SURPRISE, SURPRISE
Most of what Gov. Jan Brewer had to say at the State of the State speech on Monday, Jan. 14, was fairly predictable: She wants more money for the state’s troubled Child Protective Services, she wants more funding for education, she wants a simplified sales tax and she likes handguns.
But the big surprise came when Brewer strayed from the prepared speech that had been handed out to the press and announced that she wanted the state to embrace a big expansion of health-care insurance coverage for Arizona’s poorest residents.
Brewer called for the state to grab the federal dollars available for insuring people below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is a key element of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
“With this move, we will secure a federal revenue stream to cover the cost of the uninsured who already show up in our doctors’ offices and emergency rooms,” Brewer said.
As the Weekly reported last week (“Unhealthy Options,” Jan. 10), the AHCCCS expansion requires a relatively low buy-in from the state to unlock a big flow of federal dollars. The Grand Canyon Institute has estimated that it will cost the state roughly $1.5 billion dollars over the next four years—but will bring in nearly $8 billion from the federal government.
As of our deadline, the details remain sketchy. Brewer said she’d find the money for the expansion by using a voluntary assessment from hospitals and health providers, but is that a tax increase that requires a two-thirds vote from the Legislature? Will Republicans go along with the expansion as part of a budget deal? If not, is there a way that Brewer can go around them as via executive order?
Stay tuned: The expansion is shaping up to be one of the big fights of the session.
KOZ’S BIG SWITCH
Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik made the big switch last week: He gave up his membership in the Republican Party and joined the Democrats.
Kozachik’s change means that there are now zero Republicans on the Tucson City Council.
Given how critical Kozachik had been of the GOP in recent months, the leap wasn’t entirely unexpected.
In an open letter to Tucson residents, Kozachik said that “over the past two election cycles it has become clear that the local and Arizona state Republican Party is being driven by a small, but vocal faction that has taken it far to the political right. That faction has effectively taken over the party leadership and is driving an ideological agenda that I do not believe reflects the common will of the community.”
When The Skinny spoke with Kozachik over the weekend, he told us that the move had generated “an overwhelmingly” positive response.
“This is nothing at all against the rank-and-file Republicans in this state who are embarrassed by this Republican Party and where they’re going,” Kozachik said. “It’s my sense that this party is going to have to start hemorrhaging some centrist members before they start to understand how detached they are from the values of this community.”
Kozachik was welcomed by Democrats. New Pima County Democratic Party chairman Don Jorgensen sent out a bulletin saying that the switch “highlights the fact that the Democratic Party represents mainstream Arizona values that place common sense and the public good ahead of partisan ideology.”
Many of Kozachik’s loudest critics had a different perspective. Former state lawmaker Frank Antenori, who lost his bid for reelection after redistricting put him in a central Tucson district, said that “for a moment, I thought he’d reached a period of lucidness when he announced that he’d become a Democrat. Then I read his communist manifesto announcement and realized the guy’s still just an unabashed liar and just totally in another world.”
Antenori takes issue with Kozachik’s open letter announcing the switch because he says that Kozachik had assured Antenori that was a true believer in conservative principles when he first ran for office in 2009.
“Everything that he says he doesn’t agree with now, he said he supported,” Antenori said. “The guy’s a liar. His liberal buddies will probably appreciate that—’Oh, good, he lied to the Republicans.'”
The switch definitely makes Kozachik’s reelection a lot easier this year. Had he remained a Republican, he would have likely faced a Republican primary in central-Tucson Ward 6 and then a Democratic opponent in a citywide general election.
Now he’ll probably be able to avoid a primary fight (and even if he has one, he’ll win easy; central-city Democrats love him) and he has a significant voter-registration advantage going into the November general.
Antenori told The Skinny that he’s recruiting a candidate to run against Kozachik, but the Republicans he’d been interviewing as potential challengers probably won’t work out anymore.
Instead, Antenori believes he’s found an independent candidate to challenge Kozachik, although he didn’t want to tell us a name yet.
“I don’t want to spoil it yet, but he’s an independent,” Antenori said. “He’s well liked by both Democrats and Republicans. If we can rally the Repbublicans and some of the Democrats and the independents behind this guy, I think we can beat (Kozachik).”
WE HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF FRANK
Speaking of former state lawmaker Frank Antenori: He told The Skinny he is putting the final touches on creating a new non-profit, the Foundation for Responsible and Accountable Government.
“We’re going to keep an eye on fraud, waste and abuse,” said Antenori. “We’re going to expose government largesse and corruption. And we’re going to go after politicians that say one thing and do another.”
By using a 501(c)(6), Antenori will be able to keep the names of his donors secret. Whether he’ll be able to raise all that much money, especially now that he’s no longer in the Legislature, remains to be seen. Or not seen, given the rules of dark money in campaign finance these days.
When we talked to Antenori this weekend, he was in the midst of a remodeling project on his eastside home. He tells us he’s fixing the place up so he can sell it.
