Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Tucson's wannabe tin horn dictator, Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-LD30), is at it once again (see Jonathan's big day) attempting to dictate to Arizonans what is best for them and rejecting the will of the voters. It seems this wannabe tin horn dictator has a real problem with democracy and the will of the voters.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 on Monday to effectively kill public financing of elections — but not entirely. Public financing of elections all but dead | The Sierra Vista Herald If approved, SCR 1043 would technically leave the Citizens Clean Elections Act approved by voters in 1998 in place. But it would leave no money in the fund for candidates in the 2012 election.
Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, a foe of public financing, conceded that he fears the public, confronted with a measure that asks to repeal the “Clean Elections” system, would not see it the way he does.
This bill, said Paton, gets around that political problem. More to the point, it offers a carrot to convince voters to go along.
It has an excellent chance of passing,” he said. Paton said the measure provides voters with the choice of “funding junk mail and yard signs or funding our classrooms.”
Paton's deeply cynical statement presents a false choice. First, "Tin Horn" is all for corporate financing of campaigns. There will be no measurable decline in "junk mail" or campaign yard signs. In fact, we are likely to see substantially more (Clean Elections candidates have only a small amount to spend.) Second, the Citizens Clean Elections fund is sought after by the GOP majority to be raided for general fund revenue under a separate measure (Sen. Russell Pearce has advanced his bill out of his committee to repeal the Voter Protection Act – Prop. 105.) The Citizens Clean Elections fund would be raided by a GOP majority legislature not for public education (which they want to privatize) but for yet another corporate tax giveaway under the House corporate bailout package. The state's budget deficit would continue to grow.
Altering the measure to eliminate the up-or-down choice of retaining public financing gained the support of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “It will give the voters a choice to say whether publicly funded elections are more important than education,” said lobbyist Marc Osborn.
The chamber, however, is not a disinterested party. It attempted to convince voters to defeat the plan in 1998 and, when that failed, mounted lawsuits designed to kill it, all unsuccessful.
Once again this is a false choice. The choice is not between publicly funded elections and education (public education will never see the money). The choice is between "clean" publicly funded elections, something Arizona's voters approve of and support, and corporate lobbyist and special interest funded elections. Sen. Paton, a former lobbyist himself (and what exactly is the business of Paton & Associates Consulting), is on the side of corporate lobbyist and special interest funded elections.
Sen. Paton doesn't give a rats ass about the will of Arizona voters who approve of and support Citizens Clean Elections, as his deeply cynical statement indicates. He answers only to the corporate lobbyists and special interests who are his circle of friends.
It's time to send Tucson's wannabe tin horn dictator into a well-deserved retirement from elective office. Jonathan Paton will simply crawl back to his career as a lobbyist, working from the outside rather than the inside of government.