Tag Archives: mitzi epstein

Jennifer Jermaine Campaigns for an Inclusive Progressive Vision in LD18

Posted on October 10, 2018 by David Gordon | Leave a comment

Democratic LD 18 State House Candidate Jennifer Jermaine

One of the reasons Democrats are poised to make gains in the State Legislature in 2018 is the recruitment of stellar and compelling candidates to run for the Senate and House. One of these candidates is Legislative District 18 candidate Jennifer Jermaine who is running to replace Republican Incumbent State House Representative Jill Norgaard, a conservative who subscribes to the failed trickle-down theory of economic and social justice policy.

Arizona LD 18 includes all or parts of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, and Ahwatukee. It is one of several districts that have become increasingly blue. Republicans are no longer the number one political party in the district. Currently, Democrat Mitzi Epstein is the other current State House incumbent from the district and fellow Democrat Sean Bowie is the current State Senator from this area.

Previously profiled for Blog of Arizona along with Representative Epstein, Ms. Jermaine agreed to a follow-up interview where she responded to questions on the issues she was running on and the state of her campaign.

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Democratic Candidate Profiles to consider when voting this month

Posted on August 22, 2018 by David Gordon | 1 comment

Dear reader,

Below are the links to the profiles of Democratic Candidates interviewed up until August 21, 2018. Future profiles will be added for study. Please use this valuable resource to help make the best-informed choice when you vote in August either via a mail-in ballot or in person on August 28, 2018. Above all, please do not forget to vote. There are many exceptional Democratic candidates to consider so please take the time to vote for the ones that you feel will best move your local community and the state forward.

Federal elections

Statewide elections

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Posted in Abortion, Activism, Arizona Congressional Delegation, Arizona Congressional Races, Arizona State Legislature, Ballot Referendas and Initiatives, Budgets, Campaigns, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Commentary, Community, Corruption, Counties, Courts, Crime, David Gordon, Debates, Economics, Editorial, Education, Elections, Endorsements, Energy, environment, Ethics, Gun Policies, Healthcare, History, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Justice, Labor, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Lobbying, Maricopa, Mexico Border, Party Politics, Pima, Political Calendar, Political Events, Polling, Poverty, Primaries, Propositions, Science, Taxes, Transportation, Tucson, Water

Tagged Anita Malik, Bill Pierce, Christine marsh, Daniel Valenzuela, David Schipara, Dr. Bradley Hughes, Elizabeth Brown, Eric Kurland, Hollace Lyon, January Contreras, jennifer jermaine, Jennifer Longdon, Jennifer Pawlik, Jennifer Samuels, Joe Bisaccia, julie gunnigle, kate gallego, Kathy Hoffman, Kiana Sears, Kristin Dybvig-Pawleko, ladawn stuben, Mark Manoil, Michelle Harris, mitzi epstein, Ralph Atchue, Roberta Miller, Sharon Stinard, Steve Farley, Steve Weichert, tonya macbeth

“The Blue Wave Starts Here” as Maricopa County Democrats Gather at the Summer Convention

Posted on July 2, 2018 by David Gordon | Comments Off

Photo courtesy of Maricopa County Democratic Party

About 700 excited and enthusiastic Democratic activists, including many candidates, precinct captains, and Legislative District chairpersons, filled the auditorium at the Performing Arts Center of Horizon High School in Paradise Valley on June 30 to attend the Summer Convention of the Maricopa Democratic Party.

They heard speakers including the County Party Leadership, Maricopa County State Representatives Kelli Butler and Mitzi Epstein, House Representative Ruben Gallego, the three Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates (Farley, Fryer, and Garcia), Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, and Guest Speaker Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Maricopa County Democratic Party Chair Steven Slugocki speaking at June 30 Maricopa County Summer Convention; photo courtesy of Maricopa County Democratic Party.

The gathered assemblage conveyed an optimistic mood, cheering when Maricopa County Party Leader Steven Slugocki proclaimed that the “Blue Wave starts here” in the “largest Battleground County.”

He happily reported that the Democratic Party has surged in growth since 2016, citing examples of the quadrupling in the number of Precinct Captains in some Legislative Districts (with LD 18, for example exploding with 254 of which I have to disclose I am one) and legislative offices.

Slugocki also relayed that there has been a surge in the number of candidates. In 2014, the Democrats recruited 55 people to run and there were some positions where Republicans ran unopposed, today there are 75 people running and all legislative offices are being contested. LD 23 was singled out for being the district that gathered the most ballot signatures and LD 12 for the most voter registrations.

