Rally kicks off Medicaid referendum drive

The push to refer Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan to the ballot began in earnest as opponents of the bill rallied at the Capitol before fanning out across the Valley to collect signatures.

The United Republican Alliance of Principled Conservatives, spearheaded by former Sens. Frank Antenori and Ron Gould and Tucson tea party activist Christine Bauserman, gathered on the House lawn with about 200 supporters on Saturday to kick off their referendum drive. The group needs to collect 86,405 valid signatures by Sept. 11 to put Medicaid expansion on the November 2014 ballot.

Standing before GOP lawmakers who opposed the plan but were thwarted by Brewer’s coalition of Democrats and pro-expansion Republicans, Antenori, Gould and others urged the crowd of about 200 people to brave the searing summer heat and recruit others to the cause. Gould, a Lake Havasu City Republican, urged each of the volunteers to recruit 50 more volunteers for the referendum effort.

“We can do this. It’s going to be hot. It’s not the greatest time of the year,” Gould said. “We need to do this folks. This will become the first, the first nationwide referendum against Obamacare. Nowhere else in America has this been done. It’s going to be done. It starts today. Let’s get it done. Put on your walking shoes. Put on your sunscreen. Put on your hat. Let’s get it done folks.”

Bauserman, the URAPC chairwoman, said the group distributed 5,000 petition sheets on Saturday, along with 3,000 more in the days before the rally. The Tucson activist urged the crowd to stop the takeover of Arizona’s budget engineered by the hospitals, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and the GOP lawmakers who voted for expansion.

“I don’t think they were moderate Republicans who voted (for expansion), those 15. I don’t claim them to be Republicans at all. And I’m tired of hearing that there’s something wrong with the Republicans. There’s nothing wrong with the Republican Party. We are the party of limited government and fiscal sanity. And we know how to read the constitution. And guess what it says? It says we can do a people’s veto,” Bauserman told the crowd.

After the rally, volunteers left to collect signatures. On Saturday, the group specifically targeted Legislative Districts 15 and 18, home to pro-expansion Republican Reps. Heather Carter, Jeff Dial and Bob Robson, and Sen. John McComish. Bauserman said URAPC also had a targeted effort set up in Legislative District 9, a Democratic-leaning district that is home to GOP Rep. Ethan Orr, who was one of nine House Republicans to vote for Medicaid expansion.

Many attendees carried signs or wore t-shirts criticizing Brewer and her allies in the Legislature. One attendee sold t-shirts with a picture of a bloody knife on the back, declaring the wearer to be, “Another conservative stabbed in the back by” Brewer, Carter, Dial or others.

After the speeches, URAPC began collecting signatures on the spot from the people at the rally, starting with Antenori and Gould.

“The governor had her signing ceremony. We’re going to have ours right now,” said Antenori, a Tucson Republican. “We’re off and running. Let’s go get those 100,000 signatures and send this thing to the voters in November 2014.”

A dozen Republican lawmakers attended the event. In addition to Rep. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, who helped organize the rally, Reps. John Allen, Eddie Farnsworth, David Gowan, John Kavanagh, Adam Kwasman, Justin Olson, Carl Seel, Steve Smith and Kelly Townsend, and Sens. Judy Burges and Al Melvin. Michael Jeanes, clerk of the Maricopa County Superior Court, former Senate President Russell Pearce and former Rep. Terri Proud attended as well.

Organizers acknowledged that the referendum drive would be tough. But they criticized Brewer, her allies and members of the media who questioned URAPC’s ability to collect enough signatures to refer it to the ballot.

“We have a monumental task in front of us. If you read all the reports in the media, they say we can’t get it done. The left has this thing, they go, ‘Si se puede, yes we can.’ But when we say we’re going to go out and do something, everybody goes, ‘No they can’t, no they can’t,’” Antenori said. “Now is our chance. We have to come together and we have to fight to get this on the ballot. We have a lot of work to do between now and Sept. 10 when we have to get all these signatures and these petitions submitted. So everybody’s got to go out there and do their little part.”

For now, the referendum drive is an all-volunteer effort. Many observers have questioned URAPC’s ability to collect upward of 120,000 signatures without paid gatherers.

Bauserman said she expects outside financial support to come in if URAPC can show it’s making progress.

“There’s people talking. Everyone’s kind of waiting to see,” Bauserman said after the rally. “Everybody wants to be a winner. People want to be a winner.”

In the meantime, Bauserman said, the extensive Republican grassroots network is lined up behind the referendum drive.

A.J. LaFaro, chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, said he is putting the party’s organizational structure to support the referendum drive, and he expects an “overwhelming number” of the state’s 5,000 GOP precinct committeemen to join the effort.

“I think the governor and her crony capitalists underestimated the citizens of Arizona. This is just the beginning. We’ve got a crusade ahead of us. But from everything I’m hearing and the people that I’m talking to, as you saw demonstrated here today, this is a real movement. We’ll get it done. We know how to get it done,” LaFaro said. “Our people are energized.”