Doug Ducey

They can dish it out but can’t take it

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Dish it out

If there’s one thing as constant as the sun rising over the Arizona desert every morning it is that Arizona conservatives love to rag on California. Since I moved here close to twenty years ago I’ve been hearing right wingers characterize California as the epitome of every bad liberal thing imaginable. If you are a Republican running for office it’s practically a requirement to dis those commies on the Left Coast and, if at all possible, paint your Democratic opponent as an effete “San Francisco Nancy Pelosi liberal”. Our current Governor Doug Ducey wasn’t shy about getting his digs in on the Golden State when he was running for election, insisting that companies were leaving California in droves due to its terrible business climate, a claim that was fact-checked and found wanting.

But California Governor Jerry Brown said something unflattering (and true) about Arizona so, of course, Arizona conservatives including the Governor had a giant stupid hissyfit over it.

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY REGARDING COMMENTS BY GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN

PHOENIX – “All of Arizona mourns for the victims in California. To politicize a tragedy of this magnitude and use it as an opportunity to attack our state is out of bounds. Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown’s advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments.”
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They all must look alike to Gov. Ducey

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY PHOENIX – “Given the horrifying events in Paris last week, I am calling for an immediate halt in the placement of any new refugees in Arizona. As governor, I am invoking our state’s right under 8 USC, Section 1522 (a), to receive immediate consultation by federal authorities … Read more

“It’s just a bunch of Mexican kids. Why should I pay for them?”

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

There’s something that feels very inevitable about the way this Arizona school funding “settlement” is playing out.

The plan ends a lawsuit filed by schools in 2010 after the Legislature stopped giving required yearly inflation increases to basic school funding. It would funnel $3.5 billion to K-12 schools over 10 years. About $2 billion comes from increasing land trust withdrawals, and the $1.4 billion from the state’s general fund. The deal also contained several triggers that would allow the Legislature to stop mandatory inflation boosts in tough economic times.

If passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, voters would have to approve the changes in a May special election.

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It’s nice in the privileged bubble

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Governor Ducey (or someone on his staff), in a manner consistent with the forced sunnily optimistic tone of his administration, praised this story in the Weekly Standard about a couple from the East Coast, author and neoconservative think tank associate Cita Stelzer and her husband, economist Irwin Stelzer, who are now snowbirds and having an idyllic time with the evangelical Christians in the outer suburbs of Phoenix.

We never thought we would find ourselves stocking a pantry in Arizona. But now that Phoenix is our winter base, there we were, on line at the deli counter of a supermarket located in one of the ubiquitous strip malls that we love because they are home to thrusting small businesses as well as huge anchor tenants like the store we were in. After waiting awhile, we realized we were in a take-a-number queue. We remedied the oversight and got number 61. We both remember it because of what followed. When a customer who’d arrived after us, but taken a number promptly, was called, she nodded toward us and told the clerk, “These people were here before me. They just forgot to take a number. So serve them first.”

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Stanford University vs the State of Arizona. A contrast in priorities.

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I accompanied Mark to his 1980 undergrad class reunion at Stanford this past weekend. It was my first visit to the campus and had me wishing I could commandeer a DeLorean to get me back to 1980s Donna Gratehouse (I’m still stuck on that decade lately) and get my teenage shit together so that I could be celebrating my 1990 graduation from that institution as well.

Mark and I ran into a former classmate of his, an Arizona native now living in Seattle, who said that outgoing Stanford President John L. Hennessy had visited Washington to raise funds for Stanford’s endowment and that Hennessy’s stated goal was in the billions. That’s with billions with a B. This is money going to one (admittedly excellent) college in California.

This is not wishful thinking on Hennessy’s part. Get a load of the cash Stanford has on hand:

Stanford endowment

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