According to the map on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website, all of Arizona’s counties have reported their election results from yesterday’s midterm election.

In actuality, Secretary of State Ken Bennett today announced that there are 350,000 early and provisional ballots yet to be counted statewide. Earlier in the day, it appeared as if the Pima County Recorder’s office was the only laggard– with 35,000 early and provisional votes uncounted– but not so, Pima has only 10% of the uncounted ballots.

Why have so many votes not been tallied? Arizona law allows voters to received paper ballots in the mail. They can be dropped in the US Mail for approximately a month, but when voters procrastinate and get too close to the election day, they must deliver their mail-in ballots at any polling place by 7 p.m. on election day.

According to Bennett (who was interviewed on the John C. Scott Show today on The Jolt, 1330AM), approximately 250,000 mail-in ballots were delivered to polling places on election day, and another 80,000+ provisional ballots were issued at the polling places. (A voter is given a provisional ballot for multiple reasons; for example, their address on record doesn’t match their address on the identification or records show they got a mailed ballot.)

According to Bennett, counties have until 10 days after the election to submit their final totals.

So what? Well, there are several races that are very close– most notably Raul Grijalva vs Ruth McClung, Gabrielle Giffords vs Jesse Kelly, Prop 203 (medical marijuana), Prop 110 (state lands trust) and Prop 112 (changing petition deadlines).  Grijalva and Giffords are currently winning by fewer than 5,000 votes, and all three propositions are currently losing by less than 1%.

It ain’t over, folks.

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for– candidate and proposition endorsements by moi!

For the most part on the candidates, I’m keepin’ it local and not getting into the other legislative districts beyond mine.

For CD8, LD28.
I endorse Democrats + one independent.

Gabrielle Giffords for Congress. I have been calling Gabby’s office and asking for her vote on issues since she was in the Arizona Legislature. She is strong on public health, education, and women’s issues.

Steve Farley and Bruce Wheeler for Arizona House in LD28. Steve has been a voice of reason for many years in the Legislature, and God knows we could use more like him, which is why I also back Bruce.

Dave Ewoldt for Arizona Senate in LD28. This 4-way race for Senate really had me stumped for months. I could have filled out my mail-in ballot the day it arrived, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with this race. After hearing Dave in multiple interviews on the radio, I voted for him. There has been bad blood between Paula Aboud and Ted Downing for years– since she used smear-tactic robo calls against him. (I received them, so I know.) However, this doesn’t give him the right to use nasty ads against her. Greg Krino, the opportunistic Republican who jumped into this mess, is a Jesse Kelly-knock-off and would not appropriately represent this heavily Democratic district.

For statewide offices
I support the Democratic Party candidates. In a “throw the bums out” year– Arizona’s governor, statewide office holders, and Legislative extremists should be at the top of everyone’s list of who to toss out of office. Our state is fighting for the bottom in education and fighting for the top in every measure that points to bad management of the state: poverty, unemployment, budgetary insolvency, rates of incarceration, infant health, teen pregnancy, etc., etc.

Terry Goddard for Governor. We need an intelligent leader for governor — not a puppet who is controlled by lobbyists and beholden to the private prison industry. Terry would offer us some sanity and a firewall between the wacky state Legislature and the rest of us poor souls.

Chris Deschene for Secretary of State. Chris is an upright guy– a former Marine officer, an engineer, a lawyer, a small-businessman, and family man. He also is running against a puppet controlled by lobbyists. His opponent, the current appointed Secretary of State, also allowed Maricopa County Republicans to pick up homeless people from Mill Avenue and put them on the ballot as fake Green Party candidates. (There’s real voter fraud.)

Penny Kotterman for Superintendent of Public Instruction. This is one of the most crucial races for our state because it will shape the future of our children. Kotterman’s opponent has a history of voting against education in the Arizona Legislature for 18 years. He is one of the reasons we are at the bottom.

Felicia Rottelini for Attorney General. Felicia is a fireball of energy. She has run major legal departments and successfully tried one of the state’s most famous fraud cases in Arizona history. Her opponent, on the other hand, is barred from the Securities and Exchange Commission for committing fraud.

Andrei Cherny for State Treasurer. Andrei is another rising star– a former assistant Attorney General who has a background in economics. The current state treasurer has shown no leadership as our state has sunk further and further into debt.

On the propositions
The back of your ballot is FILLED with propositions– don’t forget to turn it over.

