Arizona Republic endorses Congressman Ron Barber (CD 2)

October 9, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Republic has endorsed Congressman Ron Barber again. Barber deserves to retain job: Democrat Rep. Ron Barber is not Gabby-lite. After winning a special election to finish Gabrielle Giffords' term in Congress, Barber showed himself to be independent and willing to serve his constituents' interests — even if that means going … Read more

It’s Arithmetic

October 9, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Team Romney will swear until they are blue in the face that Romney's tax plan is revenue neutral and will not raise taxes on the middle class — while studiously avoiding providng you with any details on how they will achieve this magical result. Team Romney will reject all scientific data and … Read more

(Repost) ‘Ideological Impairment’ Illness

October 9, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Reposted from June 14, 2011. The Arizona Daily Star today has a guest opinion from three former state legislators who used to represent me on the eastside of Tucson in the old District 14 – Ruth Solomon, Marion Pickens and Herschella Horton, all Democrats. That was in better times. The eastside of … Read more

Ted ‘tort reform’ Vogt

October 9, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rep. Ted Vogt was a third year law student at the time he was appointed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors to fill the unexpired term of Frank Antenori, who had moved up to the senate. Vogt got his B.A. from Yale University, and clerked under U.S. Senator Jon Kyl and Vice President Dick Cheney on homeland security matters. Yikes!

For a guy who is a wet-behind-the-ears newly minted attorney, Ted Vogt has emerged in the Arizona legislature as the water carrier for "tort reform" measures propogated by ALEC and the Goldwater Institute. So I guess this makes him a self-loathing attorney? Dude, there's counseling for that.

Two of these ALEC/Goldwater Institute bills in particular were especially loathsome. Ted "tort reform" Vogt sponsored a bill for a "loser pays" theory of recovery of attorneys fees and costs. No chilling effect on a citizen bringing a lawsuit against a multi-national corporation with a team of over-paid suits there, nosiree. Arizona lawmaker wants lawsuit losers to pay all costs of the winner – East Valley Tribune:

Rep. Ted Vogt, R-Tucson, would let judges order someone who loses a lawsuit to pay all the costs and legal fees of the winner. He said it's only fair.

I guess he missed the day in class where he would have learned about the public policy reasons against such a standard. Or more probably, he was listening to his mentor, GOP politico John Munger.  Bill would allow judges to make losers pay more often:

John Munger, a former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, said loser pays has worked in contract disputes in Arizona for years and he has seen it at work in his own practice.

Munger, a proponent of the concept who worked with Vogt on the failed bill last session, said plaintiffs always think twice before proceeding to court after he advises them they might be on the hook for attorney fees if they lose.

“They think, wow, I might have some skin in the game,” Munger said.

Munger said it’s time for Arizona to go loser pays, pointing to Texas, which this year adopted its own version.

As a matter of fact, our Tea-Publican legislature did enact the scaled-back version of the Munger-Vogt loser pays, HB 2544, which was something of a defeat, since the law limits loser pays to claims that are "without substantial justification," i.e., that are groundless and not made in good faith. Yeah, we already have Rule 11 for that, so that was a swing and a miss.

Gosh Todd, this seems like a government subsidy to me

October 9, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tea-Publican candidate for the House in legislative District 10, Todd Clodfelter, is one of the few Tea-Publican candidates running as a Citizens Clean Elections candidate. That should put him at odds with his own party which wants to kill Citizzens Clean Elections.

Clodfelter is also the owner of Ace Graphics. He is a signmaker who prints up political billboards for candidates. You can guess where this is going.

As a Clean Elections candidate, Clodfelter has received $35,888 in matching funds for the primary and general elections, according to his post-primary financial report. Post-Primary Financial Report (.pdf).

That same report indicates that he had paid himself $3,730.57, for "communications – other" through the end of the primary. I assume this was for his campaign mailers, but it is not clear from the report. Expect to see this expenditure to go up significantly for campaign mailers for the general election.

Clodfelter apparently used Victory Campaign for his campaign signs, instead of keeping it in-house, to the tune of $1,603.13. What, Ace Graphics can't do over-sized campaign signs with your photo on them?

It is the rare candidate who can subsidize his business by using matching funds from Citizens Clean Elections. Nice work if you can get it — paying yourself to run for office.

Some of you may remember Todd Clodfelter as a failed Tucson City Council candidate who was beaten badly in 1995.

But others may remember him for this bizarre story back in 2006 when Toni Hellon ran for Congress in the GOP primary. Clodfelter allegedly was responsible for an anonymous web site on which he posted under the name "Thomas Paine" to attack Toni Hellon for — wait for it — misappropriating campaign funds for personal use.

Nancy Young Wright/Ally Miller comparison piece

October 9, 2012

by David Safier Here's a comparison between Nancy Young Wright and Ally Miller put out by Young Wright's campaign. It drills down into some of the important contrasts between the two candidates for Pima County Supervisor, District 1. If I were to choose one statement to single out, it would be the one stating that … Read more