In January, a Chandler Republican named Mimi Pryor fired up a grassroots effort to recall Gov. Jan Brewer. In May, that recall campaign ground to an unsuccessful halt.
Those two end-points are solid. It’s what happened in between that’s become a matter of furious debate, as some volunteers question Pryor’s intentions—and accuse her of gross incompetence.
Despite formidable odds, the recall campaign started off with high hopes and touching rhetoric. A marketing specialist with her own consulting firm, Pryor described to reporters how a sister-in-law in another state relied on Medicaid, as she declined and ultimately died from muscular dystrophy. Pryor told Arizona State University’s student paper, The State Press, that she grew appalled by Gov. Brewer’s Medicaid budget cuts. “She could not have had the quality of life and hospice care that she needed toward the end of her life without that assistance,” she said.
Thus began an effort that culminated four months later with only 37,500 signatures—far short of the 432,000 needed to force Brewer into a recall. Those results, and complaints about Pryor’s management, prompted one liberal blogger to label the campaign a “false recall effort.”
Pryor fiercely denies that charge.
Among the disenchanted is Frances Alexander, a Tucson volunteer who spent days hustling up petition signatures to have Gov. Brewer booted from office.
Alexander says the campaign left her with a nagging sense that something was seriously awry. “I was very uncomfortable with the events that took place. To me, they defy logic, if you say you feel passionately about this movement and say you’re going to head it up. (Pryor’s) decisions seem to contradict what the efforts of the movement were for.”
Then Alexander pauses. “Or maybe she wasn’t genuine about her efforts here,” she says of Pryor. “I just wonder where she was coming from.”
Similar criticism is leveled by Adrienne Sainz, a young social worker who coordinated the Tucson signature drive. “It was really frustrating that Pryor’s lack of knowledge, and maybe her lack of expertise, really hindered us in getting further,” Sainz says.
These volunteers claim that many people who visited the group’s webpage were misled into believing they could sign a petition online. They argue that Pryor never fully addressed the problem, and instead changed the website button to say people could request petitions to sign, further confusing things.
In addition, they say that Pryor had circulators passing petitions that were not county-specific, as required by Arizona law, which meant that many signatures were ultimately thrown out.
Critics suggest that these were baffling mistakes for someone such as Pryor, who had done plenty of campaign work through her company, American Information Marketing.
“We worked our butts off,” says Sainz, “and it was her complacency about certain things—about being in touch with us, about me being able to give appropriate answers to people—that was just odd. I don’t know if she had a different agenda or what. But if this is what she wanted to do, I felt like (she) should put her whole heart into it, because you’re standing up for the million people in Arizona who don’t want Gov. Brewer in office. You’re being that voice for them. And actually, she wasn’t.”
But Pryor says she couldn’t have been more committed. “I put everything I have on the line to do this. I have a business that caters to the political market. I’ve spent 30 years making a mark in Republican circles. I have hurt myself, hurt my business, hurt my standing as a Republican in going up against this governor, which I feel is the right thing to do.”
She refutes the smattering of complaints. For instance, she blames confusion over the county-specific signatures on misinformation from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, a charge disputed by secretary of state spokesman Matt Roberts. Pryor also says she addressed the online signature problem immediately after being notified by Alexander, and suggests that the volunteer’s concerns were overblown.
“As soon as I became aware that there were people misinterpreting the very clear form online that said it was a petition request—very clearly labeled—we nonetheless immediately went back and changed it,” Pryor says.
The form apparently wasn’t quite that clear. Another Tucson volunteer, Terry Higuera, noted that in a May 1 e-mail to Alexander. “Sure looks like if someone clicks ‘sign the petition,’ they may believe their signature will count as a valid legal voter,” Higuera wrote. “… I too have had several people say they have signed online, so this online question may be misleading.”
In response, Pryor sent me no fewer than 21 e-mails documenting her various contacts with Tucson volunteers, and she put me in touch with Linda Galli, a Phoenix activist who says she worked hard on the recall—and found Pryor to be an excellent leader. “I’m a woman in my mid-40s, and I’ve had a lot of experience in the business world,” she says. “I thought Mimi ran a very good campaign. She knew what her goals were and what she was trying to achieve. Our biggest problem was the lack of finances.”