A quick-and-dirty way to look at this if you are a progressive is to vote “NO” on everything proposed by the Arizona Legislature. This would be “NO” all of the 100s and 300s, which is what I did. The 400s were put on the ballot by the City of Tucson (400, 401) and Tucson Unified School District (402). I reluctantly voted “yes” on the Core Tax (400) but “NO” on the other 2.

The only proposition that was put on the ballot by the people of Arizona is 203– medical marijuana. Vote “Hell, Yes!” on this one. It’s time to allow patients to use an affordable, natural product to reduce their pain and suffering related to chronic or terminal illness.

Three of the more heinous propositions are 106, 107, and 302
Props 106 and 107 were put on the ballot by outside groups with gobs of money.

Prop 106, Arizona’s Health Care Freedom Act, allows Arizona voters to opt out of nationwide healthcare reform. Funded almost entirely by special interest groups from outside of Arizona, this is one of those propositions that sounds good but isn’t. Arizonans voted this proposition down before, but the backers have enough money to try again. Here is an except from their website:

Arizona’s Health Care Freedom Act disrupts this theft of liberty and makes real health care reform possible – by ensuring that any solution begins not with appeasing industry, but by listening to patients.

Let me go on the record as someone who would have preferred single-payer, universal healthcare (oooooo…spooky…socialism!) This quote sounds like that, but it isn’t. Basically, when they say “health care freedom” they mean “you’re on your own” and no one is going to bail you out. Remember Sicko? Healthcare reform saves money, covers more people, and eliminates pre-existing conditions. Vote NO on 106!

Prop 107, Arizona Civil Rights Initiative is another one that sounds good but isn’t and is another one funded by special interest groups from outside of Arizona. Proposition 107 is the brainchild of white supremisist Ward Connerly. It would prohibit all programs that offer women, girls, and people of color equal opportunity in education, business contracting, and employment. Supporters of this measure have been shopping it around to different states; it has passed in some and failed in others. Connerly, who is from California, put it on the ballot first there. Since it passed, diversity among California’s college students has dropped dramatically. Vote NO on 107!

Prop 302, Arizona First Things First Program Repeal is an attempt by the Arizona Legislature to steal more money from Arizona children because they failed to balance the budget (despite Governor Brewer’s contention that they did). The First Things First Program benefits children and families and was created by a ballot initiative several years ago. It is fully funded by the tobacco tax. Since the Arizona Legislature refuses to make tough choices about Arizona’s eschewed tax system and wants to continue the trickle down economics welfare to the rich, they have to find money somewhere. Unfortunately, kids don’t vote, so they are a favorite target of the Arizona Legislature. Vote NO on 302 and keep one of the last pro-children programs left in Arizona.

The Tucson Weekly and the Pima County Democratic Party have issued their ballot endorsements. (Click on these links to find them.) For the most part, they agree, but the Weekly votes no on the city charter changes (Prop 401), and the Dems changed their minds last week and are now endorsing it. (Boo.)

VOTE! If you don’t know where to go to vote, check out the Pima County Recorder’s website. Don’t forget to bring picture identification that lists the address where you are registered. If you have a mailed paper ballot, fill it out and bring it to a polling place today– don’t mail it.

A few days ago, I posted links to a few of the stories of Tea Party candidates’ inappropriate violence against reporters, protesters, and opposition candidates.

In If the Tea Party Wins, America Loses, Keith Olbermann goes beyond the stories of Tea Party violence and offers dozens of quotes from Tea Party candidates that show how dangerous they really are. Tea Partiers– including the 3 running for Congressional seats in Arizona, Ruth McClung (CD7), Jesse Kelly (CD8) and David Schweikert (CD5)– want to end life as we know it. What do they stand for?

Elimination of Social Security. Jesse Kelly and several other Tea Partiers call a Ponzi Scheme. They want to “privatize” it. Their shtick is that people should be able to invest in the stock market to save for their retirement. Social Security would no longer exist if voters had allowed George Bush to privatize it before the market crash. Privatizing Social Security doesn’t help the people; it gives Wall Street gamblers more money to play with. Wake up.

Elimination of the minimum wage. Tea Partiers like Ruth McClung and Kelly call unconstitutional; others like Sharon Angle are more direct. She calls the minimum wage and employer-sponsored healthcare impediments to employment. In other words, paying someone a living wage (which minimum wage isn’t) lowers profits.

Elimination of public education. The Arizona Legislature has made strong inroads into the elimination of public education here by starving education and promoting vouchers for charter schools which are in the business of education. The Republican candidate for Superintendent of Public Education John Huppenthal has one of the worst public education voting records. He is NOT your children’s friend.

