Turnout, money, and more.
How to tell if your candidate is swimming or sinking
Tips on what matters, and doesn’t, as ballots are counted election night.
Clinton’s dismissive tone the key on job creation
Clinton and Obama think that government drives economic growth, and businesses and entrepreneurs are mostly along for the ride.
Budget woes will consume Ducey or DuVal
Given limited options on the state budget, Prop. 487, true pension reform for new City of Phoenix workers, may be the ballot’s most consequential item.
AZ Dems’ hill remains steep
GOP registration and turnout advantage is expanding or holding, not getting smaller.
AZ Dems make the case for cynicism about politics
Promoting ideas you abhor to siphon votes from an opponent is scraping the bottom.
Tobin misrepresented by both opponents and supporters
Outside groups are beating up Tobin’s opponent, Ann Kirkpatrick, over voting to increase the debt ceiling. But Tobin would likely be a business community Republican and share its view that defaulting on the national debt isn’t something to play around with.
How to fund Ducey’s K-12 waiting lists
The money already set aside for Brewer’s performance funding initiative should be diverted to clear waiting lists for successful charter and traditional K-12 programs.
DuVal doubles down on argument he’s already won
DuVal has won the education argument. To win the election, he probably needed to open up a second front against Ducey.
A weak argument for a legislative pay raise
I always support the legislative pay raise (Proposition 304). This year’s proposal would increase the salary from $24,000 to $35,000 a year.
The reason isn’t that I think it will make a bit of difference in who runs or how the state is governed. It’s just a matter of fairness. The job is fulltime for about five months, with significant time commitments the remainder of the year. That merits more than the current recompense.
(Published in the Arizona Republic, Oct. 26)