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.

Zaphod Beeblebrox is an Arizona Republican

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By Tom Prezelski

Re-Blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Recent chatter among folks who are ostensibly smarter than you and I
tells us that Republicans are making an effort to appeal to “Hispanics.”
An inter-party chingazo reported in Sonoran Alliance gives us some insight into why such efforts may be doomed.

Though no one has yet declared for the 2014 Republican primary for
Secretary of State, everybody already knows that the race is between
Representative Steve Montenegro (R-Litchfield Park) and Senator Michelle
Reagan (R-Scottsdale). Because they have both accumulated solidly
partisan and conservative voting records, there is little to distinguish
the two of them other than personality and style, so it seems
inevitable that things would get personal and nasty early on. In this
case, some in Reagan’s camp have already resorted to race-baiting.

Tom Horne Drops the Ball. The Star Stupidly Blames the City Council.

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By Tom Prezelski

Cross-Posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

This week, there was a settlement in the State of Arizona's case
against two Tucson Transportation Department supervisors who
misappropriated at least $83,000 in public resources for personal gain.
They will each have to pay just $5000 to the city.

This result is a failing by state, rather than city, officials. This fact cannot be allowed to get in the way of The Arizona Daily Star's usual narrative about the city, so the once-great morning daily chose to write about something else entirely.

Recommended Reading: Celebrating a Failure of Regime Change and Nation-Building

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By Tom Prezelski

Cross-Posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Cinco_de_MayoWhen I started cross-posting here,
Mike Bryan suggested that, at some point, I plug the book that I am
working on. I am not going to do that, except to say that this post
arises from someone else's good book on the subject that actually cites my work.


El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition by David E. Hayes-Bautista,
which was published by the University of California Press last year,
traces the origins of May 5th celebrations in the United States to 19th
century California. We hear all the time that the day is in many ways a
bigger deal north of the border than it is in Mexico, and the book goes a
long way toward explaining why. The holiday has its roots in Civil War
politics and what amounted to a shrewd public relations campaign that
reminds us once again that, contrary to anything we hear from Tom Horne,
the history of our two nations is inseparable.

Drinking Liberally with Peter Eichstaedt 4/24

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Hello liberals, Notice the time change: next week will meet at 7 PM! Our special guest for Wednesday Drinking Liberally at the Shanty on 4th Ave will start the presentation at 7:30pm, right after his lecture at the U of A School of Journalism. He is in a book tour around the country and will … Read more

ADI Swipes Story and Still Gets It Wrong

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By Tom Prezelski

Re-posted from Rum Romanism and Rebellion

To quote Truman Capote: "That's not writing, that's typing."

There is talk from Bob Lord and others among the happy bunch over here that some response has to be made to a recent post at the Arizona Daily Independent
regarding the discussion that happened last week after my post making a
case for why my friend, Representative Chad Campbell, should not run
for Governor.

There is no reason to provide a link to ADI. If you
want to find the story, you are free to look for it yourself. I will
also resist the temptation to point out all the things that are wrong
with their article, except to say that the anonymous scribbler
responsible for it outright misrepresents the exchange as some kind of
effort by The Man to keep a brother down. He also misspells my name as
well as Fred DuVal's. Otherwise, it has the flaws of a typical ADI
story: lousy grammar, poor sourcing, and just plain terrible writing.