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.
Here is a picture from Espresso Pundit of John Huppenthal’s banner at the Maricopa County Republican meeting.
The giant 8 ft. by 24 ft. banner lists six seperate legislative accomplishments — probably enough text to qualify as the world’s largest campaign brochure ever.
For Immediate Release: January 13, 2009
Governor Jan Brewer’s response to John Munger:
Dear John,
Thank you for your invitation to meet next week to review your plan to address the state’s budget crisis. However, due to my ongoing work to resolve our fiscal crisis, I will be unable to attend your media event on Tuesday.
There is no need to wait for a campaign appearance to send along your ideas. I would truly appreciate your thoughts on how to address our budget concerns and would hope you will forward a copy of your plan to me for review immediately.
Likewise, I hope you will take the time to familiarize yourself with my plan which was delivered earlier today. My plan can be found at http://www.azgovernor.gov/Budget2011.asp. As you are aware, my administration has presided over the largest cuts to state government in the history of Arizona.
Today, general fund revenues in Arizona are roughly equivalent to those the State received in FY 2004. Since that time the State has added 146,000 new students, 11,600 new prisoners and over 475,000 new Medicaid enrollees.
To address this structural deficit, I have already signed into law over one billion dollars in cuts and am advocating for roughly an additional billion dollars more in spending reductions;
- Reduce AHCCCS rolls by eliminating 310,000 individuals from coverage
- Eliminate 47,000 children from the KidsCare program
- Reduce services for 17,000 seriously mentally ill adults, approximately half of that population
- Eliminate cash assistance for 10,000 families
- Places a hard cap on day care assistance and eliminates services for more than 10,000 children of low-income working families
- Close the Department of Juvenile Corrections, transitioning the custody of minors to county detention centers and laying off an additional 900 State employees
- An across the board cut in employee pay of 5%
- Re-directs lottery revenue streams to meet the crisis at hand
Finally, you will see I am attempting to maintain 2006 funding levels for K-12 education and our State’s Universities to ensure that we do not eat the seed corn of our economic rebirth.
Again, thank you for your gracious invitation and please accept my apologies for being unable to attend your event. I wish you luck and look forward to reviewing your ideas for moving forward.
Sincerely,
Governor Jan Brewer
####
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(PHOENIX, AZ) January 15, 2010 Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Munger delivered the following letter to Governor Jan Brewer today:
Governor Brewer:
Last week, you issued a request to receive in the next five days “substantive, realistic proposals from…potential gubernatorial candidates on how they plan to fix the state’s fiscal crisis.”
I have developed a plan which actually solves Arizona’s fiscal crisis and balances the budget without a tax increase and I would like to review it with you in a face-to-face meeting at your offices on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010.
To ensure transparency to the people of Arizona, I invite the media to attend our meeting. This issue is of such magnitude that I believe that only you and I need to speak directly, without the intercession of staff or campaign advisors.
Concurrent with our meeting, I will be distributing my plan to members of the State legislature and posting it on http://www.johnmunger.com/home
As I have promptly responded to your request, I would appreciate an immediate response from you. Please contact me as soon as possible to schedule this meeting.
I look forward to helping you fulfill Arizona’s responsibility to our taxpayers.
Sincerely,
John Munger
Yellow Sheets is reporting that Arizona lobbyist Kevin DeMenna is considering jumping into the CD-3 race.
Well if Kevin doesn’t pull off a primary win, at least it will be good for business!
I’m angry.
What the h – e – double hockey sticks is going on here?
We’re not even through our county conventions yet and we have this going on…Senator McCain skipping the Maricopa County Republican meeting.
Now we have this…..
Apparently a high-ranking paid person on Senator John McCain’s staff is preparing to stage a coup d’etat against the state party chairman?!??!?!?
Didn’t we all just last year hear all of his people talk (at length, ad nauseam) about unity?
Again I have to ask, what in the WORLD is going on here?
Even on this very blog, there are bloggers and commenters who appear to support Senator John McCain taking conservatives to task for criticizing the Senator, while at the same time preaching “unity”?
Who’s unity? Theirs? Guys (and gals), by definition, the quashing any and all dissent or criticism is NOT unity. It’s totalitarianism.
Not one or two days ago, one of the blog commenters posted a link to this. If you whois the DNS on the site, of course, like a coward, it’s privacy protected.
Now we have a PAID Senator McCain staffer organizing a coup d’etat of the state party, while simultaneously telling everyone we have to be unified.
