Two months into office and there is, already, a symbolic petition to recall Gov. Doug Ducey, along with two Facebook pages that I know of also trying to get that dude back in the ice cream business and out of the governing a state business. Nothing has been filed with state election officials, this isn’t an actual campaign, and I explained what the recall process is like in this other post.
You can choose between Recall Ducey and Get Rid of Arizona’s New Governor (my favorite because it has the slogan “They said I could be whatever I want so I became a Douchebag.”)
The petition on change.org, created by Shannon W. from Prescott Valley, has more than 6,200 signatures right now (3:45 p.m.). Supporters are, of course, citing his budget proposal as a major reason, then there’s “I didn’t vote for Ducey and he has proven I was correct.”
“We need someone to make decisions based off of what the people of Arizona want, NOT what he wants. Education comes first, no matter what. You cannot jeopardize the future of our children just to have a little extra cash,” Tucsonan Victoria Russell says on the website. There are also voices from Mesa, Prescott, Kingman, truly every corner of the state.
The recall petition. Worth mentioning this “recall petition” is symbolic:
We, the qualified electors of the State of Arizona, from which Doug Ducey, Governor, was elected, demand this recall.
The grounds for demand of this recall are as follows:
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has made it clear that his personal interests come before the interests of the people of Arizona, especially our children. Arizonans need to take a stand and recall Governor Doug Ducey from his elected position. We deserve better.
The circulator of this petition is a volunteer circulator.
For more information on recalls in Arizona, please refer to Arizona – Const. Art. 8, §1-6; Ariz. Rev. Stat. §19-201 – 19-234.
By signing this petition, you verify that you are a registered voter of the State of Arizona and are qualified to vote in the recall election.
We need at least 376,604 valid signatures by July 5, 2015 in order to file for a recall election.
Please share and get this initiative trending. Let our voices be heard! #RecallDucey #ArizonaForEducation
Although it doesn’t happen often, a recall is possible.
In Arizona, a recall against former Republican governor Evan Mecham was successful, but he was impeached for misusing state money before the recall made it on the ballot. Most recently, in 2003, ex -governor of California Joseph Graham Davis, a Democrat, was recalled over the state budget.
Can Arizona make it happen? Stay tuned.
And I have a question for people who voted for Ducey: Have any of you regretted your vote?
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2015.
You forgot to mention the new protest song in your article! 😉
https://soundcloud.com/gorkyrecords/vote-out-the-ducebag
Also see this from the Arizona Revised Statutes that says a petition cannot be circulated until after the elected officer (except a legislator) has been in office for more than six months. So, this may render the signatures on the change.org petition void. http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/19/00202.htm&Title=19&DocType=ARS
Get a grip; you lost the election!
An explanation is coming up 🙂
regarding the arizona recall law: the governor is also the chief legislator, so wouldn’t he fall into the category of legislators?
Get him out of office as soon as it is legally possible. Education is so terribly under funded already. We cannot afford to continously allow education to be a low priority in Arizona! Get him out!
Stop voting Republican… the long term red states are also the same states with the lowest performing education statistics.
“We need someone to make decisions based off of what the people…want, NOT what he wants.”
But it’s OK when Obama does it…
Where do I sign? I’m missing Jan.
I did some research regarding the recall process in Arizona. The number of signatures to trigger a recall election is 25% of the votes cast for that office in the last election. There were 1,506,416 votes cast for Governor so 376,604 VALID signatures must be collected in 120 days. A 60% buffer means a goal of 602,566 signatures. In the last election 626,921 voted for DuVal. Triggering an election is VERY doable. BUT…Ducey got 805,062 votes. 701,354 voted for someone else. Which means the opposition candidate must get more than 52,000 people who voted for Ducey previously to vote for him instead. Statewide, are there that many people pissed off at Ducey? Thoughts?
I didn’t vote for him but if there’s a recall I will. You money grubbers need to leave him alone and get back to work.
Elections are to prevent mob rule.
This is what I find really interesting. Do the pro-Republican, anti-Obama trolls post here for fun, or are they somehow paid? Personally, come here to comment on what I feel is best for me, Tucson, Arizona and Murica – I am beholden to no single political party. I don’t need a leash to feel good & superior to another party.
I am relatively new here, but it looks like the Yahoo/Youtube posters are spilling over here.
