When you think about it, the amount of effort it takes to be thought of as a truly terrible public official in this state is significant. You’d think Fife Symington, governor from 1991 to 1997, who was convicted of a bank fraud, forcing him to resign his office, would probably be remembered in some sort of hall of shame, but his conviction was overturned and he was pardoned, so he probably doesn’t even make the top five in the same state as Russell Pearce and Joe Arpaio. Even Jan Brewer has backed off her finger-wagging, unexplainable-pauses days, pushing through Medicaid expansion last legislative session, making it almost appear that she has a soul.
However, while he might not make the top of anyone’s list, Attorney General Tom Horne has to be at least considered for the top five on a (abuse of) power poll covering the last decade. Has he received a lifetime trading ban from the Securities and Exchange Commission? Yes! Did he kick off an attack on ethnic studies in Tucson as Superintendent of Public Instruction? Yes! Did he hire a generally-unqualified woman for a high profile job in the Attorney General’s office, probably because he was having an affair with her? Yes! Did he get into a hit-and-run accident trying to avoid being seen with this aforementioned employee/mistress? Yes!
This week, however, a second county attorney general determined that Horne violated campaign finance laws by coordinating efforts with an independent expenditure committee during his 2010 race against Felecia Rotellini. Adding insult to injury, the head of that committee, Kathleen Winn, ended up joining Horne’s staff after the election, because of course she did.
Of course, there’s no real public outcry to get the guy who can’t seem to obey the law who also happens to be in charge of enforcing Arizona laws out of that office, but my question is how much Horne’s fellow Republicans are willing to tolerate. Considering the total disregard Horne seemingly has for even maintaining the illusion that he’s a decent person, you’d think someone from the Arizona Republican Party would consider turning on the guy, making an attempt to get him out of office before the election cycle really heats up.
Then again, maybe he hasn’t hit the tipping point quite yet. The social experiment continues; how much can Tom Horne get away with before he’s challenged publicly by his party? I shudder to think of what the Attorney General has up his sleeve.
This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2013.
I like Tom. I hear him on KVOI. He’s reminiscent of my childhood wet nurse. Whispering sweet lullabies to sooth me into slumber. That creamy tone of voice much like room- temp butter and it’s not long before…..
zzzzzz….snore….
Sorry, short *nap*. Room-temp butter is full of bacteria and now my gut is rumbling.
He sucks, we suck.
But the politicians continue to promote the crooks. It about power and money, and not solving issues in the state. Horne is one of the worst ever, but he continues to move from job to job and destroying everything he associates with.
It’s all crime. They’ve just figured out that crime doesn’t pay on a small scale. It pays on a big one. A single mother on welfare has neither the will, nor the resources to game the system on the same scale as big business and the politicians they’ve bought. Eventually, when the crime gets big enough, it will begin to govern.
He’s just part of the AZ Corruption Club. They stick together. How else can you explain Steve Yarbrough voting on legislation that enriches his pocketbook through his Student Tuition Organization (STO)?
Or an unknown STO, collecting 10% of Geico’s eight million dollar donation to private school tuition?
Just like Kansas, Arizonans vote against their best interests every chance they get.
Tom Horne definitely sucks. He’s one sleazy-ass politician. Still, his “attacks” on the Raza Studies program were warranted. I worked at Tucson High for many years and can assure you that the MAS teachers there were completely out of control (telling the students in their classes that certain colleagues they didn’t like were “racists”, kicking students out of their class and calling them racially provocative names if they questioned the teachers’ extremist viewpoints, etc., etc.) The principal at the time fully supported their antics and the district administration ignored it. Therefore, Tom Horne, as State Superintendent, needed to get involved.