As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged in a while. It hasn’t been for a lack of awful things happening in this state, but rather my own desire to focus on work and to actually get out and talk to voters about what it is going on. I was more than happy to ignore writing in this blog, and let others take up the charge of mercilessly mocking the corrupt group that “runs” this state.

And then I was forwarded an email from Sal DiCiccio that seemed sort of suspicious.

Before I get into this let me add a little disclaimer. I grew up going to church with Sal’s parents. They are two of the sweetest people in the world. As a result, I do not like publicly arguing with their son and I have tried very hard to let his ethical lapses and general bad policies slide. I felt it would be inappropriate to target a relative of people who had shown me a great deal of kindness growing up. But it’s time he is held accountable for his grossly irresponsible actions.

Like any Phoenix city official, Sal has a government email account. Unlike every other city official, he has decided to use it to send out “newsletters” to promote himself politically, personally attack his colleagues, and raise money to protect his own career from a citizens recall that was filed against him. This is all very unethical and probably illegal, of course. But then again,that has never stopped him before.

I understand how politics works. But there are times when you put politics aside. When the line between campaigning and governing gets blurred, and when taxpayer resources are used to do that, we have a responsibility to stand up and stop it. No elected official should be allowed to buy email addresses under the guise of keeping citizens informed on city issues and then turn around and use it for political gain.

This “Tea Party” Councilman has used the taxpayer dollars he claims to protect to attack his colleagues and raise money for his campaigns! Please, take a moment to email Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos at david.cavazos@phoenix.gov and tell him to hold Sal accountable.

For obvious reasons, I took another hiatus from blogging.There were many stories that were just begging to be mocked, but I didn’t feel it was appropriate to comment just yet.

One such topic was the Arizona Democratic Party Chair’s race. But I really find it unfortunate that just after Congresswoman Giffords’ staff and two of our party leaders stepped up to ask for more time for civility, people have instead decided to make it about themselves and their paranoid delusions. It’s not how we should act.

There seems to be a bout of Democratic Birtherism inflicting a few members of the State Committee. They’ve contrived elaborate scenarios of smoke filled rooms and shady deals, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They’ve questioned the qualifications and the motivations of someone who is clearly loyal to the cause of Democrats in Arizona and who has given them no reason to distrust his intentions.

It’s one thing to discuss the respective platforms and fundraising capabilities of each candidate; it’s quite another to doubt their loyalty as a Democrat. Andrei followed the rules, and several legal opinions have said as much. He is a PC and a State Committeeman. He has run a legislative district before. He has advised presidents, and even wrote our party’s platform. By every reasonable measure, Andrei is far and away the most qualified candidate for Chair that we’ve had in a long time. Maybe that’s why some have decided to try to distract us from the real issues.

We are in this business to get Democrats elected, and while there are certain times to stir the pot to advance that goal, this is not one of them. Now let’s get to work.

Awful news from NPR:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.

Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting her first “Congress on Your Corner” event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least five other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the man ran up firing indiscriminately, and then ran off, Michaels said. According to other witnesses, the was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody.

More details to come.

Please, just pray for the Congresswoman and the staff and citizens who were harmed.

Looking forward to the year ahead, it is clear that the biggest show will be the Phoenix city elections.

The Mayor’s race seems to be, for now, the juiciest fight. For Democrats it means a chance reassert their political relevance, for Republicans it is a chance to see which faction reigns supreme. Let’s take a look at the candidates, and what little I know about them.

Greg Stanton – The only Democrat thus far with the cajones to step up, since Jim Pederson decided not to spend beaucoup bucks.  A local boy that used to represent Sleazy Sal D’s seat on the council before he stepped down to help manage the Attorney General’s office.  His resume has everything you’d want and expect out of a candidate for Mayor, and his campaign is being run by the best minds our party has to offer at the moment.

Peggy Neely – The incumbent from District 2 and the woman who rocked the Bieber Haircut before it was trendy. Neely is a Republican who received a lot of heat from her base for championing the giveaway to CityNorth. That hasn’t hurt her standing in the business community though, as she’s raised over 200,000 already, and is once again receiving advice from HighGround, destroyer of worlds.

Claude Mattox – The man with the most money at this point, the District 5 councilman has pulled in over 300,000 and is probably spending all of it on a contract with his consultant, Jason Rose, who took quite a beating in the last election (for a Republican). He’s locked up endorsements from turncoat and generally weird former Mayor Paul Johnson as well as Jerry Colangelo, and we must never forget the electoral allure of a Tom Selleck-style mustache.

Wes Gullett – Lobbyist and former McCain staffer with a ton of money, a ton of friends, and a mighty beard that makes him look slightly like a ginger Paul Giamatti.  His likable, moderate attitude, deep roots and experience make him an instant front runner, but a history in politics that long is bound to bear fruit for his opponents’ attack ads.

