Koch Brothers

Tea Party

2010 Arizona Tea Party Dream Team: 4 Down, 1 to Go

by

Oh, boo, hoo. The Blog for Arizona commenters think I am being too tough on poor millionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey. Let’s not forget that Ducey– along with fellow Teapublicans Governor Jan “Papers Please” Brewer, Department of Education Superintendent John “Thucydides” Huppenthal, Ken “Birther” Bennett, and Tom “Banned for Life by the SEC” Horne— were … Read more

Top 10 Reasons Doug Ducey Is Too Extreme for Arizona Voters

by
The Koch Brothers support Doug Ducey for Arizona governor.
The Koch Brothers support Doug Ducey for Arizona governor.

After seven months of mud-slinging in a six-way primary race that looked like a remake of Lord of the Flies, multi-millionaire ice cream mogul Doug Ducey has won the Arizona Republican Party’s nomination for governor.

Ducey’s sugary sweet interview with AZCentral this morning made it sound as if he’s already been elected governor, but there’s another election in November, and Democrats statewide are pulling out all the stops to get their candidate, Fred DuVal, elected.

Unfortunately for Tea Partiers in the great state of Maricopa, polls show that: 1) the match-up between Ducey and DuVal is a dead heat and 2) Ducey’s anti-Medicaid-expansion, anti-Obamacare, anti-abortion, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-gay-marriage, anti-common-core, pro-Koch-Brothers platform is not aligned with Arizona voters’ issues.

Don’t let Ducey’s charming aw-shucks, Leave-It-to-Beaver persona fool you. He runs with a tough crowd of right-wing ideologues. You can tell a lot about a person’s true character by looking at the company he keeps. Consequently, the company Ducey keeps weighs heavily in my Top 10 Reasons Why Doug Ducey Is Too Extreme for Arizona…

Read more

Progressives Shut Out of Koch Brothers Medicaid Forum

by

Loft2013-03-07-2-sm72-sigby Pamela Powers Hannley

Thanks to publicity on this blog, social media, and e-mail blasts, progressives and other Democrats came to the Americans for Prosperity "public forum" on Medicaid expansion last night at The Loft Cinema. Too bad we couldn't get in.

Approximately 20 pro-healthcare reform advocates, plus six journalism students, and two bloggers were shut out of the tightly controlled forum. In addition, City Councilman Steve Kozachik was "uninvited" to participate in the panel. Although public announcements of the event in the Tucson Weekly, the Arizona Daily Star, and the Pima County GOP website didn't say that reservations were required, the only people who were admitted were those who RSVP'd to the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity e-mail blast, linked to this article.

The only two members of Progressive Democrats of American (PDA) Tucson who were admitted are both doctors. (Of course, they were not wearing PDA Healthcare Not Warfare stickers. None of us holding the banner in front of The Loft or trying to distribute Healthcare Not Warfare stickers got in.)

After the jump, read a first hand account by Dr. Eve Shapiro, head of PDA Tucson's healthcare reform issue organizing team, and more about Koz and job creation with Medicaid expansion.

Sonoran Alliance says ‘grassroots effort’ (not dark money) defeated Props 121 &204

by

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Sonoran Alliance— a conservative mouthpiece– has reported that a "strong grassroots effort" by staunch Arizona conservatives defeated Proposition 121 (open primaries) and Proposition 204 (permanent 1 cent sales tax to fund education) in the recent election.

The video accompanying the story features dark money king Robert Graham lauding volunteers for making phone calls, writing letters, and talking to their friends about the two propositions and thus triumphing on election day.

This a great fairy tale to make the base feel good. Too bad it's not true.

Both propositions were defeated by huge dark money donations by Americans for Responsible Leadership, who funneled $900,000 in out-of-state money into Arizona to defeat Prop 204 and $600,000 to defeat Prop 121. The same group also funneled $11 million worth of dark money into two California campaigns.  Talking Points Memo reported that Americans for Repsonsible Leadership admited to "campaign money laundering" related to the California donations. 

Former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams is the president of Americans for Responsible Leadership, and Graham is the director. Graham has a vested interest in making Arizona's Republicans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He wants to be their next statewide chair. 

Having a dark money Koch Brothers puppet as head of the Arizona Republican Party– now that is scary. Watch the Graham video after the jump.

Tucson Progressive Film Festival: 6 films: 3 days: $15

by

Progressive Democrats of America Tucson Chapter is teaming up with Tucson MoveOn.org and The Screening Room to host a weekend of progressive films, this weekend, October 26-28. Six films on wide-ranging topics from the Koch Brothers to urban farming will be aired. You can come to one film or buy a weekend pass for only … Read more