Arizona: Al Melvin

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Now that local elections are all but over for the counting in Tucson (and a possible recount in Ward 3), it's time once again to update the early filers with the Arizona Secretary of State for 2010. You can play along at home at http://www.azsos.gov/cfs/CommitteeSearch.aspx

The big news today: Terry Goddard, the state's highest-elected Democrat, filed paperwork Friday morning announcing that he is exploring a run for governor next year. Political Insider Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and former Arizona Democratic Party Chairman and 2006 U.S. Senate candidate Jim Pederson previously announced that they would not run. Former Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano has also decided not to run

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this year, our comic "hero" (sic) Cap'n Al Melvin (R-LD 26) sponsored legislation to expand the Pinal County Board of Supervisors from three members to five members, years before this will happen anyway in 2012 after the 2010 census, because "Republicans shouldn't have to wait that long to get a board" he believes the GOP would control by a 3-2 margin. Judge voids Pinal Board of Supervisors law

Cap'n Al disregarded the Arizona Constitution and the rule of law in his partisan quest to create two new Republican-dominated supervisor districts in Pinal County. Most people would call this an abuse of power, and rightly so.

by David Safier

Reports of huge budget cuts in state funding are all over the news -- prisons, schools, health care, you name it. According to the AZ Guardian [Note: their website is down, so I can't provide a link], Rs say that's nothing but a scare tactic. Or, as Senate Assistant Majority Leader Steve Pierce put it, “This is a bunch of crap."

But LD-26's own Al Melvin, sees all this as an opportunity to put cuts back into the budget that Brewer vetoed out.

[Melvin] said he'd like to reconsider the cuts to K-12 education and health and human services that were restored when Brewer vetoed elements of the state's current spending plan.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Pima County Republicans, with the assistance of certain individuals at the Arizona Daily Star, have tried to characterize the Tucson City Council as "dysfunctional" and leaderless.

First of all, the hands-down winner for "dysfunctional" government in Arizona is the Maricopa County government, where everyone is suing everyone else, and the Sheriff and County Attorney are engage in political witch-hunts against county supervisors, and they themselves are under investigation by the Attorney General and, in Sheriff Arpaio's case, by the FBI and Justice Department. These Maricopa County Republican politicians make the City of Tucson look like the model of efficiency and serene government.