Dean Martin Announces for Governor, the hits start rolling

State Treasurer Dean Martin announced that he will be running for Governor in this year's Republican Primary. Echoing Governor Jan Brewer's statement on Prop 204, the expanded Medicaid eligibility law, Martin said he will ask voters to revisit the issue.

Martin immediately becomes Gov. Brewer's main opponent and will run on a platform that the state should be cutting to get out of the budget deficit, instead of seeking new revenue. Martin said he would release his budget proposal after Governor Brewer releases hers on Friday.

Martin also announced he would be running as a Clean Elections candidate and immediately found out what it was going to be like to run in a crowded race. Candidate John Munger immediately slammed Martin calling him a hypocrite for taking public funding while suing the very system. Laurie Roberts chimed in on a blog post and by far the most widely viewed piece of all, channel five did a 2:30 segment on Martin's choice in funding.

You can see the Channel 5 video here.

Quotes from Brewer's State of State

Tip to AZCapitol Times and their Twitter page for some of the highlights of the Governor's State of the State. You can get a full copy of the speech here.

There were definitely a few shots across the bow of her opponents. At one point, Brewer said, "If you have a better plan, produce it -- and soon." Vernon Parker responded by Twitter saying, "For a better plan, visit http://www.parker2010.com"

I clicked around but couldn't find any plans to balance the budget this year. If someone from the Parker campaign could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Below are some of the sound bites from today:

Brewer: "Spare us the profiles in courage. It's time for a little less profile and a little more courage."

Brewer: "Government must live within its means."

Brewer: Five point plan is now 3 points.

Brewer: "Substantial" cuts needed still.

Brewer: 'Wrong' is arguing against solutions, when evidence to the contrary is everywhere

Brewer: "In my year on the job, I have grown wiser, and time has grown shorter."

Brewer: "I do not shrink from (challenges), I do not cower, and neither should you.

Brewer: Need to ask voters to roll back minimum levels for AHCCCS, because $1B of deficit is due to Prop 204 requirements.

Brewer: Gaming Director Mark Brnovitch will head up commission to examine gov't privatization and streamlining.

Brewer: "Our state government today is not suited for Arizona's second century." Reform of gov't services needed for greater efficiency.

Brewer: $10 million of federal stimulus money will be used for job training

Brewer: "Enough is enough. Secure our borders."

Brewer: If Goddard won't defend AZ's rights against Feds, "I will."

Brewer: Feds are violating 10th Amendment of Constitution by giving states mandates to spend money

Brewer: Can't "rollback odometer on state government" because of growth in AZ, at least not without help of the voters.

Brewer State of the State Speech today

Today is an enormous day for Governor Jan Brewer as she is set to deliver her first State of the State speech since taking office. If you remember, Janet Napolitano decided to give one last hurrah even though she was leaving just a few days later.

Governor Brewer has the opportunity to address the entire state and make her case for what needs to happen to start fixing this mess.

You can watch the address live by clicking here or here.

Symington Irony

Several months ago, former Governor Fife Symington announced his endorsement of John Munger for Governor. At the time, Munger touted the much ballyhooed endorsement as a big deal.

Does money speak louder than words?

Today, it was announced that another privately funded candidate, Owen "Buz" Mills, had dumped $2 million of his own money into his campaign (updated link) likely to far outstrip anything Munger has raised to date. The company he has hired to manage his bid?

You guessed it, the Symington Group.

Munger now finds himself at a great financial disadvantage to a virtually unknown candidate who has hired his biggest endorser to run his campaign. Both Mills and Munger, who reside outside of Maricopa County, have a big task of increasing their Name ID against an incumbent Governor and potential candidates in an Attorney General and a State Treasurer.

Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation between Munger and Symington?

Without such a large personal fortune to bolster his chances, does Munger regret coming out so strongly against Clean Elections? Even Dean Martin, who filed a lawsuit against Clean Elections, admits that "The system practically forces you to run under it to have any chance of winning."

So where does Symington's loyalty lie? Are we to believe that he stands firmly behind Munger while his firm cashes the checks from Mills?

After Emergency Cabinet Meeting, Brewer to turn over illegal alien prisoners to ICE

Governor Brewer called an emergency cabinet meeting over the weekend to address the ongoing budget crisis and provide updated revenue and expenditure numbers.

She also laid out 10 actions items she intends to have her Directors implement. Sure to catch the headline is the fourth item on the list.

FOURTH, I am ordering the Arizona Department of Corrections to return to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) -- as soon as possible -- all non-violent criminal aliens as is allowed under existing law. The cost of incarcerating these criminal aliens is NOT Arizona’s responsibility. By federal law, the cost of their incarceration is the responsibility of the FEDERAL government.

There was no mention of additional revenue, and it didn't need mentioning. The picture that was laid out, and that you can see in the slides, is that because of voter mandated items you can cut everything out of the budget that's not mandated and still not fix the hole. In other words, you could shut down almost all government services and still have problems to fix. This goes right to the heart of those that say the state should go back to 2006 revenue levels.

The Governor's comments can be found here.

Governor Brewer calls another special session

Our year round legislature will be back at it again on Thursday as Governor Brewer has called a special session covering three topics.

