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Archive for the 'Randy Pullen' Tag

GOP leader wants to pull ‘resign to run’ trigger

September 1st, 2009, 7:27 pm by Le Templar
Randy Pullen

Randy Pullen

Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, has called a news conference Wednesday at which he plans to demand a state special prosecutor be appointed to investigate whether certain state officials such as Attorney General Terry Goddard and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (both Democratic leaders) have violated the state’s “resign to run” law by openly talking about their plans to campaign for another office in 2010. I welcome Pullen bringing public attention to this issue, to the extent that Arizona should decide whether to enforce this law, or dump it and let our politicians speak freely to us about their career paths.

But I do have a couple of questions I hope to ask Pullen:

1. Violating the “resign to run” law isn’t a crime, which usually is the only reason to consider appointing a special prosecutor (as the title implies). Obviously, Goddard can’t investigate himself. But why couldn’t one of Arizona’s 15 county attorneys investigate, as they have exact same authority as the attorney general to enforce state statutes?

2. For a truly objective investigation, should any and all possible violations that have been identified be part of the special prosecutor’s charge, including those involving Republican officials?

Posted in: Election issues • • • • | 1 Comment »

Az. Democrats throw out party leader

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 • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

McCain forces again seek control of state GOP

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 • • • • • | Post a Comment »

Napolitano pays back unions, but only on the way out of office

December 16th, 2008, 3:31 pm by Le Templar


BILLY SHIELDS (LEFT), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE PHOENIX FIREFIGHTERS UNION, ESCORTS GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO AT THE FORMAL 2006 DEDICATION OF THE ARIZONA 9/11 MEMORIAL (Original photo at azgovernor.gov).

Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, made an interesting point today about the news that Gov. Janet Napolitano is about to sign an executive order granting “meet and confer” status to unions that represent employees at most state agencies. Pullen points out Napolitano had six years to unilaterally recognize unions, but she’s doing so only now that she’s poised to resign as governor and become director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Arizona is a right-to-work state and the governor is changing a long standing policy because she knows it won’t matter to her political future in Arizona,” Pullen said.  “The Legislature has repeatedly refused to pass similar bills.”

I would add that Napolitano no longer would have to deal with the budget implications of granting state employee unions some direct negotiating power. So it’s easier for her to give these unions something they have long desired and could score her points with Democrats in other parts of the country. However, I wonder if the unions shouldn’t be somewhat insulted that Napolitano waited so long. Tribune writer Mark Flatten reported in 2002 that the firefighter unions played a key role in her first campaign for governor by gathering many of the $5 contributions that she needed to qualify for public campaign funds. Unions also have been large fundraisers for state Democratic Party efforts, and Napolitano certainly has been aware of this.

Pullen goes on to demand an official investigation, essentially claiming that Napolitano is consciously rewarding union campaign contributions with the “meet and confer” status, ala what’s going on with the Illinois governor right now. However, if Pullen has any actual evidence of such quid pro quo with the specific unions involved, he should be filing a criminal complaint instead of hoping some prosecutor reads his comments and is inspired to act.

Posted in: Arizona government • Governor • • • • | 3 Comments »
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