Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Not long ago, southern Arizona legislators worked together to serve the needs of their communities, regardless of their political affiliations. Today, the willingness to collaborate is gone.

The big news this week is the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Arizona’s matching funds provision from Clean Elections. The ruling could be a game-changer for some who will seek legislative and statewide elected positions. But it also begs the question: What will we really be missing?

The U.S. and Arizona constitutions are meant to limit government power, but these limits are meaningless unless judges enforce them.

Benjamin Franklin probably was not being literal when he wrote, “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” But the literal interpretation certainly applies to the approximately 25 million Americans who live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. People in these states don’t need Earth Day or Water Awareness Month celebrations to remind them of the worth of their water. They already know that their well — the Colorado River — is running dry.

Something’s gotten into the water at the state Capitol.

Republicans — specifically one out of southern Arizona — want more government control by taking power away from the people of Arizona. In the Arizona Capitol Times May 27 article “Fit to be tied: Republican lawmakers say Prop. 105 too restrictive,” Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista (District 25), said he is vying to put legislation back on the agenda next year to limit voters’ decision-making power.

You wouldn’t naturally expect people to become angry before a state commission redraws Arizona’s legislative and congressional districts, but thanks to the trending wave of dysfunction, that’s exactly what has happened.

For years, Arizona was touted as a good place to move for asthmatics and others who suffer from respiratory illnesses. Unfortunately that is no longer the case.

I’d like to set the record straight due to the political intrigue and misinformation that have been ascribed to the recent special session on continuing the federal Extended Benefit (EB) Program until the end of the year in Arizona.

Senate President Russell Pearce characterizes the massive recall effort against him as a product of liberal citizens who unpatriotically share zero interest in his politics, which is seemingly limited to the topic of curtailing illegal immigration by any means necessary. 

Rather than respond to Henry Grosjean’s commentary (Brewer was right to veto health insurance bill, 5/27) in-kind with an ad hominem attack on his intelligence, I will respond to his claims and why the governor’s veto of SB1593 was a mistake that will have adverse consequences for the 1.3 million Arizonans with no insurance today, and for the thousands of small businesses being crushed under the weight of ever-increasing premiums.