Has anyone proven that Rat T, David W, Carlos Danger and now Bisbee Boi are all the same person yet? Can we get that troll to at least ONE account?
Just in case someone isn’t mad, read this and hopefully you will get mad. THis is a summary of the final budget courtesy of Steve Farley. THe paper made it sound like he didn’t win that much… This is the worst budget I have ever seen .
-> K-12 schools will suffer from a $352 million cut in district assistance and other areas, and TUSD is singled out for another $17 million hit starting this coming fiscal year, which will be shared by Pima County, likely leading to higher property taxes for Pima County residents along with cuts. The exact portion of the cuts/tax hikes will be apportioned by an unelected Property Tax Oversight Committee based in Phoenix. The inflation funding lawsuit settlement, which the courts have set at around $332 million, was funded at only $74 million. And $900 million in K-12 rollovers remain, a budgeting gimmick used years ago that has still not been paid back. This means that public schools are receiving their state funds not in advance, but as reimbursement — 90 days in arrears.
–> Community colleges in Pima and Maricopa Counties are zeroed out completely from state funding. Pima College Chancellor Lee Lambert called this “irreparable.”
–> Universities are cut $99 million in FY16, with UofA’s portion $28.4 million.
–> JTED programs are cut by $30 million in FY17, despite the pleas of 35 JTED students from Andrada Polytech High School in Vail, who drove up Friday morning and stayed watching in the gallery until 2am when they drove back home. Their school — and many others — may be closed by these cuts and the students’ careers are in danger.
–> $1 million was taken from a fund for consumer protection in the Attorney General’s office and given to a new Division of Federalism which is charged to find ways to sue the Federal Government.
–> Cities and counties received more raids — they will now have to pay for collection of sales taxes and juveniles in state prisons, although they will be able to bid against the private prison companies to provide 1,000 extra male medium security prison beds in 2017.
–> Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), cash assistance to mothers in desperate economic straits (often fleeing from domestic abuse) was cut to a 12-month lifetime limit — the harshest limit in the US — although currently the average length of claims is only 14-15 months. Those cuts may put more women and families in danger of destitution.
–> $10 million in cuts to the Department of Child Safety remain despite 16,900 kids currently in state care, and the backlog of cases rising, not falling.
–> Arizona arts funding is again zeroed out after two years of being funded at $1 million a year.
–> $360 million is left untouched in the Rainy Day fund. Is it raining yet?
–> and there was still no discussion (except from me) of suspending the remaining $675 million in corporate tax giveaways that will go into effect in the next three years or the $12.6 billion that disappears annually in special interest sales tax loopholes. The money is there, but the majority chooses to cut vital services instead of asking corporations to pay their fair share.
Jonathan Martin, I think we will get what we need no problem. THere are plenty of Republicans who are angry also… can’t do it to kids…. no way no how.
We just need to watch out for trolls like the ones here who are probably paid by Koch…. I don’t know how many humans (people who are really humans who care) would like this budget let alone support it and criticize those who know it is bad. Trolls have a primary goal of pitting people against each other to create problems within the ranks. Listen we got rid of Mecham in the late -80s and we can get rid of Ducey.
BTW, Shannon’s petition has almost 10,000 now. Gaining very fast and she is not the only one. We will get what we need. Just need to stay organized and keep focused on the children and the goal.
https://www.change.org/p/arizona-voters-re…
Why? Because “Be like Mississippi” is not a valid governing principle.
Dear Old Pueblo Independent,
As for your concern; we are not the same person. I have no idea who the other clear thinkers you noted may be, but I applauded their comments and tenacity in the face of continuing criticism. For my part, I post to try and balance the decidedly left slant of this site. I pity poor Robin B. who believes that there is a paid conspiracy. I suspect that like you, we are all loyal Americans, but with different views.
I am an Arizona native by birth – born in Bisbee late in the Great Depression and an ASU grad (it was Arizona State collage at the time). I have maintained a Tucson residence since 1970, but have worked abroad much of that time as a consultant to a wide variety of companies in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and to a much lesser degree, southern Asia. Thus, I have extensive, first-hand experience in watching the massive and positive improvements that the introduction of capitalism begets. Small, local families become businesses to support a major project (i.e., a soap factory in Brazil) and soon are providing services to the nearby farms as well. Others follow their example and many succeed, not all, but many.
