Welcome! I’m starting a new blog here at Tucson Citizen focused and news and events of Southern Arizona Democratic candidates for office, with also limited coverage of statewide Democratic candidates. I’ve been posting as a commenter here as “Cochisecitizen”, my name is David. We welcome constructive comments and opposing opinions, BUT excessive profanity – especially when used to attack someone, threats of violence, or personal attacks will NOT be tolerated and those who resort to those tactics will be banned from any future comments.

Starting off, here are our first endorsement of the 2012 elections:

 U.S. Senate: Richard Carmona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Carmona has a long and distinguished career, and his independent voice will be a welcome addition to the Senate Democratic majority representing Arizona’s diverse culture and priorities. No one wins statewide office in Arizona without winning a majority of Independent voters, and Richard Carmona is uniquely positioned to win the support of Democrats, Independents, and Independent thinking Republicans. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Don Biven, likes to boost that he is the “real Democrat” in the race. Well, Mr. Biven, if your leadership as the State Party Chair during 2010 elections – when Arizona Democrats suffered the worst ass kicking in decades – is any indication of your “leadership”, it is well past time for new voices in the Arizona Democratic Party. We confidently and enthusiastically endorse Richard Carmona for the U.S. Senate.

Arizona Congressional District 1: Wenona Benally Baldenegro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wenona Benally Baldenegro is the right candidate for Democrats in the new AZ CD01 and the right person to represent the district in congress. Wenona’s roots run deep in the district, born in a rural small town on the Navajo reservation.  The daughter of an elementary teacher, she saw the value of hard work to gain an education, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature at Arizona State’s prestigious Barrett Honor’s College . She then went on to earn earned a juris doctorate degree at Harvard School of Law, and then a master degree in public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Wenona is on the right side of the issues, and will work hard to protect Social Security. Wenona understands that Medicare and Medicaid saves Arizona trillions of dollars by providing seniors, the disabled, and the disadvantaged with much-needed, affordable quality health care services at a much lower cost. She will fight the exploitation of Native American and federal land by foreign companies who seek only to plunder our natural resources without paying a penny on royalties, conning the public with phony land swaps.

Wenona’s opponent in the Democratic primary is one term Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, who was deservedly a one term representative. Yes, the 2010 election was a Red tidal wave in Arizona. And yes, voter turnout was less in 2010 than in the Presidential election of 2008. But still Kirkpatrick’s vote total fell by a whopping 44% in 2010 from 2008, while Republican turnout fell by only 10.3%. She enabled Teapublican Paul Gosar to win the election with 11,400 votes less than the losing Republican candidate in 2008. Ann Kirkpatrick was such a lousy Congresswoman that Democrats and Democrat leaning Independents simply didn’t care if she lost.  As with Don Bivens, it is well past time for new voices in the Arizona Democratic Party. Wenona for Arizona!

Bonehead of the Week: Steve Farley 

Finally, we plan to feature a Bonehead of the Week feature. While it will be a non-partisan feature, this week we give it to a well deserving Democrat, State Rep. Farley:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week Farley bravely ventured into the CD8/CD2 race by letting us know that should Gabby toss him the bouquet he might take up the challenge. This week he topped that by suggesting – to the laughter of legislative colleagues – that since owners of electric cars pay no gas tax that they be charged by the mile. Really? And how would you implement that? Ask owners if electric vehicles to voluntarily report that? How about checking the mileage during annual emission tests? Oh wait, electric cars don’t emit emissions. But at the heart of the matter is that the gas tax is one of the most regressive taxes there is. Whether it is the single mother putting $5 in the tank of her 12 year old car so she can get to her job at Walmart or the owner of a Hummer filling up for a wild weekend in Vegas, they all pay the same Arizona $.37 cents per gallon gas tax. When the gas tax was first implemented ownership of a car was a luxury, not a necessity, and made some sense that those who used the roads & highways pay for their construction and maintenance with a tax on gasoline. But these days, whether walking, riding a bike, riding in a Sun Trans bus, or riding in a Mercedes we all use the roads There is no need for a special “pay-as-you-go” tax to support them, it should come out of general revenues. And we sure as heck don’t want to discourage the use of electric vehicles, we want to encourage it. Bonehead.

Ok, one last “final”: Don’t argue with Dirty Harry – it is indeed Halftime in America. Hear our engines roar!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Pol. & Govt., Uncategorized. Tags for this post: Democrats, Potitcs, southern Arizona. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.