But to Higuera, the biggest problem remained a lack of effort at the top. For instance, after setting up a radio interview for Pryor on a popular local show, Higuera says Pryor simply backed out.
“Bottom line,” Higuera says, “is that I got no help.”
Pryor says she was given short notice of the interview and had another commitment.
On May 27, the Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer smacked into the recall deadline with barely a dent in the number of needed signatures. That left folks like Adrienne Sainz very unhappy. “When I found out the numbers, I was appalled,” Sainz says.
Others already knew the score. Among them was Pryor, who claims that any signatures lost in the petition confusion were inconsequential. Nor did she want to demoralize volunteers—or tip off Brewer—by revealing the truth, she says. “The numbers were kept secret, so as to not dilute our ability to influence the governor up to the last day.”
In the end, Pryor says, the campaign was fundamental in getting Gov. Brewer to reverse her decision on transplant funding; that money was restored in the state budget Brewer signed in April.
Still, others suggest that the biggest winner was Brewer herself, since those petition numbers cast doubt on potential future recall attempts.
(Corrected version: Mimi Pryor’s hometown corrected; five-month recall period corrected to four months.)
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.
I am nothing short of aghast that reporter Tim Vanderpool went ahead and used certain material presented in this article despite being provided with absolute, unequivocal and objective prove the contrary. It seems clear that he was more interested in promoting the idea of a controversy within the recall committee than debunking false allegations with the truth. Fact checking is a basic rule of journalism as I know from my days as a major morning radio news anchor. Mr. Vanderpool sourced information that he either did not fact check or, if he did, he obviously decided that the facts did not make for the sort of story he wanted to write.
For instance, he speaks of an anonymous liberal Blogger whose post about our effort is filled with nothing but purposeful, outright manufactured “facts” that any reporter worth his salt could have easily fact checked. Mr. Vanderpool referred me to the Blog at http://www.conservativecorporatism.com which we have evidence to suggest is owned and written by a man who identified himself as an ex-convict “persecuted by the U.S. Government” who harassed several of our volunteers and made them feel physically threatened during the course of the recall effort. Our Online Outreach Coordinator was reduced to tears by his barrage of unsettling, threatening emails to her and actually caused her to consider quitting the effort. Our Maricopa County Coordinators and I had similar unsettling experiences with this individual and, ultimately, all concerned felt it best to block him from the Committee’s Facebook pages and to cease all communications with him. Obviously, his unfounded allegations against the Recall Committee and its leadership are nothing but retaliatory.
While the results of our digital forensics investigation of who is behind the anonymous post that Mr. Vanderpool referenced only became known to us this morning, he could easily have debunked several of the Blogger’s allegations by simply looking at the Recall Committee’s website. I was taught that news sources should be thoroughly vetted and that everything should be fact checked in order to determine the credibility of the source and reliability of the information before ever releasing a story. The Blogger supports his allegation that our effort was a “false recall” by stating that our website had no photo of Gov. Brewer (it did and still does on the Home Page that can still be accessed from the link under the open letter posted at http://www.recallgovernorbrewer.com), by stating that the website failed to even list the required signature count which appears on several pages of the website, and that the website promotes a Republican candidate to replace Gov. Brewer (in fact, the website mentions no candidates and I am on record numerous times stating that our job was to recall Gov. Brewer and not to draft any candidates). Had Mr. Vanderpool done his homework, he would have quickly realized that the anonymous Blogger was passing off unreliable and untrue information.
In addition, the Blogger claimed that the Recall Committee received $10,000 at launch questioning why expensive media such as billboards and newspapers ads were not purchased. In fact, it was the Pearce Recall that received $10,000 at the outset. The largest single contribution received by our Committee was $500 several weeks into the effort as our Campaign Finance reports will show.
Given that the Blog post lacks all credibility, I question why any reporter would even cite it as a source.
Regarding the allegations by Frances Alexander and Terry Higuera, evidence to the contrary was provided to Mr. Vanderpool, evidence that he chose to ignore. While he references the 21 emails I forwarded to him which clearly and objectively serve as proof that the facts were being misrepresented, he apparently either felt that they were not important enough to read or that it would take the story in a direction that he didn’t want to take it. Given that he sent me an email stating “I cannot possibly read all these”, I suspect that he didn’t.