Read: LD 23 State House Candidate Eric Kurland sees 2018 as a Referendum on Public Education.

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Posted in Abortion, Activism, Arizona Congressional Delegation, Arizona Congressional Races, Arizona State Legislature, Ballot Referendas and Initiatives, Budgets, Campaigns, Civil Rights, Commentary, Community, Congress, Constitution, Convention, Corruption, Counties, Courts, Crime, David Gordon, Debates, Drug Policy, Economics, Editorial, Education, Elections, Endorsements, Energy, environment, Ethics, Gender Equality, GOP War On..., Governor, Gun Policies, Healthcare, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, International, Justice, Labor, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Lobbying, Maricopa, Mexico Border, Military, Party Politics, Political Events, Polling, Poverty, President, Primaries, Propositions, Racism, Science, Taxes, Transportation, Veterans, Water

Tagged Adrian Fontes, David Garcia, Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, Eric Kurland, Jeff Merkley, jennifer jermaine, Jennifer Pawlik, Jennifer Samuels, Joe Downs, Kathy Hoffman, Kelli Butler, Kelly Fryer, Kiana Sears, Miguel Medrano, mitzi epstein, ruben gallego, Steve Farley, Steve Slugocki

Fully Funding Education is the Top Issue as LD 18 Democrats look to take both State Representative Seats in 2018

Posted on May 15, 2018 by David Gordon | Comments Off

State Representative Mitzi Epstein

Education, Education, Education. That is the top issue for all three candidates competing for the two Representative seats for LD 18 as they vie to continue the trajectory of making this district increasingly blue in this year’s election.

As reported in a previous overview of LD 18, it is a district that includes Ahwatukee-Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler, and Mesa. Socioeconomically, it is a mostly upper-middle-class district. It is where the main campus of Mesa Community College is located as well as technology powerhouses GoDaddy and Intel.

Jennifer Jermaine

Until recently, the district has predominately elected Republican candidates for its local seats. Democrats made their first electoral gains in the district this decade with victories for State Senator Sean Bowie and State Representative Denise “Mitzi” Epstein in 2016.

The party hopes to continue this trend by re-electing Bowie and Epstein to their current positions and electing either Jennifer Jermaine or LaDawn Stuben who will run against Republican State Representative incumbent Jill Norgaard.
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Posted in Activism, Announcement, Arizona State Legislature, Ballot Referendas and Initiatives, Budgets, Campaigns, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Commentary, Community, Corruption, Counties, David Gordon, Debates, Drug Policy, Economics, Editorial, Education, Election Integrity, Elections, Energy, environment, Ethics, Gender Equality, Governor, Gun Policies, Healthcare, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Justice, Labor, Law Enforcement, Legislation, Maricopa, Mexico Border, Party Politics, Political Calendar, Political Events, Polling, Poverty, Racism, Taxes, Uncategorized

Tagged jennifer jermaine, ladawn stuben, mitzi epstein, sean bowie

#TaxCuts & Deregulation: How Did Your #AZHouse Rep Vote?

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Pamela Powers Hannley | 1 comment

Speaker J.D. Mesnard visits the desks of Republican members who have not voted yet.

The volume of bills heard in the Arizona House this past week was down significantly from the crossover week flurry, but we still voted on some doozies.

Tax cuts, sales tax giveaways, deregulation on the edge of risky business, “efficiency savings,” and miscellaneous wacky bills abound.

The capital gains tax cut, which benefited only the wealthiest Arizonans, was a party line vote, with all of the Republicans voting for tax cuts for the 1%. Other than that, the tax giveaways have passed with bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition. Votes shift here and there depending upon the cost of the tax giveaway and the stated beneficiary, but the most consistent votes against giving away taxes are cast by Progressives and Libertarians– the same people who killed several tax giveaway bills in 2017. Several of these votes can be seen below the fold and in my Marijuana to Bump Stocks to Tax Giveaways: How did your #AZHouse Rep Vote? blog post from last week.

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Posted in Arizona State Legislature, Constitution, Debates, Economics, Elections, Ethics, IOKIYAR, Legislation, Pamela Powers Hannley, Taxes

Tagged Arizona Legislature, Dr. Randy Freise, mitzi epstein, pamela powers hannley, Paul Mosley, Tony Rivero

AZ Republic won’t endorse in any Legislative race in the general election

Posted on September 19, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie | 5 comments

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. Continue reading →