http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/11/special-report-some-clean-elections-money-went-toward-laptops-hiring-relatives-nra-dues/

What is the Citizens Clean Election Commission (CCEC):

The Citizens Clean Elections Act was passed by the people of Arizona in 1998 to level the playing field when it comes to running for office. The Act allows candidates, running for the Legislature or statewide offices the opportunity to forgo special interest money by collecting a certain number of $5 donations. In return, the candidate will receive full funding for their campaigns.

Excerpts from this Cronkite News report about Southern Arizona politicians and/or candidates in the recent 2010 elections:

“Cronkite News confirmed computer purchases through campaign finance reports or interviews with candidates. Some candidates who listed amounts paid to stores that offer computers as “miscellaneous” expenses didn’t return calls seeking comment:

– Gene Chewning, Independent, State Rep. District 27, Tucson

– Robert Compton, Republican, State Rep. District 27, Tucson”

Chewning was a candidate in LD 27 House, lost in the General, ran before for this House seat in 2006 as a Republican. Compton also ran for House in LD 27, lost in the General, and this was his first bid for public office.

Democratic Sen. Manuel V. Alvarez, who lost his re-election bid, said living in the small Cochise County town of Elfrida made hiring his family the easiest option. He paid three relatives a total of $2,759.99 to install signs, work on advertisements and consult.“In a town of 300, where are you going to find people to work for you and your campaign?” he asked.

State Senator “Manny” Alvarez (D) represents District 25, but lost in the General to Gail Griffin (R), who was not a Clean Elections candidate.

Eric Carbajal-Bustamante, a Tucson Democrat who lost in the primary, reported spending $385.59 on office supplies at IKEA, a furniture and furnishings store; and Ken Smalley, a Tucson Republican who lost in the general election, reported spending $229.87 on a “post-debate discussion” with staff members at T.G.I. Friday’s.“This is small stuff, talking about me taking the campaign staff out,” Smalley said. “Did you know you can spend up to $800 on equipment?”
Smalley’s campaign finance reports also noted that he spent $403.66 on a printer at OfficeMax.Carbajal-Bustamante didn’t respond to repeated phone messages.

Bustamante (D) lost a bid for LD 27 House in the primary, and Smalley (R) lost his bid for LD 28 House in the General. Bustamante ran before for LD 29 House in 2008, and Smalley has run before for Tucson City Council and Pima County Treasurer.

“Todd Lang, executive director of the Arizona CItizens Clean Elections Commission, says his staff doesn’t micromanage campaigns. However, he said the commission is aware of the tension between not wanting to interfere and keeping in mind that candidates are spending public money.”

I guess it would also be up to the Arizona voters to let the CCEC know what you think is appropriate campaign spending for these candidates, such as hiring their relatives. Apparently the candidates get to keep these laptops & other equipment they purchased.

How to contact the Citizens Clean Elections Commission in Phoenix:
602-364-3477 Main
602-364-3487 Fax
877-631-8891 Toll Free (928 & 520 Area Codes)

Email
ccec@azcleanelections.gov

State Senator Manny Alvarez

Eric Carbajal Bustamante

Gene Chewning

Robert Compton

Ken Smalley

Senator Russell Pearce

There is much ado about newly elected State Senate President Russell Pearce, even an article in today’s Arizona Daily Star about his “business unfriendly” attitude:

http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_8f52eada-79ef-57e7-9b46-dfac60272a23.html

Pearce was the former Chief Deputy of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Dept.(23 years) and was also a Justice of the Peace at one time.

Did you know that he was elected by only 17,552 voters in LD 18 in Mesa?

Voter breakdown from November, 2010 general election from Secretary of State’s website:

SHERWOOD, ANDREW (DEM)
34.30% 10,663
PEARCE, RUSSELL (REP)
56.45% 17,552
GARCIA, ANDREA (LBT)
9.03% 2,808
Write-in
0.22% 68
31,091 total votes cast

Contrast this to a larger, more populated district such as LD 30 here in Southern Arizona, with Frank Antenori as State Senator, with 3x as many voters:

CAMENISCH, TODD (DEM)
39.59% 36,911
ANTENORI, FRANK (REP)
60.27% 56,198
WRITE-IN
0.14% 134
93,243

And we hear that LD 1 (north/central Arizona) State Senator Steve Pierce still wants to be Senate President:

DONAHUE, BOB (DEM)
35.13% 28,463
PIERCE, STEVE (REP)
64.74% 52,458
Write-in
0.13% 108
81,029

Map of Arizona legislative districts from Arizona state legislature page link:

http://azredistricting.org/mapping/default2.asp?tname=Interim.2009.Legislative.Map&service=ircmaps&Layer4=on&Layer1=on&action=zoomin&ActiveLayer=16. You have to “zoom in” to find LD 18.

