Cheryl Cage ran unsuccessfully twice against Senator Al Melvin for his seat in LD 26 in 2008 and 2010. She recently chaired the successful campaign of LD 9 House Rep. Dr. Randy Friese in Nov. 2014 (and had chaired former LD 26 Rep. Lena Saranik’s successful campaign as well in 2006). This recent win in LD 9 was an upset over incumbent Republican Rep. Ethan Orr.
She succeeds former Chair Don Jorgensen, as she was elected at the 2015 Pima County Reorganizational Meeting today. Here’s her resume:
The AZ GOP sent out a strange message that looks like a cross between their Chairman Robert Graham spiking the football post election and some sage advice for the AZ Democrats.
Ten Reasons Arizona Democrats are Disenchanted
Arizona Democrats suffered crippling losses in the 2014 election, failing on an even grander scale than in their 2010 and 2012 losses. In addition to losing a congressional seat and falling short, again, in efforts to win a single statewide office, one must explore how the party that promised the world ended up delivering nothing, and then some. After repeated disasters at the polls Democrats must be pretty disenchanted. Could their demise have been prevented? Let’s take a look.
Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
I recently had this little dudebro who supports Ethan Orr (R-Tucson) for reelection to LD09 House mansplain to me how Orr’s motivation for voting for HB2284 this past session, which would allow surprise warrantless inspections on abortion clinics, was “reasonable”, as if those of us who were angered by it were being hysterical overreacting bitches.
Welp.
NARAL AZ, and its Executive Director Kat Sabine, are being represented by the ACLU in their complaint against the Arizona Department of Health Services. Here is their press release:
Arizona Health Officials Cannot Use Inspections for Intimidation, Harassment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014CONTACT: Steve Kilar, ACLU of Arizona, 602-773-6007, skilar@acluaz.org
PHOENIX – Following a threat by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) to search the home of a reproductive rights leader, the ACLU of Arizona is demanding records that will help establish whether intimidation tactics are routinely being used by the department against reproductive health service providers.
Governor Jan Brewer is flooding Tucson’s legislative district 9 race with $101,000 to buy the seat for Republican Ethan Orr. In addition to the Brewer donations, 63% of Orr’s $49,000 has come from from dark money donors. In comparison, challenger Dr. Randy Friese has raised $115,000 in the same time period, with only 3% coming from political action committees (PAC).From the Friese campaign…
Brewer PAC floods LD-9 with over $100,000 in dark money
Clear struggle between grass roots voter support and dark money influences
Tucson, Arizona — Numbers posted today on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website show that Governor Jan Brewer has pumped over $101,000 in independent expenditures into the LD-9 race in hopes of purchasing the seat for the Republican candidate, Ethan Orr. This money comes from Arizona’s Legacy, Brewer’s Political Action Committee.
“This seems to show a great level of desperation,” said Cheryl Cage, campaign manager for Democratic candidate Dr. Randy Friese, “and we view this as an indication that polls being conducted by the Republicans are showing that this seat is highly competitive. It is equally interesting that Orr touts himself as a moderate, but is supported by a Governor that issues press releases that state the marriage equality ruling is ‘disappointing and deeply disturbing’.
Of the $49,288 Orr has raised by himself during this cycle (since Jan 1 2014) over $31,000 has come from other PAC donations.
Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
I learned via good sources on Facebook earlier that the Human Rights Campaign of Arizona has decided to endorse incumbent Ethan Orr (R) along with Dr. Randall Freise (D) for Legislative District 9. It’s bad enough they are snubbing Orr’s seatmate Victoria Steele (D) but they are throwing their support to a guy who has a lousy voting record on human rights issues. (CORRECTION: I have since learned that HRC AZ is endorsing Steele. They picked Orr over Friese.)
I understand that Orr is nominally pro-LGBT rights and, who knows, maybe he has finally come out in support of marriage equality. HRC AZ may be rewarding him for voting against SB1062 (not that it mattered since the bill passed anyway). If that’s the case, I would urge extreme caution about that. Ethan Orr strongly opposes a woman’s right to choose, which should be upsetting enough if you believe that human rights should be a full meal for all, not a cafeteria plan for some. But what that also means is that if/when SB1062 comes back, it will be (as I’ve explained many times) disguised as a “Hobby Lobby”-type measure. They’ll just say the magic word “abortifacients” and Ethan Orr will be on board. Thus, he really cannot be pro-LGBT if he is also anti-choice.