Michael Bryan

Michael founded BlogForArizona.net as the Howard Dean presidential campaign blog for Arizona in 2003, and has been blogging ever since. The Blog is now coming up on 20 years of continuous publication, a major achievement for any political blog, which usually have the life-spans of mayflies. Michael is an attorney living in Tucson with his wife Lauren. In 2008, Michael remade BlogForArizona into a collaborative project. Michael is now but one of the contributors to the blog and provides editorial and publishing direction in consultation with the Board of Directors and the other authors. If you want to keep up with the latest Arizona and National political news in an entertaining quick hit of news and opinion, check out the BlogForArizona twitter feed, which Mike largely curates and writes. Michael is also an AAPC member who occassionally consults on political campaigns, strategy and communications.

COVID-19 is on Track to Kill Thousands in Arizona Alone

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Due to the very limited testing across the country (entirely the fault of President Trump), official tallies of verified COVID-19 cases undoubtedly represent only a small fraction of the actual numbers. Arizona is dead last in per-capita testing in the nation, and has not even attempted contact tracing or active screening for infections or antibodies. For every verified case … Read more

“Deal or No Deal” – Mnuchin Says “Yes” and Shakes Hands, Trump Doesn’t Give a Whit

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Although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proclaimed he reached a “Deal!” with the leaders of both Houses of Congress – and he knew of the accountability provisions included in the deal – President Donald Trump ripped up a key part of that deal two hours after signing it into law.

The smooth-yet-gutless trick came in the form of a rare presidential “signing statement”. However, this statement was not released until the Congressional leaders and Cabinet members left the Oval Office signing ceremony. (No doubt, Democratic leaders are even more glad that they were not invited to stand behind him.)

The key provision that the signing statement demolished was that the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (the actual title) would report to Congress every three months. That report is to include “a detailed statement of all loans, loan guarantees, other

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Anti-Trump Group To Spend $600k Running Controversial “Hoax” Ad In Arizona

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An anti-Trump Super PAC announced this morning that it will spend $600,000 in Arizona over the next few weeks to air an ad that the President’s campaign is demanding stations not air.

Priorities USA Action responded to yesterday’s cease and desist letters in other battleground states by doubling down and buying air time in Phoenix and Tucson for the ad. (The ad is below.)

Guy Cecil, the Chair of the committee, was defiant: “The fact that Trump is going to such great

lengths to keep the American people from hearing his own words adds to the urgency of communicating them far and wide. Trump doesn’t want voters to know the truth. We will not be intimidated.”

The Trump campaign made its cease and desist letter public yesterday and noted that Fox News agreed not to air the ad. It claims that the President’s well-publicized “hoax” comment referred to the Democrats’ politicization of the crisis, and not the virus itself. The letter leans heavily – without irony – on several articles from mainstream media

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Republican “Stimulus” is Corporate Welfare

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Before we buy into the BS narrative that the Democrats are playing party politics by stalling the Republican Senate “stimulus package,” I think we need to all be aware of what Republicans are trying to pull. The current Republican Senate Bill is asking for ginormous checks for large corporations without required stipulations that protect employees … Read more