Outlaw Dirty Money

Arizona List Survey: Huge Voter Support for Stop Dirty Money & Invest in Ed Initiatives

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According to a new survey by the Arizona List:

  • Arizona Voters are strongly in favor of public initiatives to Stop Dirty Money and Invest in Ed.
  • Voters are divided on ballot initiatives to stop school vouchers (known as “Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.”)
  • There are three primary issues voters care about: comprehensive immigration reform including a pathway to citizenship, fully funding public education and affordable access to healthcare.

The Arizona List is a committee for pro-choice Democratic women in Arizona. The survey of 1,200 likely November 2018 voters in Arizona was conducted by veteran pollster Lisa Grove of Anzalone Liszt Grove research.

The results were shared exclusively with The Blog For Arizona. Subscribe to our blog at https://blogforarizona.net/subscribe-to-blog-for-arizona/

Popular initiatives

Stopping dirty money in politics is overwhelmingly popular with 78% of voters voting “yes.” Outlaw Dirty Money is an initiative that would change the Arizona constitution to say that any non-profit spending more than $10,000 on a political campaign would have to disclose donors who contribute at least $2,500.

Supporters say people should vote yes because it will increase transparency in our elections. It will require any front organization that gets money from the anti-consumer, anti-public school and anti-worker billionaires like the Koch brothers to disclose the original sources of the dark money.

65% of voters are in favor of the Invest In Ed initiative. It increases K-12 funding in the classroom, raises teacher and support staff salaries, and adds full-day kindergarten, by raising income taxes on individuals earning more than $250,000 and households earning more than $500,000.

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21 Year Retired Air Force Veteran Master Sergeant and Civic Activist Michelle Harris seeks to turn the LD 13 Senate Seat Blue in November

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Democratic LD 13 Senate Candidate Michelle Harris

With her husband as a campaign manager and 30 volunteers at her disposal, retired 21 Year Air Force Veteran Master Sergeant and local Civic Activist Michelle Harris is seeking the LD 13 Senate Seat this November in order to make it Blue. Her potential opponent, to be determined after the August 28 Primary, may be disgraced expelled State House Member Don Shooter. This well qualified and experienced Clean Elections candidate, with a compelling message and agenda, is one of many Democrats that will help shift the balance of power from Republicans in the November Elections.

Over water, coffee, croissants, and a very huge Blueberry Muffin at Mimi’s Café at Dysart and the I-10, Master Sergeant Harris enthusiastically relayed why she is the best candidate for the State Senate in LD 13 and the its residents whose territory stretches from Yuma in the South to Wickenburg in the North with parts or all of Glendale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Buckeye, and Avondale in between. Motivated to run because local state leaders from the district or the Corporation Commission did not take the time to address concerns in a either a timely (sewage rate increase) or any (school voucher expansion) manner, Harris wants to use the training and experience gained from her service in the Air Force to engage with all stakeholders on the needs of the district and solve problems in a consensus fashion. If she prevails this November, she will be the first Democrat in recent memory to win a legislative seat in this district.

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Lifting All People Up is the Goal of LD 15 State Senate Candidate Kristin Dybvig-Pawleko

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LD 15 State Senate Candidate Kristin Dybvig-Pawelko

After bearing the ravings of a “gentleman,” in desperate need of decaf coffee, going through drive-through rage at the Starbucks at Tatum and Paradise Village Gateway in Phoenix, Democratic Candidate Ms. Kristin Dybvig-Pawleko (pronounced Dib Vig Pa Welko) passionately framed why she is the best candidate to win the open State Senate Seat in Legislative District 15 this November.

A first-time Clean Elections candidate, running as a team with LD 15 State House candidate and fellow educator Jennifer Samuels, Dybvig-Pawleko wants to bring a community-minded consensus solution approach to governing that emphasizes lifting all people up by building up our public education system, infrastructure, local and state economies, and stopping gun violence.

LD 15 includes parts or all of Peoria, Phoenix, Cave Creek, Paradise Valley, and Deer Valley. Unlike recent past elections where there has been minimal or no Democratic presence, this year features three Democrats vying for the two State House seats in LD 15 and a very enthusiastic State Senate Candidate in Ms. Dybvig-Pawleko.

