AZ Congressional Delegation

Reactionary Republicans give Democrats their best opportunity in years to take over the State Government.

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Arizona State Capital

Gaining control of the State Legislature is within the Democrats reach as the reactionary and backward Republican Leadership has brought the state to the lower depths of most national rankings.

2018 presents an ideal opportunity for LD Democrats as they run to take over the State House and State Senate. The ascension of Donald Trump, the embrace of Dark Money, Koch Brother, and other oligarchical interests by Governor Ducey and the out of touch Republican State Leadership, and the rise of the Me Too and Red for Ed Movements have driven progressive enthusiasm to a fever pitch as LD Democratic offices report record attendance at monthly meetings and up to triple the amount of volunteer requests. Democratic figures ranging from the head of the Maricopa County Democratic Party to all interviewed LD Democratic candidates are pledging to run on an agenda of fully funding public education, good paying jobs, health care, infrastructure (including clean energy), and combatting political corruption to bring our state up from the depths of our national rankings.

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Epic GOP fail on House immigration bills

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The far-right immigration bill from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), H.R.4760 – Securing America’s Future Act of 2018, co-sponsored by Arizona Reps. Martha McSally, David Schweikert and Debbie Lesko, that the House GOP Freedom Caucus demanded a vote on by stomping their feet and threatening to hold their breath until they turned blue, as predicted went down to defeat today on a vote of 193-231.

Arizona Delegation: Yeas: Lesko, McSally, Schweikert; Nays: Biggs, Gallego, Gosar, Grijalva, O’Halleran, Sinema.

When you lose wingnuts like Biggs and Gosar on this vote, you know how “out there” supporter are (looking at you Lesko, McSally and Schweikert).

The Hill reports, Hardline immigration bill fails in the House:

Every Democrat and 41 Republicans voted against Goodlatte’s bill.

A second vote on the GOP compromise measure has been delayed until Friday as leaders seek to rally support for it.

There will also be a conference wide meeting on immigration at 4:30 p.m., which will give GOP leaders one last chance to rally the party around the legislation and convince the remaining holdouts to get on board with the plan.

The GOP compromise measure would provide a pathway to citizenship for up to 1.8 millions “Dreamers,” provide $25 billion for Trump’s border wall and other security measures, and prevent families from being separated at the border.

Good luck ever getting any of the House GOP Freedom Caucus to vote for a bill that provides a pathway to citizenship. AMNESTY! Never!

(Credit: This week’s cover of Time magazine)

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Trump flip-flops on immigration bill, using separated children as hostages for his border wall

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Yesterday morning, “President Trump said he would not sign a carefully crafted GOP bill addressing the predicament of Dreamers, news that caught House Republicans by surprise and left the legislation on life support.” Trump crushes hopes for compromise DACA plan. “I’m looking at both of them,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” aka “Trump TV” in an interview Friday morning from the White House lawn. “I certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”

By Friday evening, Trump had flip-flopped. White House says Trump backs GOP immigration bills, despite comments opposing them. One official says Trump misunderstood Fox News’ question.

The White House said Friday that President Trump supports House legislation that closely tracks his priorities on border security and limiting legal immigration, walking back comments he made on national television rejecting the GOP bill.

The reversal came after hours of confusion on Capitol Hill, where Trump’s words roiled an already fragile internal debate between conservative and moderate House Republicans who have been trying to find an immigration compromise after months of false starts.

“The president fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said, referring to legislation drafted by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and a separate compromise measure.

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GOP train wreck on immigration coming next week

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The other day I told you that the House schedules vote on two DACA bills destined to fail:

So now we have the hardline Goodlatte-MsSally bill from the GOP House Freedom Caucus, which does not have the votes to pass Congress, and a so-called GOP moderate bill still being drafted that will fall far short of the Dream Act and the bipartisan measure that couples a path to citizenship for Dreamers with beefed-up border security.

House Republicans have released a first draft of their new “compromise” immigration bill, the “Border Security and Immigration Reform Act.”

The nearly 300-page bill is one of two that the entire House will vote on next week. It is considered a GOP “moderate” alternative to the GOP conservative bill proposed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

Riiight.

The New York Times reports, House Immigration Bill, Pitched as Compromise, Tilts to a Harder Line:

The draft bill, circulating among lawmakers on Thursday afternoon and up for a vote next week, closely adheres to President Trump’s vision for an immigration overhaul. In addition to protecting the young immigrants, it provides billions of dollars for a wall on the southwest border while imposing new limits on legal immigration.

The bill would also toughen rules for asylum seekers. And it would address the separation of children from parents under the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings by mandating that families be kept together while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, according to a summary of the measure.

In effect, the measure would offer Democrats and immigration moderates in the Republican Party a difficult choice: accept hard-line changes to much of the immigration system in exchange for protections for young undocumented immigrants and what appears to be a modification of the wrenching policy of splitting up families at the border.

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The Road to a Democratic State Legislature Runs through Maricopa County  

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Democrats can win by focusing on 3 issues: public education, health care, and job creation, according to Maricopa County Democratic Party Chairman Steven Slugocki

Maricopa County in Arizona is the fourth largest populated county in the United States. The fifth largest city in the country, Phoenix is within its boundaries as are 20 of the 30 state legislative districts.

It is also the county that Maricopa County Democratic Party Chairman Steven Slugocki believes has the best chance of shifting the balance of power in the Arizona State Legislature from red to blue.

Slugocki, the county chairperson of the Democratic Party since December 2015, relayed that grassroots enthusiasm for the Democratic Party, fueled by frustrations with both the Governorship of Doug Ducey (and state legislature) and the Presidency of Donald Trump (and Republican Congress), has reached once unimaginable heights. Committing to an all-out voter outreach effort, Slugocki emphasized that the county will prioritize local races from the Governor’s race at the top of the ballot to the local school board elections. The County Democratic organization pledges to “contest and fight for every seat in every area of the county.”

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