Larry Bodine

Larry is an intelligent, articulate, and insightful commentator whose views are shaped by a combination of journalism, entrepreneurship, law practice, and leadership.‎ ✍ He is an experienced leader, having served as Chair of the LD18 Democrats, and President of the Democrats of Greater Tucson, a teacher at the UA Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Video Manager for Iskashitaa Refugee Network, ‎ ✍ A common-sense business leader, he operated a successful marketing consultancy for 20 years. He is skilled in fundraising, artificial intelligence, and online communications.‎ ✍He considers multiple viewpoints before forming an opinion. His ethos is the Boy Scout Law.‎ ✍ Larry is a lifelong writer, having worked as a seven-time award-winning journalist for the New York Daily News and as the author of 600 articles for the Blog for Arizona.‎ ✍He is a graduate of Amherst College and Seton Hall Law School and has also attended the University of Munich in Germany.‎ ✍He is not all work and no play. Larry enjoys singing and playing the guitar, hiking Tucson's beautiful trails, going on outings with his Portuguese Water Dog, weight training, and meeting his many friends for breakfast.‎ ‎** Scroll down to see my articles below. **

Sinema Up by 7 Points in Race for US Senate

by

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema holds an advantage in the race for US Senate in Arizona, a race that is critical to the party’s chances of taking control of the US Senate, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. The surveys show Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema tops Republican Rep. Martha McShifty by 7 points, 50% to 43% among likely voters.

However, roughly 1 in 6 voters in each state say there’s a chance they’ll change their mind before Election Day.

Likely voters are a subset of registered voters in the poll and include those most likely to turn out based on a combination of self-reported intention to vote, interest in the election and past voting behavior.

Democrats have a chance 

Arizona is one of the four states where Democrats are widely seen as having at least some chance of picking up Senate seats in November’s election. The others are Texas — viewed as more of a long-shot – and Nevada — generally viewed as the Democrats’ best chance for a Senate pickup. In order for the party to have any shot at taking control of the Senate, it’s almost certain that at least one seat from Arizona or Tennessee would need to go Democrats’ way.

Read more

CD2 Candidate Ann Kirkpatrick Opens New HQ, Launches Dozens of Canvassers

by

Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tucson’s CD2, opened her new headquarters at 4742 N Oracle Rd, Tucson, AZ 85705, and launched dozens of volunteers to knock on doors for her and US Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema.

She said the key issues in the race are: protecting choice in women’s health care, immigration reform including citizenship for the DACA recipients, and halting the separation of children from their parents at the border.

She has also called for creating a public option for Americans to buy into Medicare, protecting Medicare and Social Security from Republican attempts to cut earned benefits, and giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices to reduce costs for our seniors.

I canvassed 49 houses myself for four hours in the 101° heat and found that these issues resonated with voters I talked to. I met:

  • An independent voter who is Latino and who is upset by the US immigration policy.
  • A Republican who said he was upset with Trump and will vote for Kirkpatrick and Sinema to put a check on the president.
  • An independent who wanted to know where to donate to the Sinema campaign.

All three of them wanted to volunteer for the Democrats.

Read more

NextGen America Successfully Registers Arizona Millennials to Vote

by
“No political parties or organizations have tried to reach out to young people, says Maria Eller. “We’re the first group to be having these conversations to go and vote.”

Young volunteers for NextGen America are successfully registering Millennials at the Pima County College and UofA campuses in Tucson, working to increase the level of voting by this huge voter bloc.

“If we get out the vote it will lead to more progressive wins. We need to increase the awful statistic of young people voting on an average of 23%,” said Maria Eller, a NextGen volunteer speaking at a recent Indivisible and Strong Meeting meeting.

“We have the most numbers. This is our chance to get them out to vote, and have a stage to voice what we care about by voting.”

Wins so far:

Read more

Another New Poll: Sinema & McShifty in Dead Heat, Garcia Nearly Tied with Ducey

by
Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McShifty.
Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McShifty.

A new Gravis Marketing poll finds Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in a dead heat with Republican Martha McShifty in the race for US Senate and — good news — Democrat candidate for Governor David Garcia is within 4 points of Republican Doug Ducey where the margin of error is 3.3 points.

Gravis, a nonpartisan research firm, conducted a random survey of 882 registered, likely voters in Arizona from Sept. 5-7. It found that Trump is very unpopular, with 47% saying they “strongly disapprove” of his job performance. This could become important because McSally has snuggled up close to Trump.

The entire nation is watching the Arizona race for US Senate, which has been marked by stupid, false and nasty attack ads by McSally. See McSally ad lies to denigrate the First Amendment rights of Americans.

US Congress member Sinema supports full access to healthcare. “We need to fix the parts of the system that are broken while protecting the things that are working — like ensuring coverage for the 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions. We need to protect Medicare, Kids Care, and AHCCCS — critical programs that Arizonans count on for affordable, quality care. We need to fight back against misguided proposals like an “age tax” that would force Arizona seniors to pay up to five times more for their care,” she says on Tucson.com.

Sinema also supports improving health care for veterans, funding military bases in Arizona, citizenship for Dreamers and protecting federal funding for Arizona public schools.

McSally voted against Obamacare, for raising premiums for seniors and for abolishing coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Read more

©2026 Blog For Arizona | Website by Riveted