The Republican running in the State Senate Race is current LD 15 House incumbent Heather Carter, who according to Ms. Dybvig-Pawleko, is a “nice lady” but does not follow  what residents want her to do in the legislature. A Representative that follows the reactionary party line, Ms. Carter (also an educator) did not support any of the measures that would assist educators in the classroom and voted with her party in making the processing of ballot initiatives more difficult, a woman’s right to choose more intrusive, allowing gun sales without a background check, and repealing campaign reform measures such as the revealing of campaign donors.

Realizing that the actions of local and state officeholders in areas like education, infrastructure, and zoning, most impact the people, Ms. Dybvig-Pawleko sees her pragmatic progressive ideas and approach to problem-solving as the best ways to represent the people in LD 15 and move the district and state forward.

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Citizen Initiatives filed – now comes the challenges to keep them off the ballot

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Thursday was the filing deadline for citizens initiatives. Several hot-button initiatives were filed. If they survive signature verification and the inevitable lawsuits from well-funded special interest opponents, this year’s fall campaign will be dominated by a flood of “dark money” negative advertisements from corporate special interests and the Chambers of Commerce. Their privileged plutocrat attitude is that “We own this state! Who are the unwashed masses to tell us what we can do? You will obey!”

The AP reports, Arizona ballot initiatives focus on energy, school funding:

Thursday was the deadline for proposed ballot initiatives to file the hundreds of thousands signatures necessary to put a question on the ballot. Three groups of organizers trucked boxes full of petitions to the state Capitol.

The signatures still have to processed and verified. The Arizona Secretary of State’s office has 20 days to complete petition processing. Then counties have 15 days to verify signatures, followed by another three days for the Secretary of State to determine if the initiative qualifies.

Followed by the inevitable lawsuits from well-funded special interest opponents.

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How Candidates Ralph Atchue and Hollace Lyon will Flip the State Leglislature

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Ralph Atchue and Ret. Colonel Hollace Lyon, LD11 Democratic state legislature candidates.
Ralph Atchue and Ret. Colonel Hollace Lyon, LD11 Democratic state legislature candidates.

Democrats need to flip only two seats in the Arizona Senate and only five seats in State House for Democrats to get parity with the Republicans. Democratic candidates Ralph Atchue for State Senate and Retired Air Force Colonel Hollace Lyon for State House in LD11 spelled out the winning issues that will carry them into office in November.

They spoke recently at a rousing meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson.

  • Funding public education. “Access to quality public education is Arizona’s economic driver. The state has abdicated its responsibility to fund public education. It’s been left to cities, counties and school districts to raise taxes,” Atchue said.
  • Cutting corporate tax giveaways. “74% of corporations in Arizona pay the minimum of $50 a year in income tax,” Lyon said. “We have $12 to $14 billion that we’re giving away in tax loopholes in this state. The more companies we invite here, the more tax breaks we give them. We don’t put sunset clauses on our tax incentives. They’ve been accumulating for decades. We need to go back and see if they are still giving us a return on investment.”
  • Access to affordable healthcare. “We support opening up Medicaid, AHCCS (state health care coverage) and CHIP (children’s healthcare insurance). We’ve gotten locked into employer-controlled healthcare, and if we can start moving away from that and it would be a benefit,” Atchue said.
  • Jobs that pay well. “If you give a person a job where they feel good about themselves, they will become invested in the community and are better contributors. They feel a sense of dignity. It’s unfair to need three jobs to make ends meet. They never get enough time to spend with their kids. We need good jobs, fair wages, and a comprehensive program to let that happen to everybody,” Lyon said.
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They also called for Outlawing Dirty Money in campaign contributions and establishing real ethics in government. “The state doesn’t follow through on conflicts of interest. Andy Tobin was appointed to the Arizona “Corruption Commission” (Corporation Commission). His son works for one of the companies he oversees. This is a conflict of interest. So the state legislature decided to make an ethics decision and they changed the definition of conflict of interest to allow that,” Atchue said.

Atchue is an Air Force veteran and a seasoned campaigner, having worked in many Arizona political campaigns, for Ann Kirkpatrick, for Tom O’Halleran, and including his state senate run in 2016. Ralph is distinctly aware of the issues facing Arizona’s middle-class families and small business community and will work to rebuild the middle class.

Colonel Lyon commanded twice, served at NATO Headquarters in Belgium, as well as at the Pentagon. She served as a state senate campaign manager in 2012 and in 2014 and ran for the Legislature herself.  Lyon is serving her second term as Chair of the Saddlebrooke Democratic Club. Since 2015, she has also served as the Senior Vice Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.

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