Pursuant to the Arizona Constitution (cited in today's earlier post), determination will be made by the Appellate Courts Commission on Appointments as to how it will proceed. Supreme Court chief communications officer Jennifer Liewer said this afternoon that Commission staff is working this evening to put together information and expects a full explanation to be posted at azcourts.gov tomorrow.

Additional qualifications for membership on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission i...

(more...)

Commissioner Jose Herrera today resigned his seat on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, saying that after the maps were adopted in January 2012, "meetings have been unproductive and, at times, toxic."

AIRC chair Colleen Coyle Mathis issued this statement in response to Herrera's announcement:

I thank Mr. Herrera for his service on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission and his family for their many sacrifices. He served the citizens of Arizona with honor, dignity and d...

(more...)

There is plenty to contemplate with numerous great people to look to for inspiration on how we each can fulfill our calling to BE the LEADERS we've been waiting for. Notably, we must learn from two of the most important 20th Century icons, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

In the meantime, we can examine some causes for cognitive and cultural inertia and identify how to ...

(more...)

In last night's blog post, I referred to an op-ed in a local newspaper written by two business interest lobbyists who seriously lack entrepreneurial vision to meet the energy and political challenges facing Arizona today. On May 6, I had posted in response to a press release issued by the Arizona GOP.

From where I sit, the fact that the Guardians Of Privilege have recognized the legitimacy of Nancy LaPlaca's candidacy for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission is great news. So, I now sa...

(more...)

First Law of Motion states:

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

This is also known as the Law of Inertia.

Inertia is not limited to the realm of physics. There is cognitive inertia.

Cognitive inertia refers the tendency for beliefs or sets of beliefs to endure once formed. In particular, cognitive inertia describes the human inclination to rely on familiar assumptions and exhibit a reluctance and/or inab...

(more...)

(more...)

The Senate Appropriation committee hearing took place regarding the budget bills as expected. All of the bills passed out of that committee, most with a 6-3 straight party line vote, including the elections ominous bill.

The K-12 bill, SB 1487, vote was 5-4 with Republican Kelli Ward voting with the three Democrats (Pancrazi, Tovar and Cajero Bedford).

The General Appropriation bill, SB 1486, passed out of committee with a 7-2 vote, Cajero Bedford voting Aye with the Republicans.

...

(more...)

As noted earlier (Tuesday late afternoon), ten budget bills and an ominous (omnibus) elections related bill were intro...

(more...)

I truly hope Senate Democrats stick together on this because it's bound to be a huge mess otherwise.

Craig McDermott, blogging at Random Musings has already posted about these bills.

Apparently, the Senate Appropriations committee has a hearing scheduled for these bills tomorrow morning (Wednesday, May 15, 11 am)

At first glance, I'm not certain that Biggs has failed to get his 16 votes from Republican members of his caucus because McComish is a sponsor of all 10 budget bills as well as the...

(more...)

Here's the scenario as it was set forth to me earlier this evening:

Senate President Andy Biggs, who has been declaring all along that he is dead set against the Medicaid expansion, will tomo...

(more...)

Respect Arizona, the committee organized to recall Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, was out with volunteers at numerous locations today throughout Maricopa County collecting signatures.

As if they didn't have anything constructive to do with their time, Arpaio supporters, including notable Tempe whack job Ann Heins did their best to disrupt the effort, but failed.


Ms. Heins, who at times seems incapable of exercising appropriate filters on what comes out of her mouth, was&nbs...

(more...)

On May 7, Goldwater Institute staffer Byron Schlomach published a story titled Time to End the Costly Renewable Energy Mandate.

Goldwater's conclusions and talking points bear...

(more...)

to defeat House Minority Leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He will, once the vote is certified, again take a seat in Congress.

Wait, what? Who did he run against? I thought it was Stephen Colbert's sister Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

Sanford had requested four debates with Colbert-Busch before the special election for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district is held on May 7th, but she only agreed to one. “My opponent continues to run a stealth campaign, avoiding public appearances a...

(more...)

writing is on the wall: The days of the Navajo Generating Station and other coal-fired power plants are numbered.
The news that Nevada’s largest utility, NV Energy, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) are divesting themselves of the NGS coal plant hit Arizona’s utilities hard. Why? Because it means that Salt River Project (SRP) or some other utility will have to purchase LADWP’s 21 percent and NV’s 11.3 percent share in the plant to keep it open. That’s nearly o...

(more...)

Not to contradict anything I posted thus far about yesterday's meeting, but I've been ruminating over Commissioner Scott Freeman's comments -- including from the previous week. What he said and did really seems to be a classic example of the concept of "micromanaging." He spelled out, in quite some detail, how he believes it is his duty to be looking over the shoulder of AIRC staff, legal counsel and experts contracted to do work for the commission.

I can really relate to the vision he set fo...

(more...)

Of course, I'm only guessing, since I wasn't privy to that discussion.

However, prior to executive session, there was mention of a memo from AIRC director Ray Bladine about invoices from the attorneys hired to represent the individual commission members. Apparently, John Munger, who represented Rick Stertz in the Harris case, billed the AIRC for $89,936. Bladine had estimated legal fees for each of the attorneys representing individual commissioners at $20,600.

Not only was the amount nearly...

(more...)

last week's meeting, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission this morning sent notice that it will meet on Thursday, May 2nd at 2:30pm at its office, 1100 W. Washington, in Phoenix.

The agenda is virtually identical to last week's as the April 25th meeting saw no resolution to any of the issues presented at that time. However, since last week's meeting, the legislature did pass and the governor did sign a supplemental appropriation bill for $635,226. That will allow the AIRC to keep th...

(more...)

Kelly Townsend. Among her wacky verbal exploits, she testified at the first redistricting open hearing back in July 2011 addressing redistricting Commissioner McNulty as if she was Chairwoman Mathis.

In running for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, Townsend used Clean Elections funding but successfully wormed her way out of a required public debate with other candidates in legislative district 16 in Gilbert. Her deft maneuvering to avoid demonstrating just how incoherent she can b...

(more...)

met for about an hour and a half on Thursday afternoon with the (geographical) focal point being its office on Washington St in Phoenix. Commissioner Freeman was the only member attending in person. The other four participated by conference call.

Discussion, none of which occurred in executive session, revolved around requests made by the two Republican commissioners. Rick Stertz has requested that for additional litigation he be allowed to have separate legal counsel other than Joe Kanefield a...

(more...)