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

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By Michael Bryan Kyrsten Sinema has won the election. There is no official count yet, nor any victory announcement or concession. But with a 30K vote lead for Sinema and about 200K ballots left to count, McSally would have to win the remaining vote by 15%; that’s just not going to happen. The race is … Read more

Liberals don’t see the problems; Conservatives, the promise

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Cross-posted from RestoreReason.com.

Recently, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “When the government gives you something, they take something away from someone else.” “Wow”, I thought. “What a cynical way to look at the common good.” Why not view it as “when the government gives you something, it is really your neighbor giving you a helping hand”? The government is after all, nothing more or less than all of us.

And yet, the GOP has managed to convince many Americans that as Ronald Reagan said, “government is not the solution of our problem; government is the problem” and Grover Nordquist said, he wanted to “shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

There are however, a multitude of functions that can only be effectively and fairly provided by government. There are many examples of this such as national defense and public education, but basically, I think the primary role of government is to provide for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. William Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, wrote that,

“Liberals often don’t see the problems, and conservatives don’t see the promise, of government.”

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TANKING? White House, Senior Republicans Think McSally Should Be Pushing Their Vote Count Trickery Messages; Suspect She’s Just Waiting For Ducey Appointment To McCain Seat

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Trump’s top political aides – inside and outside the White House – and other national Republicans believe that Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2) has not been pushing their desired party line that some sort of trickery is happening in Arizona’s ballot processing and counting. Some speculate that she is silent because she believes re-elected Governor Doug Ducey will appoint her to fill Sen. John McCain’s seat if she loses the election to Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD9).

This reporting from Alex Isenstadt and James Arkin at Politico help fill in some of the missing puzzle pieces. When Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale tweeted about “tricks” in Arizona and speculated about “rampant fraud”, followed quickly by the President’s implications that there was corruption on display in Arizona, it was a sudden 1-2 that caught many off guard.

But, when that was followed by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl chiming in and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel calling it intentional “corruption” and “election meddling” on Fox’s Sean Hannity’s show, it was apparent that a strategy had been formed that left out McSally. Trump’s over the top tweet from Paris this afternoon – just as a court hearing on the Republicans’ suit to stop Maricopa and Pima County Recorders from contacting voters was about to begin – brought the chorus to a crescendo.

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WATCH: Trump Implies Corruption In Arizona Vote-Counting – “All Of a Sudden Out Of the Wilderness They Find a Lot Of Votes”

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President Donald Trump went after Arizona’s electoral process and the Democrats’ supposed influence on it. Without any evidence to back it up, he implied that corruption was to blame for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD9) taking a slim 9,000 vote lead in the Senate contest against Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2). The President was asked a question … Read more

Why We Need to Get Out the Vote

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Arizona registered voters & the turnout so far:

DEMOCRAT REPUBLICAN OTHER
REGISTERED 1,151,745 1,288,332 1,238,038
EARLY VOTERS 325,598 429,283 222,713
28% 33% 18%

We can do better! The election is in 8 days.

The Get Out The Vote effort only works when we have enough people who are willing to reach out to all those that are reluctant to vote, don’t know how to vote, or don’t think it matters if they vote.

Will you partner with someone to Get out the vote?

Yesterday we canvassed near Prince Rd in Flowing Wells School District, where I have volunteered for many years with Literacy Connects-Reading Seed Program and with the Jewish Community Relations Council-Making a Difference Every Day: The Homer Davis Project . . . Two exemplary programs that benefit our community. Many people weren’t home, so we left information to help them vote. Those that were home were happy to have more info about the propositions.

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