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.

Senator Sinema and Lying AG Bill Barr

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I wrote not long ago about what I thought was a major lapse in judgment by Arizona’s senior Senator, Kyrsten Sinema, in voting to confirm Bill Barr as Attorney General. Seems that Sinema is also having some second thoughts about her vote to make Barr a bipartisan appointment: “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who was … Read more

Operation Stonegarden Has No Place in Pima County. Still.

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Tucsonans, and Pima County residents, Thank you to many of you who either individually, or collectively with your community groups, joined the organized push to end Operation Stonegarden participation by the Pima County Sheriffs Department last September. That was an 8 month fight that led to meaningful change in our county. Sadly, this fight is … Read more

NEW: Arpaio Attorney Faults 9th Circuit For Supreme Court Justices Denying Effort To Remove Special Prosecutor On Pardon-Effect Appeal

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The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s request to remove a special prosecutor in his ongoing battle. One of Arpaio’s attorneys tells Arizona’s Politics/Arizona’s Law* that the nine Justices “just (don’t) have enough time to correct all of the Ninth Circuit’s mistakes.” (The Supreme Court’s declination came without comment … Read more

NEW: “Dirty Trick” By National Republican Group Targeting Arizona Reps Given Pass By Dysfunctional FEC…After Five Years

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Five years ago, Arizona’s Politics helped report efforts by a “dirty trick” by the National Republican Congressional Committee (“NRCC”) against candidates nationwide, including the three Arizona swing-seat Democrats. The FEC finally gave the NRCC a pass and opened the file today.

(from SPOOF website)

The so-called attack microsites launched against Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber (and a couple of dozen other Democrats around the country) spoofed the candidates’ websites and tried to trick Googlers into donating to the NRCC.

National articles found a couple of the Arizona spoofs, and Arizona’s Politics located the third in February 2014. A follow-up later that month found that the NRCC had changed the donation pages to reduce the trickery level and to add security to its spoofs. (There are lots of images, ironies and fun facts in the older articles that will not be repeated here; please check out the links!)

One month later, national campaign finance watchdogs Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed complaints

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What if Trump Wins a Second Term?

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I try hard to value others’ opinions, especially when they are informed. That’s tougher in the digital age, because we are increasingly entrenched in information silos which don’t always provide us unfiltered truths. Still, I’ve tried to moderate my publicly stated positions on President Trump because I’d rather inform than alienate. At this point though, I feel silence is complicity.

A great article in the Atlantic explains some of the potential dangers of a second Trump presidency. The Pulitzer Prize winning author, Paul Starr, writes that,

“the biggest difference between electing Trump in 2016 and re-electing Trump in 2020 would be irreversibility.”

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