“The city is going down,” Antenori said. “I want to get out before my property value goes with it. I don’t want to end up like houses in Detroit, where you can’t give them away.”
His long-range plan, however, is not to move to a heavily armed citadel in Idaho. Instead, he’s just going to relocate a few miles to the southeast so he’ll be in Legislative District 14, a solidly Republican district. He figures the current lawmakers in LD14—Reps. David Stevens and David Gowan and Sen. Gail Griffin—will hit their term limits in 2016, which will allow him to make his triumphant return to the Arizona Legislature.
“There will be open seats out there,” Antenori said.
RUM, ROMANISM AND RESURRECTION
Former state lawmaker Tom Prezelski has resurrected Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, the left-leaning blog established by his brother Ted, who gave up the writing when he went to work for Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham last year.
“I think that there is a need to provide a more historical perspective on what is happening,” Prezelski told The Skinny. “Though there is some good stuff out there now, there is something missing in terms of real expertise and experience. I hope I can provide that.”
Prezelski hopes to blog two or three times a week and expects that he’ll “be a little wonkier than Ted.”
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2013.
Foundation for Responsible and Accountable Government – FRAG. Ha. Ha. Only a special ops guy would come up with an acronym like that. He must be suffering from PTSD from all the frags that exploded around his head in combat.
Let’s hope to God Frank doesn’t live within the city limits (remember, when he was a state senator — past tense! — he didn’t want -Tucson after his political affiliation) so he can’t run for council.
Little does he know that he is becoming a political liability to Raytheon Corp.
Mister Antenori is smarter than Representative Gowan, he’s in better shape than Representative Stevens and he’s more manly than Senator Griffin. But my money says the people of Sierra Vista and Cochise County have learned what we in Frank’s beloved Tucson and Pima County know. He’s had his day. He’s not needed in Phoenix or in D.C.
Mister Antenori is irrelevant now and I wish the media would ignore him and cease stoking his oversized ego.
I have found myself, as a committed Democrat with moderate views, on many occasions agreeing with Kozachik during the last four years. If he perceives the Republican party as unable or unwilling to work with duly elected Democrats, I have to agree with him on that and say, welcome to the party.
Antenori has lost two congressional primaries and one senatorial contest, coming in far far behind each time. In between he won two legislative races in a district that is so conservative that no Democrat was elected in its ten year history. With no easy races in view he’s had to resort to attacking a moderate Council member from a city he despises and trying to form a group dedicated to responsible government — which is not the kind he worked for in his four years in Phoenix. He should know we already have accountable government; he was turned out of office because the people want accountability.
Frank Antenori is nothing more than a boil on the backside of reasonable political discourse.
Steve Kozachik would fit in to the Republican party in 2000 and before. Not anymore. It’s just gone way too far to the right, and not just that, it’s abandoned all intellect and reason in doing so.
Hey Nintz, could you get those geniuses over at AZPM to tell their listeners, supporters, viewers, and contributors when AZ (pronounced A-Z) Illustrated (pronounced Illustrated) is going to be back on the air? And would you be so good as to let us know if you are going to be on it. I guess its like walking and chewing gum at the same time to put on a program and revise the format at the same time.
The Demos as usual are inventing weirdnesses to get their opponents out. The Redistricting (IMHO) was exactly to do that. And that is why Frank lost. Frank h as his values in the right place and actually represents Arizonans and not traitorous agendas as apparently some of our politicians are doing such as Mexico’s agenda to take over the SW of this nation although they only owned it for 24 years!!! (the least of everyone who owned it). They plan to get rid not only of the white man (by violence if they can’t get it any other way) but plan on doing an “ethnic cleansing” of anyone who is not of Mex. descent (even American Indians will not be allowed to be here). And if you have seen what Mexicans are doing in CA to blacks (murdering them, beating them with pipes, etc.)- that is just the beginning! A few years ago, Mexicans were murdering blacks in Ca and now they are starting again it appears: Waves of Anti-Black violence in Compton, CA – Stormfront
http://www.stormfront.org › Stormfront › News › Newslinks & Articles
10 posts – 7 authors – 3 days ago
Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence – latimes.com.
Y’know, I’m not sure that you’re helping Frank Antenori when, while speaking out on his behalf, you post links to white supremacist Web sites.
Jon Justice aka unknown since this is a alias he uses for his radio show 104.1 FM is Frank Antenori his new best pal, trying to help him revive a dying political career! I listen daily to 104.1 FM not as a fan but for mere entertainment to remind myself to never make the error I did once long ago when I voted for another infamous republican Nixon! The republican party is behind Jon Justice who they imported from Michigan where he had to leave due to a drowned dog hoax story which backfired horribly instead of boosting his career ended it there, but as in America many change their names using aliases recreate themselves as he has done a self proclaimed super man! His past guest’s best pals such as former State Senator Russell Pearce has fallen by the way side, so has his former pal Chris Simcox one of the founders of the Minute men which is nothing but a fancy name for white supremacist’s has also fallen upon hard times he now sits charged with child molestation! They have imported a black fellow from the Midwest named James T. Harris who seems to think his own race is addicted to food stamps, welfare are lazy shiftless and unwilling to work in a economy where for every 1 job one finds 5 applicants! I guess money can buy anyone to do anything including hating on ones own race! I think we residents of Tucson ought to be glad we are not saddled with a sheriff like Arpaio who swears he saves money but costs his citizens untold tens of millions of dollars in lost civil suit judgments, fines, bad publicity and has gotten the entire state the unsavory name as the new Alabama of the west, with him playing the role of Sheriff Bull Conner’s! If one look’s at their web site and their face book followers one see’s a couple regular commenters, but mostly they get their phone callers calling in their mutual love and adoring belief of them the shock jocks as public hero’s!
