Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
It looks like the GOP majority in the AZ Legislature has figured out what the real “dark money” problem in our state is. Apparently, it’s with the $5 qualifying contributions to Clean Elections candidates made in cash. Lord only knows where that money has been!
Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
On Wednesday a bunch of nuisances with way too much time on their hands and a burning desire to meddle in your personal life on behalf of Jesus will descend upon the Arizona State Capitol.
Sounds like a barrel of laughs but I’ll pass. This event coincides with a Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing where they will be voting on SB1318, which is yet another attempt to restrict abortion under the guise of “safety”. The bill requires all doctors performing abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Like all other TRAP laws, admitting privileges are a complete crock of crap, as Imani Gandy explains in RH Reality Check:
Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
Per Howie Fischer:
He admits the plan is a political longshot.
But Rep. Mark Cardenas, D-Phoenix, hopes to convince colleagues to approve legalizing marijuana for recreational use by adults, if for no other reason than the alternative is having voters adopt their own plan. And if that happens, that locks lawmakers out of the process entirely.
His legislation, HB 2007, would make it legal for those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of the drug…
…What might fare better is Cardenas’ backup plan: HB 2006 would decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, imposing a civil penalty of no more than $100.
Now, possession of any amount is a felony, meaning more than a year in state prison.
But these are usually handled as misdemeanors. And a 1996 voter-approved law generally precludes incarceration for first and second offenses.
“I’m willing to look at that,” Farnsworth said. But he said any decision whether to even grant that a hearing depends on whether police and prosecutors believe such a change will impair their anti-drug efforts.
This story leads off with the anchor being shocked (!) and the reporter, on location in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix, holding up a flyer for a missing dog. He acts incredulous that people would be looking for a dog, when a woman apparently abandoned her baby to a stranger in the same neighborhood. The woman, Jennifer Argo, who had the baby handed off to her is indignant about it. “She makes me sick. Uh, I mean, I’m a mother of three! You know, I just could never imagine handing my child off to somebody and saying, ‘here’.”
Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com
I got forwarded an email by a Dem consultant earlier. It was an exchange between a Dem campaign manager and an editor at the AZ Republic. I’m not calling this particular editor out because this is endemic problem at the paper and it is clearly coming from the top. Here’s the editor’s brusque reply to the manager’s query about general election endorsements:
We are not endorsing any legislative races in the general election. It’s a matter of staffing, time and resources.
Oh really? They had plenty of staff, time, and resources to devote to endorsing in the primaries, not to mention endless op-eds hand-wringing over them and cajoling those precious “independent” voters to ride in and save “moderate” Republicans. And now they don’t have anything to spare for general races? Not even for the handful of competitive ones like the House races in LD9, 18, and 28 (apologies if I’m forgetting other LDs)? This is not only unfair to Democrats who didn’t have primaries, thus never got interviewed for the primary endorsement, but it is incredibly dismissive of the majority of voters who show up for the general election. Basically the Republic is telling the general voters in LD28 that there’s no difference between Dr. Eric Meyer (D) and former Rick Santorum staffer and Tea Party darling Shawnna Bolick (R). Same goes in LD18 for teacher and community leader Mitzi Epstein (D) and Jill Norgaard (R), who is so rabidly anti-choice she doesn’t even support exceptions for the life of the woman, as well as Dr. Randall Friese (D), the surgeon who saved Congresswoman Giffords’ life and who is running to be a strong advocate for health care and Ethan Orr (R), who (yes) is not the worst Republican in the Legislature but that’s hardly high praise.