Since when does a journalist working on a story, particularly one that might impact the reputation of an individual or organization, not make the time to gather ALL the facts, particularly those he has been expressly informed would fully refute allegations he is planning to report? A good reporter either makes the time, or holds on the story until he can make time to do his job properly. Moreover, both myself and Gail Shoultes, our Maricopa County Co-hair, sent Mr. Vanderpool additional information refuting the allegations this past Monday morning at which time he responded that he had “already turned his story in.” A true professional would have notified his Editor to hold on the story until all the information had been gone through and fact checked even if it meant that the story would not have published until a later date–or at all (given that there was really no story here other than easily proven false allegations).
Regarding the radio interview purportedly “scheduled for me” by volunteer Terry Higuera that I purportedly “backed out of”, Mr. Vanderpool was provided the complete email chain between Ms. Higuera, Tucson Area Coordinator Adrienne Sainz, the radio show scheduler and myself last Friday shortly after he interviewed me (these were among the 21 emails he referred to in his article) to which he responded “You have sufficiently made your point.” The facts are that I knew nothing about any interview being arranged until I received a copy of an email from the radio station scheduler to Ms. Higuera regarding a request for an interview the next morning. As I was on my way out of town the next morning, I promptly reached out by email to the scheduler to ask if the interview could be re-scheduled for early the next week which she indicated was a possibility. In the meantime, Ms. Sainz emailed Ms. Higuera and copied me that she wanted to go ahead with the interview that morning and asked Ms. Higuera to do it. Ms. Higuera responded, also copying me, that she agreed that the interview should be done right away and that she would do it. (Emails to be posted on our Blog at http://www.recallgovernorbrewer.com/blog).
I not only never “backed out” of this or any other interview, but I offered to do it immediately upon my return to town. The most distressing part of this allegation is that it was Ms. Sainz and Ms. Higuera who made the decision to go forward with it in my absence, though I had indicated that this would be fine with me if it could NOT BE RESCHEDULED and supported Ms. Higuera by sending her possible talking points and a poignant supporter story. Aside from the fact that Ms. Higuera sprung the interview request on me last minute, and apparently expected me to drop my other commitments, I am surprised and disappointed at her effort to so totally misrepresent the facts.
As for Ms. Sainz, who I have nothing but high praise for as a volunteer, I received an email from her today stating “Hi Mimi, As you can see by the email (to Tim Vanderpool) below I was hesitant to talk to this reporter and my instincts were correct. I have learned my lesson about media because there are words in there I have never used before. It is sad that this is what people do and the paranoia that other volunteers had. Needless to say I want to thank you for the opportunity and trust you gave me. For what it is worth, I appreciate it. Adrienne”
Regarding the supposed confusion about an “online petition”, not only did I set the record on this straight with Mr. Vanderpool when we spoke on Friday, but among the 21 emails that he either did not read or chose not to report on, were multiple emails to Frances Alexander and Terry Higuera responding that I had our programmers modify the PETITION REQUEST form (always clearly labeled as such), the very same day that the issue was raised with me by the two. It was not ignored as alleged and was immediately responded to and ACTED UPON.
Although Ms. Sainz’ email to me of today makes it clear that statements were attributed to her in the article that she never said, just one of my email accounts shows that I sent Ms. Sainz 134 emails in the span of just the last 77 days of the recall with hundreds of other supporter emails that I responded to daily along with all of my other duties. This averages one to two email communications per day from me to Ms. Sainz alone. I can entirely disprove any assertion that I was not in regular communication with the Area Coordinators. Regarding Ms. Higuera, her email to Ms. Alexander referred to above specifically states that “Mimi is very good about responding.” Most puzzling of all regarding Ms. Higuera is that several days after the recall signature deadline, and after the signature tally had been widely reported, she sent me an email offering to raise funds for the Committee’s ongoing activities. It defies logic that anyone so dissatisfied with someone’s leadership and management would offer to raise funds for future activities managed by the very same individual.
