Archive for the 'Jan Brewer' Tag
November 6th, 2009, 11:34 am by Le Templar
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard let the world know this morning via Twitter that he’s going to formally take steps toward running for governor:
“Today I will file papers to explore running for Governor. AZ needs strong leadership focused on jobs & ending partisan gridlock”
It’s been known for some time that Goddard, a former mayor of Phoenix, planned to make another bid for the post after losing out to Republican Fife Symington in 1990 and to Democrat Eddie Basha in the 1994 primary. Goddard is even considered an early frontrunner and likely will be the only major Democratic candidate to enter the race.
He will be “exploring” until at least mid-January to avoid triggering Arizona’s “resign to run” law. However, some people believe the attorney general already has violated it and should have resigned his current job already.
Goddard’s announcement comes less than 12 hours after the Republican incumbent, Jan Brewer, formally entered the race. The timing likely isn’t a coincidence.
Note: This post has been corrected to reflect the accurate information about Goddard’s past campaigns.
Posted in: Congress • Election issues • Governor • Journalism • 2010 elections • Jan Brewer • Terry Goddard | 1 Comment »
November 5th, 2009, 2:13 pm by Le Templar
Gov. Jan Brewer filed her paperwork today and will formally announce tonight that she’s running in 2010. So it might not have been the best day for Republican challenger Vernon Parker to post his first video message of the campaign. (Yes, ignore the “exploratory committee” nonsense. Parker definitely is in the race at this point). But as you can see below, the video does a nice job of succinctly telling Parker’s personal story. Since Parker isn’t well-known outside of Paradise Valley (where he’s mayor), this general introduction definitely is needed. Be sure to look for the quick photo of a younger Parker with a mustache and a bola tie. He’s definitely stepped up his professional image as he has matured.
Posted in: Election issues • Governor • 2010 elections • Jan Brewer • Vernon Parker | Post a Comment »
November 4th, 2009, 3:33 pm by Le Templar
 Gov. Jan Brewer/Capitol Media Services The Arizona Guardian is reporting this afternoon that Gov. Jan Brewer will announce Thursday night in Glendale that she’s running for election next year. Brewer has been quiet for months about her plans, and relatively poor polling numbers has had many people speculating that she would just serve out the current term. Brewer moved up from secretary of state in January after former Gov. Janet Napolitano become secretary of Homeland Security.
Brewer’s decision means other Republicans – John Munger, Vernon Parker and possibly Dean Martin — will have to campaign against her and not just against the expected Democratic nominee, Terry Goddard. Brewer has an uphill climb, but she never has lost an election, including her two victories for in statewide elections. A lot of experience comes with a track record like that could overcome the current political climate.
Posted in: Election issues • 2010 elections • Arizona Guardian • Dean Martin • Jan Brewer • John Munger • Vernon Parker | 1 Comment »
November 3rd, 2009, 3:14 pm by Le Templar
 Sen. Pamela Gorman Gov. Jan Brewer is trying to reach a deal with the top two legislative leaders to call budget special session this month and reduce at least some of the projected $2 billion deficit. While everyone else waits, some key players are positioning themselves for what comes next.
Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, has decided to publicly defend her colleagues from accusations that the Legislature refuses to address the budget crisis. Gorman took offense at a recent media column that suggested lawmakers have been sitting on their hands while the deficit climbs.
She fired both barrels at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson (a popular target among Republicans). But the Daily Star apparently just linked to a column from Mark Evans at the Tucson Citizen web site, who referred to a “chicken Legislature.” However, Gorman’s underlying point still applies: Just because a journalist doesn’t like the strategies used by the GOP majority shouldn’t be a license to claim the Legislature has done nothing.
The Legislature adopted a budget twice that its analysts said were balanced (with revenue estimates that turned out to be too optimistic), but Brewer’s various vetoes kept adding more spending to the bottom line.
Of course, Gorman was blamed in various corners for those vetoes, as she was one of two Republicans who refused to join their colleagues in supporting Brewer’s call for an election on a temporary sales tax increase. That opposition was just enough to block the election proposal, which could have balanced out many of the proposed budget cuts the governor later vetoed.
