Archive for January, 2009
January 26th, 2009, 4:04 pm by Le Templar
ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE KEN BENNETT (LEFT) AND GOV. JAN BREWER (Photo by Capitol Media Services)
Former state Senate President Ken Bennett took his oath today and became Arizona’s latest secretary of state. His primary duties include managing statewide elections and keeping campaign finance reports, registering trademarks, and recording official acts of the state including all new laws from the Legislature and new rules adopted by state agencies. (Apparently, he won’t have much to do on that last item for a while.)
As Gov. Jan Brewer got to handpick her successor, she and Bennett have agreed that he will take on some extra tasks for her administration by serving as a liaison to the Legislature and helping her sort out the state’s budget mess. It sounds sort of like something a lieutenant governor might do. But Bennett isn’t in line to be governor, yet. The state constitution requires someone who is elevated to that office to be elected to their prior post. As of now, Attorney General Terry Goddard would become governor if something happened to Brewer through 2010.
Bennett has said he intends to run for election in next year, and that would place him back in the line of succession (if he wins).
Posted in: Arizona government • Governor • Jan Brewer • Ken Bennett • Terry Goddard | Post a Comment »
January 25th, 2009, 12:58 pm by Le Templar
PAUL ECKERSTROM
I wasn’t able to attend Saturday’s conventions for Arizona’s two major political parties. But the Arizona Guardian and Phoenix New Times reported that Democrats revealed a fair amount of disgruntlement about the 2008 state elections after all.
Don Bivens had been chairman for the past two years and wasn’t supposed to face any opposition Saturday, despite his party losing ground to Republicans in a number of state offices even while raising a lot more money than Republicans for state campaign activities.
But at the last minute Saturday, Paul Eckerstrom from Tucson rose up to challenge Bivens and apparently won with a decent margin. The immediate result will be a shift of power in the Democratic Party back to Pima County, which gradually had been losing influence as the party consolidated planning and fund-raising into Maricopa County under the aegis of former Gov. Janet Napolitano. There also will be questions about the future of executive director Maria Weeg and her staff, as they shaped and managed last year’s election strategy.
Meanwhile, incumbent Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen defeated challenger Lisa James by more votes than he did two years ago. This wasn’t a surprise, but it does emphasize that GOP officials elected to government offices have lost ground to party activists who hold internal positions such as precinct committemen.
Posted in: Election issues • Arizona Democrats • Arizona Republicans • Don Bivens • Lisa James • Paul Eckerstrom • Randy Pullen | Post a Comment »
January 24th, 2009, 6:05 am by Le Templar
 
RANDY PULLEN AND LISA JAMES
Today’s election for the next leader of the Arizona Republican Party is a repeat of two years ago, as the state convention will again features Valley residents Randy Pullen and Lisa James as the contenders. And just as two years ago, the match-up is widely viewed as a showdown between supporters of Sen. John McCain (which James more or less represents) and the rather strong anti-McCain crowd (of which Pullen used to be a prominent leader).
Pullen narrowly won the internal election for state Republican chairman in 2006 and then publicly tangled with McCain (and fellow Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl) over immigration reform. That led to fund raising for the state party to dry up substantially, forcing Pullen to make some peace overtures to McCain and his supporters. Pullen’s efforts to make nice got more frantic after McCain became the Republican nominee for president early in 2008.
But it wasn’t enough to keep Pullen from again facing James, whom he defeated by only four votes in 2006. As the official insider, Pullen can pull on a lot of the state party machinery for support such as endorsements from various county and legislative district chairmen.
On the other hand, James has attracted endorsements from a number of elected officials including Senate President Bob Burns, House Speaker Kirk Adams, state Treasurer Dean Martin and incoming Secretary of State Ken Bennett.
James’ supporters saw new hope for an upset when Rob Haney, one of the best known McCain critics inside Republican meeting rooms, was denied the opportunity to keep his longtime post as chairman of legislative District 11 — Pullen’s home district. But Haney went out and got elected chairman of the Maricopa County Republican committee instead, a sign that the anti-McCain crowd isn’t ready to give way.
What’s really odd about today’s election at Phoenix’s Camelback High School is such contests for statewide leadership usually follow bad election nights for a political party. But Arizona Republicans fared pretty well in November, despite the state party’s lack of campaign funds.
It was Arizona Democrats who failed badly to meet their own expectations (and the predictions of many Republican insiders). But Ann Womack was uncontested when she was elected Maricopa County Democratic Party chairwoman in December, and current state chairman Don Bivens will face no opponent when his party gathers for its own convention today at the Wyndam Hotel in downtown Phoenix.