With 30 State Senators in the Arizona legislature, only 9 being Democratic, it goes to show that popularity among your peers counts, even when you represent a small legislative district. (Democratic Senators are only in districts 2 (NE Arizona), 13 through 17 in the Phoenix area, and 27, 28, 29 here in Southern Arizona).

For the first time (as far as I know) there were more Independent candidates in a legislative race (LD 28 Senate) than candidates from the major parties. There was one Democrat (the incumbent), one Republican, and two Independents running in that legislative race.

But it seems that Independent candidates don’t receive a lot of votes.

November 2006 General Election: Jay Quick ran as an Independent in CD 8 House, and got 1.68% of the vote (3523 votes). This past August, 2010 he ran again for CD 8 House as a Republican in the primary, and received 2.29% of the vote (1648 votes), slightly more percentage wise.

November 2008 General Election: Ralph Nader ran for U. S. President as “Nonpartisan” and got only 0.51 % of the vote in Pima County (1995 votes). He formerly ran for President as a Green Party candidate.

November 2010 General Election: Harley Meyer just ran in CD 7 House as an Independent, and got 2.83% of the vote (4506 votes).

In LD 27 Gene Chewning just ran for State House as an Independent & got 6.46% of the vote (4,114 votes). He ran before for the same seat as a Republican in November 2006, and got 19.54% of the vote (11,327 votes)– which shows that major party affiliation does help.

And in LD 28 Senate, Ted Downing (formerly a Democratic legislator) got 6.25% of the vote (3,085 votes) running as “Nonpartisan and Independent”, while Dave Ewoldt as an Independent (formerly with the Green party) got 2.86% of the vote (1,414 votes). Final tallies are not complete for these two races either.

Downing ran for this same seat in the September, 2006 Primary as a Democrat and got 45.71% of the vote (7746 votes). He only got 3085 votes this time in the 2010 General Election, so leaving the Democratic party seems to have lessened his chances of vote-getting.

Running as an Independent frees the candidate from a Primary Election challenge, but they don’t have a political party “machine”/resources to help them get out the vote, nor a political party platform to assist the voters in deciding what these candidates stand for. Being “independent” minded may not be enough for today’s discerning voter.

And I suspect that voters who choose “Other/No Party/Independent/Non partisan” status do so as they want to avoid party labels (or are unhappy with their former party), the closed Primaries, and want the freedom to pick & choose between all the Political Party candidates (Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent, etc.) in the General Election.

Time will tell if any independent/non partisan candidate will win a seat in Southern Arizona in the future.

UPDATE: Only Independent politicians in Southern AZ have been Ward 2 Councilmember Carol West (who changed from a Democrat), and District 3 Pima County Supervisor Ed Moore (who changed from a Republican).

LD 30: Dr. Todd Camenish (D) for Senate;
no endorsements for House (2 seats)
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/article_83353865-fba0-5be5-8623-e58ff430eb23.html

LD 29: Rep. Matt Heinz (D), Pat Kilburn (R), Rep. Daniel Patterson (D) for House (2 seats)
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_272ed619-d0d5-5150-9429-64ef25fe166d.html

LD 28: Senator Paula Aboud (D);
Rep.Steve Farley (D), Bruce Wheeler (D) for House (2 seats)
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_6f210c1c-b162-5f30-a047-a8c5568191df.html

LD 27: Dr. Macario Saldate (D), Kent Solberg (G) for House (2 seats)
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_c43e72bb-a51e-5b3d-b1b4-6337a88f82fc.html

LD 26: Cheryl Cage (D) for Senate;
Rep. Vic Williams (R), Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D) for House (2 seats)
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_1546a09c-6763-5823-9979-94f7a72225ba.html

And for the TUSD Governing Bd. race, the Star endorsed current board member Adelita Grijalva and Armand Salese:
http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_8a0c264e-1ff8-59cd-ad68-d55cc28de2db.html

And for other endorsements read my previous blog “Do Tucson newspaper endorsements matter?” (click here.) Still waiting for any Star endorsements in the races for Governor and Secretary of State.

