BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Today, conservative businessman Toby Farmer announced his candidacy to represent district 13 in the Arizona House of Representatives.  Farmer is the founder and principal of 1776 Capital, a private investment and holdings firm based in Buckeye.

“Running for public office was never something I planned to do, but as a father, husband, and small business owner, I have become more and more concerned with the direction this state is heading,” said Farmer.  “District 13 voters need someone who understands the impact of the decisions made in our state capitol, someone who will fight for the principles of limited government.”

Farmer’s roots run deep in district 13, which spans from Buckeye to Yuma.  Both his grandfather and great-grandfather worked for the Wigwam Resort in the 1940s, and his great uncle, John Roach, is in the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame.  As the son of public school teachers, Farmer understands the importance of a quality education and of giving back to the community.  At age 21, he started a scholarship program that helped underprivileged students attend college.

As a legislator, Farmer plans to pursue a commonsense, conservative agenda in the state legislature.

“It is time for our leaders to pursue solutions that are fiscally responsible so our children will have a future full of opportunity and growth,” Farmer said.  “As your representative, I will focus on balancing the budget and ending policies that hinder job growth and stifle Arizona’s small businesses.”

More About Toby Farmer

Farmer lives in Buckeye with his wife of five years, Missy, and their two sons.  The Farmers are expecting their third child in August, and they attend Christ Church of the Valley.  Farmer earned his J.D. from the Phoenix School of Law, and his undergraduate degree from Hardin-Simmons University.  He worked for the San Carlos Apache Nation as a law clerk and is a former Ronald Reagan fellow at the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank.  In addition to running 1776 Capital, Farmer owns Seed and Co., a provider of luxury kitchen products, and Toby Farmer Films.

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Learn More:

Toby Farmer on Facebook

Toby Farmer Website

Mesa, AZ - Arizona businessman Trevor Hansen announced his candidacy for the Mesa City Council District 6 today.

“My family and I are deeply invested in this community and love calling Mesa home.  I have participated for years in local issues; volunteering in Mesa’s schools, churches, community organizations and on behalf of political candidates.  As a family, we now feel that the timing is right to do more; the City of Mesa, and particularly District 6, are seeing unprecedented growth both economically and in the community.  I am not a politician, I am a businessman, and I know that i have the skills necessary to help guide Mesa into the future.”

Trevor Hansen has already received tremendous support and encouragement from members of the community. He has built an impressive leadership team.  Dr. Michael Cowan, Superintendent of Mesa Public Schools will serve as the Honorary Campaign Chairman.

“I am endorsing Trevor Hansen for Mesa City Council in District 6. He has the values that our council needs as well as the intelligence and business background to build his district and all of Mesa into a thriving city for the future,” said Cowan.  “He is not a politician, he is a concerned citizen who has the experience necessary to build our city.”

The Campaign Co-Chairs are Jan Strauss former Chief of the Mesa Police Department, Derek Wilcock President of Wilcock & Associates and Kyle McEuen President and COO of ProfitKeeper.

In commenting on his campaign leadership team, Hansen said, “I am grateful to have such incredible community leaders supporting my campaign. They represent the best about Mesa. “Small business, community service, family, education, and public safety. I’m honored to have their support.”

For more information please visit Trevor Hansen’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VoteTrevorHansen or his campaign website at www.votetrevorhansen.com

First, true ownership of General Motors was stolen from the rightful owners and given to the United Auto Workers, who neither purchased ownership nor earned it.

Second, a national health care program, written not by Congress but the private socialist Apollo group and supported by only one political party, was rammed down the throats of Americans. The bill was so thick that no member of Congress even read it.

Third, a massive stimulus bill was passed to create private sector jobs, except that all spending was directed toward the public sector and public sector unions to protect union jobs at the expense of private sector jobs.

Fourth, under the guise of “Wall Street Reform,” a massive financial regulation bill was passed, not to improve the financial health of the country but to allow egregious regulations to act as a proxy for socialist domination and control: capitalism has been severely damaged.

Fifth, the “Fast and Furious” ATF cover-up continues. Recently, the Justice Department Inspector general released a report condemning a government leak intended to smear a key ATF whistleblower.  Top administration officials have been caught in multiple lies and Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over documents related to the ATF crimes. And, lest we forget, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in the line of duty.

