Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

The ACORN Doesn't Fall far from the tree.

Bad news for the Payday Loan Initiative, Prop 200.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has established a campaign committee and dished out $32,500 in opposition to Proposition 200, according to state records.

I don't think supporters need to worry much about the $32,500.  What ACORN really brings to the table are thousands of voters who live the same PO BOX in Avondale.  The pro 200 forces should be very worried about that. 

Speaking of Election

Democratic State Representative Ed Ableser has become a Mormon.  Here's a nice picture of him with his new bride to be.  One cake is to celebrate his conversion and I assume the other one is to celebrate his engagement.  I always referred to him as "Ed", but the cake clearly says "Eddie".  It looks like that's one of many changes in Ableser's life.

I think it's great when someone finds God--or when God finds them depending on your view of Election.  But Eddie is going to have some explaining to do when he gets to his new ward. 

Political junkies will remember that Eddie first made news when he used left over Clean Elections money to rent a margarita machine for his campaign volunteers.  Thank goodness it wasn't Starbucks. 

Frankly, I don't think the margaritas will be an issue, but Eddie's Project Vote Smart answers may come back to bite him:  like the part where he says that Abortion should "Always" be legal.  And that part where he says that same sex couples should be allowed to marry isn't going to go over well.  His support of HIV/Contraceptive education combined with his rejection of abstinence only education my ruffle a few feathers. His support of STATE FUNDING for embryonic stem cell research may be hard to explain to his new in laws.  Finally, his opposition to allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense "emergency contraception" (there's a code word for you) might take some 'splaining.

It's hard for a man to serve two doctrines for he will love the one and despise the other.  But maybe Eddie can live in two different worlds--or maybe he's holding a rum cake. 

Two Words...

I've had several readers--including my wife--point out the irony that I'm perhaps the most vocal critic of the Republic and that they endorsed me in the Hospital race this morning. 

The Arizona Republic recommends the following candidates to meet the complex challenges that MIHS faces.

District 2: Greg Patterson, a former state legislator committed to the medically needy and to a new hospital.

My friends ask me what I have to say about the endorsement.   I respond "two words...thank you."

Triple Witching Hour

The collapse of the mainstream media became even more apparent yesterday with three huge stories happening on the same day.  I've already pointed out that the New York Times' bonds were cut to junk status by Standard and Poors.

Then the Christian Science Monitor announced it would stop printing its paper edition and become exclusively web based.

The the big news that affects Arizona is that Gannett announced another 10% layoff. 

The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, will lay off about 10 percent of its work force by early December, company executives said on Tuesday, a few days after Gannett disclosed another sharp drop in revenue and earnings.

Stuff like this drives me crazy.

I was watching the Journalist Roundtable on Horizon a couple weeks ago and heard the strangest discussion.  The reporters were talking about Republicans having a "six-seat edge" in the house.  I assumed that I simply hear it wrong.  And then I saw this quote in a Mary Jo Pitzl story.

Republicans hold a six-seat edge in the 60-member House of Representatives and a four-seat advantage in the 30-member Senate.

Actually, the House has 60 members so a majority is 31, and it ties at 30.  The Republicans currently have  33 seats.  That's clearly a THREE seat edge.  It's unbelievable that the reporters have made the bonehead mistake of subtracting 27 from 33 and concluding that the edge is six seats. 

Obviously every seat that the Democrats gain also counts as a Republican loss.   So if the Democrats want to deny the Republicans a majority, how many seats would they target?   THREE. 

The First Fast Break

Once every few decades someone comes along with an innovation that completely changes a game.  I'm thinking of the invention of the Fast Break or the Fosbury Flop that made previous strategies obsolete.

I have to give credit to Team Napolitano for fundamentally altering the game this election cycle.  In every campaign cycle both parties try to recruit and support candidates.  But Team Napolitano has gone the extra step of backing their slate with unheard of amounts of union and tribal money.  Arizona hasn't ever seen a cycle in which one party coordinates half a million (or maybe even a million) dollars for 10 or 15 candidates. 

I think Team Napolitano will have little to show for their efforts, but they have fundamentally altered the game.  I think they will have little to show because they are going to get wiped out with matching money. 

