‘we’ 74 times and ‘us’ 19 times throughout the speech? Ignoring the rallying cry for everyone to work together is just playing politics. As his party’s presumptive gubernatorial nominee, Terry needs to come out of his shell and productively engage by offering solutions, not tired political rhetoric.”

In today’s Arizona Republic, Goddard personally insulted the Governor and her office as “That poor lady” and was reportedly disappointed with the Governor’s “tone.”

“As a woman who has dedicated a significant portion of my life to public service, I take offense to Goddard’s condescending tone,” said former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. “The Governor has 28 years of experience in serving the public has shown strong leadership and strength in guiding the state through one of the toughest times in its history. Instead of recognizing that, Goddard dismisses and disrespects her and the office she holds.”

While Brewer did not mention political party a single time in her speech, Democratic leadership felt compelled to make partisanship front and center in their response referring to “Republicans” and “Democrats” nearly a dozen times in their press conference after the Governor’s address.

“Last year, Democratic leaders failed to provide a single vote for Arizona’s needed budget cuts after ratcheting up the spending and have stood silent on federal unfunded mandates and federal attempts to violate state’s rights protected by the Constitution,” said Doug Cole, spokesman for the Brewer Campaign, “Now they are hiding behind partisan rhetoric to shift the blame for the problem they caused while failing to be part of the solution. It is not acceptable leadership at this critical time in our state’s history to wait in the weeds until its safe to come out. Where’s his plan?”

As is customary, the Governor will release her detailed budget plan this Friday.

Arizona Democratic legislative leadership and Goddard watched as former Governor Napolitano rapidly expanded government and drove the state to near collapse and did nothing about it. Now that the problem must be solved, they are decrying cuts to the Government they have worked so hard to grow.

In their press conference, House Assistant Minority Leader Kyrsten Sinema spoke out against the Governor’s proposal for a voter-approved rollback of the Prop 204 Medicaid expansion. She proceeded to called Prop 204–with a price tag of $1 billion to Arizona’s deficit–a “middle class entitlement.” Sinema also admitted that “the cost of healthcare is too high for businesses and employees,” but offered no solution as to how Arizona should cover the short-fall to Medicaid or the additional burden that Obama’s healthcare plan would place on Arizona.

Brewer made an open request to all in her State of the State speech: “Tell us clearly how you would solve a $5 billion problem over the next 17 months. The suggestion box is wide open.”

When asked by reporters yesterday why no Democrats’ plan was ever introduced as a bill last year, House Democrat Leader David Lujan stated that they do not put their budget ideas into legislation until they have a majority–a convenient response for why the untenable plan they offered last session never saw the legislative light of day.

“What has to be done for the state of Arizona is beyond partisanship rhetoric. As Jan Brewer said, this is about doing what is right. If Goddard or any of the other Democrats have a solution, I recommend they take up the Governor’s offer and draft their ideas now and put them in legislation,” concluded Mary Peters. “We don’t need more insults and a ‘wait and see’ attitude. I encourage them to replace rhetoric with an actual plan on paper instead of having to wait for their opinion until after something is passed like their solution for Obamacare. Otherwise, all of the complaining will continue to ring false.”

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