Elimination of the healthcare safety net and minimum healthcare services (AKA Obamacare). Kelly, McClung and others want to balance the federal budget but want to get rid of healthcare reform– which saves the country money AND provides healthcare coverage for millions of Americans that were not covered by market-based health insurance because they only want to cover healthy people who don’t make claims.

Elimination of a woman’s right to choose.Kelly and others are so extreme that they are against abortion for any reason– even in the case of rape, incest, or saving the life of the mother. That stance is anti-women’s health.

Elimination of the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the US. This, of course, is the “anchor baby” (AKA “terrorist baby”) issue. To my knowledge, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was one of the first right-wing extremists to raise the anchor baby issue last spring. Recently he vowed to get to work on repeal of the 14th amendment soon after the legislature goes back into session in January 2011. (What about dealing with the state’s financial problems and a projected $1 Billion-dollar budget deficit? That’s obviously on the back burner; ideology takes precedence over real work.)

Elimination of the 16th amendment to the US Constitution.The 16th Amendment gives the government the right to levy income tax. Kelly and others support national sales tax and elimination of other taxes. This ideas sounds good as a rallying cry at Tea Party events, but Kelly’s 23% sales tax [AKA the "Fair Tax"] would push the tax burden down to consumers and lighten the tax burden for the rich and corporations. It is a seriously bad idea. The Fair Tax is only fair to the corportists and the richest 1%– not the rest of us.

Elimination of the 17th amendment to the US Constitution.The 17th Amendment gives US voters the right to elect US Senators. This is particularly insidious. If this amendment were eliminated, the Arizona Legislature would elect the state’s senators. I’m for giving those right-wing no-nothings less power– not more power! (Isn’t it ironic that a party that supports “strict constitutionalism” wants to repeal 3 amendments?)

Olberman points out that big money is backing the Tea Party candidates in an attempt to “elect a group of unqualified people who will do what they are told” once they are in office. This is an “attempted use of democracy to buy democracy.” (I couldn’t agree with him more. Tea Party candidates like McClung and Kelly have no original ideas; they spout the same fiery soundbites that their cronies are spouting nationwide. Who is writing the script?)

A vote for the Tea Party is a vote to “take America back as far as they are able”.

These don't look like "dispirited" Democrats to me.

Old hippies, retirees, brown people, artists, musicians, college students, gays, lesbians, transvestites, and even people with multiple tattoos. At the Democratic Volunteer Party today, CD8 Republican challenger Jesse Kelly’s worst nightmare was on display– a diverse and multi-cultural Arizona.

CD8 Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords hosted the volunteer party which featured several local bands and between-band DJ services by Democratic candidates, including Giffords. (Hey, girlfriend, about that record collection…)

By any measure, the event was a rousing success. Invitations were distributed through facebook and to be “guarantee” entrance to the event, you had to sign up to volunteer. At the event they announced that 250 people had promised to volunteer for 3 hours each in these waning days of the midterm election season. Hundreds of Democrats filled the Hotel Congress patio to hear some of the best musicians in Arizona– headliner Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta with Salvador Duran and guests Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico. They say one picture is worth, or here are some pictures from today.

Bikers for Giffords.

Joey Burns from Calexico with Sergio Mendoza on the keyboard and Salvador Duran (right).

Calexico's John and Joey.

Healthcare reform, health services for children and the poor, and the future of Medicare and Medicaid have been political hot potatoes this election year. Tea Party favorites like Republican Congressional challengers Jesse Kelly (CD8) and Ruth McClung (CD7) have spoken against the federal government’s provision of a healthcare safety net and minimum health services for all Americans and vowed to eliminate healthcare reform.

On the home front, in the last 2 legislative terms, the Arizona Legislature has slashed and burned public health and education programs. In addition, the Legislature placed 2 initiatives on the ballot which would further hurt the health and welfare of Arizona children and families– Prop 106 which would make it impossible for Arizonans to participate in a national healthcare insurance plan and Prop 302 which would allow the Legislature to steal the funds from the First Things First program for children’s health and early childhood development.

Obviously, it is important for voters to know how candidates would vote on healthcare and public health issues. The Mel and Enida Zuckerman College of Public Health is sponsoring a candidates forum on Wednesday, October 20. Several candidates who are running for House or Senate seats in the Arizona Legislature will participate. Here is the information from the college.