Sixth, the Obama administration continues to cover up the egregious actions surrounding the death of four Americans, including our Ambassador, in Benghazi. Witnesses are prevented from testifying before Congress and the Secretary of State shrilly declares, “What difference does it make?” as if the four American deaths were irrelevant.

Seventh, the Internal Revenue Service confessed to its illegal activities against Tea Party and other conservative groups. In fact Obama and several members of Congress wrote the IRS and demanded these investigations. “It is no small exaggeration to conclude that Team Obama’s dead aim is to chill conservative speech and criminalize conservative dissent.” [1]It was also meant to suppress conservative votes and contribution:  the IRS audited many contributors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Eighth, we now have the most massive domestic spying program in American history, thanks to big statist socialist president.  The Obama administration has given itself a blank check to access what it wants, whenever it wants without articulated reason and all in violation of the United States Constitution.

In a public filing in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Department of Justice to urged the court to continue to suppress publication of a 2011 FISC opinion that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act to be unconstitutional.[2] In effect, the Department of Justice is covering up through legal maneuver the fact the NSA is engaged in unconstitutional activities against the American people.

“The American idea of freedom and civic involvement is being replaced by a technocratic nightmare in which government bureaucrats and their allies in the corporate sector rig the rules of society in order to protect the power and privilege of a few select politicians and businessmen. All the while, the majority of the American people are kept in check via debt, imprisonment, and a vast surveillance network which keeps us monitored, controlled and marching in lock step with the government’s dictates.”[3] Welcome to the new American order: liberal-fascism.

Who are the liberal-fascist corporations cooperating with the Obama administration: Microsoft (who also supported the administration’s egregious Common Core educational initiative), Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple and Verizon.

This criminal collusion (criminal because this massive spy program is unconstitutional) has enormous privacy implications. Already, the companies I have cited as government partners have lost all credibility. Not one company can state that it values its customers’ privacy.

Article IV of the United States Constitution provides for “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” (emphasis mine).

We now know that the Director of National Intelligence admitted that his agencies engaged in illegal and unconstitutional activities.[4] Yet, rather than stopping these illegal and unconstitutional activities, the Obama administration has doubled-down. Why?  The NSA massive spying program on Americans has nothing to do with protecting America from its enemies; the program is all about controlling the population through intimidation.

The American people no longer have trust in the Obama administration, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department, and Homeland Security among many agencies.

Peggy Noonan recently wrote in an op-ed column for the Wall Street Journal  that, “Our government is not totalitarian. Our leaders, even the worst of them, are not totalitarian. But our technology is totalitarian, or rather it is there and can be used and abused by those whose impulses tend, even unconsciously or unthinkingly, in that direction.”

I disagree with Ms. Noonan. The idea behind the massive spying program is totalitarian: population control.  The authority that approved this massive spying program tilts to one party, oppressive rule and Barack Obama.

The Department heads that report to Obama and support and utilize this massive domestic spying program have bought into the liberal-fascist party line. How else could this massive intrusion into Americans’ privacy be secret from the American public for so long?  Why didn’t one of these people raise the red flag on an activity so obviously unconstitutional and un-American?

In the 1968 presidential election, President Johnson had utilized the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency to spy on the Nixon campaign. Protecting the NSA surveillance and code-creaking capabilities was paramount. Johnson’s people were in a quandary: use the intelligence to hurt Nixon but make public the capabilities of the NSA or not use the intelligence.

Dean Rusk supplied the answer: “I do not believe that any president can make any use of interceptions or telephone taps in any way that involves politics. The moment we cross over that divide, we are in a different society.”[5]

Yes, America is now a different society. But has America crossed the Rubicon?

Phoenix, AZ- June 18, 2013- Last night, Shawnna L.M. Bolick opened an exploratory committee “Elect Bolick for Arizona” for Arizona House Legislative District 28 (LD 28).

There has been a drumbeat of support for me to step up from members across all factions of the Arizona Republican Party since the beginning of this calendar year after key failed votes, from reforming paycheck protection to expanding Education Savings Accounts.  Bolick’s “fire in the belly” was ignited last week when her fellow Republican state legislators did not allow public input or civil discourse among their colleagues and closed off debate over the Medicaid-expansion budget bill that was crafted in closed door meetings.