Meanwhile, Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, has re-emphasized his willingness to champion a sales tax election again. Burns was careful not to say he supports a sales tax increase. But reading between the lines, he seems to believe an election is the only route to closing the huge political divide in the Legislature that has made budget solutions so difficult to obtain. Whether a sales tax passes or fails, the voters would give some clear guidance to lawmakers about what they want to happen.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor • Bob Burns • Jan Brewer • Pamela Gorman • state budget | 1 Comment »
October 22nd, 2009, 10:34 am by Le Templar
The Phoenix Business Journal created some buzz yesterday with an online story that Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, is being considered by Gov. Jan Brewer to be the next director of the state Department of Public Safety. Pearce told KFYI radio talk show host J.D. Hayworth that he hadn’t spoken with Brewer about an appointment, but he would “seriously consider it.”
Pearce technically would be qualified to run DPS, considering his stellar career as a sheriff’s deputy and as the former director of the Motor Vehicle Division. But I’m surprised Pearce, as a former justice of the peace and an experienced lawmaker, failed to remember that he’s legally barred from the appointment.
The Arizona Constitution — Article 4, Part 2, Section 5 — says no lawmaker can take another public office until his or her current term expires. The only exceptions are for school teachers and school board members. The specific wording means the prohibition still applies even if a lawmaker resigns from office before trying to take another government job.
So, Pearce couldn’t become DPS director until January 2011 at the earliest. The six-year term of the current director, Roger Vanderpool, expires in three months. Brewer isn’t going to wait a year to bring Pearce on board, even if she presumed she would win the November 2010 election.
Just for confirmation, the Arizona Guardian reached a similar conclusion this morning in its “Guardian Angel” column.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor • Arizona Constutition • Arizona Department of Public Safety • Jan Brewer • Roger Vanderpool • Russell Pearce | 10 Comments »
October 20th, 2009, 11:33 am by Le Templar
 Kevin Tyne, right, the governor's chief of staff will leave the office in three weeks after intense, behind-the-scenes criticism of his management style/Capitol Media Serices file photo. Gov. Jan Brewer has finally given in to the growing political pressure to replace her closest adviser. Chief of staff Kevin Tyne will leave the state Capitol in three weeks to take a post with the Republican Governors Administration, Brewer announced on her Facebook page this morning. (Various media outlets starting blogging and tweeting about Tyne’s pending departure an hour earlier.) His replacement will be deputy chief of staff Eileen Klein. Brewer’s announcement came a few hours before Brewer is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, and Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, to plan a possible November special session to address a $1.5 billion budget deficit.
Tyne has been at Brewer’s side for years, going back to her days as a Maricopa County supervisor. He was quite as effective as her deputy when Brewer was secretary of state. So he was the natural choice to take on the day-to-day chores of managing Brewer’s administration when she became governor in January.
But Tyne has been a focus of lots of criticism behind-the-scenes this year. As the Arizona Guardian recently reported (story is subscription-only), Tyne has received much of the blame for Brewer’s challenges in dealing with a Legislature controlled by her own party. Lawmakers claimed they were frequently blindsided by Brewer’s positions and maneuvering on budget issues.
As I read the complaints (and I have heard my share from Capitol sources), Tyne became a target partly because Brewer was once an accomplished state senator. Many political insiders can’t imagine she has forgotten that much since her time in the legislative halls. So if Brewer’s administration can’t get things done, it must be Tyne’s fault as her right hand, so the thinking seems to go. That’s point of view gets a boost with Klein moving up. She is a former chief of staff for the state House who has her own reputation for being tough but is among the most knowledgeable anywhere about the details of the state budget.
But Brewer is loyal to her friends and allies. Until today, she gave every indication she was going to keep Tyne despite the private efforts to push him out. It’s possible that Tyne is being a good soldier and he volunteered to step aside to help Brewer repair her relations with Republican lawmakers.
There’s also been some speculation this is a sign that Brewer will run for election next year. I wouldn’t go that far. Brewer has done almost nothing to prepare for a tough statewide primary, and she’s quickly running out of time to get a campaign organization off the ground.
UPDATE: Jan Brewer’s longtime public relations firm and campaign managers at HighGround of Phoenix have issued a statement coming to Kevin Tyne’s defense. Key quote: “It shouldn’t be a surprise today that politicos will attempt to assign blame to Kevin Tyne, but the reality is that Kevin was an equal to any Chief of Staff who has served any previous Arizona Governor.”