Voting on Health: Southern Arizona Candidate Forum,
What:
Graduate students from the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health will host the open forum titled, Voting on Health: A Southern Arizona Candidate Forum.

This is an opportunity for voters to hear what the legislative candidates have to say about their role in promoting the wellbeing of Southern Arizonans, and their plans to address key issues that affect the health of individuals living in this region. The forum in open to the public.

Who:
Participating Arizona legislative candidates running for state offices in the November 2nd election:
Paula Aboud (D) for State Senate, District 28
Ted Downing (D) for State Senate, District 28
Dave Ewoldt (I) for State Senate, District 28
Robert Compton, (R) House seat, District 27
Steve Farley (D) House seat, District 28
Pat Fleming (D) House seat, District 25
Sally Gonzales (D) House seat, District 27
Peggy Judd (R) House seat, District 25
Pat Kilburn (R) House seat, District 29
Bruce Wheeler (D) House seat, District 28

When:
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 | 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Refreshments will be served from 6:30-7 p.m.)

Where:
Drachman Hall, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, Room B109, Tucson, AZ. Parking is free in the Drachman Hall East lot after 5 p.m.

Why:
“Public health is all about the development and implementation of informed policy. With today’s issues around health and health care front and center in our state, it is critical for voters to be informed on the positions of all our candidates,” said Jill Guernsey de Zapien, associate dean for Community Programs at the Zuckerman College of Public Health. “On behalf of our college, we are delighted to offer this opportunity to the Tucson community.”

Some of my readers theorized in the comments section that Congressional candidate Ruth McClung’s Tea Party backers who disrupted this week’s CD7 debate actually live in Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ CD8.

Yesterday evening the Rum Romanism and Rebellion blog reported that McClung has backed out of Monday’s upcoming debate (October 18) with Congressman Raul Grijalva.

Why? October 18 is the same day Giffords debates her opponent Jesse Kelly, another Tea Party darling. This lends credence to your comments, dear readers. The rowdy Tea Partiers can’t be in 2 places at once. Maybe their forces aren’t as strong as they want us to believe. Here is an excerpt. [Emphasis added.]

The sticking point [to the debate], in the end, was the time. McClung’s people did not want the debate at the same time as the one between Gabrielle Giffords and Jesse Kelly. The Grijalva people agreed to move the debate a bit later, but McClung’s people took their ball and went home.

Maybe this new found reticence is because of McClung’s performance last night. She may have discovered that repeating the word “boycott” over and over again is a poor substitute for knowledge of the needs of the district and public policy.

No word yet on whether the debate will take place anyway, there are two other candidates running. Should the debate go on, this humble blogger will leave it up to you, the reader, to decide what inanimate object would be an appropriate substitute for McClung.

While your checking out the R3 link above, you also might check this story: Surprise! Conservative Group Caught in a Fib About Grijalva’s Record. The Grover Norquist ad that I mentioned lies about Grijalva’s record. As Tedski says, “Surprise, surprise.”

“We have a bumper crop of psycho-talkers running for office this year,” says Ed Schultz, lefty radio and TV personality.

You got that right, Ed, especially here in the “meth lab of democracy.”

• Jesse “no-social-security” Kelly (US House of Representatives)
• Ruth ”Sarah-likes-me” McClung (US House of Representatives)
• John “which-way-should-I-flip-flop-today?” McCain (US Senate)
• Jan “beheadings!” Brewer (Arizona Governor)
• Tom “what-SEC-violation” Horne (Arizona Attorney General)
• John “who-needs-public-education” Huppenthal (Public Istruction)
• Greg “privatize-this” Krino (Arizona Legislature)
• Russel “yikes-brown-people” Pearce (Arizona Legislature)

Please consider voting for sane candidates in November. “Sitting this one out” because your tweaked some issue is a seriously bad idea– unless, of course, you don’t care about Social Security, minimum wage, a healthcare safety net, or public education.

If you do care about these important programs, show the big money right-wingers that voters have the power in Arizona– not out-of-state $$$. Vote Goddard for governor, Deschene for Secretary of State, Rotellini for Attorney General, Cherny for Treasurer and Giffords and Grijalva for Congress. And last but not least– probably one of the most important races– Kotterman for Public Instruction– if you want to save public education in our state.

