It is really the only response possible to the absurd behavior of the Republican dominated state legislature, which has substituted political silliness for anything that might even faintly be considered serious attention to the state’s problems.

A state gun? Birther legislation? Guns in classrooms? Refusing to follow federal laws? Continuing to cut taxes, rather than considering rational reform of the state’s tax structure? Refusal of birthright citizenship?  it’s all Dada…Dada…Dada

So why not secede? If you can take all that silliness seriously you can certainly embrace Baja Arizona. In light of what goes on up in Phoenix secession seems almost weirdly, absurdly, reasonable.

The Governor and the Republican legislators should be ashamed of their performance that, in the systematic avoidance of attention to our state’s real problems, has amounted to malfeasance.

Jonathan Rothschild

Rothschild, a Democratic candidate for mayor, announced the opening of his campaign headquarters yesterday.

The headquarters is located at 3400 East Speedway, Suite 114- between Whole Foods and Ike’s.

Those interested in following the campaign can visit Rothschild’s web site: Jonathanformayor.com

LD 26 Voters, voting with their pocketbooks, would appear to prefer Cheryl Cage to Al Melvin for the district seat in the state senate.

Cage has raised $71,500 to Melvin’s $31,000. Cage’s bucks came from 555 donors, almost four times that of Cap’n Al.

Perhaps Melvin should agree to a debate, meet with the press, or appear before an editorial board for an endorsement interview…all of which he refuses to do… before it’s “Al Who?”

Munger and Kelly Getting The Jump on Opponents

Another Early Bloomer

Sometime in the early afternoon a mystery harvester removed a bright red McCain sign. Whether it was done by Hayworth partisans or by legally acute McCain supporters is not for me to say.

What can be said is that the signs are there illegally. To use a phrase dear to the hearts of Republicans, “What part of illegal don’t they understand?”

At the heart of the county sign ordinance is the rule that political signs may go up thirty days before the election. The primary election this year is August 24th. You can get your rebar, signs, and rebar drivers and have at it on July 25.

Incidentally, it is permissible (in the County) to put up your signs in the right-of-way, so long as you don’t obstruct views. If you lose your primary you have ten (mourning?) days to take them down.

The thirty day rule is what is in the books; but since it was written the Gloomy Goddess of Ambiguity has waddled in and kissed us on both cheeks with the gift of Early Voting…Voting by Mail…I Know Voting is Important but I’m Too Lazy to go to The Polls.

Early voting this year begins on July 29th. Whether that makes any difference we’ll leave to the lawyers, but let’s cut everyone some slack. Thirty days before the start of early voting is Tuesday the 29th of June.

The signs are still illegal.

There are some interesting (well, sort of) differences between City and County rules on political signs. In Tucson signs may not be be placed in the right-of-way or on public property.

Private property is okay, but there are a couple of interesting caveats. (These are not a kind of antique neckwear.) The first is that if you put up a sign for candidate X, you are protected from having to put up a sign for her opponent.

This is known as the Jumping Cholla “You cant hijack my yard” rule.

And here’s a rule I bet you didn’t know: If you are puting up a sign with something like rebar you must first have the area “blue staked.”

Contact the Blue Stake Center at 800-782-5348 to have underground public utilities marked free-fo-charge.

Melvin Sees Atoms in Arizona's Future

While we’re waiting to learn the outcome of today’s voting, lets look ahead to 2010 to see what some of the campaign themes in LD 26 might be.

Incumbent Republican State Senator Al Melvin has just been appointed Co-Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Energy and Water. It’s not hard to imagine he’ll be mining that assignment for campaign issues in his re-election campaign.

Melvin believes Arizona’s future lies in becoming a major energy exporter. According to his most recent update we’ll generate thousands of jobs in Arizona. How?

“If Arizona can become the most atomic energy friendly state in the Union, Arizona can become one of the richest states in the USA.”

I assume this means something more than just sending little friendship notes to the one atomic energy plant we already have. I suppose we’ll have to build at least one more, just to prove how atomic friendly we are.

We can augment state income by building a spent fuel rod disposal facility under some of the open land up in Pinal County.