Finally, regarding the most objective standard for the financial management of a political committee sponsoring a signature drive, this is measured by cost-per-signature. This typically ranges from $1.25 to over $2.00 per signature. For the CA Gov. Davis recall, the only successful recall of a U.S. Governor in modern times, we estimate from public records and media reports that their cost-per-signature was around $1.90 and that the Pearce Recall effort’s was around $1.84, while ours was a less than $0.50 per signature. In addition, one need only look at the wealth of “how to” information, forms, resources and tools that I created to support the effort by the volunteers, and posted to our website’s Downloads section, to see how much more we provided in contrast to other recall efforts going on in the state. This was in addition to gathering thousands more signatures and with less than one-third of the money to work with than the Pearce Recall reported as having received (I have nothing but praise to say about the management of that effort, also founded by a Republican, and offer the comparison just to show the extra mile we went to support our volunteers).
Mr. Vanderpool did rightly state that I said and still feel that “In the end . . . the campaign was fundamental in getting Gov. Brewer to reverse her decision on transplant funding; that money was restored in the state budget Brewer signed in April.” In my view, despite many other very important policies that we strongly disagreed with the Governor on, human life trumps them all. By mounting a recall effort against the Governor around this pivotal issue, we brought national attention to it resulting in public outrage from coast to coast. If that impacted the Governor’s decision to restore the transplant funding, as we believe it did, then we helped save 96 lives in the immediate along with countless lives in the future. Our fight against the AHCCCS cuts which will eliminate as many as 150,000 needy Arizonans from health care coverage, and against other troubling policies, will continue when our reorganization as Action Arizona (http://www.actionarizona.org), an independent expenditure political committee, is complete. No matter what criticisms may be levied against myself or the recall effort, myself and many of the volunteers who worked with me in that effort will continue to fight against policies that unfairly impact the health, education and welfare of the elderly, the poor, the sick and disabled, students, under pressure small businesses, the unemployed and struggling homeowners in our state.
Mimi Pryor
Chairman
Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
Postscript:
Not that it matters to the big picture although it supports the lack of care taken by the reporter in writing the above article, I am not a “Mesa Republican”. I reside in Chandler as apears on the publicly available recall papers filed with the secretary of state’s office and as widely reported. Moreover, the recall was 120 days as required by state law not “five months” as stated in the article.
Mimi Pryor, Chairman
Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
Shame on Mr. Vanderpool. He calls himself a journalist? Even worse, his editor allowed this shoddy piece of reporting. I would like to hand him 67 blank pages that require 15 signatures on each page and so he can determine, for himself, the dedication it takes to acquire even 1,000 signatures. We knew it was a formidable task before we started, history shows it’s a long shot. Ms. Pryor was dedicated to the recall from the beginning and she was genuine, sincere and sacrificed much time and energy to get it done.
Just for the record, I raised three children with no help from their father or any government program. I am now a grandmother of seven. I have worked all my adult life and run a small business. I am a lifelong democrat and a community activist. I am not naive by any stretch of the imagination and I had complete faith that Ms. Pryor was in this recall for all the RIGHT reasons. I have never seen anyone so driven to get the job done. She was relentless in that pursuit.
Ms. Pryor wasn’t the one who “confused” people with an online petition. There was another “online petition” that was circulating from a completely different group. It wasn’t official through the SOS but one of those created online just to send a “message” to Brewer that the citizens were unhappy with her performance. Further, Matt Roberts, spokesman for the SOS is wrong, flat wrong….it WAS the SOS who was less than forthright with the correct information regarding county specific signatures. What else would you expect him to say, he’s got to cover their butts. I experienced the “bad attitude” at the SOS myself the day I dropped off the signed petitions. Mary was at the front and when I put the carton of signatures up on the counter….she looked completely disgusted and said something to the tune of …why are you dropping them off? OBVIOUSLY there aren’t enough. A less experienced person might have taken the carton full of valuable signatures and left which is what she wanted. Instead I said…..”So you’re refusing them? I don’t know the particulars so I will need something in writing that says you’re refusing them”. Only then, did she decide she better go ask. What she found out was that they are OBLIGATED to count them. Misinformation is standard at SOS but you won’t hear that out of Matt Roberts.
This paranoid conspiracy theory should have been checked out more thoroughly than Vanderpool bothered to do. Facts, gee who needs facts? Perhaps I should spin a theory and pitch it to Vanderpool and I can get my 15 minutes of fame in the Tucson Weekly.