“As a proponent of a full transparent, limited government this rubbed me the wrong way.  My knees wouldn’t bend at the will of the powers-that-be while bypassing an important part of any public policy budget process through civil discourse.”

“Both elected Republican legislators representing LD28 voted with the Democrat also serving in the Arizona House failed to give reasons why they supported Governor Jan Brewer’s Medicaid-expansion bill during Brewer’s special session.  I believe the voters in LD 28 deserve not only a voice from a common sense citizen legislator but one who sides with full transparency and I want to give our voters that choice.”

In the weeks ahead, the Elect Bolick for Arizona exploratory committee will launch its website www.BolickforArizona as well as focus on its social media strategy.

Shawnna and Clint, her husband, have two children, Ryne (11) and Kali (8 ½), plus their five year old rescued greyhound, Beary Goldwater.  Bolick has worked on behalf of school choice for more than 17 years and continues to help in elevating key education reform ideas both at the state and national level.  As an undergraduate at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School she worked in an inner city magnet high school where her true passion for education reform caught fire.  During graduate school, she worked at The Heritage Foundation on its “No Excuses” campaign which focused on elevating high-performing principals whose practices allowed children to excel regardless of income level.  She also spent time working for conservative leaders as U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) and now Governor Rick Perry.  As a school choice supporter she organized the BASIS Phoenix’s Boosters program during its inaugural year raising more than $30,000 to help support teachers and classroom activities and presently serves on the BASIS Scottsdale School Board.

Everyone has now heard stories about conservatives who’ve been punished by “non-political” agencies like the IRS for their beliefs, but it happens at the state level, too. Back in 2011, I wrote about Rachel Alexander, who was targeted by the liberal State Bar of Arizona for having the audacity to work with other conservative lawyers to fight corruption in the state.

Rachel Alexander was collateral damage in a liberal fight to ruin her former boss, then-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Thomas attempted in 2009 and 2010, with the help of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, to stop corruption by some judges and county supervisors in Arizona by filing criminal charges and a racketeering lawsuit against them. Alexander, a Deputy County Attorney, performed some research and writing on the racketeering lawsuit after it had been filed. However, since she was one of the best known conservative bloggers in Arizona, running Intellectual Conservative and IC Arizona, she was dragged into the court even though she was a minor player in the case.

The supervisors filed bar complaints against Thomas, Alexander, and another prosecutor. The left-wing Bar ran with the charges, demanding to know everything Alexander had ever blogged, anonymously or not, within the past five years and the corrupt liberal judiciary rubber-stamped the charges. That’s not surprising considering the judiciary is under the Bar and can be disciplined by the Bar; so there is no way the judiciary would not do the Bar’s bidding.

Thomas and his other deputy prosecutor were disbarred and Alexander was suspended for six months plus one day, requiring her to retake the Bar exam again and reapply to the Bar. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice, which the Left had asked to investigate Thomas and Arpaio over abuse of power for going after the judges and supervisors, dropped the case, stating it had found no evidence. This completely refuted the Bar’s case against the three, exonerating them, but the Bar would not budge. Thomas remains disbarred and his other deputy is appealing.

The supervisors refused to pay for Alexander’s appeal, which was unprecedented for a merit-protected Maricopa County employee. Alexander wrote up her appeal herself (A lawyer would have charged $60,000, to give you an idea of how much work this was). The Arizona State Supreme Court sat on her appeal for eight months; then just one week after Thomas announced he was running for governor, it issued the opinion which essentially upheld most of the suspension.

The Arizona Supreme Court based most of its ruling upon statements of a former supervisor of Alexander’s who was her supervisor in name only. He said he’d heard complaints about Alexander’s performance in the office, but provided no evidence of these supposed complaints. The Supreme Court said this was evidence she wasn’t competent enough to work on the racketeering complaint. The court ignored the fact that Alexander had never received a poor review in her entire five years at the County Attorney’s Office and Thomas testified during the trial that he’d never received a complaint about her. At the same time, the Court stated several times in its opinion that it found no evidence of political bias by Alexander against the judges or supervisors. So essentially, Alexander is being suspended because liberals want to stick it to a conservative blogger.

