Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Press release from the Arizona Democratic Party:

Governor Brewer, cut ties to your lobbyist cartel

As Arizona's working families struggle through crisis after crisis,
Brewer surrounds herself with special-interest lobbyists who profit

PHOENIX — It's time for Gov. Jan Brewer to cut ties with her staff of special-interest lobbyists.  They, not Brewer, are running the 9th floor, and Arizona is suffering the consequences — we remain dead last in school funding and we lead the pack in job losses and foreclosures.

Brewer's campaign staff and governing staff are overrun with lobbyists, particularly those with direct ties to prison privatization. Brewer's lobbyists have been leaders in the efforts to privatize Arizona's prison system at the expense of public safety. Here's a quick Who's Who:

• Campaign Manager Chuck Coughlin is a registered lobbyist and president of HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, which has represented Corrections Corporation of America.
• Campaign Spokesman Doug Cole is a registered lobbyist for HighGround Public Affairs Consultants.
• Governor's Office Chief of Staff Eileen Klein was a registered lobbyist.
• Governor's Office Communications Director Paul Senseman was a registered lobbyist.
• Governor's Office Deputy Communications Director Mark Genrich is a registered lobbyist.
• Governor's Office Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Bark was a registered lobbyist.
  
• Governor's Office Policy Adviser Kevin Kinsall was a registered lobbyist.

Today, Brewer and her fellow Republicans on the general-election slate launched a noisy, coordinated assault on Democrats who fight for hard-working Arizonans. Yet Brewer was eerily quiet throughout August as her handlers' deep ties to private prison lobbyists were exposed in the wake of murderers escaping from a private Kingman prison.

Unless Brewer cuts ties with her lobbyist inner circle, this is the stark reality Arizona faces:

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