David Schweikert

Doug Ducey

Prop 122 & Backers Ducey & Brnovich Are Too Extreme for Arizona

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Prop 122
Prop 122 would allow any Arizonan, the Arizona Legislature, or local law enforcement (like Sheriff Joe Arpaio) to determine the Constitutionality of federal laws.

Brought to you by the Goldwater Institute and the Koch Brothers, Proposition 122 is the worst idea since the Civil War, and true to form with other Koch Brothers initiatives, it is being sold to us with lies and dark money.

Prop 122 would amend the Arizona Constitution to: 1) confirm that both the state and federal governments must follow the US Constitution; 2) give “Arizona” the right to determine what is Constitutional (instead of the Supreme Court); and 3) give the state government authority to stop all levels of government (state, county, city, town or other political entity) from using personnel or finances to “enforce, administer or cooperate with a federal action or program if the people or their representatives have exercised their authority to restrict such action or use,” quoting Arizona’s Election Guide from the Secretary of State’s office.

In other words, if “the people or their representatives” decide that a federal law is unconstitutional, the state can stop, all levels of government in Arizona from cooperating with the federal government on that law.

This is sedition, it is un-American, and it is backed by our state’s Republican leadership, including gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey. attorney general candidate Mark Brnovich, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, disgraced former Senate President Russell Pearce, Republican Congressional representatives, and …

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‘Gale Force Progressives’ Weisser, Woods & Williamson Challenge Arizona’s Tea Party Congressmen

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Progressive Mikel Weisser-- from the Left Coast of Arizona-- is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.
Progressive Mikel Weisser– from the Left Coast of Arizona– is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.

Arizona’s Congressional delegation includes nine members of the House of Representatives: five Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1), Ron Barber (CD2), Raul Grijalva (CD3), Ed Pastor (CD7, retiring this year), and Kyrsten Sinema (CC9) and four Republicans Paul Gosar (CD4), Matt Salmon (CD5), David Schweikert (CD6), and Trent Franks (CD8).

At Blog for Arizona, we complain often and loudly about Blue Dog Democrats and their votes, but our country’s real enemy in the fight for freedom, democracy, and self determination is the Tea Party. They pontificate poetically about family values, but they vote for laws that deny food security, basic healthcare, quality education, and a living wage to millions of Americans. They talk about freedom, but they support for-profit mass incarceration and widespread surveillance of Americans– not to mention forcing us to live in fear due to lax gun laws. They wave the flag and promote patriotism, but they send soldiers to fight in useless wars and cut their benefits and ridicule them when they come home. And, above all, they spout folksy, vacuous platitudes, while they dutifully serve their corporate benefactors and ignore “the little guy”.

Arizona’s Republican Representatives in the House are full-fledged Tea Partiers. (In fact, Franks is one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to GovTrackUS.) In the 2014 elections, the “Gale Force Progressives”, Mikel Weisser, James Woods, and W. John Williamson, are challenging Arizona Teapublicans Gosar, Salmon, and Schweikert, respectively, for their Congressional seats.

“I knew it was an uphill battle when I started,” laughs Weisser. “It is about bringing a fight to GOP ideas I know are wrong for America. About stopping Republican terrorism and backwards thinking and working for a 21st century America.” (Public forum and candidate details after the jump.)

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AZ Reps. Grijalva and Barber Back Extension of ERA Ratification Deadline

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has received bipartisan support in the Arizona Legislature, but Arizona's Congressional delegation appears to be lagging behind. Of Arizona's 11 Senators and Representatives, only two–  Southern Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva (D- CD3) and Ron Barber (D- CD2)– have signed on to co-sponsor legislation to remove the ERA's ratification deadline.

There are two Congressional bills to remove the ratification deadline. In the House, HJ Res 43 has 104 cosponsors (including Grijalva and Barber), and in the Senate, SJ Res 15 has 34 cosponsors.

The ERA was introduced during every Congressional session between 1923 (when it was originally proposed) and 1972. It finally passed Congress nearly 70 years after it was originally introduced. In the 1970s, there was a ground war at the state level to get 38 state legislatures to ratify the ERA in order for it to become a Constitutional Amendment. The ERA fell 3 states short of ratification; Arizona is one of a handful of states that never ratified the ERA. (Contact and Twitter info for Arizona's Congressional delegation after the jump.)