Vote wisely, on or before November 2nd.

“Debate! Highly Contested LD28 State Senate Race Debate”

Saturday, September 4th at 2:00 pm
Atria Bell Court Gardens (a few blocks east of St. Joseph Hospital), a senior living community
6653 E. Carondelet Drive (between Broadway and E. 5th Street, off of Wilmot Rd.)
Tucson, AZ 85710

In what was an uncontested race in the last election, this year the competition for the
LD28 Senate seat is fierce.

Democratic incumbent Paula Aboud is being challenged by three diverse opponents.
Dave Ewoldt qualified as an Independent for the general election so he could focus
on issues without being limited by party politics. Ted Downing, former Democratic
state representative in LD28, changed his party registration status halfway through
the candidate filing period and is now also running as an Independent. Former State
Representative candidate Greg Krino, a Republican, withdrew from that race and re-
filed as a primary write-in candidate for the state senate seat.

The debate will be moderated from 2-3 pm by Donna Jacobs, Executive Director at
Atria Bell Court Gardens in their Academy Hall.

Contact David Edwards at 520-886-1636 for more information.

I’ll be writing more about these 4 candidates prior to their September 14 Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate, but you may want to see them all tomorrow. This race is interesting, with more Independent challengers (2) than Democrats (1) or Republicans (1).

C indicates “Clean” candidate, T indicates Traditionally funded candidate (per CCEC website)

July 07, 2010
Candidate Debate
LD 26 Republican Candidates House of Representatives
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Pima Community College Northwest Campus
7600 N Shannon Road
Tucson, AZ
(Wade McLean- C, Terri Lynn Proud – T, Rep. Vic Williams – T)

July 08, 2010
Candidate Debate
LD 27 Democrat Candidates House of Representatives
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Pima Community College District Office
Community Board Room
4905 E Broadway
Tucson, AZ
(John Martin Bernal – C, Eric Bustamante- C, Dustin Cox- T, Bob Gilby – C,
Sally Ann Gonzales – C, Sami Hamed – C, John Kromko – C, Dr. Macario Saldate – C)

July 13, 2010
Candidate Debate
LD 28 Democrat Candidates House of Representatives
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Pima Community College District Office
Community Board Room
4905 E Broadway
Tucson, AZ
(Rep. Steve Farley – T, Ted Prezelski – C, Mohur Sidhwa – C, Tim Sultan – C,
Bruce Wheeler – C)

July 20, 2010
Candidate Debate
LD 30 Republican Candidates House of Representatives
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Pima Community College East Campus
8181 E Irvington Road
Tucson, AZ
(Brian Abbott – C, Rep. David Gowan – C, Kurt Knurr – C, Parralee Schneider – C,
Doug Sposito – T, Rep.Ted Vogt – T).

Not all legislative candidates in these races are running “clean” so refer to their website for further information (link is “2010 Candidate Listings with Funding Amounts”). 133 candidates are participating “clean” out of the total of 267 statewide candidates running.

“Participating candidates are required to attend the event and traditional candidates are encouraged to attend” per CCEC. Two will be elected from each Legislative District for the
Arizona House of Representatives.

For further info, email them at ccec@azcleanelections.gov, or call 602-364-3477, toll free (from 928 and 520 area codes) 1-877-631-8891.

logo

logo

The debate kicks off at 7 p.m. but there will be light refreshments starting at 6:30 p.m. with a chance to meet the candidates. Location: New Spirit Lutheran Church, 8701 Old Spanish Trail (northeast corner of Camino Seco). Attorney Roger White will be the moderator.

These three candidates have debated previously at events hosted by the Arizona Borderland Democrats, the Nucleus Club, Drinking Liberally, and probably elsewhere in Southern Arizona. Some voters I know have already decided whom to select for this run off in the August 24 primary, but if you haven’t seen or heard these three candidates speak, attend this debate to hear how they will enforce Arizona’s laws.

You can also read my previous blogs–with photos–of these candidates (click here for the May 13 debate) and here for the January 29 one.

For more information about Saguaro Eastside Democrats, log onto their website:
or call Program Chair Pat Weidhopf at 520-850-6755. They say they are “dedicated to galvanizing people who share a commitment to Democratic values, which include:

* Loving liberty
* Working for justice
* Actively participating in our political system”.