Is this a pattern? What seems to be a random series of seemingly-unrelated “events” or “media leaks” is shaping up to appear to be a coordinated campaign against the Republican Party of Arizona coming from an elected Republican!
Does it have to do with the fact that, less than 1 month ago, the executive committee unanimously voted down the GOP Victory Plan 2010 that seemed to be slanted rather McCain-ward?
I’m flummoxed. Anyone who isn’t flummoxed at this point is suspect in my book.
I’m angry. I’m MadArizonan and I want the state of this party to be straightened out.
Like roto rooter, it looks like there’s some rooting out to do and I think it’s going to be the teapartiers, Project 2010ers, and new conservative grassroots precinct committeemen and state committeemen who are going to be doing some RINO rooting.
The Insurgency has begun!
Something tells me we are going to see a lot more of these!
(H/T to NobleThinking.com!)
Senator Jim Waring will make an official announcement at 1 PM today regarding his entry into the Congressional District 3 race. Waring, who is currently running for State Treasurer, is expected to announce withdrawing from the Treasurer’s race leaving the primary a little less crowded. (State Senator Barbara Leff and former State Representative Ted Carpenter are also seeking the Treasurer’s seat. Senator Thayer Verschoor has yet to form an official committee for State Treasurer.)
Still likely to announce for CD-3, is State Senator Pamela Gorman. State Representative Sam Crump has already announced his intention to seek the seat being vacated by John Shadegg.
On the Democratic side, Phoenix Mayor, Phil Gordon, is seriously considering a bid for the seat.
by Jay Greene
The Department of Health and Human Services has been sitting on an evaluation of the Head Start government run pre-school program. Well, the study was released.
As the leaks suggested, the study found virtually no lasting effects to participation in Head Start. The study used a gold-standard, random assignment design and had a very large nationally representative sample. This was a well done study.
For students who were randomly assigned to Head Start or not at the age of 4, the researchers collected 19 measures of cognitive impacts at the end of kindergarten and 22 measures when those students finished 1st grade. Of those 41 measures, only 1 was significant and positive. The remaining 40 showed no statistically significant difference. The one significant effect was for receptive vocabulary, which showed no significant advantage for Head Start students after kindergarten but somehow re-emerged at the end of 1st grade.
The study used the more relaxed p< .1 standard for statistical significance, so we could have seen about 4 significant differences by chance alone and only saw 1. That positive effect had an effect size of .09, which is relatively modest.
For students randomly assigned to Head Start or not at the age of 3, the researchers also collected 41 measures of lasting cognitive effects. This time they found 2 statistically significant positive effects and 1 statistically significant negative effect. For the students who began at age 3 they showed a .08 effect size benefit from Head Start in oral comprehension after first grade and a .26 effect size benefit in Spanish vocabulary after kindergarten but a .19 effect size decline in math ability at the end of kindergarten. Again, 38 of the 41 measures of lasting effects showed no difference and the few significant effects, which could be produced by chance, showed mixed results.
It is safe to say from this very rigorous evaluation that Head Start had no lasting effect on the academic preparation of students.
The long and short of it is that the government runs an enormously expensive pre-school program that has made basically no difference for the students who participate in it. And folks are proposing that we expand government pre-school to include all students. Those same folks have some bridges they’d like to sell.
Jay Greene is a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 15, 2010
SCOTTSDALE BUSINESSMAN URGES HAITIAN RELIEF EFFORTS
Healing Hands for Haiti is on standby to assist
Critical support to Red Cross is urged and needed
A Scottsdale businessman, who has for years been involved in helping Haitian people rebuild their country and develop basic human services infrastructure, is now leading the charge to get vitally needed support for the hundreds of thousands of victims of Tuesday’s earthquake that has devastated this small island country.
Robert Graham, a board member of the nonprofit Healing Hands for Haiti, is calling for all his business associates and partners to help with monetary assistance for those suffering and in great need in Haiti. Graham is calling for crucial support to aid groups – especially the Red Cross – as help is desperately needed.
Healing Hands for Haiti (www.healinghandsforhaiti.org) is a non-governmental institution with no religious or political ties who work with government and local organizations to help the Haitian people overcome extreme challenges. In the past, these efforts have focused on rehabilitation education, clinical treatment, disability prevention and increasing public awareness of disabilities and rehabilitation.
Now, 100 percent of the focus is on saving lives and getting support to Haiti. “This is a desperate situation and I am asking everyone in my circle of influence – friends, family business associates – for help,” said Graham.
