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State Senate President Bob Burns ousted two of his Republican colleagues from their leadership postions Wednesday, after the pair attempted to sabotage a bipartisan budget agreement the Legislature reached Monday.
Senators Thayer Verschoor and Pamela Gorman got the boot from Burns after they voted against him in the rules committee, and said no to his proposal to send the governor’s sales tax increase to the ballot in the fall.
However, there is always the possiblity of Verschoor and other Republicans dissatisfied with Monday’s budget agreement staging a coup to replace Burns with GOPers much less eager to follow the governor’s lead or work with Democrats, something Burns didn’t even do until Monday.
Thursday, the conservative organization Americans for Tax Reform posted statements on its Web site urging Arizonians to support Senator Verschoor.
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The group claims that the move was nothing more than Burns punishing Verschoor for ” “defending taxpayers from a massive tax increase pushed by an unelected governor in the middle of a recession.”
Either way Mr. Burns, be warned: There may be mutiny in the ranks.
