My take on Republicans’ push to end merit system hiring

by David Safier

A bit of shameless self promotion here. My latest column in the Explorer (I'm down to once a month, sadly) is about the AZ Republicans' push to bring the bad old days of the Spoils System back to town.

Here's a sampler. The whole column gives a bit of valuable history — and an interesting little Russell Pearce tidbit — as well.

The bad old days of the Spoils System could be returning to a state or local government near you if Governor Brewer and Republican legislators have their way. Brewer has been making noises about calling a special session as soon as October to end Arizona’s merit protection system.

[snip]

As anyone who reads this column knows, I’m a proud, partisan Democrat. But I want to make clear the merit protection system isn’t a Republicans versus Democrats issue. It’s about good government versus corruption.

Some of the worst abusers of the 19th century Spoils System were Democrats. Think New York’s Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall political machine. Here in Arizona, it was the Republicans who were the good government, merit-system reformers. Our state legislature was mostly controlled by Democrats until the mid-1960s, and Republicans, who had recently come into power and had felt the sting of a political patronage system, changed things for the better in 1969.

But power corrupts, and after 46 years in control of the legislature, Republicans today are a different breed from their 1960s predecessors. They want to wipe out the merit system so they can extend their political reach beyond the Capitol Building and into nonpartisan agencies of government.

[snip]

Since the 1980s, Republicans nationwide have run on the campaign slogan, “Government doesn’t work.” If they give themselves free rein to hire campaign donors, political hacks and ne’er-do-well friends and relations, they’ll be able to prove their point every day of the year. With “at-will hiring,” government will run at the will, and the whim, of those in power.