Graham is compiling a video of the people and lives Healing Hands for Haiti has helped over the years to educate and personalize the current reality. The video will be distributed to everyone Graham knows with the hopes that by paying it forward he can help when help is so critically needed. U.S. contingents from Healing Hands are on standby to be deployed as soon as possible – communications with onsite staff in Port-au-Prince have been unsuccessful and their status is unknown.
Watching the Massachusetts Senate race take place in which Republican Scott Brown is likely to defeat Martha Coakley in next week’s special election, is giving many of us hope for many congressional races here in Arizona.
In particular, I am excited about Ruth McClung’s attempt to unseat ultra-liberal Raul Grijalva. Many candidates like Ruth have risen out of the insurgency of the Tea Party Movement.
In a state like Massachusetts where voter registration overwhelmingly favors Democrats, the same trending could be taking place right here in our own CD-7.
A Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts next week could further fuel the populist grassroots insurgency to restore normalcy in every district across the country but I get a sense that the good people in CD-7 will be further inspired to dig in their heels, join Ruth’s campaign and prepare to unseat the most liberal Democrat in Arizona’s congressional delegation.
To support Ruth McClung, visit her website at www.Ruth4AZ.com.
This missive came through my inbox recently. I have edited it so that the more salient points are easier to read. Is this what Arizona is offering up to run against the most liberal RINO in the U.S. Senate since Arlen Specter? Is this race proof positive that in the market place of ideas, that the traditional campaign funding system will always bring forth the best candidate to represent the people? [I for one love how McCain tried to own the party and direct the funding with his failed Victory 2010 Plan. That was certainly a plus for traditional campaign financing wasn't it?]
John McCain is already spending campaign money on trying to convince you he is the only one left standing with any clout to prevent the Obama led socialist juggernaut from destroying our Constitution.No, Senator McCain, I respectfully disagree – the people who are the government stand unified against socialism especially the kind you helped to create.
J.D. Hayworth keeps teasing would be voters to retire his previous debt using his bully pulpit radio show to “inform” all who will listen within reach of voice.
All in all it seems the McCain party establishment is nervous. They are being challenged from within by independent minded folks who actually live the conservative platform but have no voice even when they are welcomed to the table.Some folks, part of the “establishment” attempted a last minute New Year’s Eve coup to control the message including the state party money which by decree meant that all efforts and money would go to protect incumbents only.
Common Sense prevailed with a unanimous vote to hold off until this Saturday’s Arizona GOP State Party elections.Many independents, conservatives who left the Republican Party waiting for a viable change in the party structure are watching carefully how this power play will affect the so-called grassroots party vote. Will so-called grassroots leadership stick with principle or play it safe with the status quo?
The “party” convinced thousands of independents to come back and re-register with the party; the “party” encouraged folks to get involved as precinct committeemen and state committeemen; the party welcomed (begged) the Constitutional conservative independents to return to the Republican “party” and have now given them a seat at the table.
The question is will they have a voice and how will their votes affect state party leadership? Or, will it be business as usual?
McCain and the old guard establishment seem to be so fearful, that I predict they will offer a resolution, backed with funding, to bring suit against the state and close the upcoming Republican primary to “registered Republicans only; none of those registered conservatives, Independent voters will be allowed to upset the status quo.
The independent conservative “Tea Party” movement has the establishment in utter fear of turning “its” entire structure upside down. It is exactly what is needed. Welcome to the party.contribution to help us make all the trips to speak to interested voters across the state of Arizona.
For Liberty,
Chris Simcox
www.simcoxforsenate.comSimcox
Stunning essay by Pat Buchanan on WorldNet Daily today entitled, “Is America’s financial collapse inevitable?”
But if taxes are off the table, Afghan war costs are inexorably rising and cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and entitlement programs are politically impossible, as pressure builds for a second stimulus, how does one reduce a deficit of $1.4 trillion?
How does one stop the exploding national debt from surging above 100 percent of GDP?
America is the oldest and greatest constitutional republic, the model for all the others. But if our elected politicians are incapable of imposing the sacrifices needed to pull the nation back from the brink of a devaluation or default, is democratic capitalism truly, as Francis Fukuyama told us just two decades ago, the future of mankind?
What the looming fiscal crisis of this country portends is nothing less than a test of whether this democratic republic is sustainable.
Buchanan paints a devastatingly bleak outcome for these United States which makes me wonder if it does indeed happen, won’t those in control ultimately get to rebuild the Constitutional Republic or Socialist State as they deem fit?
Call me a natural born pessimist but I cannot see any light at the end of this economic tunnel other than November 4th, 2010.