• Proposal to ask voters to loosen restrictions on voter-approved funds
• More cuts on top of those passed a few weeks ago. $200 Million seems to be the number
• Refer to the ballot a temporary sales-tax and allow the voters to decide the state budget number the state will move forward with.

Some say the votes are there. Some say they aren't. Either way, the only guarantee you have is that it will be an interesting session as usual.

Will the Democrats be there? Will Ron Gould stay the line on his rhetoric? What do you think?

Governor Brewer Seeks Relief from Massive Washington Mandates

Meets With Congressional Delegation on Arizona’s Economy,

Cost of Health Care Entitlement Expansion, Job Recruitment Efforts

PHOENIX – With three years now beyond the initial signs of recession, and state revenues down 31% just since the summer of 2008, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today met with members of Arizona’s federal delegation to encourage defeat of an expensive expansion of federal health care mandates on the states. Federal health care proposals, particularly as proposed by the US Senate, would have a devastating fiscal impact to the State of Arizona’s already challenging budget shortfall. Other proposals, such as the plan approved by the US House of Representatives, suggest a possible state government savings scenario but lock in Arizona to permanent service and spending mandates that are not affordable or sustainable even under the best economic conditions.

Since taking office in late January of 2009, Governor Brewer and the Arizona Legislature have enacted a total of $1.05 billion in permanent budget reductions, eliminating state programs and services, and substantially reducing the state’s work force.

“A mandated and permanent expansion of health care will cost Arizona taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Governor Jan Brewer. “Whether the monies are collected by the states or the federal government, either scenario is expensive, ill-conceived, and will be paid for by hard-working Arizona citizens. This is nothing more than Congress imposing a future, hidden tax increase on Arizona taxpayers. Expanding federal entitlements now is absolutely irresponsible.”

Other topics on the Governor’s DC agenda included the state’s economy, job recruitment efforts, and transportation.

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Vernon Parker's Anti-Tax Committee Raises Questions

Yesterday, Paradise Valley Mayor and exploratory candidate for Governor Vernon Parker announced that he had formed a committee to oppose any potential tax increase that may be placed on the ballot. Parker wasted no time using the opportunity to give a stump speech about the virtue or cutting spending and fewer taxes - which sounded vaguely similar to his stump speech for Governor.

We received his press release on the topic, which we will include below, which raised more questions than answers. First, note that the press release is paid for by Parker's exploratory committee. How can an exploratory committee pay for the activities of another political committee?

The second question we had was who was paying for the PR for the new committee. We were going to ask if both committees were, in fact, paying guru Jason Rose to do the work. However, if you look, the contact is actually someone from Lincoln Strategy Group. That group is lead by Nathan Sproul, the guy behind mudslinging so heinous that Janet Napolitano defended Russell Pearce against it.

Sproul was recently featured again on Seeing Red Arizona, with the following recap:

"Sproul was also behind the disingenuously named ballot initiative Stop Illegal Hiring (Prop. 202) which sought to accomplish just the opposite. The voters saw through the abysmal charade — and its proponents of low wage, illegal and exploitable labor led by McDonald’s owner Marion “Mac” Magruder, Carl’s Jr. owner Jason LeVecke and chaired by County Attorney wannabe Andrew Pacheco — sending it to a swift defeat. The conservative publication Human Events also covered the deceptive effort."

Parker appears to be trapped between the Sheriff Joe anti-illegal rock and the Nathan Sproul pro-immigration hard place. Not only that, but he is using his Clean Elections money to do it.

Contact: Brian Murray
Save Our Jobs: Stop the Tax Hike
Phone: 480.303.7175
bmurray@lincoln-strategy.com

Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker Forms "Save Our Jobs: Stop the Tax Hike" Coalition to Oppose Anticipated Tax Hike Referral

PHOENIX, AZ – Today, Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker took the first steps to actively oppose any tax increase upon the citizens of Arizona, by filing a new political committee: "Save Our Jobs: Stop the Tax Hike."

Parker will file the paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office Wednesday morning.

"Raising taxes during times of economic crisis doesn’t make sense. We have lost over 210,000 jobs in Arizona, and if a tax increase goes through our economy will get even worse. It must seem like raising our taxes is the easy way out, but that’s wrong. It won’t solve our fundamental problems, and will be devastating to our economy," said Parker.

"I stand ready today to help our leaders understand the futility of a tax increase and that is why I am writing to every single lawmaker explaining to them the economic peril a tax increase will have. I know this fight will not be an easy one, but one I intend to win," said Parker.

"We have a governor that wants to take more money from all Arizonans yet refuses to cut her own Governor’s Office budget. This type of approach must be defeated," he concluded.

The committee filed today will allow Parker to raise funds to actively oppose any tax increase. A copy of the letter sent to state lawmakers can be found below.

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Governor Brewer Brings Back Christmas

Governor Brewer officially returned to the State Capitol a few words that had been missing for last few years. Christmas, menorah, and Hanukkah have missing since 2001 when Janet Napolitano changed the words to "holiday" and "candle holder."

Saying she wasn't going to play "word games,"Brewer said, "I believe in calling something what it is, and it is a Christmas tree, just as a menorah is a menorah.

You can see footage of the tree lighting ceremony here.