Have I mentioned how much I like Clean Elections?  Dude, Clean Elections is the ultimate example of a liberal program with unintended consequences.  It's like a steroid-enhanced version of the War on Poverty.  Clean Elections was supposed to take the special interest money out of politics so that centrists and moderate Democrats could get elected. 

I don't know what they were thinking.  Centrists and moderate Democrats are campaign contribution magnets.  Instead, Clean Elections has empowered the guy at the Republican District meeting who used to be relegated to blasting the Federal Reserve Board and claiming that the 16th Amendment never really passed. Now that guy and two hundred of his best friends can run a credible race.  I've written about it extensively here.

This cycle, Clean Elections may save the Republicans one last time.  Each time Team Napolitano takes a Union or Gaming contribution and spends it on a swing district, the CCEC writes a check to Team Napolitano's target.  The public money more than offsets the independent expenditure because the recipient of the public money gets to coordinate how to spend it.

It's possible that the Governor will still pick up a few seats so she can have a face-saving exit on her way to becoming Deputy Director of HUD in the Obama Administration--but I doubt it.

After all, the latest strategy is part of the huge plans that Team Napolitano had for this election cycle.  They were going to put the TIME and Trust initiatives on the ballot, run a bunch of moderates in the GOP primary and now conduct huge independent expenditure campaigns for the General Election.

Everyone knows how badly TIME and the Trust Initiative were botched.  As for the GOP primaries?  None of her challengers won and both of her incumbents lost.  So we are at strike two.

Now she's pumping unheard of amounts of money into key races and Clean Elections is cranking out checks right behind her. 

I say "one last time" because it's pretty clear that the matching provisions are unconstitutional.  Isn't that ironic?  The Democrats create an unconstitutional public financing scheme that ultimately benefits conservative Republicans and then Scalia, Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Kennedy shut it down.

We don't yet know if Team Napolitano will pick up that third strike.  With the failure of TIME and the Trust Initiative to even make the ballot and the defeat of O'Halleran and Hershberger et al, they have had a humiliating election experience so far. 

However, they have reinvented the game.  The days of the lone candidate are over.  The new game is coordinated recruiting and a million dollars of outside cash.  The old way is obsolete.  Napolitano's First Fast Break has changed the game forever.

The only question is what to call it.  If she picks up four seats and takes over the House, then we can rightly call it the Fast Break.  If not, well, there's always the Napolitano Flop. 

Hupp Fights Back.

Here's a good way to get the word out.  To get a sense of perspective, the Dial sign is 4 x 8. Here's a link to Huppenthal's website.

Now they are officially junk.

The New York Times is reporting a 51% decline in profits and in response, the rating agencies cut the company's debt to junk. 

After the release of the earnings report, Standard & Poor’s lowered the Times Company’s credit rating below investment grade, a move that would increase borrowing costs. Moody’s Investors Service said it was considering doing the same.

That seems quite poetic.

The exact point at which Gabby Giffords sold out.

I've often heard candidates use this phrase on the stump "you spend your money better than the Government does."   That statement is generally considered a truism, but many Congressmen eventually decide that their wisdom is actually better than their constituents.  That's the point at which they have sold out.  For Gabrielle Giffords, that point came faster than usual. 

When asked about a new stimulus package, Giffords suggested that the checks shouldn't go to individual families, they should be sent to the state.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Friday that she supports an economic stimulus package that includes money for states like Arizona to balance their budgets.

And that, she said, would be better for the economy than the package last February that resulted in the federal government mailing checks to taxpayers.

Giffords said the package passed in February did not do what was intended, since many Americans used their checks to pay off bills rather than spend them.

They should call it the "Maricopa Republic"

I've got to give Arizona Republic Publisher John Zidich credit for honesty, but he loses points in the diplomacy department.  This morning's Wall Street Journal featured a story about the latest sharp decline in newspaper circulation and this is what Zidich had to say.

"Some circulation just isn't as valuable as others," said Arizona Republic publisher John Zidich, who attributed half of his Gannett Co. paper's 5.5% weekday circulation decline to the publisher's decision to stop delivering to customers more than about 200 miles away.

Wow, I probably wouldn't have, you know, phrased it that way.