At this point, Rachel Alexander is being left with little recourse other than to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The problem is the Supreme Court only accepts about 80 of the 10,000 petitions it receives every year. Alexander has no attorney and cannot afford one, having been forced out of the legal profession into journalism, where she doesn’t even make enough money to make payments on her law school loans. Alexander also has a federal claim against the Bar for selective prosecution. Several attorneys familiar with her case have told her she has a slam-dunk case, considering the Bar reached down through several layers of supervisors to single her out for discipline without even targeting her immediate supervisor, who was in charge of the racketeering case and who performed the bulk of the work on it. Worse yet, the Bar is trying to force her to pay $128,203 for the cost of its prosecuting just her.

The Left targeted her because she may have been well known on the Arizona political scene, but she didn’t have the connections or money to fight back. She is a weekly columnist for Townhall, The Christian Post, and Right Wing News, but not someone with enough star power to make this a huge story. This story of corruption at the state government level is no different than the corruption that is now coming out about the Obama Administration, but because it is on a smaller scale, it is more difficult to get people interested in it.

Meanwhile, Alexander’s reputation has been dragged through the mud and the abuse that she has had to endure is appalling. She has been smeared non-stop by liberal websites in Arizona. Her main website was hacked by an IP address associated with the county supervisors, but no law enforcement agency would investigate it even though it destroyed her traffic, got her website banned from Google –and she finally had to rebuild her website from scratch using a different platform in order to get back into Google. Her traffic has never recovered because she lost thousands of articles; she went from 5,000 unique visitors per day down to less than 1,000. Her bankruptcy business fell apart because potential clients would not hire her once they’d googled her. She lost her home to foreclosure last summer and moved in with her parents.

This is even worse than the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups because she’s one person, without the resources to fight, without the national attention, without lawyers coming out of the woodwork to help her out.

If anyone can help Alexander find legal counsel or provide more exposure for her plight, please contact her at rachel@intellectualconservative.com. This case needs all the sunlight it can get. The liberals have been doing this to many bloggers and if we don’t stand up to them and stop this, they’ll be coming for us next. Michelle Malkin has covered it here.

It is unprecedented for the Legislature to pass a budget without an Appropriations Committee hearing and public input. That happened here. It is also unprecedented for a sponsor to refuse to answer a single question on budget bills in his or her name. That happened here.

Further, our Committee of the Whole, which includes all members, gathers to debate and shape bills. That did not happen here. In our case, the only debate that mattered convened behind closed doors with the governor and a handful of lawmakers who made a deal to pass the governor’s Medicaid expansion.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Gov. Jan Brewer’s legislative cadre consists of 24 Democrats and nine Republicans in the House. They passed what is arguably the largest federal takeover of Arizona’s economy in state history with her Medicaid-expansion plan. They accomplished this through suspending House rules, refusing to answer questions and prohibiting public testimony.

We repeatedly asked the budget sponsor, Rep. Frank Pratt, R-Casa Grande, to answer questions on the 654 pages of budget bills and amendments in his name. He refused to answer a single question, later saying he wanted to keep the budget process as short as possible.

The governor’s spokesman had the audacity to call these actions “democracy in action.” It’s unnerving to suggest suspending the rules, refusing public input, pushing a budget through without an Appropriations Committee hearing, passing amendments with no time to read them and refusing to answer questions, democracy in action.

Supporters argue this violation of the process was acceptable because they believe the Medicaid expansion is good policy. Regardless, we should always respect the process. We have three branches of government, not two.

While the legislative and executive branches may not always agree, it is critical we have mutual respect and honor the integrity of the process. That did not happen here.

The public still needs to know what impact this budget and massive government expansion will have on our economy.

Does this budget spend more than we bring in? For example, the governor said her budget spends $15 million less over three years than the conservative House budget. However, she does not include her hospital bed tax in this equation and actually counts that against new spending, which is actually $286 million higher than our budget.

If the state Capitol is truly the people’s house, then the people have a right to know what the Legislature is proposing before we pass it.

Arizonans sent us here to discuss and debate what we pass publicly so all Arizonans know how the Legislature is spending their tax dollars.

And that wasn’t all of it. The Governor’s legislative caucus was ready to push out her Medicaid expansion and her budget in one day until the Rules attorney told them couldn’t without 2/3rds (40 Members), an Arizona Constitutional requirement and they only had 33 votes.

