Arizona Corporation Commission

Arizona races still too close to call (Updated for Saturday Counts)

by

At the close of counting ballots on Friday evening, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has expanded her lead in the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Kathy Hoffman has expanded her lead in the Superintendent of Public Instruction race, Democrat Sandra Kennedy has now opened a slight lead for the second seat in the Arizona Corporation Commission race, and Democrat Katie Hobbs has significantly closed the gap in the Secretary of State race. When all the votes are finally counted, we may actually have some Democratic winners after all.  Count all the votes! And be prepared for a recount, or two.

According to the Data Guru, there are still 370,000 ballots left to be counted statewide, 266,000 of those in Maricopa County and 60,000 in Pima County.

Screen Shot 2018-11-10 at 4.53.41 AM

U.S. Senate (open)

Kyrsten Sinema (R)        991,443
Martha McSally  (D)       971,331
Angela Green (GRN)       46,820

Sinema leads by 20,112

Secretary of State

Steve Gaynor (R)            989,749
Katie Hobbs (D)             979,053

Gaynor leads by 10,696

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Kathy Hoffman (D)       986,355
Frank Riggs (R)             954,546

Hoffman leads by 31,809

Corporation Commission (2 seats)

Justin Olson (R)             901,690
Sandra Kennedy (D)     899,847
Rodney Glassman (R)  898,245
Kiana Sears (D)              837,552

Kennedy leads by 1,602 for the second seat

Ballots will be counted until Wednesday, November 14. Stay tuned.

Read more

Preliminary Results Arizona State Candidates 2018

by

It appears that GOP tribalism coupled with a statewide GOP voter registration edge of over a 100,000 registrants is still all it takes to win statewide races in Arizona.

Well, that and massive amounts of “dark money” from out of state anonymous sources.

Republicans appear to have won all the statewide offices, but the Superintendent of Public Instruction race remains too close to call.

Democrats appear to have picked up some seats in the Arizona House. Several races remain too close to call, and there are reportedly over 500,000 ballots yet to be be verified and counted.

Democrats may have narrowed the GOP margin in the legislature, which could force the GOP leadership to negotiate and compromise with the Democratic leadership to pass legislation, instead of simply ignoring Democrats and the constituents they represent. This is a good thing.

Current estimated voter turnout is 46.67%. When more than half of registered voters cannot take the time to fill out a ballot — not including the large number of eligible voting age persons not registered to vote — the health of our democracy is in serious jeopardy. You have to do better Arizona!

(These are the overnight numbers).

Governor

Doug Ducey (R)               57.8%
David Garcia (D)             40.2%

Secretary of State

Steve Gaynor (R)             51.3%
Katie Hobbs (D)              48.7%

Attorney General

Mark Brnovich (R)          53.4%
January Contreras (D)   46.6%

Read more

Democrats arrive late, but ‘blue wave’ momentum is building

by

Anyone who has ever been active in Democratic Party politics knows that Democrats always arrive late and no event ever starts on time.

After a slow start in early mail-in ballot returns in the first couple of weeks of early voting, for which I chastised you, Democrats finally started showing up late in the final week of early voting. Keep it up through Election Day.

Arizona Democrats have seen a massive surge in early voting over the past week, bolstering predictions for a “blue wave” in Tuesday’s elections. ‘The blue wave is real’: Arizona Democrats see major surge in early voting turnout:

Early ballot returns released Friday [Secretary of State Early Ballot Statistics] show Democrats are on track to narrow the voter-participation gap with Republicans to its lowest level in any midterm election in recent history.

That surge in Democratic participation could help the party flip close races or win contests for the U.S. Senate, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction.

Democrats had significantly lagged Republicans when early ballot returns started coming in three weeks ago, leading some to speculate that the blue wave had crested.

Screen Shot 2018-11-03 at 7.20.33 AM

But that changed over the past week as Democrats shaved the GOP’s early-vote advantage to less than 8 percentage points. Republicans typically have a 12 percentage-point turnout edge in midterm elections.

Read more

The Arizona Republic: No on Prop. 127 (vote yes)

by

The Arizona Republic recommends a “no” vote on the Clean Energy For A Healthy Arizona initiative, Prop. 127. Prop. 127, Arizona’s renewable energy initiative, comes down to just 4 words:

One day Arizona will be powered by the sun.

We enjoy such abundant natural light that we seem destined to throw a harness around the sun and use it to pull the greater share of our state economy.

But that day is not here. Not yet.

For now we are moving in the direction of the sun with new knowledge and new technology.

Crusaders for clean power have put on this year’s ballot a proposal to massively accelerate Arizona’s ascension to virtually 100-percent clean energy. But there are reasons to doubt it.

Because there is an entrenched carbon monopoly and special interest “dark money” from APS, its parent company Pinnacle West, and the “Kochtopus” organizations which have bought GOP candidates and captured the Arizona Corporation Commission.

What would Proposition 127 do?

Utilities are now under Arizona Corporation Commission mandate to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

Proposition 127 would bump up those requirements to 50 percent by 2030, an increase the utilities say would greatly increase costs that would then be passed on to ratepayers.

Note: California law already requires at least 50 percent of the state’s electricity to come from noncarbon-producing sources by 2030. California took a giant step this past May, by becoming the first state to require all new homes to be fitted for solar power. California Will Require Solar Power for New Homes. The Clean Energy For A Healthy Arizona initiative is not nearly as ambitious.

Read more

Preliminary Primary Results: State Offices

by

 Votes are still being counted, but the primary election is mostly over. Some races are still as yet too close to call.

According to the Secretary of State, voter turnout was a shamefully pathetic 25.82%. You are an embarrassment to democracy, Arizona. You have to start doing better.

Incumbent Secretary of State Michelle Reagan, incumbent Corporation Commissioner Tom Forese, and apparently incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Dianne Douglas, three highly controversial figures, have been defeated in their GOP primary.

Citizens Clean Elections candidate (CCE).

Arizona Legislature

District 1

Jo Craycraft (D) Senate (CCE)
Karen Fann (R) Senate

Ed Gogek (D) House (CCE)
Jan Manolis (D) House (CCE)
Noel Campbell (R) House
David Stringer (R) House

Read more