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Election issues • Governor • Eileen Klein • Jan Brewer • Kevin Tyne • Republican Governors Association • state budget | 1 Comment »
October 9th, 2009, 2:32 pm by Le Templar
 John Munger of Tucson (right), a Republican candidate for governor, speaks with reporters Thursday night about his endorsement from former Gov. Fife Symington (left)/Photo by Capitol Media Services. A common trait in people who run for public office is a high level of self-confidence. Those who pull it off well act as leaders; those who don’t just act with arrogance. I’m still trying to figure out which camp John Munger belongs to a few hours after he told me this:
“If I had been governor last year, we would not have a budget deficit today.”
Munger, a Tucson lawyer and co-founder of the Commerce Bank of Arizona, was wrapping up a weeklong tour of the state after formally entering the Republican primary for governor in 2010. He was kind enough to stop by the Tribune office for about 45 minutes this morning to speak face-to-face about his candidacy. Clearly energized by the endorsement Thursday night from former Gov. Fife Symington, Munger said he could quickly resolve the state’s spending problems without the sales tax proposal from the current governor, Jan Brewer, and without “below the bone” budget cuts that would seem to be required if taxes aren’t raised.
In short, Munger is convinced the governor and state Legislature could kick-start the economy and thus rebuild the state treasury. He wants to pursue initiatives that conservatives and libertarians should love, including:
- Tear down the regulatory burdens that prevent businesses from expanding or relocating here. Munger’s promise: Most projects would receive state approval within 30 days. “I have clients in my little law firm that could create 500 to 1,000 jobs overnight if they just could get their projects approved.”
- Lower the corporate income tax and wipe out the property tax on business personal property. “Those aren’t a big part of the budget, but they are important to businesses who are making decisions about the future.”
- Get new highway construction underway with privately funded but state-owned toll roads. “We could get a $20 billion investment just for (an expanded) freeway from Phoenix to Flagstaff.”
Those are all fine ideas, great even. But they couldn’t possibly overcome a $3 billion to $4 billion budget deficit in the near future, could they? Munger insists they would, but most people at the state Capitol can’t imagine that because they are career politicians with too little experience in the business world. “It’s doable if we harness the power of the free enterprise system.”
Munger has a wealth of concrete ideas about what Arizona should be doing to address immediate problems and long-term challenges. I was impressed with his recent suggestions for state-based health care reform. He wants to convince investors to build a desalinization plant off of the Sea of Cortez to pipe water into the state. He wants to decentralize the state K-12 education by empowering school principals to make most budget decisions, getting rid of school district administrators, and using the savings to dramatically raise salaries for quality teachers.
Munger is probably right that current political trends in the state Legislature means he would have a Republican majority eager to embrace his agenda. But he has to get elected first.
On that subject, Munger says he’s clearly the best candidate for Republicans to send against Terry Goddard or any other Democratic candidate. Munger boldly predicted his four decades in Tucson would translate into more votes than Goddard in Pima County (usually viewed as tilting Democrat), and he would easily rally Republican voters in Maricopa County (where 58 percent of Arizona’s electorate live). “It’s my race to lose.”
Like I said, Munger is either a real leader, or is really arrogant. I can’t wait to find out which is true.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Election issues • Governor • 2010 elections • Jan Brewer • John Munger • Sea of Cortez • state budget | 3 Comments »
October 8th, 2009, 5:11 pm by Le Templar
Other places reported earlier today, but the John Munger’s campaign for governor just make it official that Fife Symington isn’t going to run for governor again after all and has endorsed Munger instead.
That dashes the hopes of those looking for history to repeat itself. And it gives Munger an early anchor to start chasing support of Arizona’s GOP establishment (Although the incumbent, Jan Brewer, might have something to say about that). Of course, other candidates such as Vernon Parker and Robert Graham already are casting themselves as outsiders who can bring fresh ideas to the governor’s office.
But in primary race where private fundraising will be more important than in 2006, any successful candidate will have to gather a strong line-up of Republican insiders.
Posted in: Election issues • Governor • 2010 elections • Fife Symington • Jan Brewer • John Graham • John Munger • Vernon Parker | Post a Comment »
October 6th, 2009, 4:28 pm by Le Templar
 Kris Mayes, Arizona Corporation Commission chairwoman, finds herself trying to manage a budget meltdown while lawmakers feud with the governor (Tribune file photo). I’ve been watching from afar the pending crash of the Arizona Corporation Commission because it doesn’t have the necessary funds to keep operating as intended. It’s baffles me, because Republican state lawmakers have been chanting loudly that the best economic stimulus would be to create a climate that attracts new businesses and creates more jobs. But without budget fix soon for the corporation commission, requests to do business in the state will be delayed for months. That’s a jobs killer, not a jobs creator.
