Outlaw Dirty Money

LD 12 Democratic Candidate Joe Bisaccia sees the 2018 Election as “A Campaign about the Future Versus the Preserving the Past.”

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LD 12 Democratic State House Candidate Joseph Bisaccia

Over coffee and ice water at the Old Town Gilbert café Bergies Coffee, energetic and idealistic Democratic State House Clean Election Candidate Joe Bisaccia outlined his vision for how he would represent LD 12 if he won one of the two State House seats this November.

Bisaccia is one of many educators, inspired by the poor educational policies advanced by the reactionary Republican State Legislature along with the teacher-led Red for Ed Movement, who want to lead a pro-education campaign all the way to State House.

Arizona LD 12 includes parts or all of Gilbert, Queen Creek, and San Tan Valley. Eddie Farnsworth and Travis Grantham now represent the district in the State House. Mr. Bisaccia is one of three Democratic Candidates (the others being Lynsey Robinson and DJ Rothans) running to take one of those House seats. This is a great example of Democratic enthusiasm this election year because Democrats have not fielded candidates in the State House Race for this Legislative District in two out of the last three elections.

Bisaccia sees this race as “a campaign about the future versus the preserving the past” and is running on the issues of education, technology, jobs, and tax reform to advance a pragmatic liberal progressive agenda.

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Damning Polls: 59% of All Arizona Voters Reject Gov. Doug Ducey

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Gov. Doug Ducey is a stooge of the Koch Brothers, who fund him with Dark Money and instruct him on how to destroy life in Arizona.
Gov. Doug Ducey is a stooge of the Koch Brothers, who fund him with dark money and instruct him on their anti-education agenda.

In a stunning new poll of Arizona voters, 59 percent of Republicans, Independents and Democrats combined said that they want someone else to lead the state besides incumbent Doug Ducey.

Only 26 percent of voters said Ducey should serve another term and 15 percent said they were unsure in the new June 26, 2018, NBC-Marist poll.

Confirming how fed up Arizonans are with Gov. Ducey, a June 25 Emerson College ePoll reports that Ducey has a lower approval rating (31%) than President Trump (43%) in Arizona and that a majority of voters (64%) think education funding is not enough.

Devastated public schools

Under Ducey, Arizona ranks 48th for public school funding and dead last in the nation for teacher pay. Arizona has cut more from education funding than any other state in the nation, a decline of more than 35%.

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The Outlaw Dirty Money initiative needs your petition signatures now!

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There is slightly less than two weeks for the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative to collect enough signature to qualify for the ballot in November. If any of you slackers have not yet signed the petition, you need to do it now! Turn in your petitions.

Terry Goddard and Vernon Parker write at the Arizona Daily Sun, Guest Column: We can’t get rid of dirty money unless it makes the ballot:

We are in the crucial final days of an effort to give voters the opportunity to clean house when it comes to dirty political spending. The people of Arizona should have the right to know the real source of all money spent to influence our vote.

Right now petitions are being circulated to get the “Stop Political Dirty Money Amendment” on the November ballot. If voters approve, the measure would amend the Arizona constitution to require public disclosure of any contributor who spends $2,500 or more to influence an election during a two-year cycle, even if that contribution was passed through a third-party organization.

For a state with so much sunshine, we seem to be in the dark when it comes to transparency in political spending. Anonymous political spending has tainted politics in Arizona and allowed deep pocket donors to influence our elections while hiding their involvement. No matter who is doing it, on the right or on the left, it’s wrong.

Whether you call it Dark Money or Dirty Money, most Arizonans agree it needs to go away. But, our measure to make election spending more transparent won’t make it to the ballot box without the signatures of 225,000 Arizona voters by July 5th. We are on track to meet that number if lots of work gets done in these final weeks. We are just asking for the opportunity to put this before the voters in November. There’s information available about the initiative and where to sign petitions at www.OutlawDirtyMoney.com.

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Pawlik and Weichert Offer a Progressive Problem Solving Vision for LD 17

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AZ LD 17 State House Candidate Jennifer Pawlik

Over iced tea and ice water at the Starbucks in Chandler, LD 17 Democratic House Candidate Jennifer Pawlik and LD 17 Democratic Senate Candidate Steve Weichert enthusiastically discussed their united vision for taking care of children in poverty, who have been largely forgotten by the current Republican LD state representatives and senator.

The LD 17 District in Arizona contains parts of Gilbert, Chandler, and Sun Lakes. No Democrat has ever claimed victory in this district. Two Republicans in the State House currently represent it. This includes the current House Speaker J.D. Mesnard who has decided to run against Weichert for the State Senate Seat being vacated by State Senate President Steven Yarbrough. Pawlik is the only Democrat running for a seat in the State House.

Arizona Legislative District 17
Arizona Legislative District 17

Pawlik and Weichert are not newcomers to the political arena in Legislative District 17. They ran for the same state legislative seats in 2016 that they are running for today. While the results did not turn out as they hoped in 2016, they feel that three trends will propel them to victory in 2018:

  • The marked increase in voter enthusiasm, ignited by the election of Donald Trump.
  • The insensitivity of the Ducey Governorship and his allies in the state legislature.
  • The spark of the Red for Ed Movement.

Like neighboring LD 18, the Democratic candidates and District Chair Jacob Schmitt see their electoral prospects improving with an increasingly bluer (or purple) population receptive to the centrist problem solving progressive ideas and vision that they offer. Both Pawlik and Weichert have united as a team, tailoring their message to all the people in LD 17, especially those ignored and forgotten by the current Republican leadership in the district who has fallen under the influence of anti-democratic, tax cutting, special and Dark Money interests.

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With Solid Support from Educators, Steve Farley Can Oust Gov. Ducey

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One year into his campaign for Governor, Democratic candidate Steve Farley is on a roll. Polls show that  Gov. Ducey is vulnerable, Farley has raised $1.1 million in contributions, and his message of rebuilding Arizona’s impoverished schools is resonating with Democrats.

“I’m the only Democratic candidate who’s been elected to public office and I’ve been in the Legislature for 12 years,” he said at a recent campaign stop in Tucson. “I’m the only Democratic candidate who has ever won an election, and I’ve won 6 in a row. I know how to win.”

It’s about 60 days before early ballots drop in the primary election, which will be held on August 28, and Farley is crossing the state to see voters, debating his primary challenger David Garcia, and even talking on conservative talk radio.

Farley is the state Senator from legislative district 9 (Casa Adobes and the Foothills in Tucson) and is on the Appropriations and the Finance committees. He is the Assistant Minority Leader in the state Senate.

“I speak good “Republican,'” he quipped. “I go on conservative talk radio a lot and like to preach to the unconverted. People call in and say, ‘I’ve never heard a Democrat speak before, but you make sense.’ With that kind of change in thinking, we can make something good happen.”

Teacher Raises

Farley was the first elected official to call for a 20% raise for teachers more than a year ago and this has cemented his support from teachers in the #RedForEd movement.

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