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

Pressure on three of Arizona's Dems in Congress is mounting as the House creeps closer to a vote on health care reform. The heat has been turned up by both sides of the issue on U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, which included a "reporter" ambush at a meeting place, and on U.S. reps Gabrielle Giffords and Ann Kirkpatrick.

Only 17% of voters said the Legislature is doing a good or excellent job, and 43% rated its performance as poor in a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey. Brewer's handling of the budget crisis fared only slightly better in the poll - 25% of those survyed said she was doing a good or excellent job.

The big donors to SCA could all face stiff fines for exceeding Arizona's individual campaign contribution limit, which could lead to civil penalties of three times the amount they gave above the threshold, according to research conducted by our reporter. In the 2008 cycle, individuals were limited to an aggregate total of $5,610 in contributions per calendar year.

A large PR/advertising push to get the Legislature to permit slots and gambling tables at the state's six horse and dog tracks (YS first to report) began Monday (July 20) at the Capitol, where Rep. Andy Tobin found a small plastic "budget jockey" on his windshield, with a tag reading "Everyone's sacrificing except tribal casinos" and "The budget jockey is here to help."

Many Arizona entities spent lots of bread in the first half of the year to protect their flanks in D.C. Washington and Arizona-based lobbying firms and individuals were paid approximately $4.3 million for the six-month period, according to OpenSecret.org and other lobbying resources.

Sen. Ron Gould says Gov. Jan Brewer will not see a full term because she can't get along with her own party. She "will not make it through the next Republican primary," he said, as reported by the Kingman Daily Miner. Legislators, he told a civic group, had been trying to engage Brewer in budget talks since February...

Former Gov. Fife Symington says he was stunned by Governor Brewer's call for an increase in the sales tax, and that has hurt her politically. So has her veto of the Republican budget last month, which didn't include a temporary sales tax increase of 1-cent.

One Senate insider suggested to our reporter that the GOP budget team should include Sen. Thayer Verschoor, who, the source said, was a superb negotiator when the Rs and Ds negotiated the FY08 budget in 2007.

Maricopa County officials were caught off-guard by the revelation sheriff's employees provided thousands of dollars to an unregistered political committee with the use of direct deposit from their paychecks. "We didn't know this existed," said Richard De Uriarte, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors,

Former Republican Treasurer David Petersen told the Yellow Sheet today (July 10) he was not surprised his former aides Tony Malaj and Blaine Vance did not receive damage settlements as whistle blowers in a case that ended Petersen's state career, just short of a full term as treasurer.