Short attention span musing

...The race isn't over yet, not by a long shot, but Hillary Clinton went a long way toward securing the 2016 Democratic nomination for the presidency, and toward securing a general election victory, when she faced down the bullies masquerading as Republican members of Congress this past week.

And I am hardly the only person who thinks that.

For what it's worth, I am a supporter Bernie Sanders and believe that Clinton is *far* too close to Wall Street and other 1%'ers (and their lackeys).

I think Sanders is far more concerned with working to enhance the lives of average Americans than any other candidate, D or R.

Supporting him is an easy choice.

Having said that, she did incredibly well, staying cool, calm, and collected in the face of a marathon session thinly-veiled partisan bloviating dressed up as questioning.

Her biggest gain from the session won't be in attracting hardcore supporters of Sanders and the other Democratic candidates, it will be in attracting the support of voters who are late arrivals to the primary season.  The image of Clinton facing Trey Gowdy and his merry bunch of cutthroats and not even batting an eyelash will be the main image in their minds when those voters figure out who they think is the best candidate.


...The Republican field of candidates in CD1 is growing, as Paul Babeu, Pinal County Sheriff, and David Gowan, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, have announced their candidacies (Ken Bennett, former AZSOS, and Gary Kiehne, a businessman, are already in the R field).

Babeu seems to be appealing to the pro-LGBT nativist portion of the GOP electorate.  Lending new meaning to the term "microtargeting"...

On the other hand, Gowan has become renowned for his "tin ear", politically speaking.

In other words, my prediction is that these two will be fighting it out for third and fourth place.  Unless someone else gets into the race (which may yet happen - perennial R candidate Wendy Rogers has been establishing ties to CD1).

Then they'll be duking it out over fourth and fifth place...


...News broke Saturday that a deal has been reached in the ongoing lawsuit over the state's consistent, and unconstitutional, underfunding of the state's education system.  Details are sketchy at this point (OK, they're nonexistent at this point), but it looks likely that there will be a special session of the legislature during the first two weeks of November (after that, the calendar will turn to the holiday season, a period during which no non-Maricopa legislator wants to be in Phoenix)..

That issue will be worthy of a separate post (or posts) in coming days; today, however, it highlights the failure of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to do its job.

In LD26 (Tempe and west Mesa), there is a senate seat that was vacated at the end of September when Ed Ableser resigned to accept a job in Nevada.

Shortly after that, the Democratic PCs of LD26 sent the names of three nominees to fill the seat to the MCBOS.

Word then was that the supes were going to make the appointment at their meeting on October 21st.

They didn't.

This isn't the first time that they've played partisan games with the district - in 2012, there was a vacancy in the old LD17 House contingent (most of the old LD17 became most of the new LD26 after redistricting).  At first, the supes refused to make an appointment, and then they tried to give it to someone who had just won election to the House to start his term limits clock early.  Observers quickly figured out what the supes were intending to do, and that nominee withdrew his name for consideration for the appointment.  Ultimately, nothing happened.

At the time, while there was some grumbling over the supes' high-handed tactics, in general people didn't sweat it that much - the appointment would have mostly been pro-forma as the lege was not in session and there was not any expectation of a special session.

Now, however, things are different.

Now, a special session of the lege is imminent, one regarding what is perhaps the issue that is most significant to average Arizonans - their children's education.

Now, as this looms, one of the areas of Maricopa County is significantly underrepresented.

Well, one thing is the same - the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is shirking its duty.

The three nominees (L--R) State Rep. Andrew Sherwood, LD26 Chair Sam Pstross, State Rep. Juan Mendez

At this point, the supes don't have any regular meetings scheduled to take place before the likely dates of a special legislative session

Representative Juan Mendez stands tall

This past Tuesday, State Representative Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) gained national notice when he started a floor session by courageously announcing that he is an atheist and asking the House to "celebrate their shared humanness".

To the best of my knowledge, he is the only openly atheist, or even non-religious, state or national level elected in the country.  And that makes him one of the bravest people I know.

Mendez at the Capitol on the first day of the 2013 session.  Pic courtesy Mendez' Facebook page.

Rep. Mendez' Reddit.com thread on the subject here.

From the Reddit thread, the text of his remarks -

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask you not to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state.

This room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my Secular Humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

Carl Sagan once wrote, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” There is, in the political process, much to bear. In this room, let us cherish and celebrate our shared humanness, our shared capacity for reason and compassion, our shared love for the people of our state, for our Constitution and for our democracy - and let us root our policymaking process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans regardless of religious belief or nonbelief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

The video of Rep. Mendez' comments -


Most of the reporting and commentary on this that I've seen has been neutral or supportive.  However, Mendez' colleague, State Rep. Steve "Ode to Imperialism" Smith (R-Maricopa), was so afraid of divine retribution that on Wednesday that he felt it necessary to offer a second prayer that day to "make up" for Rep. Mendez' lack of servile reverence Tuesday.  Smith's actual term was "penance".



