Posted by AzBlueMeanie: NPR has an investigative report into self-styled "independent" groups that are pouring millions of corporate dollars into campaign ads. 'Independent' Groups Behind Ads Not So Independent: It's a banner year for attack ads — and the organizations making them — partly due to the sea of cash unleashed by a Supreme Court decision … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Press release from the Arizona Democratic Party: Voters’ Bill of Rights a must at the polls PHOENIX — Voters have the power to shape Arizona's future with this election, so it's crucial that they know their rights when heading to the polls Tuesday. The Arizona Democratic Party is providing this "Voters' Bill … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tucson Weekly did its election endorsements a few weeks ago, but today offers a condensed version of it election issue — and endorses a straight Democratic ticket. God, I love it! At least one newspaper in this town gets it. Thank you. Ballot-Box Basics:

The 2010 Tucson Weekly Endorsements, Condensed, by the Tucson Weekly Editorial Board

Here’s a condensed version of the endorsements we published a few weeks back. If you’re looking for more info, you’ll find it on The Range at daily.tucsonweekly.com, where we’ve got links to all of our Election Season coverage.

U.S. Congress, District 8: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Democrat Gabrielle Giffords has delivered for Southern Arizona. She has brought home federal dollars that have kept the state’s schools, hospitals and universities open. She’s brought stimulus money that has fixed streets, hired more cops and helped land jobs, such as the 500-job expansion that drug-manufacturer Roche Group announced for Oro Valley earlier this month. She’s helped fix up the fire station at Fort Huachuca, funded programs to help wounded vets get 21st-century rehabilitation services and built a domestic-violence shelter in Sierra Vista.

Her Republican opponent, Jesse Kelly, promises to do none of these things—and, in fact, criticizes Giffords for supporting them. Kelly’s platform is straight out of fantasyland. He wants a 10 percent flat tax that he himself admits has no support in Congress. He thinks individuals and not government should be “regulating” everything from the stock market to the drug industries. Last week, he said the average person can do a better job of preventing salmonella outbreaks than government inspectors can. C’mon, we’ve heard plenty of crazy stuff, but do you really believe that’s the truth?

We need a representative who is going to look out for Southern Arizona, not one who wants to destroy government because it’s too complicated for him to understand.

U.S. Congress, District 7: Congressman Raúl Grijalva

We thought Congressman Raúl Grijalva made a boneheaded move with his call for a boycott of the state in the wake of SB 1070, but he’s admitted he made a mistake. We agree with the majority of his votes and appreciate his fight against the Rosemont Mine proposal. Republican opponent Ruth McClung’s platform just isn’t our cup of tea; the more we learn about her, the more it becomes clear that she’s just another right-wing ideologue. Vote Grijalva.

U.S. Senate: No Recommendation

These are our choices? Seriously? You’re on your own with this one.

Governor: Terry Goddard

Gov. Jan Brewer is the wrong choice for innumerable reasons, but mostly because we believe Democrat Terry Goddard will do a much better job of stemming the flow of crazy that’s going to pour out of the Arizona Legislature. We stand on the edge of losing our investments in everything from state parks to the universities if someone doesn’t stop the right-wing whackos—and Democrat Terry Goddard is far more likely to do that than Brewer.

Secretary of State: Chris Deschene

Secretary of State Ken Bennett is a cut above most Republicans in the state these days, but we still give the nod to Democrat Chris Deschene, because in Arizona, the secretary of state has a habit of becoming governor, and we’re more comfortable with Deschene in that role.

Attorney General: Felecia Rotellini

We’ll take Democrat Felecia Rotellini over Republican Tom Horne, who appears a little too eager to find ways to mess with an already overstressed Tucson Unified School District.

State Treasurer: Andrei Cherny

Democrat Andrei Cherny is moderate enough to earn the endorsement of Jim Kolbe, the former Republican congressman who is chairing his campaign. We’ll take him over Republican Doug Ducey, whose trail of disgruntled former Cold Stone Creamery franchisees and unpaid taxes leaves us less than confident that he’s ready to handle the state’s books.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Penny Kotterman

Democrat Penny Kotterman is a longtime advocate for teachers who understands how the schools work, while Republican John Huppenthal is Republican lawmaker who has undermined public education at every opportunity. A no-brainer.

Arizona Corporation Commission: Dave Bradley

Democrat Dave Bradley has ably served Tucson for the last eight years in the Arizona Legislature, and we’re convinced he’d make a good addition to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

The Arizona Legislature: Vote the Democratic Ticket

We usually find a couple of Republicans worth supporting in legislative races, but this year, there are none.

As we’ve documented over the last year, Republicans are using the budget crisis as a way to plunder state government. They have been willing to cut our schools, eliminate health care for the sick and poor, scrap job-training and economic-development efforts, hack away at our universities and sell off our state parks. In short, if there’s something you care about that’s been built in this state over the last two decades, you can kiss it goodbye.

We understand that the state faces a financial crisis. But the real fix is to seriously reform the tax code so that it adapts to a 21st-century economy, not to shut down everything besides the schools and then give the savings away as tax cuts for the wealthiest residents. It’s time to bring some fresh thinking to the Arizona Legislature. (You’ll see that we’ve added a few names to our list since the endorsements package ran three weeks ago.)

With that in mind, we endorse:

District 25

Senate: Manny Alvarez
House: Pat Fleming and Ruben Ortega

District 26

Senate: Cheryl Cage
House: Nancy Young Wright

District 28

State Senate: Paula Aboud
State House: Steve Farley and Bruce Wheeler

District 30

State Senate: Todd Camenisch
State House: Andrea Dalessandro

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: H/t Tucson Weekly New Gilman Vid on Brewer: New video from Phoenix's Dennis Gilman on our incoherent Gov. Jan Brewer. The Phoenix New Times named Gilman best videographer in 2009, and for good reason.

by David Safier Two major buzzwords the Right Wing uses regularly are "Freedoms!" and "Security!" "They're taking away our Freedoms!" "We need Security from terrorists and illegal aliens!" Freedom and Security as defined by the Right are actually the two ends of a seesaw, a fact the Right refuses to acknowledge. When Freedom as they … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie H/t to Jaime for the heads up. Thanks. Secretary of State Ken Bennett also says that Arizona's fear-monger-in-chief Sen. Russell Pearce is full of crap. News Room: Secretary of State Ken Bennett sets the record straight on voter-registration fraud Office watching issue closely, but confident that Internet rumors are without merit PHOENIX … Read more