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Foothills voters storm polls?

The Data Port’s resident writers rolled out of bed this morning and hustled off to Orange Grove School to beat the crowds expected to turn up for the exciting bond vote.

Waiting To Vote

The Rush to Vote Was On

At the entrance to the polling place we noticed there were signs indicating a limit of 75 pies, which would have been more than we could eat that early in the morning. It didn’t matter, though, because we didn’t see anyone selling pies.

Terri Proud

A new hat has been thrown into the LD26 ring. Republican Terri Proud has announced she is a candidate for the House seat now held by Democrat Nancy Young Wright.

Proud has been living in Northwest Tucson since 1997. According to her LinkedIn.com listing she is currently employed as Office Manager/Senior Paralegal at Lippman Griffith and Associates. She has attended Pima Community College.

Her current political action position is as Arizona State Coordinator of the Second Amendment March, a project of the NRA, and she belongs to the Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus:

“The Pima County Republican Liberty Caucus (PCRLC) is a political action oriented group of liberty minded individuals within the GOP. Our goal is to return the Republican Party back to its roots of liberty, limited government and free markets. The government which governs the least governs the best.”

(Personal Note: As a one time Philosophical Anarchist I too believed that government was the source of human misery. First as the source of international conflict and, second, as the supporter of capitalism and the active enemy of the socialist movement. Perhaps Ms Proud and I are closer than either of us suspects, where I was once an Anarcho-Syndicalist, she is an Anarcho-Capitalist. It makes to laugh.)

Proud’s political goal as an LD26 candidate is to join hands with Cap’n Al. Her political platform seems to boil down to “cutting taxes” and defeating Ms Wright, who is an agent of Nancy Pelosi.

Proud’s website is here.

Waiting For Independents

A comment on yesterday’s Data Port asked for the registration figures in LD 26.

Here y’are:

Democrats: 37,425

Greens: 136

Libertarians: 589

Republicans: 46,018

Other: 30,271

A close look at these numbers suggests that Cage has an excellent shot at sinking Captain Al, despite the Republican registration edge of over 8000.

How many Republicans will be so ideological that they will overlook Republican culpability for the budget debacle? Pretty clearly the election will turn on two factors: the huge independent registration and, as always, getting out the vote.

All sorts of interesting voter registration data is available at the Secretary of State’s

web site: Click

Cheryl Cage

14 Months before the November, 2010, election Cheryl Cage fires her first broadside at State Senator Al Melvin’s ship of state.

Cage has already got under Mr. Melvin’s skin by showing up at his public appearances to ask questions. Her first newsletter continues to nibble away at the wonderful inconsistencies you get when good sense is subverted by ideology.

She points out:

Melvin sponsored a state bill which banned texting while driving because (Melvin said), “The Highway Patrol likes it and has statistics that show that lives will be saved.”

But soon Ideology gets in the way of good sense. When the same legislation appeared in a Federal bill, good sense walks the plank and Melvin recants:

One of the major proponents (of the federal bill which includes a ban on texting while driving) was Chuck Schumer, who is no hero of mine by any means, and if he is going to be associated with this subject, with the federal threat to cut back on highway funds for states that don’t go along with it (banning texting while driving) I will divorce myself from the subject ” Melvin said. “I don’t want to be involved in that. If they’ve got these Democratic, liberal fingerprints all over it, I’m not going to be a party to that. I’m not. If anything, I would go the other way and try to make a legal issue out of it.

Oh…My…God! Democratic liberal fingerprints!  eewww….eewww.

And, again, Cage points out that Melvin isn’t even sure where he stands on crucial ideological protocols:

Mr. Melvin signed Grover Norquist’s ‘no tax’ pledge in 2006. Then in an 8/8/ 2008 campaign interview he stated, “I have frankly signed the “no new tax” pledge.” Then, eight months later RECANTED and said he did not sign the ‘no tax’ pledge.

Come on, Al, which is it, really?

Visit Cheryl Cage’s web site: Click:

Sign up for Cheryl Cage’s newsletter: Click