State Rep. Brenda Barton, a Republican from Payson, chimed in with a condescending FB update on Saturday -

However, at least one of Smith's colleagues, Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai (D-LD7), a Navajo legislator, stood up and expressed heartfelt support for Rep. Mendez and any other members who are non-Christian in their beliefs, or are non-believers.



For the record, I'm not an atheist, but neither am I a follower of a particular set of religious beliefs or dogma.

Unless "prove it" is considered "dogma".

To put it simply, good people are good, bad people are bad, and my assessment of that categorization is based on behavior toward others, not simply professed religious beliefs or non-beliefs.


Representative Juan Mendez is good people.


Steve Muratore at Arizona Eagletarian offers a take that is far more in-depth than this one, here.

Medicaid and the budget in the AZ House: Let round two begin!

Well, it didn't take long for the lege to get back to "hurry up and wait" mode.

Remember the 10 budget bills that the Arizona Senate passed so dramatically...way back in the mists of time...last Thursday?  They were transmitted to the House, where...

...They are just sitting there.  Not heard in committee, not assigned to committee, not even officially introduced in the House.  And they're not scheduled to be introduced any time soon (though that could change at a moment's notice).

This pretty much puts paid to my prediction that the lege would finish their work this week,  At this point, unless they work out a deal, suspend the rules that require at least three legislative days to pass a bill (or in this case, 10 bills), and pull a couple of marathon days on Thursday and Friday, they'll have to return to the Capitol after the holiday next week.

Courtesy Rep. Juan Mendez' Facebook page

...All of which leaves time for things like this (and this is a good one). 

From the Phoenix New Times, written by Matthew Hendley -

An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon's session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads.

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his "secular humanist tradition" and even quoted author Carl Sagan.

"Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads," Mendez said. "I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state."

There are a few electeds that I know better than Representative Mendez, but none that I'm prouder to consider a friend today.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors disenfranchising part of their own county

When Ben Arredondo (D-LD17) resigned from the Arizona House of Representatives, it created a vacancy in the legislature, leaving a district, part of Maricopa County, under-represented.

There is a specific series of steps to be followed to fill that vacancy.

Basically, once notified of the vacancy, the elected precinct committeemen of the same party and district as the person who vacated the legislative office meet, and nominate three persons to fill the seat.  The names are then forwarded to the board of supervisors of the applicable county (in the case of Arredondo's Tempe/South Scottsdale district, Maricopa County), and the supes appoint one of the three to fill the seat.

In the case of the vacancy in LD17, everyone has done their part...except for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who are now refusing to make any appointment at all.  There was a rumor that there was going to be an appointment on the agenda of Monday's meeting of the MCBOS, but that didn't happen, nor is such an item on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting.

Now, state law seems to be pretty clear, once the other steps have been followed, the supes *must* appoint someone to fill the seat.  From ARS 41 - 1202 (linked above to "steps") (emphasis mine)-

4. The state party chairman of the appropriate political party shall forward the names of the three persons named pursuant to paragraph 2 of this subsection to the board of supervisors of the county of residence of the person elected or appointed to the office immediately before the vacancy occurred. The board of supervisors shall appoint a person from the three nominees submitted.

I've heard a few different speculations about the motivation behind the supes' refusal to follow the law here -

- It's a Democratic-controlled seat, and the Republicans on the board are simply playing partisan games.

- Two of the Republicans on the MCBOS are lame ducks, so they know if the Board's failure to do its duty comes back to bite them in the ass, it won't impact them - they're gone anyway.

- A few people have pointed out that the appointment of Juan Mendez, who recently won election to the AZ House from the new LD26, would highlight the fact that for the purpose of term limits, even a partial term counts as a full term.  Something that the Rs may not want highlighted as long an Jan Brewer is trying to argue that she can run for another term as governor, even though the law says that she cannot because of the partial term she held after Janet Napolitano left AZ behind for D.C.

Whether the motivation is one of the above reasons, or is another entirely (though I admit, I'm leaning toward partisan gamesmanship, but I'm a cynic), I have to ask -

What's the hang-up?  This isn't theoretical physics.  It's not difficult.  Get it done.

The people of LD17 want a representative.  The people of LD17 need a representative.  And state law requires that the MCBOS appoint a representative from the list of nominees given to them.

Imagine the uproar if a Democratic-controlled board of supes, say in Pima County, refused to fill a lege seat held by a Republican.  There would outraged calls to mobilize the Arizona National Guard governor's personal vigilante force to invade the offending county and force them to appoint a Republican.

People beyond the list of nominees are watching this all play out (or not) and are voicing their opinions of what is going on, and the most charitable description that I've heard is "frustrating" because not only are the supes not doing their job, they've been sending mixed signals, saying (through surrogates like staffers) that an appointment will be made, and then it won't be, and then it will be, and then it won't be, and so on.

Contact the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and urge them to do their job and appoint someone to represent part of their county at the state legislature.


Steve at The Arizona Eagletarian has more coverage of this here.