KEN CHEUVRONT TIM BEE
State Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, wants the full Senate to publicly chastise a colleague for using a dirty trick to stop a filibuster and make it possible for a final vote on a legislative referendum to permanently ban same-sex marriages.
Cheuvront filed a written complaint Monday against Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, nearly a month after this year’s legislative session ended, Capitol Media Services reoprted. Unless there’s a special session, the next time the Legislature should meet is after the November general election, at which all 30 seats are on the ballot.
My first reaction to this news was someone should give Cheuvront another construction company or wine bar to run; he’s got too much time to pursue something that wouldn’t affect Harper’s ability to hold office.
But what’s Cheuvront is really after is to highlight the willingness of Senate Republican leadership to do just about anything to gain a victory, even if that means sullying the integrity of the institution they were elected to serve.
Support or opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment on gay marriage doesn’t change the fact that Senate President Tim Bee and company did serious damage to the Senate’s reputation as a civilized chamber that respects the rules and the participation of each elected senator, no matter how vicious the politics might get.
Some background: It was the final day of 2008 session. Sen. Bee, R-Tucson, already had cut a budget deal with Gov. Janet Napolitano that most Republicans hate. The only real item of substance left on the table for Bee’s party was the gay marriage amendment. One senator had interrupted a vacation to be on the floor as the 16th vote necessary for final passage, but another needed to leave near the end of the day to catch a plane.
Cheuvront sought to take advantage of this by working with Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, to essentially filibuster an unrelated tax bill that came to the floor first. Republican leaders were caught off-guard by the tactic and knew they didn’t have enough votes to stop the filibuster. So Harper, who was in charge of monitoring the debate, tricked Aboud into turning off her microphone, and then called on Republican floor leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, to take the tax bill off the table so the Senate could move on to the gay marriage amendment. Harper ignored Cheuvront’s protests, which would have forced Harper to get a legal ruling on what he did.
The Senate rules attorney did later say what Harper did was wrong, but by then it was too late to fix it, Capitol Media Services reported. Bee and company got what they wanted, 16 votes to pass the marriage amendment.
Cheuvront told Capitol Media Services he filed the complaint in the hope of stopping similar slimy tactics in the future, to send a message that the ends shouldn’t justify the means. Maybe all he will accomplish is to remind some voters just how the constitutional amendment came to appear on their ballot.
Neither Harper nor Verschoor did themselves any harm with voters in their conservative districts.
However, Bee is in a tough bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in a southern Arizona district that’s closely divided on the issue of gay marriage. If Bee loses that race, I wonder if he will regret the long-term damage to his reputation and to the Senate in general from those moments on the final day of the 2008 session.
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