They were also prepared to remove the Speaker and the President if Leadership didn’t do what they wanted. One freshman legislator was quoted as saying they would remove Speaker Tobin if “he didn’t play nice,” when the entire time we all knew they had a vehicle to get Medicaid expansion up to the Governor (SB 1057) and we just put our conservative House budget on the Appropriations agenda for that Thursday. Given they had 33 votes, they could’ve easily added whatever they wanted to what we passed out of Appropriations, i.e. none of this was necessary. They still could have pushed for everything they wanted without violating the process and giving Arizonans a chance to weigh in and know exactly what they were passing. Most of the Governor’s legislative caucus didn’t even know what they voted for.

Not to mention President Andy Biggs found out about the Special Session from a reporter as he was driving home. I was with House Leadership when we found out about the Special Session that began at 5pm on Tuesday after it had already begun.

Representative Justin Olson from his floor testimony was correct. The Governor and her legislative cadre have promised entitlements we will never be able to pay for. And the core, necessary services government is obligated to provide will suffer as a result, along with every other legislative priority.

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Republican State Representative Paul Boyer, represents Legislative District 20, which covers parts of Phoenix and Glendale. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 17^th, 2013

PHOENIX – “It is common sense that since you must be a citizen to vote, you should be required to show proof of citizenship before you register.  Prop 200 was a common-sense solution to this problem and I commend Attorney General Tom Horne for defending the law.

I am troubled by Justice Scalia’s assertion that Arizona still has ways of getting the job done by asking permission from the Elections Assistance Commission.  He pointed out that in recent years Louisiana requested and was granted such permission.  Yet today, that commission has no members, making it impossible for Arizona to seek such relief.
 Should the commission ever regain voting members, Arizona’s Secretary of State should move to immediately secure such permission.

In the meantime I will continue to advocate for protecting the integrity of our election system, from voter registration to ballot handling to vote tabulating.  Arizona’s voters, like voters everywhere, deserve fair, honest, and transparent elections.”

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]]> http://sonoranalliance.com/2013/06/17/state-representative-steve-montenegros-statement-on-todays-supreme-court-decision-re-arizonas-prop-200-and-voter-registration/feed/ 0 http://sonoranalliance.com/2013/06/17/governor-brewer-betrays-conservatives-forces-through-huge-obamacare-medicaid-expansion/ http://sonoranalliance.com/2013/06/17/governor-brewer-betrays-conservatives-forces-through-huge-obamacare-medicaid-expansion/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:54:16 +0000 Guest Opinion http://sonoranalliance.com/?p=32946 by Rachel Alexander
Reprinted from Townhall

Once considered a conservative governor due to signing SB 1070, which toughened up illegal immigration laws, Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer has now destroyed that reputation. Last week, she called a surprise special session of the legislature, and allying with Democrats, bullied through Obamacare’s massive expansion of Medicaid, known as AHCCCS in Arizona. The bullying tactics she used to coerce Republican legislators into voting for it were so appalling, they made national news and have prominent Republicans all over the state speaking out in outrage.

Brewer called legislators into the State Capitol at 5 p.m. last Tuesday, and kept them there until they passed the bill at 3:40 a.m. According to Arizona State Rep. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa), a Tea Party leader, the 600-page bill was presented at the last minute to legislators, who were told they would be voting on it within a few hours – not enough time to thoroughly examine it. Legislators were instructed not to answer any questions, nor vote yes on any amendments. One of the amendments they were forced to turn down would have created a Pat Tillman license plate to benefit veterans and their families (fortunately it was added to another bill a couple of days later and passed).

Kelly sent a mass email to Republicans around the state after the debacle, blowing the lid off Brewer’s underhanded tactics, which included this appalling story, “One Republican legislator whom I won’t name told me that when they were in the Governor’s office, they were offered help on their next reelection campaign and an assurance that they would win if they voted for the expansion.”

Legislators who dared to speak up against Brewer’s Medicaid expansion had their bills vetoed by Brewer in retaliation. In May, Brewer said she would continue to veto unrelated bills until Republicans agreed to expand Medicaid. She brazenly admitted, “I warned that I would not sign additional measures into law until we see resolution of the two most pressing issues facing us: adoption of a fiscal 2014 state budget and plan for Medicaid. It is disappointing I must demonstrate the moratorium was not an idle threat.” One of the bills she vetoed in retaliation would have allowed people to sue over violations of religious freedoms.

