Longtime Arizona Democrat Don Bivens won a state committee election in Prescott and will serve as the party’s chairman until 2009.
Bivens, a former president of the State Bar of Arizona, was elected by the party’s state committee meeting at Yavapai College on Aug. 11.
He most recently served on the finance committee for U.S. Senate candidate Jim Pederson in 2006. He has also worked for past campaigns of Democratic former governor Bruce Babbitt in 1982, and Attorney General Terry Goddard during his campaign for governor in 1994.
An increasing “far-right” tendency among Republican candidates is pushing voters toward his party, he said, citing wide 2006 victories by Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano and Goddard.
“We are both out-fund raising and out-registering our Republican friends,” he said. “It’s just an observable fact that thoughtful independents and Republicans have been voting for Democratic candidates.”
He said his priorities are maintaining the party’s “upward trajectory” in congressional and state races, and getting more familiar with Democratic officeholders in the Legislature.
In 2006 Democrats picked up seven seats in the Legislature. Winning a majority is possible, he said. (The Arizona House now has 33 Republicans and 27 Democrats; the Senate has 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats.)
The 1st Congressional District House seat occupied by Republican Rick Renzi, currently under federal investigation for possible corruption, is “winnable.” And a possible special election to fill the seat if Renzi vacates would provide a “strategic advantage” to Democrats by allowing a tight focus of party resources, said Bivens.
GOP: Democrats are ‘pandering’
Brett Mecum, a spokesman for the Arizona Republican Party, said he believes Democrats are too optimistic and predicts their “pandering to the left wing” will push independents right back to the GOP tent.
Large tax increases, pork spending and a “surrender in Iraq” policy by the Democratic majority in Congress will haunt freshmen Democrats U.S. Reps. Harry Mitchell, Congressional District 5 and Gabrielle Giffords, Congressional District 8 in 2008, he said.
Firm Republican policies espousing strong borders, low taxes and family values, and a “deep bench” of qualified Republican hopefuls will bring the 5th and 8th districts back under GOP control, Mecum said.
“I think the Democrats are over confident,” said Mecum, also predicting veto-proof majorities in the state Legislature following the 2008 elections. “They had the perfect storm in 2006 (when Democrats took control of both houses of Congress.”
At the Aug. 11 Democrat meeting, party members also revised guidelines for writing resolutions, and voted to urge elected officials to investigate alleged abuses of power by the Bush administration.
Outgoing Chairman David Waid, who presided over the party when it gained two congressional seats and seven seats in the Arizona Legislature in 2006, said his successor’s ability to “broaden our fund-raising base” and vision will be beneficial.
Waid resigned from his position as chairman in July, citing a desire to spend more time with his political consulting business and family.
Bivens will be finishing Waid’s term, which ends in January 2009, and plans to run again for the position, said Emily Bittner, a party spokeswoman.
Two other candidates for chairman were nominated by members of the Democrat State Committee, but withdrew their nominations to further party unity, she said.
Jim Hannley, a district chairman for Legislative district 27 and a leader of the party’s Progressive Caucus withdrew, as did Randall Holmes, Bittner said.