Insiders tend to put their money on Gullett at the moment, but it is early yet, and anything in politics can change in a flash. I’ll be keeping an eye on developments in the race, dear readers, but don’t hesitate to send me the inside scoop as you get it.

So it seems like the race for the Arizona Democratic Party Chair is going to be a throw-down in the Thunderdome between Andrei Cherny and Rodney Glassman, and I can think of no better way to shake off my benign neglect than with a run down of the showdown and what it means for the future of a party in need of leadership.

These two men come to the table with a whole lot of  good will from PCs and the solid connections built from their months spent campaigning, but this election will be less about how people personally feel about these two men and more about what they can offer to a Party that desperately needs a strong, competent Chair.

Now I worked with Andrei, and I can tell you he’s the exact type of person we need for that job.  It’s why our legislative leadership endorsed him, and it’s why several others, including this humble (kind of) blogger, have as well.

As a former speech writer for the White House, he knows what it takes to develop a good message and, more importantly, how to make sure people hear it. As one of our best fundraisers, he knows how important it is for our party to have all the resources we need to compete. And as a former candidate, he knows what we need to change to win. Oh, and no one works harder than him. I’m almost sure he doesn’t sleep.

Rodney, while being a well-meaning person, just doesn’t have the same type of experience, or the political sense, to be the kind of Chair we need to fight our way out of this corner.

It’s also clear we need a Chair who will bring national attention to our state. Glassman wasn’t able to get it despite running against John McCain. Cherny was able to despite running for Treasurer.

A handful of people will try to make a lot of hay of the fact that Cherny was only recently made a PC and State Committeemen, but he has been before, and he was even a leader in LD14. Add that to the fact that there is even a legal opinion showing everything he did was completely allowed by our bylaws and their argument quickly falls apart.

Andrei is by far the better choice for the challenges we face as a party, and I think we’d be stronger heading into the next election with him at the helm.

Editor’s note: Another guest post, this time from my good friend Richie.  These opinions are his, and I hope you find them as funny and interesting as I did, even though I did disagree on some things. (specifically, how can anyone think Four Loko tastes better than Jack Daniels?!) Enjoy!

Maybe its the libertarian locked up deep inside of me (I never let him vote!) but I think a person of legal age should be able to consume a drink that has been called “legalized liquid cocaine” if he wants. By the way, in interest of full disclosure I think plain old regular powder cocaine should be legalized too, but we’ll save that discussion for another time. Four Loko, is the popular new drink among young people across college campuses and trailer parks everywhere. Its a drink that crosses socioeconomic lines! Poor kids in inner city Chicago are drinking it by the case and so are wealthy Harvard students, you know…when they’re not inventing facebooks. But you and I both know this isn’t really about Four Loko. This magical elixir may or may not be any more dangerous than downing shot after shot of Jack Daniels in your buddy’s dorm room (though it certainly tastes better), many colleges are talking about banning or already have banned the drink. They’re missing the point. What should concern college administrators, parents, and government regulators is the reason so many young people feel compelled to drink to excess in a short period of time (making products like Four Loko so popular; one cheap can and your gone for the night).

Prohibition of any kind doesn’t result in ending the undesired activity, it drives it underground. Prohibiting people 18-21 from drinking legally does not and never has stopped a single person from drinking. There are several unalterable facts about this strange creature known as the eighteen year old. He will ignore his parents phone calls, he will have sex whenever the opportunity arises, and he will drink alcohol. Making the third activity illegal doesn’t stop him from drinking; it makes it dangerous, cool, and mysterious. Alcohol is available to him at sporadic intervals and the opportunity must be seized to get drunk when possible because it may not come around again for a couple weeks.

Now imagine if that young man could go to a bar or restaurant and order a couple of beers with his friends. Wait, we don’t have to imagine, because such a place exists and its called most of Europe. Binge drinking is much less prevalent in European countries because alcohol is not mystified and held up as a dangerous and adult privilege. Certainly lowering the drinking age in America would not solve all the alcohol related problems in our country, but it would contribute to a healthier and more realistic view of our nation’s youth. The Puritan point of view is alive and well in America, but Four Loko isn’t to blame for the crisis of alcohol induced illness and death among American youth. I suggest you go out and try a can of the cranberry lemonade loko before big brother tells you you can’t. Just don’t be an idiot, do it responsibly, one can of the loko is all you need! Oh and one more thing ask the liquor store owner if he has any “quatro loko” in stock, they love jokes like that.

-Richie Taylor

As Democrats continue to recover from the election, I’d figure I’d open the blog up to guest posts and topics. Here’s a Harvard-midterm induced post about the Suns from my good friend Joel.

The Suns are 3-4 and yes, Suns fans, it is time to panic.  Sure, the Suns are in the middle of a torturous opening stretch.  Sure, we knew that Amare would be impossible to replace.  Yes, J-Rich has stepped up into the leading scorer role, and the Josh Childress/Hakim Warrick pick-ups have worked out as well as anyone could have asked.  So, why should we be in panic mode?  Because Hedo Turkoglu has been an absolute catastrophe to this point.

