Challengers say Brewer doing little to lead AZ through tough times

With Gov. Jan Brewer leading in the polls, Dean Martin and Buz Mills sought to turn her self-proclaimed strengths into her greatest weaknesses.

Brewer, in turn, questioned Martin’s legislative record and Mills’ plans for the state, while all three feuded with Matthew Jette, whose positions and proposals seemed more fitting for a Democratic debate than a contest between GOP hopefuls.

Brewer, Martin, Mills and self-described moderate Jette faced off June 15 for the first televised debate between the contenders for the Republican nomination in the 2010 governor’s race. For most of the debate, Martin, the state treasurer, and Mills, a northern Arizona businessman, did their best to chip away at Brewer’s portrayal of herself as the governor who helped guide Arizona out of its darkest hour.

The debate began with the bone of contention that first aroused conservative opposition to Brewer – her push for a temporary one-cent sales tax to balance Arizona’s deficit-wracked budget. Martin and Mills criticized Brewer for advocating the tax, as well as for allowing the state’s property tax to go back into effect after a three-year hiatus. They said the state should not be increasing taxes during such grim economic times, and vowed that unlike her, they would balance the budget through cuts alone.

Brewer said the tax was necessary, and described her opponents’ plans to balance the budget without a tax hike as unrealistic. When Mills proposed cutting education spending Brewer said he was ignoring the fact that Arizona’s K-12 education spending is dictated by federal and voter mandate.

“The state of Arizona was in such a historical mess there (weren‘t) a whole lot of choices,” Brewer said of the tax hike, as well as the massive borrowing the state has done to balance the budget. “I did not create the problem. I have got to be the solution to the problem.”

Though 64 percent of voters approved Proposition 100 in the May 18 special election, Mills said public support for the tax hike was not as high as Brewer claimed, saying only one-third of registered voters actually went to the polls.

“This is not an overwhelming majority. Twenty-four percent of the registered voters voted for it,” he said.

Mills said only 55,000 of the 120,000 employees paid by the Arizona Department of Education are teachers, and said many the school districts’ expenses could be cut by outsourcing or privatizing things like janitorial services.

“Why don’t we do like we do in business? Now, government is not business, and business is not government, but said principles apply,” he said.

Martin and Mills said Brewer exaggerated the education cuts the state would’ve made if Prop. 100 had failed. Brewer and the Legislature approved an alternative budget that would have cut about $430 million in K-12 spending if the tax hike didn’t pass, which Martin said was far more than necessary.

“There’s plenty of waste in state government that you can get rid of before you go cut the frontline teachers,” Martin said. “That was done on purpose to try to get people to vote for this, scare them to death.”

In response to Martin and Mills’ criticism of her budget plan, Brewer shot back with her familiar refrain that neither has presented a plan of his own. She called Martin’s proposal to return to the state’s 2005 budget unrealistic, and chastised Mills for having no plan at all.

“The fact of the matter is you never came out with a plan. Where would you make those cuts?” Brewer asked.

Mills said he would release a plan if elected, and said Brewer’s budget wasn’t balanced either.

“You have not come out with one either. That’s your job, not mine,” he said.

In one of the few surprising moments of the debate, Martin challenged one of Brewer’s most oft-spoken lines of the past year and a half, that she had never supported a tax hike in 26 years as an elected official before Prop. 100. He cited Brewer’s support in 1998, when she served on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, for a ballot measure that put a tax hike before voters to pay for jail construction and operation.

And while Brewer mentioned several times that she cut $2.2 billion from the state’s budget, Martin said she actually increased spending by vetoing permanent spending reductions in 2009.

“I think if you’re going to tell the truth, tell the whole truth,” Martin said, a play on Brewer’s frequent description of herself as a “truth teller.”

Brewer returned the favor by questioning Martin’s fiscal conservative credentials, reminding him that while in the Senate he voted for several of former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s budgets, which dramatically increased state spending during her six years in office.

“You’re not part of the solution, Dean. You’re part of the problem,” Brewer said.

Jette sided with Brewer on Prop. 100, but mostly found himself at odds with the rest of the Republican field, especially when the debate turned to S1070, Arizona’s landmark bill that greatly expands the ability of police to enforce federal immigration law. He accused Martin of wanting “the illegals to finish the (border) wall as if they were slave labor,” and accused Mills of exaggerating the scope of crimes committed in Arizona by Mexican drug and human trafficking cartels.

“You act as if the state of Arizona is being terrorized by illegal immigrants,” Jette said. “Crime is on the way down.”

Mills said Jette was ignoring the plight of Arizonans who live near the Mexican border and deal with cartel-related crime on a regular basis.

“The folks down there are living in fear and intimidation,” Mills said.

Brewer bolstered her conservative credentials on illegal immigration by signing S1070, and most polls showed her approval rating rising dramatically afterward. But Martin took aim at the issue that has vaulted Brewer into frontrunner status, questioning her decision to cut prison expenses by releasing some illegal immigrants who have less than 90 days left on their sentences early and turning them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also criticized her for not deploying National Guard troops to the border.

“I don’t know why we’re releasing illegals, giving them a benefit to get out with early release,” Martin said.

Mills said that he would, if elected, create a 500-person border task force, and said Brewer had done nothing to secure the border. “You shouldn’t be releasing any criminal early to balance the budget.”

“We’re going to the border and we’re going to clean this up. Ten-seventy doesn’t do anything for safety and security on the border,” he said.