Lisa James Announces for Party Chair

Lisa James called me this morning.  She's heading to the Yavapai County Republican meeting and called to confirm that she will indeed run for Republican Party Chairman.  It's a great time for the Republican Party in Arizona; how quickly things change.  Arizona Democrats are busy pointing fingers and trying to figure out what went wrong.  Naturally some members of the left have come completely unhinged.  Some of the commentary is analytical and rational.  Here's Tedski's take on it.

The Arizona Democratic Party will be meeting down here in Tucson today. Expect some tough questions. I have heard grumbling and sniping from not a few elected officials and former candidates about what happened in the legislative races. The big question: how did Barack Obama manage to excite the base and increase Democratic turnout but we still lost seats in the legislature?

Now, on top of November's local Democratic debacle, Governor Napolitano's departure wipes out the entire Democratic farm team.  All the agency directors will soon be gone and the state Commerce department will no longer be the last refuge of mid-level Democratic operatives. 

Things change quickly in politics and I've been around long enough to know that at some point they will swing the other direction.  But for now, the Republican party appears to be coming out of the wilderness and the Democrats are saddling their camels.  Whether Lisa James or Randy Pullen wins, one thing is for sure.   It's a great time to be a Republican in Arizona. 

Comments

[Tony GOPrano]

Finally beat you on one Greg! LOL!

http://politicomafioso.blogspot.com/2008/12/exclusive-lisa-james-to-announce-run.html

[John]

I guess the AZGOP wouldn't be the AZGOP if they didn't keep beating up on each other. With the GOP having momentum and the DEMs turning on one another, how great it would have been to unite around Randy Pullen, the chairman who helped us pick up seats in the legislature in spite of being so massively outspent. Instead, James and her crew are launching another intra-Party contest, so expect nothing but nastiness for the next six weeks. So much for momentum.

[John]

I guess the AZGOP wouldn't be the AZGOP if they didn't keep beating up on each other. With the GOP having momentum and the DEMs turning on one another, how great it would have been to unite around Randy Pullen, the chairman who helped us pick up seats in the legislature in spite of being so massively outspent. Instead, James and her crew are launching another intra-Party contest, so expect nothing but nastiness for the next six weeks. So much for momentum.

[Jim Torgeson]

Democrats lost ground because they picked the wrong fights and spent too much on those fights.

Look at the targeted districts! They got one, but lost a boatload by not paying attention to seats they thought secure... and losing two Rino's in the process.

As usual, it was a spend, spend, spend plan without a thorough understanding of the situation.

Did the Democratic Party really think Maish would beat Huppenthal or was that just monopoly money?

If you look at the overall situation, it was Napolitano riding the political winds to DC.

Republicans will need to tame the beast a bit to grow. You can't be Draconian and think the moderates will not react... eventually.

[Live Free or Die]

The McCain political clan is once again pushing to take over the AZ GOP. Mrs. James and her husband are part of the weak border illegal employer crowd. Their "Maverick" presidential candidate lost. They couldn't beat Russell Pearce. Now they want to control the party.
Hopefully Ms. James will not pull a repeat of the slander campaign she tried to use against Randy Pullen in 2007. This State Committeeman will continue to support Randy Pullen.

[TS]

The Republican party already is dead and gone, nationally and here in AZ. Most Republicans just don't realize it yet.

Since Greg has tracked the newspaper industry for years, I'm surprised he hasn't seen the parallels.

Papers in AZ (along with California, Nevada and Florida) enjoyed some of the biggest profits in the biz until the last 2 years thanks to rapid population growth. But their impending doom was obvious a decade ago.

Same goes for Republicans. In a country where all their key demos — mostly older, mostly white, mostly under-educated, mostly rural voters — are undeniably and inevitably shrinking, the end of the Republican party has been written.

Young voters are overwhelmingly Democrats. Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority group, are overwhelmingly Democrats. Both coasts, the Mountain West, the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic states — all Democratic.

