Arizona Corporation Commission

Democratic team to run for Arizona Corporation Commission

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Former Arizona Corporation Commissioner Bill Mundell filed to run for the Arizona Corporation Commission on February 5.  Former state representative Tom Chabin also filed to run for the Arizona Corporation Commission on February 5.  Both are running as Democrats as a team, and both are running as Clean Election candidates. I do not find a … Read more

2015 was a big year for the GOP culture of corruption in Arizona

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The GOP culture of corruption in Arizona has produced a number of threads this year that are coming together at the end of the year. Other shoes are about to drop early in 2016 — lookin’ at you crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio.

Disgraced former congressman Rick Renzi has now exhausted all of his appeals and is finally serving time in prison after years of litigation. Ex-Arizona congressman Rick Renzi denied new trial:

MorgantownA federal judge on Wednesday denied a new trial for former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, who was convicted in 2013 of corruption, money laundering and other charges and is serving a three-year prison term.

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Renzi was convicted in 2013 of corruption, money laundering and other charges. An appeals court upheld the convictions last year, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in June.

Renzi began serving his sentence at the federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia, in February. Best Places To Go To Prison – Forbes.

The top political corruption story in Arizona in 2015 has been the melodrama playing out at the Arizona Corporation Commission.

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GOP Culture of Corruption: things just got real for Commissioner Susan Bitter-Smith

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The GOP culture of corruption at the Arizona Corporation Commission has been a soap opera for over a year now.  Tom Forese and Doug Little were elected to office last year with “dark money” from the state’s largest utility, APS, and its parent company Pinnacle West Capital Corp. The regulated purchased the regulators.

Screenshot from 2014-04-02 14:06:21In a related matter, Commissioner Bob Stump’s phone was seized for a forensic examination to recover emails and texts that may disclose illegal campaign coordination between Tom Forese and Doug Little and the GOP “dark money” organizations. The complaint is being pursued by the Checks and Balances Project.  Judge orders review of Stump’s text messages.

There has been the ongoing “dark money” disclosure dispute between some members of the Commission who want APS and Pinnacle West to come clean, and  Tom Forese and Doug Little who simply chant the Goldwater Institute’s magical mantra of “First Amendment free speech!” to justify political corruption and the Commission becoming a captive agency, bought by the utilities that it regulates. Regulator wants APS to disclose ‘dark money’ — well, not really — Montini: APS disclosure request is kind of a sham and Roberts: Burns’ request for APS disclosure is a joke.

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Grand Old Misogyny

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You’ve got to pity Rand Paul after Thursday night’s Fox “Fair and Balanced And Totally Not An Arm Of The GOP!” News Republican Presidential Primary debate. This is not just because of the embarrassing scuffle with Chris Christie. No, it’s more to do with Rand failing to be the natural successor to his dad Ron Paul as the “Ron Paul of 2016”. Paul père was never expected to win the nomination in either 2008 or 2012 but he did capture the enthusiasm of a sizable enough number of libertarian (mostly) dudebros to make a showing in both those primaries and dot the landscape with silly hand-painted looking signs. This was a sure path to Ron Paul’s lucrative retirement hawking financial scams.

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He’s baaaack! ‘Atomic Al’ Melvin is running for Corporation Commission

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Hey, Saddlebrooke! Your crazy neighbor Cap’n Al Melvin is baaaack! And he still wants to put a nuclear-waste processing plant in your backyard.

AtomicAlDavid Safier, when he was blogging here at Blog for Arizona, did a series of posts about “Atomic Al” Melvin and his connections to the nuclear power industry, and his desire to build a nuclear-waste processing plant in Arizona. Here is a sampling of his posts. A mind is a terrible thing to (nuclear) waste; Melvin’s Nukes for Schools bill passes in Energy Committee; Don’t worry, Atomic Al, you’ll always have Paris; Coverage of Atomic Al Melvin’s proposed nuclear waste dump; Atomic Al Melvin is baaack.

Jim Nintzel at the Tucson Weekly picked up Safier’s “Atomic Al” moniker in this post, How About We Put That Nuclear Plant in Your District, Sen. Melvin?

Just when you thought that we were finally done with this Teabagger, he’s back and running for the Arizona Corporation Commission, where he could have a real opportunity to pursue his nuclear dreams. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reported, Former state senator to run for Corporation Commission:

Former Republican state Sen. Al Melvin is running for the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Melvin, who served six years in the Senate before briefly running for governor in 2014, announced on Thursday that he would be seeking a spot on the commission, which has three seats up for grabs in the 2016 election.

The commission is in charge of regulating and setting rates for public utility companies, among other duties.

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