The hope when we picked up Hedo was that last season in Toronto was a fluke.  After all, it was only two seasons ago that Hedo was the third-best (debatably second-best) player on a team that beat the Celtics and Cavs on the way to the Finals!  If he could just re-capture 80-90% of that, the hope was, we’d have a pretty potent Big 3 and take only a small step back from last season.  Instead, Hedo’s numbers are down across the board from last season, albeit in marginally fewer minutes.

So what’s the deal with Hedo?  Compare his stats to his final season in Orlando (2008-09) and two numbers jump out.  First, his free throw attempts (FTAs) are way down.  In 08-09, he had one FTA every 7.18 mins.  This year, he’s only getting to the stripe once every 22.25 minutes! Second, despite playing about ten fewer minutes per game, his 3-pt attempts are slightly up from 08-09! And the 08-09 Magic were one of the most three-point happy teams we’ve ever seen!  Here’s some simple NBA math: if a guy’s 3-pt attempts are up and his free throw attempts are way down, he’s not playing as aggressively on the offensive end.  That’s not entirely surprising.  Guys who switch teams often take some time to adjust to the offense.  Playing with an offensive talent like J-Rich and legends like Nash and Hill, we might expect Hedo to defer a little more.  But that’s not what we got Hedo for!

If I were in Alvin Gentry’s fancy shoes, I’d try replacing Hedo in the starting five with Warrick.  Playing with the bench guys, Hedo would clearly be the best offensive player on the court, and the coaching staff might have an easier time getting him to take more of a leading role.  Warrick has been a pleasant surprise (and our third-leading scorer) and deserves the kind of minutes he’d get playing with the starters.  Plus, Robin Lopez always seemed to benefit from playing with a real PF last year (the combo of him and Frye down low were a disaster), so maybe pairing him with Warrick would get him to “man up” a little and live up to his potential.  No matter what Gentry does, he needs to find a way to resurrect the Hedo the Magic had or we have no hope of being competitive in the West.

How did a guy named Dubie lose in Vermont?

With rare exception, political journalists in this state are not very political at all. They complain about negativity in campaigns and the decay of discourse, but the race that they covered the most this year is still without a doubt Thomas v. Horne, and the most press coverage the Governor’s race has gotten revolved around empty rumors about Headless Jan’s health.

That is why I guess I should not be surprised that on this Halloween night they fell for another campaign trick. They will be following Tom Horne to San Francisco as he sits quietly in a court room playing brick-breaker, after which they will dutifully give him a ton of free airtime to spew his twisted talking points (without response) right before the election.

Now they will twist and turn in the wind and claim that it’s news not because he’s a candidate, but because he’s State Superintendent. I sincerely doubt, however, that they would extend the same coverage to Joe Hart or Gary Pierce if they took the trip, and their offices are probably just as impacted by SB1070 as the Dept. of Ed (hint: NOT AT ALL).

The worst part is, this is an obvious ploy on Mr. Horne’s part to avoid questions about his deciding vote to put a porn-watching teacher back in the classroom.

In fairness, maybe they just want to check out Casey Newton’s new digs. Or a chance to see the Giants. I thought there was an old saying in journalism: if your mother says she loves you, check it out. I guess that standard no longer applies.

Not paying his employees.

Ken Bennett touts his experience as a small business owner, but his employees aren’t singing his praises. Multiple lawsuits have been filed alleging unpaid wages and fraud. It is a shocking (well, considering his past not that shocking) development that is sure to turn the Secretary of State’s race on it’s head in these final days.

Someone with connections to Global Building Systems, Inc., of which Ken Bennett is board chairman, provided the complaints, and a history of the company’s many troubles. In the email, the person stated that at first they “trusted” and thought of Broomstick Bennett “absolutely as one of the “good guys” whose politics were subordinate to his morals”.

But, as many of you fine readers know, that is simply not the case. The email continued, “Sadly, to my deep regret, Mr. Bennett proved to be a callow fellow lacking the moral backbone to protect GBSI’s investors who put nearly $2M into this company”.

According to the email, GBSI is essentially bankrupt, but they have refused to notify shareholders of their dire financial situation. There are also accusations of fraud from a couple who were enticed to invest their life savings into GBSI by Mr. Beavers, who told them to move to Prescott to supervise a job that didn’t exist, a huge ethical problem the emailer said they “personally warned” Mr. Bennett about. All the while Bennett supported and propped up this corrupt President, and according to ANOTHER complaint didn’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to his hard working employees that earned it. Defrauding employees? No wonder he allowed so many fraudulent candidates slip onto the ballot.

Oh, and if you aren’t outraged enough, the hearing was scheduled for last week, but the judge pushed it back. His reason?

There’s an election coming up.