Posted in: Election issues • Phoenix • Arizona Democratic Party • Arizona Republican Party • Don Bivens • Lisa James • Randy Pullen | Post a Comment »
January 23rd, 2009, 2:30 pm by Le Templar
HIGHLAND HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER GLEN FRAKES (CENTER) WORKS WITH HIS STUDENTS EARLIER THIS MONTH TO BUILD A SECOND DIORAMA ABOUT THE LAST CIVIL WAR BATTLE FOUGHT IN TEXAS. (Photo by Tim Hacker/Tribune)
Glen Frakes was done with building historical dioramas, those miniature models of famous battles and other moments of our past. Frakes, a history teacher at Gilbert’s Highland High School, has been passionate about teaching his students how to do these hands-on projects going back three decades. But planning and building dioramas takes a tremendous amount of time and energy. Frakes had to raise private money to fund each project, and usually had to recruit extra volunteer help (or do the work himself) for the most complex elements that students weren’t prepared to handle. Approaching retirement age, Frakes was ready to step away from the crafting table.
So the Battle of Palmito Ranch (previously referred to as Palmetto Ranch) was supposed to be his last, big adventure, crafted on demand for the Texas military museum in Austin that had given Frakes his start in making dioramas for public display and had remained his biggest supporter over the years.
Frakes clearly loved the three years he worked with his classes in building that Civil War diorama. But the project became a nightmare after it was delivered in August 2007. A new museum curator said he couldn’t tolerate the diorama’s alleged historical inaccuracies, and he essentially ripped it apart. Frakes and his many supporters begged for the diorama pieces to be returned so it could be restored. Instead, the museum curator built a smaller version more to his liking under orders from Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
One of the twists to this story was when a separate private military museum in Texas offered to pay the cost of returning the broken diorama to Gilbert for restoration, and then put it on display in its Fort Worth facility. When that was rejected, the second museum offered $25,000 to pay for the supplies to build another diorama.
It took a while, but Frakes finally agree to pick up his tools one more time. The teacher told me by phone last week that he wants his last memories of diorama-crafting to be positive and uplifting, not the bitter dregs from last year’s futile efforts. Frakes says he won’t have to spend three years on this one, as so many students and adult volunteers are joining the effort that the new diorama should be done within months.
And it probably will be better, as Frakes has continued to research the underlying subject and he has tweaked the design to reflect additional information he has learned (such as changing the name of where the Civil War battle took place).
But the new diorama will be missing one touch, a beautiful replica steamboat. The man who hand-crafted that feature for the first diorama has died, and I can’t imagine the original museum will do the decent thing and return the steamboat to Frakes for the new version.
Posted in: Uncategorized | Post a Comment »
January 21st, 2009, 7:04 am by Le Templar
GOV. JAN BREWER (Photo by Capitol Media Services)
Much like Barack Obama became president Tuesday precisely at noon Eastern time, even though he hadn’t taken the oath of office yet, Jan Brewer became the state’s 24nd governor immediately upon the resignation of Janet Napolitano later that afternoon. But the Brewer administration won’t allow that little quirk to interfere with its plans for a little ceremony outside of the copper dome this afternoon. Brewer is scheduled to take her own oath of office at 3 p.m. today on the state Capitol grounds. I say good for her. Maybe Brewer wasn’t elected to the governor’s office, but she deserves a party in her honor before plunging into the terrible task of managing the state’s enormous budget shortfall. And I’m guessing a lot of voters who barely know who Brewer is would like to hear what she expects to be doing for the next two years until the 2010 election.
UPDATE: As of noon today, Brewer is listed on state Web sites as governor and as secretary of state. Don’t worry, she isn’t launching a dramatic coup or anything. Former state Senate president Ken Bennett will be apppointed soon to replace her as secretary of state.
Posted in: Arizona government • Governor • Arizona copper dome • Jan Brewer | 1 Comment »
January 20th, 2009, 9:42 am by Le Templar
(Photo by the Associated Press)
Tell the boss you need to take a break for a few minutes. History is being made. Barack Obama is braving Washington’s cold without an overcoat. And need to be watching. If you just can’t get away from the computer, you can watch the new president take the oath of office live right now.
Posted in: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
January 16th, 2009, 10:31 am by Le Templar
(File photo by Capitol Media Services)
We seem to have two choices to solve the state’s budget crisis — slash more than a $1 trillion from education (that’s billion with a “t”), or borrow up to our eyeballs and hope the Santa Claus in Washington delivers Christmas in February.
Outgoing Gov. Janet Napolitano released her final budget proposal this morning. On paper, it eliminates a $1.2 billion deficit this year (although legislative budget experts now predict a $1.6 billion gap) and a nearly $3 billion deficit for the next fiscal year. Her numbers claim she would reduce state spending by $975 million over the two years. But Napolitano couldn’t find a single program or state worker that Arizonans can live without during this deep recession.
Instead, she managed to find new accounting gimmicks such as postponing, but not eliminating, payments to the public universities and state Medicaid insurance program. She also would borrow more by pledging future tobacco settlement money and lottery revenues.
As uncomfortable as many of these proposals are to fiscal conversatives, the alternative that Republican budget-writers have come up with includes slashing $900 million from K-12 education or 20 percent of total state spending. Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District, has started to prepare for the possibility of losing all state aid for the largest system of its type in the country.