So what’s up with GOP lawmakers refusing to come to the Capitol to again adopt a relatively simple solution that passed before, but was blocked by a budget veto from Gov. Jan Brewer that targeted another issue?
I keep circling back to a statement first made by House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, on the day that Brewer issued this veto. Adams said the governor had the discretion to use federal stimulus money to cover funding shortfalls at the corporation commission and several other state agencies, rather than expecting lawmakers to come back in special session to address it.
Adams’ implied message: Brewer created the problem, so it’s up to her to fix it or to take the blame for any fiscal meltdowns.
The challenge for Brewer is if she acts as Adams’ suggests, she will look as if she cares more about business lobbyists, tax collectors and lottery players, than she does for education, health care and public safety (areas where the lion’s share of stimulus money is likely to be spent).
Just this week, lawmakers finally are talking about another budget special session because this year’s deficit now appears to be $1.5 billion. But any action could be a month or two away, and the corporation commission will slow down the wheels of business creation long before then.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Economic development • Governor • Arizona Corportation Commission • Jan Brewer • Kirk Adams • Kris Mayes • state budget | Post a Comment »
October 5th, 2009, 5:06 pm by Le Templar
 Jason Rose (right) is the public relations specialist/political strategist who is in charge of attracting public attention to the likely campaign for governor of Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker (left). Now that Republican Vernon Parker is in the race for governor (almost), we in the media received today the first of what could be daily missives from his press agent, Scottsdale political provocateur Jason Rose. Typically, a candidate or business hires Rose’s PR firm to make a big public splash and then to keep the spotlight burning, as Rose and Co. specialize in attention-grabbing headlines and other tactics almost guaranteed to generate publicity — even though some of it makes the intended audience go “what the heck?” or “Ewwww!”
But what Rose is really good at is framing talking points and campaign slogans with instant emotional appeal that might, or might not, stand up to critical examination.
Today’s news release is an example of this. Parker (via Rose) wants to tap into widespread Republican opposition to Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposed temporary sales tax increase. Parker’s statement says Brewer wants to raise this tax before even reducing her own staff:
“Many Arizonans are suffering. Many state agencies are cutting. The Governor’s Office should do the same. I will,” Parker said. “Should I be fortunate enough to be elected Governor I would make these necessary cuts on Day One.”
Parker goes on to say, as Paradise Valley mayor, he has cut the town’s spending by 25 percent and the budget for mayor and Town Council by 54 percent. What Parker doesn’t mention is any reference to what those cuts were or how they might translate to the governor’s office. It’s important to note that the Paradise Valley mayor and council combined spent $83,108 last year and will spend $50,175 this year, a far cry from the $7.6 million set aside for the governor’s office this year.
Also, Parker’s math is a little fuzzy. Paradise Valley’s tax revenues are projected to be down by 25 percent from when Parker became mayor in June 2008 ($21.9 million to $16.3 million). But town operations will spend 16.4 percent less ($19.5 million to $16.3 million). The spending-to-revenue gap of nearly 9 percent will be filled with cash-on-hand saved from past tax collections. A similar savings account for the state was drained dry in January.
Parker also doesn’t mention a single position in the governor’s office that he would eliminate or any specific cost savings he would pursue.
Oddly enough, Parker (via Rose) could have made a stronger statement simply by highlighting the budget numbers for the governor’s office, which have risen by nearly $210,000 from last year as explained by the Legislature’s official budget summary. This stands in contrast with the state agencies that Brewer oversees, which have undergone at least three rounds of budget reductions and have been asked to prepare for another 15 to 20 percent in cuts mid-year. Parker’s news release includes a web link to the governor’s office budget, but fails to note the increase in spending.
UPDATE: Brewer’s press secretary, Paul Senseman, told me by email Wednesday morning that the governor’s office needed additional staffing so far this year to comply with tracking and auditing requirements for use of federal stimulus funds. But Senseman added Brewer plans to include mid-year cuts to her office when she sends new budget proposals to the Legislature in the near future.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Election issues • Governor • Jan Brewer • Jason Rose • Vernon Parker | 2 Comments »
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