Obama likely will win re-election in 2012 by even greater margins than this year's landslide. Dems will pick up a filibuster-proof majority in Senate, including the probable pickup of the AZ Senate seat.

When you view the political world in two-year cycles, hardcore Republicans can cling to their optimism in states like AZ, Utah, Idaho and the deep South. When you take a longer and wider view, though, the party's future is obvious.

[Sam]

TS will be featured at the Tempe Improv the next three nights, if anyone's interested.

[Name:]

Of course young voters and new voters and "minorities" often register as Democrats. But the older they get, the more they work and earn and learn, the more conservative they get. Perhaps not to the point of changing parties, but they tend to become more reasonable, and possibly even move to a rural area.

I imagine that the mid-term elections for Obama will be disastrous for him, sort of like the post-revolution cleansing that causes more death and destruction once the first "night of long knives" succeeds. Thank God voters are given a full two years to watch Obama before the next election.

[JB]

Jim Torgenson- come on now. I completely get the fact that you like Randy Pullen. But don't assume that any challenger to him is automatically in the McCain clan. The James have been long Bush (Sr and Jr) supporters, and were actually on the Giuliani band wagon.

Lisa James is a pragmatist and is a collaborative bridge builder.

Randy Pullen was more of a McCain supporter from the beginning, so if you want to use this as a negative, you'll need to pull in Pullen into your circular firing squad.

[Thane Eichenauer]

The only bridges Mavericks like McCain and collaborative "Giuliani" bridge builders like Lisa James will build are bridges to the land of more government.

City hall's, county hall's, state hall's and national hall's need to learn to live on a budget, not ignoring the fact that they are over budget.

[Thane Eichenauer]

The only bridges Mavericks like McCain and collaborative "Giuliani" bridge builders like Lisa James will build are bridges to the land of more government.

City hall's, county hall's, state hall's and national hall's need to learn to live on a budget, not ignoring the fact that they are over budget.

[Rex]

Despite the hubris exuded in Greg's post, TS has hit the nail on the head with his sound argument about demographics. Brewer and the GOP leaders of the Legislature will go a long way towards increasing the disaffection with the Republicans among the fastest growing groups in the electorate. Two years of their shenanigans and what looks to be a right wing GOP statewide ticket in 2010 will seal the deal.

As a Democrat, I am able to find a silver lining in our governor selfishly turning her office over to the GOP and joining Obama's Cabinet. She has been, as the author of one your links described her, "risk-averse" and has made some foolish compromises over the years during budgetary negotiations. She is absolutely the person most responsible for our current budgetary dilemma both because she sits in the biggest chair AND because of some of deals she's cut (and the battles she's dodged), often against the advice and hopes of Democrats in the Legislature.

I don't see the current Democratic leaders in the Legislature being willing to cave in on tax cuts, vouchers and other issues like Janet did. Thus, another asset for Democratic prospects in the future is that the party's positions will stand in stark contrast to what will be advocated by Brewer and her crew. The result will be that Greg's post will be even more laughable in two years then it is now.

[Sam]

Rex will be opening for TS at the Tempe Improv this evening...

[Lance E]

TS and Rex:

You need to read a little history. Young people self identified as Democrats at much higher levels in the early seventies than they do today and the constitutional amendment that dropped the voting age to 18 was hailed as the harbinger of a permanent Democratic majority. A couple of years later, Watergate hit and in one cycle (1974), the Democrats picked up twenty more seats than they have picked up in the last two cycles combined.

Then, in 1976, the Democrats actually got a chance to govern and after two years, the nation's swing voters were so disgusted that they gave the Republicans a congressional land slide in 1978 (Gingrich's class) and 14 years of Republican dominance followed.

After Greenspan had to cool the economy off in 1991-92, the Democrats got back into the game. After two years, the nation's swing voters were so disgusted (Hillarycare, don't ask don't tell) that they gave the Republicans a congressional land slide in 1994 and 14 years of Republican dominance followed.

