Arizona's public campaign finance commission on Thursday considers a housekeeping matter stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to block so-called matching funds.

The Arizona Supreme Court is willing to cut a deal with longtime scofflaws: Pay your overdue fines by the end of the year and get a 50 percent reduction.

Rep. John McComish is on the short list of incumbents who won’t face an election challenge this year. McComish has neither a primary nor a general election opponent, which means he’ll join the Senate next year without having to go through the wringer.

News this morning that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear an appeal of Arizona's employer sanctions law (Laws 2007, Chapter 279) was hailed as a minor victory by both proponents and critics of the law. Pearce told our reporter he believes the high court, by a 6-3 or 5-4 vote, will uphold the law as constitutional. "We've won at every level," he said, adding that upholding the law will allow for employer sanctions to "become the law of the land."

Among the arguments put forth by supporters and critics of Arizona's immigration bill, S1070, most lie upon constitutionality, the thrust of the arguments lying in the sphere of equal protection.

Education advocates say Arizona is failing to fully fund its K-12 system for the coming budget year in violation of the state Constitution.

I am saddened and outraged by Russell Pearce’s latest efforts to legislate bigotry and discrimination into Arizona law. As first reported in the Arizona Capitol Times, Sen. Pearce is now attempting to deny citizenship to American-born children if their parents are illegal immigrants, and to deny public education to undocumented children by requiring them to pay tuition or be forced out of school.

The cloud of irony surrounding Dean Martin on June 8 was so thick that it must have been difficult for him to see how quickly his campaign was swirling down the drain.

Without additional campaign cash to fend off better-funded opponents, some Clean Elections candidates will be in dire need of help from their allies.

Arizona’s matching funds system for publicly financed campaigns may be going down, but it probably won’t go alone.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to block Arizona’s Clean Elections system from distributing matching funds is a bad omen for similar systems in other states, and could portend their end if the court rules that matching funds are unconstitutional, according to legal experts and campaign finance reform advocates.