Capitalism works – give it freedom to blossom in Arizona once again! Just as important, nature has blessed Arizona with an abundance of good mineral deposits – support the responsible development of these God-given resources and the tax base issue will take care of its self, just as it did for most of a century.
I think they call us party trolls to try to discredit our comments, in their simple minds. They are proof that education is dangerous when misused the way they misuse it.
Ask them this: if education were given ANOTHER billion dollars, how would you spend it?
Now let’s take a look at their ideas.
Robin B….why do you drag the Koch name into this? I seriously doubt your claim. Look I’m am having buyers remorse, having voted for Ducey. I’m totally against these ridiculous cuts to education. Trolls exist on every comment thread. I just don’t understand your Koch implications.
I signed this morning, if its as simple as that, why not. Make no mistake, we are in a new and uncharted era; education is but the thin edge of the wedge, things will continue to degrade and in time, left unchecked, even the ‘baggers will come to understand they are not included in Doucey’s/Koch’s “us” vs. “them”, only the .01% is “us”
Why aren’t teachers fighting? They have an opportunity to make a statement. The days of making a sign and protesting are over. A sick out or some other form of strike would force parents to get involved. Without it the cuts will keep coming. Death by a thousand cuts. Very painful to watch.
For Rat and the other pseudo-capitalists posting here. The first thing to do with an extra billion dollars is to pay teachers a living wage. You want better performance in schools? One key way is to get more and better teachers. How to get more and better teachers? Pay more for the job! I mean really, it’s capitalism 101. DUH.
But you guys aren’t really interested in capitalism. You’re interested in the fantasy of capitalism that’s pushed by the few people who actually get rich from it, not the reality of the billions of people all over the world who suffer from its inherently mean-spirited, anti-environment, anti-human consequences.
I don’t know if you’re some of the few getting rich, or just plain stoopid, but either way, if you really think capitalism is some kind of panacea for society’s ills, YOU’RE DEAD WRONG.
I can attest that I am not Rat T, David W, or Bisbee Boi. I understand how someone who thinks in lockstep can assume that there can’t possibly other(s) that disagree with them, as that would be “politically incorrect”. Alas, I hate to disappoint you, Old Pueblo “Independent”, but here are at least two of us, and I suspect that the other three are thinking for themselves as well. Also, I am not paid to post here. I have a real job and pay taxes. I know that that’s not the “hip” thing to do these days when the popular belief seems to be that money grows on trees unfairly held captive by evil rich people. I don’t share your “crunch away, they’ll make more” view of the economy. The more “takers” there are, the less there is to go around. The more that is misspent on social programs and indoctrination, the less there is for education…
Gilbert mom… oh how I wish we were dealing with just regular donors. Public record. Here’s the first evidence of Koch owning Ducey that was on the search: http://azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/po… Not exactly a progressive site I might add.
Google : Koch funded Ducey….. I might add Walker is another. I didn’t make this up. Big money behind our governor. THere are many many more sites to check. Also Koch brothers are not the only big donors he got. He was bought and paid for. Only way around this is if Citizen’s United is overturned. Or there could be a congressional amendment but I doubt that is going to happen with this congress.
For the record… many teachers like myself are working very hard to get him ousted. We do teach during the day and get very tired so going to Phoenix was not possible. Remember our governor did this stuff with the budget in a week. So shady! I think he should have to wait 6 months to strip anything from a previous budget if we have to wait 6 months to have a recall.
Saturday there is a march for those really wanting to demonstrate their unhappiness from Tucson High to U of A ending at the Festival of Books. This is sponsored by ArizonaStandsUp if you need more info. You must register .
Also Always Lib, on the petition I signed online… it stated pretty clearly that this was like a pre-petition …. almost to see if there are a lot on board(which they got 10,000- 2.5 days)… and that in July we would have to sign another . I have no problem with that.
One more thing… Our state has had its share of bad governors and we have had 2 relatively successful recalls already. We are not Wisconsin. Governor Mecham was very close to being recalled and he was found guilty first of fraud or something like that and was impeached. Governor Symington same thing except he resigned before he could get in any more trouble. I believe that Governor Ducey has clearly broken our Arizona constitution. Not quoting exactly but it does say.. all children are to receive public education and colleges should be free or nearly free. I was sent those quotes. How can children get a public education without adequate funds and teachers? Remember s. Arizona is already short 225 teachers. So I think we have a good reason to do this and a good history that it does bring extra scrutiny to the one being recalled. And boy Ducey needs to be watched like a hawk. I am kind of old so I remember this stuff!
