2010 Scrooge of the Year: Governor Jan Brewer

Governor Jan Brewer handily won the Tucson Jobs with Justice Scrooge of the Year Award on Saturday evening at the anual awards dinner.

Seven people were nominated for the 2010 Scrooge Award, but Repulbican politicians dominated the field with  five of the seven nominations. Tucsonans who nominated these would-be Scrooges– two teachers, a former politician, a union leader, and two new media representatives– presented impassioned, detailed, and often sarcastically humorous nominating speeches in front of a crowd of nearly 100 who attended. Here are a few highlights from the nominating speeches.

Brewer was nominated for signing SB1070, lying about beheadings in the desert, scapegoating immigrants to win her election, allowing lobbyists to run the government, championing cuts education and healthcare (while offering additional business tax cuts), defending her transplant patient death panel.

State Senator Russell Pearce was nominated for being the father of SB1070 and other offenses similar similar to Brewer’s but Pearce continues to blaze new trails into white supremacy, immigrant scapegoating. and Constitution-tweaking. While Brewer is seen as more of a dupe and a follower, Pearce is more of an evil doer.

Current Superintendent of Public Instruction and Attorney General-elect Tom Horne was nominated for overseeing the dismantling of public education in Arizona, for standing idly by while the Arizona Legislature repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets, and for spearheading the discriminatory anti-ethnic studies law that targets one program at one high school.

Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect John Huppenthal was nominated for being one of those Arizona Legislators who repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets; as head of the state’s public education system, it is feared he will kill it.

US Senator Jon Kyl (the 2009 Scrooge of the Year) was nominated for being controlled by corporate lobbyists and saying “no” to any idea or legislation that was suggested by President Obama– regardless of whether it or not it was good for the country– No on healthcare reform, No on financial reform, No multiple times on extension of unemployment benefits, No on plans to help small businesses, No on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, No on the Dream Act, No on the New START treaty.

Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC) was nominated for trying to control Tucson and southern Arizona politics and governments through ballot initiatives and manipulation in order to benefit their wealthy corporatist members.

Sean McClusky was nominated for leading the charge against the proposed 1/2 cent city sales tax by promoting the “cut waste first” slogan; failure of that ballot initiative will result in cutting jobs.

As you can see, party-goers had a very strong slate of evil-doers to choose from for the Scrooge Award. Party tickets (which cost $10) counted for 10 votes, plus party attendees could “buy votes– just like in a regular election in order to stuff the ballot boxes” for favorite candidates. In the end, it wasn’t even close; Governor Brewer won the Scrooge of the Year Award, hands down.

Here are the tallies:

• Kyl: 41
• McClusky: 60
• Huppenthal: 66
• SALC: 93
• Horne: 135
• Pearce: 136
• Brewer: 207

This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 8:10 am and is filed under Arizona, Arizona Legislature, Healthcare Reform, Immigration, Jan Brewer, John Huppenthal, Jon Kyl, Political corruption, Politics, Republican Party, Russel Pearce, SALC, SB 1070, Tom Horne, Tucson. Tags for this post: Jan Brewer, Jobs with Justice, John Huppenthal, Russel Pearce, Tom Horne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.