LD 29’s Dan Patterson at the state Dems’ winter meeting…Videographer Dennis Gilman and I drove down to Tucson on Saturday to check out the Arizona Democratic Party’s winter meeting, held at a local high school there. Among those we chatted with was state Representative Daniel Patterson of Legislative District 29.Patterson…

Down at the state Capitol today, it was like a little bit of 2010, all over again.Grizzled nativists toting “I love SB 1070 signs,” with pistols on their hips. Pro-immigration activists in droves denouncing the two-year old breathing-while-brown statute. And Arizona Department of Public Safety officers standing between them, keeping…

The problem with the opposition to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as I see it, is that the loudest voices calling for Arpaio’s resignation are perceived to be those of leftists.In reality, there are many GOPers that I hear from who are weary of fellow Republican Arpaio, his wasteful spending,…

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his campaign guru Chad Willems have done their best to suggest Arpaio has $6 million in the bank, ready to go for the sheriff’s 2012 re-election campaign.In September, Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini reported that, “Arpaio says that he has collected $6 million for his own…

He supports legalizing marijuana, considers himself a civil libertarian, has had nice things to say about the Occupy movement, and recently filed paperwork in Pinal County to run for Sheriff as a Democrat.One little speed bump: He also happens to be the best known neo-Nazi in Arizona and has referred…

Olivia Cortes, the sham candidate the Tea Party fronted in order to dilute the vote in the 2011 recall of ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce, will face no fines or orders to comply in regards to the work done on her behalf by signature-gathering company Petition Pros.Gila County Attorney Daisy…

Why are non-loony Republicans always on the outs in the county and state GOP, with the insaniac Mexican-haters firmly in control?In her blog on Sunday, moderate Republican Paula Pennypacker described one of the main tactics of GOP county chairman Rob Haney’s nativist cult: The gaming of the proxy system, which…

When I saw the headline in the Arizona Republic, “Democrats plan to introduce legislation to repeal SB 1070,” let’s just say I smelled a fish, and fresh it was not.The only Democrat I know of down at the state Legislature with the huevos to do something so bold as to…

If you’re dumb enough to fork over cash to a scalawag like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you’re dumb enough to buy any line of bull the most-sued sheriff in the country wants to sell you.Like the malarkey that the recent U.S. Department of Justice report on Arpaio’s racial-profiling ways is “unsubstantiated”…

This morning, over the complaints of some Democrats and Latinos, former House Democratic Minority Leader David Lujan was appointed unanimously to fill the open state Senate seat in Legislative District 15 by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.The LD 15 spot opened up when Kyrsten Sinema stepped down to run…

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s disgraced former enforcer David Hendershott may no longer be the sheriff’s chief deputy, he may stand accused of all manner of misconduct and ill-deeds during his tenure at the MCSO, but he was still able to score a license to be a private investigator from the Arizona…

Tuesday afternoon, the Phoenix Police Department released its arrest report on Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet brutalized and Tased till brain-dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails.The report details two police encounters with Atencio on the evening of December 15. The second, which resulted in Atencio’s arrest, involved the 44 year-old…

The effort to block former state House Minority Leader David Lujan from sliding into ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s still-warm legislative seat is firing up, with former state House Representative Ken Clark adding his name to the list of wannabes.Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox says she’s received calls of interest…

Today, state Schools Superintendent John Huppenthal ordered that 10 percent of the budget for the Tucson Unified School District be withheld until TUSD eradicates its Mexican American Studies program.The cut is punitive and retroactive to August 15, 2011.No great drama there. Huppenthal announced the school out of compliance with an…

File this one under, “Something wicked this way comes.” The non-crazy GOP blog Politico Mafioso is reporting that disgraced nativist standard bearer, recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce is seeking the position of First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, where he’d be carrying water for AZ GOP chair…

Is the fix in for former state House Minority Leader David Lujan’s becoming the replacement for ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced her bid for U.S. Congress?Or will his infamous no-show for the Senate Bill 1070 vote in 2010 deny him a return to the state Legislature, and can…

Family, friends and those touched by the tragedy of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet Tased and brutalized till brain dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails, gathered at Peoria’s Heritage Funeral Chapel for his funeral service today.Atencio, who was 44 at the time he was removed from life support on…

Horne’s office threw a pricey bone to law firm Burch & Cracchiolo in the MAS affairAs reported in a previous blog, Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal recently upheld Arizona Schools’ Superintendent John Huppenthal’s finding that Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program violates the state’s anti-ethnic studies statute, one…