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Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission held 2 debates recently in Southern Arizona. The LD 9 House debate was held at PCC Northwest campus on Oct. 14 and the LD 10 Senate & House debates were held at PCC District Office on Oct. 18.
LD 9: Rep.Randy Friese (D), Pam Powers Hannley (D) and Ana Henderson (R), seeking 2 House seats.
Rep. Matt Kopec (D), who was appointed to this seat in January, was defeated in the Democratic primary on August 30 by Hannley. State Senator Steve Farley in LD 9 is running unopposed.
LD9 incumbent Rep. Randy Friese and I met with representatives from the Arizona Daily Star a few weeks ago to share ideas and answer their questions. Traditionally, the Starmeets with all candidates for a position simultaneously, but LD9 Tea Party challenger Ana Henderson did not attend the interview.
On Sunday, Oct 9, the Star released their endorsements, and I’m proud to say that they endorsed me– along with the LD9 incumbents Friese and Senator Steve Farley. Here is an excerpt from the endorsement story.
On the House side, we endorse incumbent Randy Friese and newcomer Pamela Powers Hannley.
They are a solid combination and compliment each other’s strengths with experience and policy knowledge.
Southern Arizona Legislative candidates arranged by the total amount they raised by June 1, 2016. The percentage of PAC funds is given at the top of each column. Green bars are Clean Elections candidates. (Source data: SOS Campaign Finance system.)
June 30 was the deadline for statewide and legislative candidates to file their campaign finance reports. Data nerds like me love slogging through the Secretary of State’s website for Ah-Ha moments of discovery. And there are some.
Remaining funds for each Southern Arizona Legislative candidate, after reported expenses have been subtracted. Green bars are Clean Elections candidates. (Source data: SOS Campaign Finance system.)
My primary reason for looking at these data was, of course, to gauge my campaign against others in Southern Arizona. For nearly a year, people have been telling me not to run as a Clean Elections (CE) candidate because “it’s just not enough money.” These two graphics show a somewhat different picture.
The top graphic shows that Daniel Hernandez (D-LD2) blew the doors off the fundraising barn by gathering $60,437, but Hernandez spent $25,489 to get there, leaving him with $34,948 on July 1. (Yes, of course, he can keep dialing for dollars every day from now until November 8, but that is a lot of time and manpower.) Ana Henderson (R-LD9) with $21,345 is the Clean Elections candidate with the most funds on July 1; she has spent only $1,367. You can see how the difference between these two candidates flattened out when you take into consideration the money Hernandez had to spend to raise $60,000. (Since Clean Elections has strict rules on how much we can collect in seed money and family money and how we receive once we have qualified for public funds, all of the candidates who have qualified for CE have roughly the same amount. Note the green bars on both graphs. (Fun fact: all of the qualified CE candidates in Southern Arizona are women.)
Let’s compare Hernandez to the other two candidates in the LD2 Democratic Party primary.
Desert vegetation along Oracle Road, just south of Oracle, Arizona.
Every time I drive to Phoenix on a windy day, I get a little bit nervous.
It’s a familiar scenario: Trees are swaying, tumbleweeds are bouncing around the barren land, dust devils swirl in the distance, and flashing lights on the government signs tell us it’s windy.
So far– the lighted warning signs are the Arizona government’s only official response to years of dangerous interstate driving, major dust storms, and multiple crashes.
We have all seen the pictures and heard the stories about massive dust storms on I-10 and the tragic fatalities. Regular road closures east of Tucson due to dangerous blowing dust from one property owner have resulted in low-tech mitigation– AKA, “watering” the lose dirt with “gorilla snot”, a mixture that keeps the dirt from blowing. Really? Gorilla snot and flashing lights? Is this the best we can do to control this widespread public health hazard?
Not only do dust storms bring hazardous driving conditions, they also cause breathing problems and serious health conditions. Just a few years ago– not long after Wall Street crashed Arizona’s economy–we were driving through San Tan on an extremely windy day. Large swaths of desert in and around San Tan had been scraped clean, presumably to build housing. The air was brown and thick blowing dirt. Visibility was maybe 50 feet, yet people were walking around, going about their business as breathing dust was perfectly normal.