Brewer even devised a plan to oust Senate President Andy Biggs and House Speaker Andy Tobin, both Republicans, from their leadership positions if they tried to stop her Medicare expansion from coming up for a vote. National Revieweditorialized about her actions, “This is conduct unbecoming of a chief executive.” Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Peoria), the House Majority Whip, declared, “I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut, and I feel like I’ve been betrayed.”

The legislation expands Medicaid to not just parents, but childless adults earning a salary of up to 133% of the federal poverty level. Childless adults making up to $15,282 annually will be eligible. Enrollment in AHCCCS for childless adults in Arizona was frozen in 2011 during the state’s fiscal crisis, so the number of childless adults on the welfare rolls decreased from 227,000 to 86,000. Brewer’s office estimates the bill will add 240,000 people to Arizona’s welfare rolls, and increase coverage for 57,000 more.

Of the handful of Republican governors who support the expansion, Brewer has been the most avid. They all look silly in light of a study released by the New England Journal of Medicine, which examined the impact of Oregon’s decision to expand Medicaid in 2008. Participants were selected by a lottery process, since there wasn’t enough money to fund everyone. It turned out those who received the benefits were no healthier than those who were not selected to participate.

Nineteen states have rejected the expansion, including many Republican governors.

Brewer claims to oppose Obamacare, stating at a press conference in Yuma, Ariz., earlier this year, “I’ve never been a supporter of the Affordable Care Act.” Yet Brewer started holding rallies around the state in January drumming up support for the expansion.

The legislation requires the broke federal government to spend $1.6 billion on new adults in Arizona enrolling in Medicaid. There is no guarantee the federal government will have the funds, and even if it does, the bill calls for some of the federal funding to be gradually phased out. Instead, Arizona is supposed to recoup some of the costs by taxing hospitals – which will in turn pass the cost along to their privately insured patients in a hidden healthcare tax. Unlike previous Medicaid expansions, there are no tobacco funds to raid to use to pay for it. Some of the funding will likely be directed toward Planned Parenthood, indirectly funding abortions, since Planned Parenthood performs the vast majority of abortions in the country.

Brewer’s support of Obamacare sounds more like that of a Democrat governor, and her bullying tactics similar to the Alinsky tactics the left uses. Even if one believes that it is the government’s responsibility to take care of those with medium-low incomes, there is not enough money to afford this expansion. In 2012, Medicaid already comprised 24 percent of state budgets nationwide.

Most consider this a fatal blow to Brewer’s chances for re-election. She has not indicated yet whether she will run for reelection. Although she replaced Janet Napolitano as governor midway through Napolitano’s term after Napolitano was tapped for Homeland Security secretary, she may be barred by the state constitution’s term limits provision from running for a third term.

After Brewer began campaigning to expand Medicaid earlier this year, several Republicans announced they were forming exploratory committees for governor. Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, the favorite of conservatives for taking on corruption and collusion among the State Bar, the judiciary, and county officials – resulting in the State Bar targeting him and disbarring him – is considered the leading Republican candidate to replace Brewer. Thomas was the first GOP leader to publicly come out against the Medicaid expansion in January, and won the first straw poll for governor on the popular Arizona conservative blog Sonoran Alliance last month.

Some suspect that Brewer rammed the bill through as appeasement to Obama, in order to get him to back off on attacking Arizona over SB 1070. But more likely, and perhaps the most disturbing part of all of this, is that the move was orchestrated by her powerful consultant and lobbyist, Chuck Coughlin of High Ground. A political moderate, he is believed to be calling a lot of the shots behind the scenes in the governor’s office. His clients include some of the most powerful interests in Arizona’s healthcare industry, including the Arizona Association of Health Maintenance Organizations, United Health Care, Sun Healthcare Group, Pacificare, MedPro, Arizona Health Care Coalition and Arizona Self-Insurers Association, which all stand to benefit greatly from the Medicaid expansion.

To many Arizonans, the desertion of principles by Brewer is nothing new. She avidly supported an 18% sales tax increase in 2010, appearing in TV commercials with attractive looking children to advocate for it. The tax increase was to be spent on infrastructure and education. Many believe she pushed it to benefit Coughlin’s clients , which include many construction-related businesses.

A new organization popped up in the last few days in response to the bill being forced through. American Commitment has put together a video of statements by the brave legislators who spoke on the House floor against the expansion. State Rep. Eddie Farnsworth (R-Gilbert) perhaps said it best, “This governor, who became famous for wagging her finger in the face of the president, is now wagging her finger in the face of the people of this state.” The repercussions of this will be deep and long lasting, and will be seen in the 2014 gubernatorial and legislative races.