In the last two weeks, President elect Obama has: 1) proposed massively increasing our national budget when our next deficit will be nearly a trillion dollars; 2) signed on to a $14B hand out for the UAW, which will be gone in two months, at the current burn rate; and 3) promised us that while his staff may have been solicited for a bribe and didn't report it, he's pretty sure they never offered a bribe.

Enjoy the next two years.

[Jim Torgeson]

JB, your comments should be directed to live free or die.

I have no clue whether Pullen or James is a better Republican leader.

My comments were about the mistakes Democrats made by poorly choosing battles.

[nick]

Democrats push the UAW Taxmob in Detroit!

[TS]

"Of course young voters and new voters and 'minorities' often register as Democrats. But the older they get, the more they work and earn and learn, the more conservative they get."

This is exactly the type of thing newspapers have said for decades: Young people may not read newspapers, but as they get older, have families and put down roots in a community, they become newspaper readers.

Sadly, this "fact" of the '50s and '60s proved no longer true. For 35 consecutive years, newspaper readership has fallen. Because, sometimes, society changes in fundamental ways and old rules no longer apply.

Similarly, the tenets that have come to define the present-day Republican party — anti-immigration, anti-globalism, anti-Big Government, anti-gay, anti-intellectual, anti-regulation, etc. — fly in the face of societal changes surely and inevitably moving in the opposite direction.

As for Lance's contention that Republican salvation will come from Obama "massively increasing our national budget" and supporting "a $14B hand out for the UAW," I would point out a Republican president massively increased our national budget over the last eight years (supported for six of those by a Republican-controlled Congress) and is pushing the Detroit bailout (passed by Republicans in the House).

[Sam]

I see TS fails to do research, focusing on Republican bashing again:

House Vote on Big 3 Corporate Welfare:

Ayes Noes PRES NV
Democratic 205 20 11
Republican 32 150 1 15
TOTALS 237 170 1 26

If the Republican party is everything "anti" that TS specifies above, I guess the Democratic party is:

Pro-illegal immigration
Pro-globalism (a/k/a jobs for China and India)
Pro-gay (if you don't get your way, terrorize the Mormon church)
Pro-intellectual (MBAs make great presidents)
Pro-Big Government (make the Patriot Act look like a piker bill)
Pro-regulation (see pro-globalism above)

[El Jefe Supremo]

Sam, all you have to remember is this:
Obama 365, McCain 173. Obama 69,445,367, McCain 59,923,677. Not so hard to remember, is it?

[Sam]

Interesting you have to run away and come up with a new name.

Different name, same garbage.

Nixon won by an even bigger landslide, and we all know how that turned out. Unfortunately, the crap Obamaniation will be eventually tied to will make the Plumbers look like jokers.

[Sam]

I think I know why CiC has to live under an alias now:

Palin's Church Severely Damaged by Arson

Associated Press
Sunday, December 14, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Dec. 13 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's home church was badly damaged by arson, leading the governor to apologize Saturday if the fire was connected to "undeserved negative attention" from her campaign as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to James Steele, the Central Mat-Su fire chief.

He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson. Steele said he didn't know of any recent threats to the church, and authorities did not know whether Palin's connection to the church was relevant to the fire.

[TS]

Sam,

Sorry to disappoint you. I'm not pro-immigration, pro-regulation, pro-gay or any of the other things you mention. (Then again, I'm also not strongly "anti" most of those things either.)

All I'm saying is this country has unfailingly been moving in obvious directions and will continue to do so, and the current prevailing Republican philosophies are badly out of step with where the country is heading.

As a Republican myself, I'm not bashing the party in general. I'm bashing the shortsighted reactionaries who've hijacked it and are destroying its viability.

I'm hardly alone in this observation. It's a theme being echoed by a growing chorus of Republicans, including Colin Powell (this morning on "This Week") and Fox co-host Mort Kondracke (in his recent column about Limbaugh).