Their political area encompasses Pima County ’s Eastside communities in Legislative Districts 28, 29, & 30.

former State House Rep. Ted Downing

Former state rep. Ted Downing has changed his party affiliation on the Secretary of State’s website from Democrat to Independent. Ted served 2 terms as LD 28 House Rep. as a Democrat from 2003 to 2007, and is a UA professor of social development. Current LD 28 State Senator Aboud beat Downing in this same race back in November 2006, 9158 votes (54.04%) to 7746 votes (45.71%).

Meanwhile, Dave Ewoldt has filed in that same office as an Independent as well. Dave was the campaign manager for Green candidate Dave Croteau for Mayor in 2007 and has been active in the Green Party. Ewoldt’s campaign flyer describes himself as “Politically experienced, but Independent to the core.” He is a practitioner and researcher in the field of ecopsychology.

candidate Dave Ewoldt

I guess that means both men will move on to the General with no primary election competition.

So that would leave incumbent LD 28 State Senator Paula Aboud, a property manager, as the only Democrat running, with no Republican challenger.

As far as I know, the only Independent in public office in Southern Arizona was former Tucson City Councilmember Carol West, who changed from Democrat to Independent in her last year of office.

State Senator Paula Aboud

Websites for these three candidates in LD 28 State Senate:

–Paula Aboud, www.paulaaboud.com

–Dr. Ted Downing, www.ted-downing.com

–Dave Ewoldt, website under construction, contact him at DaveforArizona@gmail.com.
5/31 update: www.daveforarizona.org.

For a map of LD 28, click here for the Pima County Democratic Party website.

“Wake Up Tucson” is aired 6 to 8 a.m. daily by two businessmen hosts Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone. Higgins challenged District 1 Pima County Supervisor Ann Day in the Republican primary of September, 2008.

From their website:
“Wake Up Tucson offers a unique perspective about the southern Arizona region. The topics range from small business, tourism, politics, economic opportunities and education. Tucson and the surrounding communities are at a turning point. The challenges and obstacles are great. Now more than ever the community needs to engage in a discussion about our options. The host(s) are highly involved in the community and bring first hand accounts to their listeners. Wake Up Tucson is a radio show with a mission and purpose to educate the community and engage the listeners to get involved in our community. ”

Democrat Steve Farley ran unsuccessfully for Tucson City Council (Ward 6), before being elected to the Arizona State House, where he has served for over three years, since 2007. Republican Frank Antenori was formerly a State House Rep. in LD 30 for one year prior to be appointed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors in March, 2010 to the State Senate. Both men are up for re-election this November. Antenori ran for CD 8 U. S. House in 2006, but lost to former LD 30 State House Rep. Randy Graf in the Republican primary.

Sounds like it will indeed be a “great state debate” about this past legislative session, and the future of our state.

LD 28 Rep. Steve Farley

LD 30 Sen. Frank Antenori

Moderator will be John C. Scott, host of KJLL 1330 AM talk radio show.

Democratic donkey logo

Expected to debate will be LD 28 Democratic house candidates:

- State House Rep. Steve Farley (incumbent)
- Marlena Fineberg
- Ted Prezelski
- Mohur Sidhwa
- Tim Sultan
- Bruce Wheeler (former 1 term State House legislator & 2 term City Councilmember)

Marlena Tova Fineberg just filed to run recently, and she is a sales executive at Ambient Air Heating and Cooling, and has published a poetry book entitled “Elephants, Alligators, Umbrellas”. Marlena says she is a Democrat, but her party affiliation is not listed on the official state campaign finance website, though she just informed me that she is “listed as a Democrat now on the hard copy sent to the Sec. of State.” (update 5 p.m. 3/18/10).

Voters in the August 24 Democratic primary will chose 2 of these candidates to face off in the November 2nd General Election, against Republican house candidates in LD 28.

Republican Ken Smalley, a property manager, www.kensmalleyforrep.com has filed to run in this race. Another Republican Greg Krino filed recently, and he is a 3rd year law student at the U of A, clerking at the Pima County Attorney’s office (http://gregkrino2010.com/)

For these Democratic candidates’ brief bios and website information, click here, for my earlier blog at the first forum of these hopefuls (except Fineberg) which was held on February 21, at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church. At that forum 5 Democratic house candidates all introduced themselves and spoke for 10 minutes, but there was no debate or public question/answer period.

For more information on this debate call Pat Wiedhopf at 520-850-6755.

Be informed, attend these debates to meet these Democratic candidates.