Here’s the bottomline for me. If Mimi Pryor asked me to sacrifice my time and effort to get rid of the evil, stupid, puppet of a governor we have, I would do it all over again. She earned my respect and admiration and I’d follow her lead. I also have to set Vanderpool straight about the HARD EARNED 37,500 signatures we gathered. Although we didn’t get enough to recall HER we definitely had a positive effect and I consider that a complete success.
I would like to add that the thought of sabotage had never come across my mind until the reporter contacted me. I was surprised at this allegation as Mimi had never been anything but kind and genuine with me in meetings and conversations. There were many emails I received during the early morning hours before I had even woken for the day. To me that is dedication and effort. As she stated above I appreciated the opportunity, yes I was very disappointed by the numbers, but it was a wonderful chance to give the citizens of Arizona an opportunity to have their voices heard. That I did say. But there are words in the above report that I have not used in my vocabulary in years. “Work[ing] our butts off,” yes, “complacency,” not so much. This effort is in the past and we can only go forward so I would hope that I share that desire.
Adrienne Sainz
Postscript: Gail Shoultes who posted above was the Committee’s Maricopa County Co-Chair. Adrienne who posted above was Tucson’s.
I’m not going to turn this into a “cat-fight” however, I stand by my statements that the Brewer recall effort was poorly organized and without proper financial backing should probably not even been attempted. I arranged the two interviews with the expectation that a spokesperson from the recall committee would be available. The second interviewer was reluctant to reschedule and Ms Pryor did not make herself available. I discussed with Ms. Sainz my disappointment and felt “put on the spot” to fill in. It is indeed true that after the recall I had an email exhange with Mimi on the possibility of contacting well-known, like minded citizens to solicit contributions. But the task was left on my lap and the follow up information was not received. Regardless, this is a task that I feel should be on the “to do” list of the recall organizer. As for Ms. Sainz, she worked very hard towards the cause as the Tucson Coordinator and I give her kudos for a job well done. Whether or not the recall was Incompetent or Ingenious, apparently we each have an opinion.
@ Terry….I never considered this a “cat fight”…that’s sort of weird verbage to use in a discussion about a very important topic. What I would say to you, however, is Mimi Pryor risked and staked her entire reputation to go way out on a limb to make a difference. You, on the other hand, are standing on the ground, looking up at that limb and criticizing. It’s a much easier position to stand and point, isn’t it? The recall effort was neither Incompentent nor was it Ingenious, which implies an agenda other than a bonafide recall. The recall effort was a history making attempt to remove a dangerous, imbecile from office. I was privileged to give it my best effort and I consider it a success in many, many ways.
Maybe “cat-fight” was the incorrect words to use and I stand corrected. I invested many hours and out of pocket dollars to collect the signatures I submitted towards the recall effort. You can call it standing on the ground critically looking up pointing fingers if you like. I agreed passionately and worked with hope to recall Brewer and I would do it again with a new organizer. I personally know people who were in at the beginning then quit because of the miscommunication regarding keeping counties on separate sheets, along with the perceived lack of organization. I however, along with others in Tucson stayed til the end. I also take issue with Mimi’s comment that the signatures that were not counted because of this error were “inconsequential” as each one of these voters was under the impression their signature would count. Emails do not always communicate accurately the sincerety of the person writing them, and possibly a personal visit by Mimi to Pima County over the six months the recall effort was active could have done more to encourage and inspire instead of the 20+ emails she claimes to have sent.
so you’re saying you believe the recall was simply inept and had nothing to do with a secret agenda of discouraging any other recall attempts. You know the conspiracy theory that generated any interest in this ridiculous “story”. I, too, invested time, money, sweat, hope and fearlessness here in Maricopa County, you know the extreme right wing county and Ms. Pryor kept us completely up to date on any new information. If it wasn’t for her tenacity the Secretary of State’s office would have gotten away with much more than they did. The SOS was completely lackadasical in the information they provided. The effectively made a maze out of what should be a neutral process.
