It should be no surprise to anyone that most of the conservative elected officeholders in Arizona are simpleminded reactionaries. As the quotes from the conservative legislator in my last post attest, these people do not seek elected office to balance the budget or deal with any complicated economic or regulatory matters. They’re driven purely by the culture war. The sum total of their political aspirations appears to be waving their guns around, sticking it to the hippies and minorities, and punishing women and girls for being sexual. They are, of course, easy marks for a well-funded and sophisticated operation like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). I mean, it’s gotta be a big weight off their minds not to have to deal with pointy headed wonk stuff because the big boys of Big Bidness have it all figured out for them. The conservative lawmakers just go to the ALEC conferences, get the legislation handed to them, and push it though the process. This leaves said lawmakers oodles of free time to, say, spend on Facebook railing against slutty pregnant 14 year olds. Winning!

But what about the preeminent “nonpartisan” and (selectively) libertarian Arizona think tank the Goldwater Institute? They’ve been known to collaborate with ALEC a time or two.

GI prepared a report, distributed by ALEC, on educational rankings. It was skewed toward “school choice”, a concept championed by corporate leaders wishing to privatize education.

Today the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released a new book that provides a simple, direct way of comparing the effectiveness of public education in every state. I co-authored the Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform with Goldwater Institute Senior Fellow Dan Lips and school choice expert Andrew LeFevre. ALEC is distributing the book to state lawmakers across the country.

Last year GI got snuggly with ALEC on Prop 106, the so-called Arizona Health Insurance Reform Amendment.

In Oklahoma, ALEC legislators brought ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act (State Question 756) to a decisive 65-35 victory. And in Arizona, ALEC Senator-Elect Nancy Barto, Eric Novack, the Goldwater Institute, and other ALEC supporters brought Proposition 106 to a 55-45 win.

Weird how Goldwater would cozy up to private education and health insurance companies via ALEC and promote their legislation while claiming to be staunch opponents of picking winners and losers.

Okay, not really weird at all considering whom we’re talking about. (Hint: Don’t be impressed by the academic titles. Consider who’s paying their bills now.)

I was on the panel of the last Sunday Square Off on Channel 12, which you can watch here if you missed it. I was joined by AZ Republic columnist Bob Robb and Republican consultant Chip Scutari. One of the topics was the Supreme Court decision on Clean Elections and how it would impact the 2012 races. Chip repeated the common Arizona pundit and consultant class canard about Clean Elections: it has intensified extremism and Democrats shouldn’t support it. It’s disappointing that a number of prominent Dems in Arizona have bought into this unsupported-by-evidence bunkum and are lending support to Republicans and lobbyists in their attempt to dismantle Clean Elections.

So how did rabidly conservative pink pistol wielder Klein fund her 2010 campaign? Traditionally. She raised over $51K and much of it came from the usual crowd of business executives and lobbyists*. I guess Klein’s business-friendly stances on taxation and school choice trumped any concerns Arizona’s earnest stewards of moderation might have had about her being clearly off her rocker.

*She also got $820 from Presidential candidate Herman Cain and his wife Gloria.

But she does this thing that a lot of political observers here do which is starting to drive me up a wall:

Arizona’s race to the bottom isn’t going unnoticed. Last month, former Intel Chief Executive and board Chairman Craig Barrett warned that “cutbacks don’t bode well” for the quality education essential to attracting companies like his. If Intel were site-hunting now, “I hate to say it, but I think Arizona would not be in the top 10 locales to make that investment.”

Business leaders must be part of setting the state back on course. They successfully united to oppose the Legislature’s latest package of misguided, counterproductive immigration measures.

(facepalm)

It’s not as if these business leaders were helpless passive bystanders to the debacle. They orchestrated it. Everything. They sent the armies of lobbyists to get the tax cuts and the loopholes for their industries. Craig Barrett, whom liberals are swooning over because of his statement on education, was CEO of Intel in 2005 when the company demanded, and received, a massive break called Single Sales Factor. Intel threatened to relocate a planned Chandler factory expansion (a hollow threat since doing so would have been incredibly expensive for the company) to another state if Arizona didn’t give them a 95% cut on their corporate sales tax. The JLBC projected that the move would cost Arizona $100 million.

As for the business community opposing the recent immigration measures, that made for impressive kabuki theater I suppose, but I will never forget how SB1070 went down last year. Contrary to popular lore, SB1070 wasn’t something Russell Pearce dreamed up with nativist Kris Kobach and then foisted on an unsuspecting business community. SB1070 was model legislation from ALEC and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which is a board level member of both ALEC and the AZ Chamber, played a big role in crafting it. After Pearce stripped employer unfriendly language out of the bill, the Chamber went publicly “neutral” on SB1070. They went on to endorse pro SB1070 Republicans for every statewide seat. The biggest industries in Arizona were hardly innocent bystanders. SB1070 came straight from business and was intended to benefit a certain business (private prisons) and Republican politicians. Mission accomplished, as the Republicans swept the 2010 elections and prisons were one of few areas of state spending to get a budget increase.

Speaking of ALEC, I’ve been meaning to do a longer post about them and hopefully I’ll get to it but here’s a useful link that shows the GOP/Big Business blueprint for state legislatures – ALEC Budget Toolkit. It’s scary stuff and Arizona has been a breeding ground for it.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sounded vague support for revamping the state’s enterprise zone program and blamed former governor Janet Napolitano and President Barack Obama for the state’s fiscal woes during her inaugural address Monday.

Of course she did. Being a Republican she is a) incapable of losing or winning graciously and b) hellbent on casting blame on whatever Democrats are convenient to distract from her own incompetence and mendacity. Nothing I didn’t expect but still, would it have killed Governor Brewer’s communications team to write her a speech that showed a modicum of class? Sheesh, guys, surprise us once in a while, will ya?

UPDATE: Hat tip to former Maricopa County Dems Executive Director Todd Landfried for snapping this photo of today’s inauguration:

Feel the excitement! Apparently most of the crowd were staff. Methinks the SB1070 honeymoon is over.

“The Arizona companies joining our effort are proof that in all quarters of the country and in all sectors of the economy there is demand for a smarter, more sensible immigration strategy,” said Partnership Co-Chair Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “We need reform that will both secure our borders and do more to attract and keep the workers necessary for American businesses to compete in the 21st century.”

The release identifies an impressive roster of CEOs and assorted mucky mucks and they want us to know that these titans of industry are deeply committed to forging a sensible solution to our immigration situation.

I have an idea for them: Stop endorsing and funneling wads of cash to Republicans who turn around and pass harsh anti-immigrant measures while blocking reform.

Just a thought.

In short, Mayes has helped position Arizona for the future.

They’re right, of course. Mayes was sharp, pragmatic, highly competent, and a forward-looking thinker and leader. But, sheesh, nerd alert! The Republic ed board must have gotten bored with all this brainiac innovation mumbo jumbo and wanted to get back to some good old corporate patronage so they endorsed oil industry lobbyist and noted CO2 defender Brenda Burns over renewable energy proponent David Bradley.

Transplant patients approved for life-saving treatment are now denied. This is effectively a death sentence for innocent human beings yet we’re not hearing any denouncements from this crowd against the Governor and Republican legislators. Not terribly pro-life-y of them, is it? AZRTL endorsed Jan Brewer because of “her strong support of the pro-life cause over her 25 year career”. CAP has called her a “consistent pro-life ally in Arizona”. The latest dispatch from CAP’s website concerns such weighty matters as gay marriage and school choice. The Right to Lifers have nothing about people being denied transplants on their site either.

Example #2567890776 of how they only care about life when it’s in the womb.

Anyhow, soooooo, that was some election we just had, huh? It’s going to be a bumpy ride for the solar industry the next couple years. Goldwater is back in court whining about the Renewable Energy Standard. The dolts who tried to get nuclear classified as a renewable energy got reelected to their seats in the legislature and brought some new idiots with them. Oh, and AZ Chamber darlings Gary Pierce and Brenda Burns won decisively for Corporation Commission. During the campaign I beheld the pair in their breathtaking glory, as they claimed that CO2 couldn’t be harmful since you breathe it out, DUH!! Gary and Brenda have threatened to sue the EPA. For being mean and insulting to CO2. I am so not kidding about that.

So, yeah, it’s gonna be rough for solar. But there is reason for optimism in that at least we’ll maintain the status quo. I don’t see Goldwater prevailing in court and I predict a similar outcome for any solar-killing legislation as what happened to Debbie Lesko’s bill last year. Unfortunately, there’s not going to be much movement in the way of increasing tax incentives for solar and other renewables. Our de facto Governor Russell Pearce doesn’t like targeted tax incentives.

The biggest threat comes from the Corp Comm. The loss of moderate Kris Mayes and the addition of Burns makes for a Republican majority who will be a lot friendlier with the utilities they’re supposed to regulate than what’s in the best interests of citizens.

Meh.

He and Governor Brewer face the new session with a gaping budget hole that they cannot help fill with the revenue they projected would come in from Prop 301 (sweep land conservation funds) and Prop 302 (sweep First Things First early childhood funds). FTF is funded, as y’all know, by the taxes paid on cigarettes by us smokers (you’re welcome).

Brewer and the Legislature tried to yank the funds via referendum. They failed and probably knew they would. Cue their handy excuse for why they will cut education and health care – “Gosh, the voters forced our hand!”

But Arizona voters didn’t do that. They voted for Republicans statewide but told those Republicans to leave voter protected funds alone. All they have to do is leave the voter protected funds alone and figure out another way to raise money. Which means, hello, you don’t get to grab voter approved funds.

Per today’s Yellow Sheet:

The damage Pearce inflicted on his candidacy for
president with his “anchor babies” press conference may be enough to prevent him from getting past the first ballot. One Republican lawmaker told our reporter several prospective Pearce votes called the senator in the days following the media spectacle and expressed their dissatisfaction with his decision to make that a focus of the upcoming term – and said they would no longer vote for him. “People said, ‘Hey, Russell, let’s back off on this and get the economy going.’ And he said, ‘Oh, no. We can do
both.’ And they said, ‘OK fine. We’ll see you. We’ll vote for Yarbrough or we’ll vote for Pierce or McComish,’” the Republican said. Pearce was reportedly in denial about the impact the move would have on his chances at the presidency at first, but has since started backing off in an attempt to scramble to get those votes back. “He found that he may have screwed up and so he’s backed off now. He’s been calling people saying he’s not going to push it as the primary thing in the first session and
that we’re just going to do jobs and the economy,” the GOP source said.