Pima County Board of Supervisors cave in to “Don’t make me angry” Frank Antenori

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Un-freakin-believable! "Don't make me angry" Frank Antenori threatened, intimidated and extorted the Pima County Board of Supervisors into appointing him the next senator from District 30. These cowards caved in to his bullying behavior. Antenori appointed to state Senate post:

Frank Antenori is the new senator of District 30.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to appoint Antenori to the Senate seat formerly held by Jonathan Paton, who stepped down to run for U.S. Congress.

Supervisor Ray Carroll made the motion to promote Antenori.

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Supervisor Richard Elias, the sole opposing vote, said Antenori had threatened the board – a move that was "particularly sad" to see.

Antenori made public statements leading up to the vote that if the board did not honor the wishes of the district, then he wouldn't go out of the way to help the county at the Legislature.

The appointment will now trigger a vacancy in the House.

The Republican Legislative District 30 Precinct committeemen in Pima County will now hold yet another district election later this week to select three nominees to fill Frank Antenori's vacant House seat. If you want the job, apparently all you have to do is threaten, intimidate and extort the cowardly Pima County Board of Supervisors.

[Update: House leadership has asked Antenori to delay his resignation to vote on some matters including possibly the budget. The district election for the House seat will be delayed until Antenori has resigned.]

And don't give me the line about Antenori was the top vote getter on Sunday. When Gabriel Giffords stepped down to run for Congress, the top voter getter in LD 28 was Rep. David Bradley. Paula Aboud was appointed Senator. When Lena Saradnik stepped down for health reasons, the top vote getter in LD 26 was Don Jorgensen. Nancy Young Wright was appointed to the House seat.

Special thanks to intrepid citizen reporter AZW88 who was at the District 30 election on Sunday to videotape the speeches. All of the speeches will be posted to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAZW88 Here is Frank Antenori's speech.