[TS]

My bad. Powell was speaking on CNN this morning, not ABC.

[Russell Pearce]

Good policy starts with our grassroots Republicans. Electing Republicans that will help instill trust in our Party and Nation is critical to building this Party and restoring faith in this Party. When we do that we will see a surge in activity and voting. This Party Stands for Something and it is about time we let folks know that. I love this Party and believe in our Platform and I believe this Party has the best chance of protecting our Constitutional liberties, promoting limited government, defending traditional values, securing our border, enforcing our laws. What an opportunity we have to elect someone that actually will stand with the grassroots of this Party, who will fight for Republican values, he will put the taxpayers first and the courage to withstand the open border, profits over patriotism crowd and do what is right. If we really stood by our Platform, there would be no need of the Libertarian, Reform or Constitutional Parties or other freedom loving parties.

In 1994 we excited America and our Party to a level I have never seen since. We started with a Contract With America. We took D.C. by storm. However, we did not live up to that Contract and broke the hearts of our grassroots Republicans. Since then we have continued to support “pork” spending, entitlement programs, reckless spending, Amnesty programs that our Party and America strongly oppose. And we have been run out of D.C. and have turned the reigns over to the other party, it was “moderate“ Republicans that were unelected almost entirely, not Conservatives.

When do we stand up and elect those folks that will support Conservative values, demand we put America First, put our citizen’s Constitutional rights above illegal aliens and demand we enforce our laws, secure our border, balance our budget, protect the most innocent of all the “unborn”, defend our God given Rights, stop Judicial Activism, some responsible TORT reform to stop frivolous law suits, eliminate or reform entitlement programs and get back to responsible, accountable and smaller government?

Lisa James who is married to Gordon James who worked with "wake up Arizona" to overturn Arizona's "Fair and Legal Employment Act" by suing Arizona and LOST in four separate court challenges and when that did not work, they then worked to put Prop. 202 on the ballot to gut Arizona's Fair and Legal Employment Act. They could not win with our grassroots folks, the courts, the legislature, so they resorted to a deceptive, fraudulent campaign to gut Arizona‘s Worksite Enforcement Law and they lost there also by 60% to 40% after spending over $1.5 million in lying to the public.

This is after Maricopa County Republican Party and the Arizona State Republican Party both passed Resolutions "unanimously" in support of this legislation.

She headed up Giuliani’s Campaign for President here in Arizona. He was the only Pro Abortion candidate running.

Lisa is clearly Pro Amnesty and fights against the Grassroots Republicans on many issues, even after unanimous votes are recorded. She is cohorts with Nathan Sproul who we all know only too well and worked to overturn our Worksite Enforcement law and resorted to deception and lies in direct opposition to 80% to 90% of this Party's precinct committeemen's position.

[Retrorv]

Yeah-those unhinged liberal wackos! unlike Sonoran Alliance-that staid, pragmatic source of conservative values. I doubt you'd ever read this on the Alliance: "The State Bar gives thousands of dollars from members’ dues every year to fringe left groups like Chicanos por la Causa that are actively working against the interests of political conservatives and Christians. Thousands more go to promote “diversity” so much it’s silly. There’s not just the Arizona Minority Bar Association, there’s the Los Abogados Hispanic Bar Association, the Asian Bar Association, the Black Bar, the Native American Black Association, and the Women Lawyers Association." Ha ha-just joking.

[Jim Torgeson]

CiC;

I think you missed the point. The group she wishes to represent has those values. Why would they want someone to lead them that doesn't share those values?

If she were running for the Democratic chair, she might be more in line with their values.

Personally, I think America needs to heal before we take on more responsibility/citizens than we already have.

I would hesitate to point at Obama's victory as an all out indicator of what America wants. Remember, we re-elected Bush and I don't take that as the end all be all of what America wanted.

You thinking that Russel Pearce's career will fail because McCain-Palin wasn't a victory is just plain wrong.