There is a big difference between the # of signatures required to recall Meacham and Symington, or for that matter, One-Eyed Jack Williams, and the # necessary to get Ducey. The majority party changed the # after Pearce was successfully recalled. And we have to have a candidate ready to go. I hope it’s DuVal. But meanwhile, the Secretary of State is also a consideration. That’s how we got Jane Dee Hull.
gcb1 I think Fred Duval would probably be on board. He is the real deal. However, I don’t think we have to worry about it. He does know what is going on.
Having served from January 6, 1987, to April 4, 1988, Mecham was removed from office following conviction in his impeachment trial of charges of the obstruction of justice and the misuse of government funds – funds that Mecham maintained were private. A later criminal trial acquitted Mecham of related charges.
There was no evidence.
History seems to now be anything you can’t remember.
Well I think the point is that he was out, the voters still would have recalled him and he wasn’t representing Arizona . http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23mec…
“Some said Mr. Mecham brought out the worst traits in Arizonans, like racism, bigotry and intolerance. In addition to canceling the King holiday, Mr. Mecham said that working women cause divorce and that he saw nothing wrong with calling black children “pickaninnies.” Others called him one of the last politicians gutsy enough to stand up for
“Some said Mr. Mecham brought out the worst traits in Arizonans, like racism, bigotry and intolerance. In addition to canceling the King holiday, Mr. Mecham said that working women cause divorce and that he saw nothing wrong with calling black children “pickaninnies.” ‘ Courtesy of the New York TImes.
Hopefully if he hadn’t been impeached, he would have been recalled. He didn’t represent many that I knew at the time. The voters wanted him gone is the point.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23mec…
“Some said Mr. Mecham brought out the worst traits in Arizonans, like racism, bigotry and intolerance. In addition to canceling the King holiday, Mr. Mecham said that working women cause divorce and that he saw nothing wrong with calling black children ‘pickaninnies’. ”
Hopefully with a governor like that, Arizonans would have recalled him even if he hadn’t been impeached. He certainly did not represent anyone I knew. I remember when it was announced that he was impeached. I am glad he was found not guilty of the crimes assuming he was not. However I am not sad at all that he was out.
I think the point here is that we want a governor that represents us…. not following an agenda set out by others and does not truly represent Arizona as a whole. The people I know who voted for Ducey had no idea that he was going to make the cuts he did in the areas and amount he did. They are very upset as many of us who did not vote for him.
Educate yourself:
At one time the word may have been used as a term of affection, but it is now considered derogatory.
Remember the Gay 90s?
You can’t force people to change. they are born that way.
But we do have word thieves.
Hank Payne-Merriam Webster
I have always thought of pickaninny as a “loving” word. My white German Grandmother referred to “those beautiful little pickaninny babies” with loving words. I always thought of it as a wonderful word and was floored to find out that Blacks compared it to the “N” word. In our household it was used as a beautiful little black baby or child.
Hate is a terrible thing to live with.
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Only 1300 more signatures needed, let’s go Tucson!
https://www.change.org/p/arizona-voters-recall-governor-doug-ducey?recruiter=17337034&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg&fb_ref=Default
The petition now has 13 922 signatures as of 2:45pm 3/23/15!
I think most of the comments here are by a certain kind of citizen. If Gov. Ducey was pro-marijuana, you’d care less about anything the guy did and support him 100%.
Once we get a serious recall campaign started (looks like we have to wait six months), I’d like to offer assistance by pointing a domain that I own to the effort. Please email me at lets@droptheducey.com.
I’m a native of this state and all I have seen is how people from other parts of the country want to come here and bring their ideologies and basically create a reality that just doesn’t exist here in Arizona. The truth is that Arizona is a cultural melting pot that used to value education (and art and music for that matter). Take a look at where most of the Arizona republican legislation comes from (and dems if inclined) and you will find that most are transplants. I would like to see a law in place that requires a person to live here in Arizona a lot longer before they can run for a position in office. Heck, the state of Colorado wont hire you if your not a resident.
Drop the Duce!