Victoria Steele

Council Aide Matt Kopec appointed to LD 9 House seat by Pima County Bd. of Supervisors

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Last Friday January 15,  the PCs (Precinct committee people) in LD 9 selected 3 Democrats to send to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, to choose one for appointment to a vacant LD 9 House seat at today’s regular board meeting.  Victoria Steele, twice elected to that position resigned last week to run for CD 1 House, currently held by freshman Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally. (Steele  faces opposition in the Dem primary on August 30 for that seat from Dr. Matt Heinz, who also served in the Arizona State House.)

The 3 people nominated were:

Pamela Powers Hannley, managing editor (now part time) of the American Journal of Medicine, blogger here at Blog for Arizona and her own blogsite Tucson Progressive;

Matt Kopec, Pima County Dem Party Treasurer and Council aide to Ward 3 Councilmember Karin Uhlich;

and Ted Prezelski, Council aide to Ward 2 Councilmember Paul Cunningham, founder of blogsite Rum, Romanism & Rebellion (inactive), who also ran for LD 28 House in the Democratic primary of August, 2010.  He is the twin brother of former LD 29 House Rep. Tom Prezelski, who served 2 terms in the Arizona State House.

Matt Kopec, Ward 3 Council Aide
Matt Kopec, Ward 3 Council Aide

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LD Precinct committee persons nominate Pam Powers Hannley, Matt Kopec, & Ted Prezelski for appointment for LD 9 House Vacancy

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LD 9 precinct committee people met tonight at the Pima County Democratic Party  headquarters,  4639 E. 1st St. There were 42  PCs in attendance, with 18 proxies of 71 PCs total  in LD 9.  Four Democratic candidates were seeking the appointment for the vacancy created by this week’s resignation by Democrat LD 9 House Rep. … Read more

Three ballot measures to preempt Cathi Herrod and CAP

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Earlier this year the political pundits were all patting themselves on the back because the Tea-Publican Arizona legislature had not reintroduced the so-called “religious liberty” (license to discriminate) bill, SB 1062, that Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed last year after a firestorm of bad national publicity for Arizona. I warned you at the time not to read too much into this, Cathi Herrod is just biding her time.

I am right, of course. In the Arizona Republic today, Indiana uproar echoes SB 1062 furor in Ariz.:

HerrodArizona’s SB 1062 sought to amend the state’s RFRA to provide a legal defense for individuals and businesses facing discrimination lawsuits if they proved they acted upon a “sincerely held religious belief.”

Cathi Herrod, president of the socially conservative Center for Arizona Policy, was the driving force behind SB 1062. On Friday, the center issued a statement praising Pence and Indiana.

In an interview Monday with The Arizona Republic, Herrod noted that Indiana’s new law also was informed by the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, which clarified RFRA can apply to closely held businesses. That case involved an objection to federally mandated birth-control coverage.

Indiana’s law is “not word for word, but it’s very similar to the Arizona law that we have as well as incorporating some of the changes that we were trying to make” [with SB 1062], Herrod said.

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AZ House approves the “Lady Money Is Not Real Money” bill.

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

pin moneyPhoto: Etsy.com

Arizona bill SB1318, which requires doctors to pass on medically dubious information about “abortion reversal”, also bans coverage of abortion in private insurance plans, even if a policy holder has purchased an entirely separate rider with her own money which does not sully the pristine money of “taxpayers” – a group that (again) apparently does not include women who use any reproductive health care not directly related to having babies.

The bill went for third read on the House floor, the last step before before being transmitted to Governor Ducey, who is certain to sign it, and was passed on a 33/24 party line vote. I listened to the testimony at work and heard the Democrats valiantly (as always) trying to explain why it was a bad idea on several levels Republican Rep. Steve Montenegro waxed lugubriously about the need to “do everything possible to ensure a child has every opportunity to have it’s first breath!” and Rep. JD Mesnard anti-choicesplained, “We all know how accounting gimmicks work!” (He clearly doesn’t.)

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Victoria Steele’s courageous testimony showed why “rape exceptions” are a sham

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Edited to correctly identify the committee chair. It was Kelly Townsend, not Kelli Ward. My bad.

Alas, due to our stupidly slow “high speed internet” connection at the house, I’ve been unable to view the two and a half hour Arizona House Federalism and States’ Rights (seriously?) Committee hearing from Wednesday. But there was one part that made the news, and for good reason. It was when Democratic Rep. Victoria Steele of Tucson, who was testifying against SB1318 (which denies insurance coverage for abortion, among other things), was overcome by the whole thing and shared how she had been a repeated victim of sexual assault by a family member as a young girl.

victoria steeleSorry for the screen shot instead of embedded video but Channel 12 insists upon them opening immediately

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