http://www.1041thetruth.com/
This petition being pushed by Frank Antenori and aided by 104.1 FM shock jock Jon Justice has a strange origination and connection with Mohave County, Kingman Arizona area which if one knows a bit about that counties history it is where a infamous white supremacist Timothy McVeigh and his pal had a bunker where they planned and plotted the Oklahoma City bombing! Now if that was not curious enough the rogue minute man, white supremacist who rambled around here on the southern border with his pal Forde, named Bush now both on Arizona death row for committing a horrible double murder of a Hispanic man and his 9 year old daughter south of Tucson this Bush fellow fled after being wounded to Meadview, Arizona which is in Mohave County just north of Kingman, seeking aid and comfort for his wounds from his comrades in arms in that county! One has to wonder about something Michigan is famous for its right wing radical militia’s, a certain right wing shock jock comes from Michigan to southern Arizona and seems to be a on a campaign of race war between Hispanics and whites at least verbally, denigrating them in various ways, curious if nothing else! Now if one is a news junkie as I am and happens to know a bit of facts about Mohave county and their racism background in that county one might keep a eye on their local paper the Kingman Daily miner which seems to have a high degree of racist angry folks living there! Are they a base of some secession movement here in Arizona?
http://kingmandailyminer.com/
Curious thing about white supremacists one finds them in all types of characters from the truly dangerous ones who act on their impulses such as in this case below convicted of a bombing here in Arizona who originated out of Michigan!
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/…
To those who throw verbal bombs on radio, television one has to wonder do they travel in the same social circles?
And for those who think Timothy McVeigh was only angry at Waco incident the FBI found evidence to contradict that theory!
http://www.rickross.com/reference/mcveigh/…
Now one might wonder where is Russell Pearce today? He lost his seat in senate, all many remember him for is his being creator of SB 1070, but he often like Frank Antenori got guest spots on 104.1 FM radio and was connected to J.T Ready the late infamous commander of the Arizona Neo-Nazi’s!
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/0…
I think I am reminded of a old corny saying about “birds of a feather tend to flock together” so if Frank Antenori is going to be watching government someone might ought to watch is organization and whom they associate with as well, are they what they say or not? I guess like in some of these other folks who at one time were powerful, like Russell Pearce one might wonder?
I might have wrote way to much today on this subject for some to digest, but one can tune to 104.1 FM 5 days a week and get a 24/7 rant and rave from Jon Justice, James T. Harris, Doyle, Levine, Laura Ingraham etc., they all are right wing shock jocks/diva’s! What do they sell really hate, packaged in right wing snake oil cure all that ails you but like the old western peddler of another era its merely sweet syrup laced with alcohol at best it gets you giddy and a bit of warm feeling but some get down right drunk on it!:-)
The sad truth is…all the name calling in the world by leftists, liberals and marxists, does not change the fact that you have no solutions to any of the problems, and now are hell bent on spending us into bankruptcy.
Was Rome destroyed by the idiots?
I think what is really sad about the right wing is they cannot figure out which us democrats are socialists, communists, Marxists, leftists, liberals! Now socialism and communism are two different ideologies, each hates the other, leftist is a term of anything left of conservative, Marxist is just another fancy name for communist, Germans during world war II were socialists, so were English, Canadians etc., oh well, the real irony is 1928 the far right wing/republicans proved their fiscal genius in collapsing the economy a democrat fixed it took him almost a decade though, in 2008 another genius from Texas, born again Christian conservative republican collapsed the economy again, left it to a democrat to fix, time will tell how long it takes to fix this time!
This story was amusing to the maximum, 10 types of Republicans classified by category!
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfev…
Jon Justice’s ex-shill, just graduated from college expert on everything with no life experience and up and coming journalist for the right wing and soon to be on Fox and Friends is amusing, one has to wonder how did this young child with no life experience all of a sudden get so far? Is it by birth into a wealthy or connected right wing family or does she have the right friends in high places? I mean how can anyone so young truly be a expert on anything yet, seems 104.1 FM radio icon used her regularly before she graduated, and weekly has her call in and give her “expert knowledge on life” having lived not even long enough to have any knowledge yet she is a amusing clown on the right wing, they will sell her as the messiah though unfortunately us older folks do not give up our votes to children yet!
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/…