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

Political consultant Chuck Coughlin was recently recognized in an issue for having some "juice." But what accompanied the kudos was a snide, anonymous comment that his achievement was "accidental." The quote offered other gratuitous criticism too.

Experience has taught me there is little to gain with simple, direct personal appeals to most of my representatives, past governors and state agencies. Thank God there are a few exceptions - but very few.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is collecting signatures to run for attorney general and Bill Montgomery is collecting signatures to run for Maricopa County attorney.

Recently, the Arizona Capitol Times ran an article stating that I was absent for a number of votes during the past legislative session.

Gov. Brewer is on the right track in looking for ways to save money by establishing her Privatization Commission (announced Dec. 21). I hope that the targets for this commission will not be limited, since there is virtually no function of state government that cannot be privatized. We may choose to keep the courts and police as government employees, but even they could be private, albeit as a government granted monopoly.

I wish to apologize to the staff of the Maricopa Medical Center for implying that it was a poorly performing hospital. It is not.

As an 18-year-old high school senior, I decided to join the lawsuits against the state of Arizona over school finance. I have seen my school go without many of the basics that help create better students, while other schools have the things that better prepare students for the rest of their lives and the world.

As a lifelong resident of Superior, I resent Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl and U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick for promoting a mine here for two foreign companies, BHP and Rio Tinto.

Some Apache hope they might get jobs from the proposed Oak Flat/Apache Leap Resolution Copper mine. They hope these British/Australian mining companies (BHP and Rio Tinto) will hire Native Americans. In fact, the "block cave" mining jobs are highly specialized and not about truck driving or picks and shovels.

The proposal to end the tribal casino monopoly and allow other businesses to own and operate casinos across Arizona should be thoughtfully considered.