Dire days for Arizona, indeed.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Schools • Gerry Rafferty • Janet Napolitano • Joe Egan | 2 Comments »
January 12th, 2009, 4:16 pm by Le Templar
Gov. Janet Napolitano delivered her State of the State address today, the first day of the 2009 legislative session. Her basic message was she can wipe out the state’s multi-billion budget deficits without huge cuts to just about any priority that someone has for state government:
“I have already given you a balanced budget plan for 2009; and as I have in every year I have served, I will present to the Legislature a detailed plan on how to balance next year’s budget, still protecting important investments and accomplishing that without raising taxes.”
Most conservatives and libertarians have a much different view of the outgoing governor’s record on the budget. I think she does deserve credit for publicly opposing new tax increases, when many other Democrats would like someone to champion that approach rather than some of the enormous budget cuts likely to come out of the Republican-controlled Legislature. But there’s simply no way to sustain a state government as envisioned by Napolitano in the near future unless tax increases were part of the package.
Meanwhile, the Arizona chapter of Americans For Prosperity has taken a different approach to its watchdog role for the Legislature this year. Americans For Prosperity is one of those groups that annually rate individual lawmakers based on their votes for bills and issues that each group supports or opposes. With its libertarian-leaning perspective, Americans for Prosperity favors less government spending across-the-board and lower taxes.
Traditionally, groups like Americans For Prosperity issue their “scorecards” several weeks or months after a session has concluded, but in time for lawmakers and other activists to use during the election season.
But this year, Americans For Prosperity is sharing a profile of its expected scorecard right now, so lawmakers know exactly what to do if they want to pick up a high ranking from this group. I do know that many lawmakers love getting AFP’s title of “Hero of the Taxpayer,” while others dread being called an “Enemy of the Taxpayer.” I wonder if watchdog groups from other perspectives will try something similar to elevate their own influence this year?
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor • Americans For Prosperity • Janet Napolitano • State of the State | Post a Comment »
January 9th, 2009, 1:26 pm by Le Templar
 
KEN BENNETT STEVE GALLARDO
A couple of interesting changes in state politics is taking place today. The big news is Jan Brewer plans to appoint former state President Ken Bennett as secretary of state when Brewer moves into the governor’s office after Janet Napolitano resigns. That could happen as soon as Jan. 20. Since Bennett has long had an eye on being governor himself, I expect he will run for election as secretary of state in 2010. Bennett is one of the more popular politicians among Republican activitists, so his appointment probably kills the chances of Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, of running for the post and might also disrupt plans of other ambitious types such as state Treasurer Dean Martin (although Martin recently told Capitol Media Services he plans to run for treasurer again next year).
The other bit of news is longtime Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, announced he won’t take the oath of office Monday, which means he won’t be return to his House seat this year after all. A news release says the former House Democratic whip is taking an undisclosed job that presumably will prevent him from acting as a state lawmaker. Maybe he’s leaving Arizona for Washington with Napolitano or in some other part of the Obama administration.
In any case, the timing of Gallardo’s announcement is a bit odd, as it means the residents of his district will lack some representation when the 2009 Legislature opens Monday. Tell us what you’re going to be doing, Mr. Gallardo. District 13 voters deserve to know why you are abandoning them so soon after your re-election on Nov. 4.
Posted in: Uncategorized | Post a Comment »
January 8th, 2009, 5:33 pm by Le Templar
ARIZONA TREASURER DEAN MARTIN, LEFT, AND GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO COULDN’T AGREE TODAY ON WHETHER MARTIN’S OFFICE NEEDS TO START NEGOTIATING WITH BANKS FOR A LINE OF CREDIT IN CASE THE STATE RUNS OUT OF OPERATING CASH BEFORE A NEW BUDGET IS ADOPTED. (Photo by Capitol Media Services)
The most interesting news to come out of a special meeting today of something called the state Loan Commission was that Gov. Janet Napolitano attended and put on a rather fiesty performance. There’s been a lot of spectulation that Napolitano has basically checked out of her state job as she prepares for hearings next week on her nomination to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano has stopped holding weekly media briefings and her last scheduled public appearance here in Arizona was on Dec. 9.
But there she was today, live and in person, fulfilling her duties as chief executive — although she apparently thought the meeting called by state Treasurer Dean Martin was a waste of time. Her actions to prevent Martin from setting a maxium possible interest rate on any borrowing for operating cash, well, that has to raise expectations for the proposed budget her office is expected to release late next week. For Napolitano to be true to her words (”If the Legislature adopts the budget plans that I have proposed … there will be no need for borrowing.”), she’s going to have to come up with a rather compelling approach to fixing a $1.5 billion deficit with more than half of the fiscal year already over.
Posted in: Arizona government • Governor • Dean Martin • Homeland Security • Janet Napolitano • state Loan Commission | Post a Comment »
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