Dear Terry Higuera, Adrienne Sainz and Frances Alexander,
Yes, you are entitled to your opinion. However, when it affects so many others who spent countless hours and their own personal time and money, it is no longer just about YOU! The time has now come for introspection. Tell us what you would have done to raise the approx. $2 million that our Recall effort required to achieve the end result? If you felt that Mimi Pryor was so incompetent or a con artist why did you not take over the fundraising for this Recall effort? It is so easy to criticize others and then create fancy conspiracy theories. Apparently, you have always had success in your life with whatever you put your efforts behind? I have not! It took us 30 years to get Nelson Mandela released from prison – you know nothing about set backs, dedication to a cause and endless grassroots efforts.
Good luck ladies! I will continue my efforts to expose Jan Brewer for who she is. This is what the Recall effort was all about. We are trying to help the people of Arizona!!! Apparently, you missed that point too!!
A Very Proud, Liberal Socialist, Progressive!!
Linda Gallie
Brewer Recall Committee : Maricopa County Volunteer Co-ordinator
we all took the Gov Brewer to task, no matter that outcome, and i personally was told and had people sign from ALL parties , the GOP , tea party , Democrat , even Green party and others , . we did not have an outcome we all was hoping for . that is true , however, we DID put the Brewer team to task, and even the right wing media . i personally did not see any thing of an on line petition , not to say it was or not , i just did not see it .
one thing is many of us , worked hard , and strong , to get a voice into the politics of this state . and i do think that we did get Brewer to change off her death machine panels .
i seen no TV commercials, nor any print on our effort , and yet we got alot of people to sign . if we had the media and the money to stand with us , we could have done lots more , there are many that are mad at Brewer , for many reasons , just like Scott Walker in Wisconsin. many of the GOP /TP governors are doing a great harm to the public, and grafting funds to big business , even her staff are lobbyist for private prisons , .
we might have fell short, but the other recall on Pearce took him to the door . he is just not totally out yet, but soon to be so . and Brewer is still walking a thin ice against the public, she knows this . and if over the line , she can yet still be took to recall once more , and maybe the second time will be the end game . it is her call,
Good grief. This was a recall effort ran purely by volunteers who have full time jobs and full time families. As we had an INCREDIBLE turn out of volunteers in Tucson, we didn’t have equal support in numbers in Maricopa or other counties in the state. The volunteers we had were beyond dedicated and collected pages of signatures we just didn’t have the same amount of help as Tucson thus making it difficult to collect all of the signatures we needed. It’s hard for one person to do the job of twenty. I suggest you take up your dismay with the folks that were supporters of our recall that liked to vent their grisly opinions about Jan Brewer on our Facebook pages yet never donated a minute of their time.
Nonetheless, has anyone mentioned the amount of harassment our petition gatherers received as they tried to collect signatures while on public property?
Terry I saw your correspondence with Mimi regarding the interview and I saw her responses. I saw them because it was sent to me last minute in hopes that I would have better luck tracking her down during the eleventh hour. I also copied the comment you posted on Facebook notifying her of the interview…perhaps you missed the announcement she made months back and listed permanently on the info page that I (Megan) was the admin of the pages not Mimi.
Numerous notifications were sent out that there was no such thing as an online petition. We quoted the Secretary of State’s regulations on Facebook, our blog, and our website Ad Nauseum “All signatures must be signed on the S.O.S.’s petition form, in person, in black ink”.
I am sure there are many things that Mimi could have done better or differently. How she chose to utilize her time doing them was her decision. I feel you should have taken up your concerns with her directly instead of airing your dirty laundry in this arena. If it wasn’t for Mimi, this recall never would have existed. Hindsight is 20/20. It is quite easy to be a Monday morning quarterback now that the recall deadline has come and gone. We cheered and with zero arrogance lightly patted ourselves on the back when Brewer announced she was reinstating organ transplant funding to AHCCCS. We felt our constant presence added to the pressure that made Brewer crack and change her decision. Isn’t it better to rejoice and be happy that happened rather than focus on what didn’t happen?
Terry and Adrianne you worked extremely hard and your dedication was outstanding and priceless. If nothing less, take pride in the fact that you were major contributors in an effort that helped dying Medicaid patients get life saving transplants-I know I am!
Please note previous comment written by:
Megan McGuire
Social Network Outreach Director
Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer