Larry Bodine

Larry is an articulate and insightful commentator whose views are shaped by a combination of journalism, entrepreneurship, law practice, and leadership.‎ ★★ Sign up for my occasional newsletter at Bit.ly/LBNow. ★★ ✍ 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. ▼
Disgraced candidate Yahya Yuksel refused to quit the CD2 race for Congress, ignoring an angry crowd of rape victims and other women.

Accused Rapist Yahya Yuksel Must Drop Out Now from CD2 Race

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A 16-year old Tucson girl was upset because her parents were getting divorced, and she went to a friend’s house and got drunk. As she was passing out, Yahya Yuksel, a teen virgin who was ready with a condom, had sex with her even though she said, “no, I don’t want to.” Flash forward to … Read more

Yahya Yuksel

Rape Allegation Surfaces Against CD2 Democratic Candidate Yahya Yuksel

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Yahya Yuksel
Yahya Yuksel is facing outrage and calls for him to drop out of the CD2 Congressional race because of a 2008 police report recounting a rape allegation.

Read: Accused Rapist Yahya Yuksel Must Drop Out Now from CD2 Race

A Pima County Sheriff’s report has surfaced, stating that CD2 Democratic Congressional Candidate Yahya Yuksel was accused of rape by a 16- or 17-year-old girl when he was 17 and both were in high school in 2007.

The report also quotes a witness who refutes the girl’s claim.

Yuksel denied the “false allegation,” in a legal motion, stating, “The investigating officer found no reason to pursue the allegation after speaking with the accuser. For the record, I did not know of the existence of this allegation until recently,” he stated.

“Such a criminal allegation of moral turpitude is utterly disastrous to my reputation, especially for someone like me who is considering running for elected political office,” he stated.

When reached by phone yesterday, Yuksel said he would be issuing a statement.

The 2008 report

In the sheriff’s report dated March 13, 2008, the teenage girl said she and Yuksel were drinking Sky vodka and cola at a friend’s house. The report blacks out her name. She told the officer that Yuksel began kissing her and she tried to push him off, “telling him that she did not want to.” She stated that Yuksel began “feeling me up.” “He then pulled off her shorts and swimsuit bottoms, put on a condom and had intercourse with her. She stated ‘no’ the whole time and tried to push him off. During intercourse, she cried a little bit and then blacked out,” the report states.

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David Schapira, Democratic Candidate for AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction

David Schapira’s 4 Arguments for InvestInEd

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David Schapira, Democratic Candidate for AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction
David Schapira, Democratic Candidate for AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction

There are four good arguments in favor of the InvestInEd public initiative, according to David Schapira, a Democratic Candidate for state Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The InvestInEd public initiative creates a dedicated funding source to keep teachers in Arizona classrooms and give students the one-on-one attention they deserve.

Schapira is former Senate Democratic leader and current Tempe City Council member. He spoke at a recent meeting of the LD9 Democrats in Tucson.

➊ It will restore the $700 million in state funds cut from education over the last 10 years. “The Republican majority in the Legislature decided to balance the budget on the backs of our kids. Pima and Maricopa county colleges county lost every penny of funding from the state, and the universities cut were cut too,” Schapira said. “The RedforEd movement convinced the Legislature to put money back into public schools. But even after that our public schools still have $700 million less than they did a decade ago.”

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How Candidates Ralph Atchue and Hollace Lyon will Flip the State Leglislature

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Ralph Atchue and Ret. Colonel Hollace Lyon, LD11 Democratic state legislature candidates.
Ralph Atchue and Ret. Colonel Hollace Lyon, LD11 Democratic state legislature candidates.

Democrats need to flip only two seats in the Arizona Senate and only five seats in State House for Democrats to get parity with the Republicans. Democratic candidates Ralph Atchue for State Senate and Retired Air Force Colonel Hollace Lyon for State House in LD11 spelled out the winning issues that will carry them into office in November.

They spoke recently at a rousing meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson.

  • Funding public education. “Access to quality public education is Arizona’s economic driver. The state has abdicated its responsibility to fund public education. It’s been left to cities, counties and school districts to raise taxes,” Atchue said.
  • Cutting corporate tax giveaways. “74% of corporations in Arizona pay the minimum of $50 a year in income tax,” Lyon said. “We have $12 to $14 billion that we’re giving away in tax loopholes in this state. The more companies we invite here, the more tax breaks we give them. We don’t put sunset clauses on our tax incentives. They’ve been accumulating for decades. We need to go back and see if they are still giving us a return on investment.”
  • Access to affordable healthcare. “We support opening up Medicaid, AHCCS (state health care coverage) and CHIP (children’s healthcare insurance). We’ve gotten locked into employer-controlled healthcare, and if we can start moving away from that and it would be a benefit,” Atchue said.
  • Jobs that pay well. “If you give a person a job where they feel good about themselves, they will become invested in the community and are better contributors. They feel a sense of dignity. It’s unfair to need three jobs to make ends meet. They never get enough time to spend with their kids. We need good jobs, fair wages, and a comprehensive program to let that happen to everybody,” Lyon said.
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They also called for Outlawing Dirty Money in campaign contributions and establishing real ethics in government. “The state doesn’t follow through on conflicts of interest. Andy Tobin was appointed to the Arizona “Corruption Commission” (Corporation Commission). His son works for one of the companies he oversees. This is a conflict of interest. So the state legislature decided to make an ethics decision and they changed the definition of conflict of interest to allow that,” Atchue said.

Atchue is an Air Force veteran and a seasoned campaigner, having worked in many Arizona political campaigns, for Ann Kirkpatrick, for Tom O’Halleran, and including his state senate run in 2016. Ralph is distinctly aware of the issues facing Arizona’s middle-class families and small business community and will work to rebuild the middle class.

Colonel Lyon commanded twice, served at NATO Headquarters in Belgium, as well as at the Pentagon. She served as a state senate campaign manager in 2012 and in 2014 and ran for the Legislature herself.  Lyon is serving her second term as Chair of the Saddlebrooke Democratic Club. Since 2015, she has also served as the Senior Vice Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.

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