Sonoran Alliance also thanks the conservatives in the House who understand the horrific long-term fiscal impact that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion will have on the State of Arizona, long after Governor Brewer makes her exit from public service. These men and women cannot be held responsible for the damage that this bad law will have on Arizona citizens. They stood their ground and for that, we are grateful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MESA – Arizona conservative businessman and attorney, Thomas Grier, announced today his intention to run for the Arizona House in legislative district 16.

“Encouraged by family and friends, I have decided to run for the Arizona House. Arizona is an amazing state, with limitless potential to influence the national dialogue,” said Grier. “We need true conservative leaders who are willing to tackle complex issues. The time for ineffective leadership is over; it is time for legislators who are not only conservative but also capable of building successful conservative coalitions.”

Grier has broad support across the district, and looks forward to building upon an already growing grassroots campaign. Grier added: “I believe that Arizona’s best days are still to come if we stay true to the conservative principles engrained in the land of Barry Goldwater.”

“Thomas Grier is not only a good person, but an exceptional leader and business mind,” said former Arizona Speaker of the House Kirk Adams. “The state and district are in need of talented conservative leaders more than ever, I am confident that Thomas will make a huge difference for conservatism and Arizona families.”

In the next few weeks, the campaign’s official leadership team and website redesign will be announced. For more information, visit Thomas Grier’s Facebook Page or sign up for email updates at www.ThomasGrier.com.

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A resident of Arizona since childhood, Thomas Grier grew up in Mesa, went to high school and college in Tempe, and married a 2nd grade teacher born and raised in the East Valley. Thomas Grier graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University and attended The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Thomas works as the Associate General Counsel for The Keating Group, Inc., a national insurance agency headquartered in Phoenix. He is married to the wonderful Lisa Lewis Grier and has two amazing children, Riker James Grier and Olivia Madison Grier.

Click here to view the embedded video.

PHOENIX – Robert Graham, Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, issued the following statement regarding this week’s activity at the Arizona Legislature:

“I serve as the elected Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, with over a million voters strong in our state. 

“I also stand with those hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who voted for Republican candidates, knowing that Republicans support fiscal responsibility. I understand that everyone is under a lot of pressure here today. Many of you have not slept in a few days. We all agree there’s a lot at stake. However, I cannot overstate how disappointed I am with the parliamentary maneuvers that have played out over the past few days. Last year, our Republican legislative majority elected a Senate President and Speaker of the House empowering them to provide leadership consistent with the Republican Party platform. Vested in them is a constitutional responsibility to originate and craft a budget for the legislature to send the Executive branch. To their credit, they have worked long and hard to that end for over 100 days. 

“I now call on all Republican legislators to restore the legitimate process that respects the authority that was given to the duly elected Republican House and Senate leadership. Let’s also make sure that, as we close out the First Regular Session of the 51st Legislature, we support the remaining conservative core pieces of legislation and amendments that define the contrast between our party and that of the left. I understand that each member of the legislature comes from a different district with different constituencies. But I also want to be very clear that each and every Republican who ran for office did so representing our party. As Republicans, we should stand united in the cause of promoting limited government, respect for life, defense of our Constitution, strict adherence to transparent governance and full support of legitimate parliamentary procedures that allow our leadership to do the job they were elected to do.”

By Philip Klein
Senior Editorial Writer

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, working with Democrats against members of her own party, rammed through a vast expansion of the Medicaid program under Obamacare through the state legislature, putting federal taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in health care spending.

Despite claiming to oppose President Obama’s health care law, Brewer embraced one of the law’s most expensive provisions — a Medicaid expansion — in January, under the influence of lobbying from the hospital industry.

Brewer then spent the past several months trying to coax reluctant members of her own party to back the measure. When that failed, she called a special session of the state legislature, and formed an alliance with Democrats to ram the bill through the state House at 3:40 am this morning.

As a result of the lawsuit that Arizona was a part of, the Supreme Court ruled that states must be given the option of whether or not to accept the expansion of Medicaid that was part of the health care law. It is expected to pass through the senate.

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Paid for by the Arizona Taxpayer’s Action Committee