• Jesse “no-social-security” Kelly (Arizona)
• Rand “who-needs-civil-rights?” Paul (Kentucky)
• Joe “no-minimum-wage” Miller (Alaska)
• Sharon “pay-your-doctor-with-a-chicken” Angle (Nevada)
• Christine “don’t-masturbate” O’Donnell (Delaware)
• John “repeal-healthcare-reform-but-save-welfare-for-the-rich” Boehner (Ohio)
• Sarah “anti-feminist-pro-opportunist” Palin (Alaska)
• John “which-way-should-I-flip-flop-today?” McCain (Arizona)
• Jan “beheadings!” Brewer (Arizona)
• Russel “yikes-brown-people” Pearce (Arizona)
• John “who-needs-public-education” Huppenthal (Arizona)
• Greg “privatize-this” Krino (Arizona)

Are you scared yet? Should I go on?

These right-wing puppets (and– thanks to the Roberts’ court– the corporatists and secretly-funded big-money groups behind them) want to end life as we know it in the United States of America. They don’t want to take us back to the Bush era policies or the Contract for America.

With no Social Security, no healthcare safety net, no minimum wage, and, of course, no unions– they want to take us back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when people of all ages, including small children, slaved — literally– in factories and sweat shops for meager wages. If you were sick, old, or poor, it was your family’s responsibility to take care of you. No family? Tough luck, you’re on your own.

How could these ideas have gained so much popularity? Is it the sheer power of the moneyed forces behind the Tea Party– like the John Birch Society Koch brothers or secretly-finded groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which spent $3.5 million last week? All of this money + 24/7 yellow journalism courtesy of FOX News is trying to squash the progressive advances of the Obama Administration.

Here’s some background on the origins of these ideas from The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party by Frank Rich or the New York Times.

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed. As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business. While Koch foundations donate to cancer hospitals like Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, Koch Industries has been lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying another product important to its bottom line, formaldehyde, as a “known carcinogen” in humans (which it is).

Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including the putative next speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund”; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous.

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests.

Has the country gone mad? Do the small guv’ment Tea Partiers think their Social Security and Medicare will be funded, while everyone under 65 will be thrown to the wolves? Fat chance. Tea Partiers, after they have used you, they’ll go after your Medicare-funded scooters next.

For a look at our future, check out this book from the past– How the Other Half Lives– or watch Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices.

UPDATE, October 8: Diane Rehm’s Friday News Roundup covers this story. (Diane, honey, mention my blog next time, OK?)

This week, the Huffington Post reported that corporate profits are at “near-historic” levels– up 38% compared to the same time period a year ago.

It’s a pretty disgusting article about how layoffs, outsourcing, and low interest rates have allowed corporatists to rake in the cash– and hoard it– rather than reinvest it, which would improve the nation’s ecomomy.

“Since 2008, corporate profits increased 10 percent — but revenue was down 6 percent, the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] says. To achieve the impressive quarterly results, companies have had, as the WSJ puts it, to “streamline” their operations. This means firing workers, outsourcing labor and shuttering unprofitable (or less profitable) divisions.

“The robust state of corporate profits presents a paradox: companies won’t spend their money until the economy improves, but the economy won’t improve until they spend their money. An increase in hiring, for example, would help drive a recovery. The New York Times reports this “chicken-and-egg” phenomenon, noting that near-zero interest rates have encouraged companies to borrow money and simply hoard it because, as the NYT puts it, ‘they can.’”

This is a perfect example of how dysfunctional trickle down economic theory is.

Juxtapose this story about historic corporate profits with the stories about the widening wealth gap between rich and poor, rising poverty in most states, disappearing middle class, people living in vehicles, and states and cities going broke.

Given this scenario, how can Congressional Republicans continue to support tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and balk any time they are asked to extend unemployment?

How can Tea Party/Republicans like Sharon Angle (Nevada), Joe Miller (Alaska), and Jesse Kelly (Arizona) call for privatization of Social Security, elimination of the health care safety net, and elimimation of the national minimum wage? Angle, Miller, and Kelly are puppets of the corporatists. I can’t believe that they honestly think dissolution of these programs would help the majority of Americans.

Privatization of Social Security would just give Wall Street’s corporate gamblers more money to play with and another way to boost their historic profits even higher. Elimination of the health care safety net and the minimum wage and continued outsourcing of jobs would through the US into third-world status. It would be end of life as we know it. The former US middle class would become economic refugees.

UPDATE, October 6: Blog for Arizona’s AZ Blue Meanie posted Update III: The New Corporate Business Model: Increase Profits, Not Jobs.

UPDATE, October 8: Diane Rehm’s Friday News Roundup covers this story. (Diane, honey, mention my blog next time, OK?)