Posts Tagged ‘Jan Brewer’
It’s obvious from my lack of posts I’ve been pretty busy. I wrote earlier that I would announce NobleThinking.com endorsements for the Arizona Republican primary. Given that I have been pretty lame about getting those out, I figured I’d roll out a few in one post and keep the commentary to a minimum. If there is race I miss, it’s likely because I’m going to do a separate post on it.
So here goes.
Governor
By default, it’s Jan Brewer. I hope she whips Sam Goddard’s son in the general.
Secretary of State
Ken Bennett
Treasurer
As I have posted, Doug Ducey.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
John Huppenthal
Corporation Commission
Brenda Burns and Gary Pierce.
Legislative races
My home district is legislative district 6, so it’s the one to which I’m paying the closest attention. As such, for the State Senate seat the best bet is David Braswell. He was appointed to fill the vacancy that Pamela Gorman left when she joined the masses in running for John Shadegg’s congressional seat. David is a serious guy who takes the job seriously. He deserves election to a full term.
In LD 6 House races, my first choice is Amanda Reeve, who also was appointed when Sam Crump couldn’t resign his seat fast enough to run for Shadegg’s seat. I’m guessing that Sam is rethinking giving up he seat so quickly. In a race that will have 10 candidates, I’m going to bet that Crump comes in no better than 7th. (More on CD 3 race to come later).
Anyway, Amanda is great. And given what a personal disaster Carl Seel is (using taxpayer funds for personal items, having judgments against him for failure to pay on debts, etc.) I strongly encourage voters to “single shot” Reeves. What that means is that even though you can vote for two candidates, you only vote for one, so as to strengthen the position of the person you support the most. That is the best way to defeat Seel – voting Reeve in a single shot.
As to other legislative races? In LD 7, Nancy Barto. In LD 11, Adam Driggs (who has to be one of the smartest people in the world to have not jumped into the CD 3 race). In LD 10, Kimberly Yee.
Stay tuned for more endorsements coming.
Buz Mills has officially launched his campaign for governor with a $2 million splash. If Clean Elections matching funds are shelved by the courts, this $2 million, and the additional money he is expected to put into the race, gives him a huge money advantage over Governor Brewer and Treasurer Dean Martin.
He will need a lot of money to introduce himself to voters. Brewer and Martin have near universal name ID among Republican primary voters, so they can spend their money on messaging and voter ID.
Mills entry into the race will probably hurt Martin’s chances by adding another person to the mix of the “anti-Brewer” vote and Mills also greatly diminishes John Munger’s chances.
State Treasurer Dean Martin officially launched his campaign for Governor, a mere two days after Governor Jan Brewer delivered her state of the State address.
Martin’s entry into the race deeply complicates Governor Brewer’s ability to get elected of her own accord to the seat that she inherited when former Governor Janet Napolitano left to head up DHS.
Martin is the first “equal” to enter the race against Brewer. He has been elected statewide, has phenomenal name ID (doesn’t hurt that he shares a name with a popular movie star… ain’t that a kick in the head) and has a compelling personal story.
The Governor’s allies will dismiss Martin as young, too inexperienced and not serious, but he’s been underestimated before, to his opponents’ peril.
The wild card in the race will be Buzz Mills and his money. Particularly if the Arizona Supreme Court strikes down the matching funds provision of Clean Elections.
However, don’t underestimate Governor Brewer. She knows how to throw an elbow when needed. Just check out this line from her state of the State address:
Wrong, is arguing “the system worked” — when evidence to the contrary is everywhere and obvious.
One thing is certain, it’s going to be a very interesting Republican primary election. There will be contested elections in most statewide races, the U.S. Senate race, at least three Congressional districts and a good number of state legislative seats.
Vernon Parker, Mayor of Paradise Valley, AZ, is likely to announce tonight that he is running for Governor. Thus he will be the first major Republican in Arizona to jump into a race against incumbent Republican Governor Jan Brewer.
So now it gets interesting. With Parker’s entrance into the race, the line has been crossed – that is, he is the first to make a move sending the signal that he isn’t waiting to see whether Brewer decides to run for re-election or not. Watch for others to follow suit.
Parker is a solid guy. The question is whether he’s ready for prime time. When the Arizona Republic wrote about him considering a run last month, half the story was about alleged legal issues.
He will have the novelty factor in that, at this point, he is the only African-American Republican in the nation running for a Governor’s seat and if he won, he’d be the first African-American Republican Governor in history. He will also immediately begin to be compared to Obama.
I suspect that this could end up being a crowded Republican primary race. Besides Parker, others reportedly mulling include Secretary of State Ken Bennett, State Treasurer Dean Martin, former Governor Fife Symington, Tucson attorney John Munger, former US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, among others. With a multi-candidate race, who knows what could happen.
One thing is for certain: Jan Brewer has a target on her.
Congressman Scott Garrett is a true believer. He is one of the few in Congress who not only is a principled conservative, he actually acts like it all the time.
You’ll recall that Sen. Jon Kyl made the comment that the stimulus money wasn’t working. In reaction, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood sent a letter to Governor Jan Brewer asking if she agreed with Sen. Kyl and told her he would be happy to withhold stimulus dollars from Arizona. It was an outrageous letter and Scott Garrett takes LaHood to task for it. This is a must see video passed on to me from a good friend of mine on the Hill.
After shedding 332 points upon Obama’s swearing-in yesterday, the market opened up just over 100 points today. Not certain that it’s an Obama Bounce, or a Brewer Bounce, since Arizona’s Governor-since-yesterday-afternoon Jan Brewer has her inauguration today.
Incoming Governor Jan Brewer’s selection of Ken Bennett for Secretary of State is brilliant. Not only does Bennett have a long and solid record of public service, he is smart, witty, personable and tireless. In the 2010 election, he will be less Secretary of State and more “Vice-Governor”, running essentially as a running mate with Brewer – and they are a perfect electoral pair.
Bennett is the ideal surrogate for nearly every conceivable audience. And I would expect he’s going to spend a fair amount of time on the road for the next two years.
If anyone has any doubt about Brewer running for a full term in 2010, this appointment provides the clarity. I know, she can’t actually talk yet about running in 2010 – she hasn’t even ascended to the 9th floor officially, but the course has been mapped out, and it’s a straight line to the 2010 ballot.
Obviously, the selection of Bennett isn’t going to be much of a surprise to anyone. He was on every speculators short list. But it shows the Brewer is going to be governing from a position of strength, and she’s not afraid to have a strong, conservative leader standing next to her.
I was privately cheering for Bennett (I say privately, because no one really asked my opinion). And since that cheering worked, I’m going to continue cheering for Rusty Bowers to be tapped as Director of Department of Environmental Quality. Now that would send some shockwaves…
