For years, the position of secretary of state was defined by the personality of Rose Mofford, who presided over the capitol’s executive tower as the state’s least controversial public official. The ceremonial queen of Arizona, Mofford decked the halls with kachina dolls, snipped ribbons with vigor and performed her obscure…
Candidates for Arizona’s biggest political jobs can advertise themselves for free on a worldwide hotline designed to reach millions of patriotic voters. So far during this campaign, thank heavens, only one candidate has tried it. The hotline is operated by the Pentagon to serve the American military and their families…
It might surprise you to find out that choosing a Republican candidate for governor is a lot like ordering dinner. The political menu, compiled by young GOP campaign staffers, reads this way: Sam Steiger: “He’s a lot like Mexican food, spicy and substantial. But he’ll upset your stomach in the…
“I’m always nice to Bob Corbin, because if there’s one person in Arizona who can ruin your life, it’s the attorney general.” This observation, made privately by one of the state’s most powerful politicians, reveals how much the office has changed since the days when Arizona’s attorney general did little…
Children don’t dream of growing up to be Arizona Secretary of State. In fact, you expect those who seek the job to be the kind who, as kids, were beaten up by the schoolyard bully for their lunch money: low-key, studious types who can find happiness in bureaucratic tasks that…
Two years and $100,000 later, no one can say for sure how widespread cancer is among Arizona’s firefighters. And, just as important, no one knows whether firefighters contract cancer on the job. The mystery seems so difficult to solve that even the firefighters who pushed for the study aren’t angered…
It’s true. Every hero really does become a bore at last. And now it’s Senator John McCain’s turn. McCain, Arizona’s most charismatic political figure for most of the past decade, has touched bottom. Only a war in the Persian Gulf can save his senatorial seat, which comes up in the…
It’s a battle between good and evil. At least that’s the way former Phoenix justice of the peace Roger Rudman describes the duel for the JP slot in the East Phoenix No. 1 District, where candidates are battling for a little-known judgeship with the fervor and vitriol usually reserved for…
Remember the thrashing Phoenix got from BARRON’S a year and a half ago, and the outraged reaction to the financial mag by “civic leaders” who were insulted that anyone would say our economy is in the toilet? Well, an even grimmer story appeared in the August 10 WALL STREET JOURNAL,…
About fifteen minutes into his talk to the civic group about America’s dirty secret, the uniformed deputy sheriff says, “I’ve brought a guest and his name is Tom. He’s a convicted child molester.” Tom molested his own daughter for several years, the deputy says. She’s now in a foster home…
Cap’n Dave, No one gives a damn about wineburgers. Get the picture? This one, like all of your series so far, is a big flop. Please stick to the one-shot method–that’s what you’re good at. Now stop sniveling or get a real job. Snades Phoenix P.S. Thanks for all the…
J. Fife Symington III had left explicit instructions he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Alas, even in the world of the super-rich, the strictest orders are not always obeyed. Not long after Symington’s pronouncement was issued, the telephones rang throughout his palatial home in Paradise Valley. One…
Local television is an important medium. It does, however, have some serious limitations. Television functions best when the action is kept in narrow focus. Place two people in a heated debate on a television screen and the medium can be extremely effective. The words can be digested, the facial expressions…
“Upon hearing firsthand recommendation of either the proposing or the seconding member or both at a scheduled committee meeting, the Membership Committee shall vote upon each applicant separately and by ballot. The proceedings of the committee shall be confidential. The Board of Directors shall vote on all applications simultaneously …
Bob Corbin apparently plans to commit at least one more despicable, contemptible act before departing from his office as state attorney general. Corbin and his staff of dirty political tricksters have one more scheme up their sleeves. Corbin and Steve Twist, his hand-picked successor, will try the Don Bolles strategy…
This isn’t your normal Phoenix development story. Everyone is used to the way things are normally done: A bully developer bulldozes over a hapless neighborhood that can’t get an ear at City Hall. This time the story is reversed. This time, the neighborhood and the developer are both cheerleading a…
Donna Rossi survived Phoenix’s meanest streets and the heavy hand of Police Chief Ruben Ortega in a sordid mid-Eighties scandal. After what she’s been through, television reporting must be a snap. Rossi, now 29, is assignment editor, news anchor and reporter for KNAZ in Flagstaff. She’s carved a reputation in…
It read like a fisherman’s dream come true, and the minute I saw the notice in the Anglers United bulletin, I knew I had to go. The plan–which hadn’t been tried in five years–was to get sixty to seventy fishermen up to the Black River, where helicopters would fly them…
A state highway maintenance crew exposed to a toxic spill last month doesn’t know whom to believe and whom to blame. Twenty workers were exposed to PCBs, a known carcinogen. No one was told that the greasy freeway spill the crew mopped up on July 5 could be dangerous–until the…
Sitting in an office surrounded by a doghouse-shaped cremation urn, a bone-shaped bronze memorial marker and a grief therapy brochure offering tips on disposing of a dead pet’s “belongings,” Alex Neff unsuccessfully fights back a grin. For a fleeting second, he looks like the cat who swallowed the canary–rather fitting…
Skinhead gangs are notorious for their black boots, racial prejudices and, of course, shaved scalps. But Kevin Hauschild says he got involved in Phoenix United Skinheads (PUSH) because they were different. “Yeah, we dressed like skinheads and everything,” Hauschild says, “but what we were trying to do was educate other…
The life of a man running for governor is no longer a thing to call his own. Running the race for the state’s top office is in equal parts grueling, repetitive and unnerving. And if a candidate visits enough places and makes enough speeches, he will one day run up…
