Year: 2018

Arizona Education Association’s Recommended Candidates for General Election 2018

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“The AEA Fund for Public Education is the political action committee of the Arizona Education Association to support candidates who support our public schools.  The AEA Fund is the largest and most effective statewide PAC working to elect candidates to the state legislature and Governor’s office who will fight to safeguard and strengthen public education for each and every Arizona student.”

Here’s their list of recommended candidates (all Democrats) for the Nov. 6, 2018 General Election

http://www.vote4schoolsaz.com/recommended-candidates/

Federal:

CD 1  Tom O’Halleran, incumbent

CD 2 Ann Kirkpatrick

CD 3 Raul Grijalva,incumbent

CD 7 Ruben Gallego, incumbent

CD 8 Dr. Hiral Tipirneni

CD 9 Greg Stanton

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Trump Takes Martha McSally, Doug Ducey and other Republican Candidates through the Alt-Right Looking Glass at a rally in Mesa.

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President Trump speaking at a rally at Mesa Gateway Airport on October 19, 2018

Once upon a time, mainstream politicians would stay far away from politicians that have been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan or those who have taken pictures with white supremacists. That was the era before Donald Trump.

Now, as most Republican candidates (including Martha McSally and Doug Ducey) in Arizona fall over themselves to meet him at a rally in Mesa, it does not appear to matter that he was. Even in Arizona, this behavior appears to have no consequences as Doug Ducey took a picture with known white supremacists earlier this year. In another time (over two years ago), that might have dealt a deathblow to his reelection campaign. Not today and it is a shame because it teaches our children some wrong lessons about the value of a person’s character in our public servants.

Trump, The KKK-endorsed candidate and popular vote loser, spent October 19, 2018, in Arizona on a campaign swing to help Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally after her abysmal debate performance on October 15. True to form, he spent his time at a rally in Mesa wowing the crowd that traveled hours to see him, McSally, and the other state Republican candidates with outlandish remarks complementing Republicans for policies that they were not responsible for and accusing Democrats of acts either untrue or ones that Republicans or their supporters are guilty of. It is almost as if they were looking through the Alt-Right Looking Glass and mistaking the Democrats for themselves.

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The Arizona Republic endorses Governor Doug Ducey (but of course they do)

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To the best of my recollection, The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican has endorsed a Democrat for governor only once – in my lifetime at least – Governor Janet Napolitano for reelection in 2006. And that was only because Republicans nominated Len Munsil from the Center for Arizona Policy for governor that year. A Dominionist who would impose a theocracy in Arizona was a bridge too far even for them.

So it comes as no surprise that The Republic endorses Governor Doug Ducey for reelection. But of course they do.

What I find curious is that there is no discussion of whether Ducey intends to complete another term as governor. There is speculation that he may run for Senator McCain’s senate seat in 2020, or take a position in the Trump administration, or if President Trump does not run for reelection in 2020, to become the next son of Arizona to be a failed candidate for president. “Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don’t tell their children that someday they can grow up and be president.” – John McCain.

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The Arizona Republic endorses Kathy Hoffman for Superintendent of Public Instruction

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Four years ago it was widely assumed that David Garcia would be elected Superintendent of Public Instruction. His opponent, Diane Douglas, barely ran a visible campaign for the office. But due to a GOP voter registration edge in Arizona and mindless GOP tribalism in the voter booth, Diane Douglas won in the shocker of the 2014 election.

Douglas has been controversial and a complete disaster during her tenure as Superintendent of Public Instruction. This is why she was defeated for reelection in the GOP primary back in August. Hindsight is always 20-20. These Republican voters should have been more discerning back in 2014 instead of voting out of GOP tribalism. They could have saved everyone a lot of unnecessary trauma from the antics of Diane Douglas. Republicans should keep this lesson in mind this year.

The Arizona Republic endorses Democratic candidate Kathy Hoffman for Superintendent of Public Instruction. What’s the best quality to help Arizona public schools: Experience or energy?

The race for superintendent of public instruction hinges on the answer to one simple question: Is experience or energy needed more?

The superintendent doesn’t have the power to boost teacher pay or raise taxes to bolster education funding, the two issues driving current education debates. That’s up to the Legislature, the state Board of Education and local school boards.

But this race matters because the winner will oversee the Department of Education – which is basically broken [after the disastrous tenure of Diane Douglas].

There has been heavy turnover during outgoing superintendent Diane Douglas’s tenure. Many experts have left, and morale is in the tank for those who remain. Not surprisingly, this office is no longer producing the helpful training, reliable policy direction and robust student-achievement data that Arizona’s public schools need.

It needs a fixer – someone who can break up the status quo and reinvigorate the department.

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The Arizona Republic’s disingenuous endorsement in the State Treasurer race

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The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican never fails to disappoint with its endorsements for Republican candidates and the occasional Democratic candidate who is acceptable to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Republic is so predictable I can project their endorsements even before the candidates have emerged from the party primaries.

The Republic’s endorsement of Kimberly Yee for State Treasurer is disingenuous because the editors suggest that this “rising star” in the Republican Party “would bring a more measured approach and steady hand to the serious business of managing the state’s money.”

Yee  has no interest in being State Treasurer.

Kimberly Yee is only running for State Treasurer to serve  as a launching pad for her run for governor in 2022, just as Doug Ducey ran for State Treasurer to serve as a launching pad for his run for governor in 2014. Yee will spend the next four years building her campaign for governor in 2022, not managing the state’s money. You know it, I know it, Yee knows it, and so do the editors of The Republic. But they will not say this. I just did.

Arizona needs a State Treasurer who is committed to doing the job to which he is elected and paid by the taxpayers of this state. That is Democratic candidate Mark Manoil.

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