Paul Weich

Gosar’s Holiday Bonuses May End Up Ruining His Year

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Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar may have violated House Ethics rules when he gave his Congressional staff $44,000 in holiday bonuses from his campaign committee’s account last year. The rules limit the campaign work that the Congressional employees can participate in and be compensated for, and there is not yet any indication that Gosar’s office and … Read more

What About Our Disaster? McSally Votes No On Bipartisan Disaster Aid Package; Passes 85-8

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Arizona Senator Martha McSally was among the 8 Republicans who voted against a supplemental disaster aid package this afternoon, despite President Donald Trump signaling that he would support the measure even without additional border funds. McSally stated that her no vote was because she “won’t ask Arizonans to pay for disasters in other states without funding … Read more

NEW: Arpaio Attorney Faults 9th Circuit For Supreme Court Justices Denying Effort To Remove Special Prosecutor On Pardon-Effect Appeal

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The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s request to remove a special prosecutor in his ongoing battle. One of Arpaio’s attorneys tells Arizona’s Politics/Arizona’s Law* that the nine Justices “just (don’t) have enough time to correct all of the Ninth Circuit’s mistakes.” (The Supreme Court’s declination came without comment … Read more

NEW: “Dirty Trick” By National Republican Group Targeting Arizona Reps Given Pass By Dysfunctional FEC…After Five Years

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Five years ago, Arizona’s Politics helped report efforts by a “dirty trick” by the National Republican Congressional Committee (“NRCC”) against candidates nationwide, including the three Arizona swing-seat Democrats. The FEC finally gave the NRCC a pass and opened the file today.

(from SPOOF website)

The so-called attack microsites launched against Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber (and a couple of dozen other Democrats around the country) spoofed the candidates’ websites and tried to trick Googlers into donating to the NRCC.

National articles found a couple of the Arizona spoofs, and Arizona’s Politics located the third in February 2014. A follow-up later that month found that the NRCC had changed the donation pages to reduce the trickery level and to add security to its spoofs. (There are lots of images, ironies and fun facts in the older articles that will not be repeated here; please check out the links!)

One month later, national campaign finance watchdogs Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed complaints

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ASU Asst. Prof. Plays Big Role In Elizabeth Warren ‘s $640B Student Debt Forgiveness Proposal

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Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren today proposed a major $640B Student Loan Debt Cancellation plan. ASU Assistant Professor Raphaël Charron-Chénier is one of four “leading experts on student loan debt to analyze the proposal and conclude that it would help close the “racial wealth gap.” Charron-Chénier teaches at ASU’s School of Social Transformation, and tells Arizona’s Politics … Read more