Tag: arizona

#rsrh Duelling QotD, Paul Babeu Edition.

Via The Truth About Guns (via Instapundit) comes this gem from Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu’s bipartisan press conference requesting that Attorney General Eric Holder come clean about his involvement in Operation Fast & Furious:

Every time there’s a shooting or there’s a crime committed on American soil, the first question shouldn’t be, “My God, were these the guns that our own government gave these criminals?“

Arizona law enforcement is, shall we say, personally interested in this sort of thing.  Which is why they’re calling for an independent special counsel on Operation Fast & Furious.

Moe Lane

#rsrh It’s the year before a year that’s equally divisible by four…

…that means it’s time to deal with the issue that has the most lopsided PiTA/True Relevance ratio in American political theory.  I refer, of course, to the annual battle over who gets to have their primary first:

In the final days before states submit their primary and caucus plans to the Republican National Committee, the GOP is sweating bullets over the possibility that a gang of rogue states could still wreak havoc on the 2012 presidential nominating process.

One state, Arizona, has already announced that it will violate RNC rules and hold its primary on February 28 – a full week before joint RNC-Democratic National Committee rules permit states to do so. Michigan’s legislature is also moving toward scheduling its vote for the same date.

Then there’s Florida, a repeat offender when it comes to calendar mischief, which has empaneled a committee to choose an election date that’s expected to fall before the RNC-sanctioned date of March 6.

Continue reading #rsrh It’s the year before a year that’s equally divisible by four…

#rsrh Primary challenger to Gabriel Giffords (D, AZ)?

Via Drudge, this is a somewhat… surprising reaction to local Democrat Anthony Prowell’s attempts to run in the Democrat primary against Rep. Giffords:

Initially looking to run for office as a Democrat, Prowell has been subjected to the ire of local party officials and everyday citizens aghast that he would challenge Giffords, who has only cast one congressional vote since a near-fatal shooting in January.

The few local Democratic Party officials he has spoken with on the phone are “livid” and have “flat out said, ‘we already have a congresswoman and I will not support you in any means whatsoever’” before hanging up, Prowell said.

Continue reading #rsrh Primary challenger to Gabriel Giffords (D, AZ)?

Arizona may not look that bad to Californians, at that.

I note that friend and RedState colleague Dan McLaughlin has noted Moonbeam Brown’s minion’s response to the suggestion by certain South Californians (as opposed to Southern Californians, if you get that distinction) that they’re tired of dealing with the dysfunctional state government in Sacramento:

“If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there’s a place called Arizona,” Brown spokesman Gil Duran said.

Just some minor points about that.  Riffing off of Dan’s points about California: Continue reading Arizona may not look that bad to Californians, at that.

#rsrh I agree, Jim Geraghty, this is creepy.

This is creepy as all hell.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite.

(Via, obviously, Jim Geraghty) Don’t get me wrong: it’s not creepy for Rep. Giffords’ staff to be setting the stage for a possible Senate run in her absence.  Even if she hadn’t been shot, Rep. Giffords would be on the short list* to run for Senator Kyl’s seat anyway: so you cannot fairly say that her staff is taking undue advantage of the Tuscon shootings.  But I think that the New York Times should have expanded a little on those unnamed individuals who are currently fantasizing about the possible campaign commercials.  The lack of information there is what’s causing the creepiness, in my opinion: I’d like to know whether this is just the usual fetid Internet swamp bilge, or whether it’s more… entrenched…

Moe Lane

*If not the actual front-runner.  Even before the assassination attempt, Rep. Giffords was easily the most prominent Arizona Democrat in the public eye after Janet Napolitano, who at this point would probably not win a Senate race in 2012.

Prediction: Clarence Dupnik will lose his next election.

Via Ace of Spades and Mediate, here’s Tuscon Sheriff Dupnik’s… sub-optimal… interview with Megyn Kelly. Pay close attention to his commentary at about 5:15, where he implicitly blames the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords on the Chinese. Continue reading Prediction: Clarence Dupnik will lose his next election.

Meet Ruth McClung (R CAND, AZ-07).

This interview actually took place last week, but got delayed due to personal considerations that aren’t really relevant to the AZ-07 race. Ruth is a bona fide rocket scientist facing Raul Grijalva, who is mostly known for trying to drive up Arizona’s unemployment rate in a fit of, bluntly, pique. Oh, yeah: Grijalva also aids and abets pro-terrorist organizations.

Ruth and I had a chat about various aspects of the race:

Ruth’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Ruth McClung (R CAND, AZ-07) Moneybomb.

I’m in the process of processing for tomorrow morning the interview I had with Ruth McClung a couple of hours ago, but (via Instapundit) she’s doing a moneybomb right now: she’s aiming for $100K and has gotten $77K so far.  The theme is “Goodbye. Grijalva” – and goodness knows that such a thing would be absolutely swell.  Raul Grijalva, of course, is the legislator so out of touch with his district that he begged people to boycott his own state for its temerity in wanting to enforce federal immigration law.  She’s on the radar now and this is the sort of race that can suddenly come within reach under precisely these conditions, so check her out, and look to see the interview tomorrow.

And there’s still time on the moneybomb.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Jesse Kelly (R CAND, AZ-08) ahead in primary two ways.

How do we know this? First, because there’s a new local poll out that shows Jesse Kelly leading the primary with 35% of the vote.

Second, and more importantly, because one of his opponents put together a hit site. Link’s via Instapundit – I’m not going to give said site traffic – and it’s quite the little collection of innuendos and assertions-stated-as-fact, in its way. If you’re wondering whether its real or not, then let me note this: it’s attempting to be an anonymous site which was fairly self-evidently contracted out to an outside website designer. If it was real, then everything that I know about Tea Partiers tells me that the people behind it wouldn’t be trying to hide. That particular sub-demographic of the American people is not shy about being forthright and open about their opinions. Continue reading Jesse Kelly (R CAND, AZ-08) ahead in primary two ways.