As the Arizona Eagletarian reported yesterday, Senate President Russell Pearce and House Speaker Andy Tobin removed all pretense, declaring their naked partisanship, by writing to Freeman and Stertz and all but saying those two Commissioners will not be impeached.
Upon returning to public session this afternoon, the commission voted to authorize additional legal representation regarding the governor's letter. McNulty, in initial discussion in that public session, said she wanted to know if either Stertz or Freeman would make a motion. Freeman then explained that he takes the governor's letter seriously and believes the concerns raised in that letter are shared by a lot of people, therefore he hopes that each of the commissioners replies to the governor.
He did not offer a motion.
McNulty then made a motion to authorize the commission to retain counsel for Mathis, Herrera and McNulty herself to address the issues raised in Jan's letter. The motion passed on a 3-2 vote. In case you do not know the history of this group of five commissioners working together, the two nay votes were Freeman and Stertz. They will next meet on Monday at 6:20pm to discuss and possibly take action "relating to letter from Governor Brewer concerning Commission conduct."
To me, Freeman's remarks means that even though he had been putting effort into working in a bipartisan manner with the Democratic commissioners, no longer has political cover for that cooperation. The aggressiveness of the GOP/tea partiers is just too much for him to stand up to at this time.
Of course, I could be wrong. If I am able to talk with him, I will update you with what he has to say.
This is NOT the time to roll over and just take the abuse the GOP expresses as they work to subvert the will of the voters.
Who will lead the charge to take back what Jan, Russ, Andy and Tom (Horne) are brazenly stealing from us?
We know it will not be the tea partiers. They, by the way, did show up, in force, for the Yuma hearing at 1pm.
“Since it's readily apparent that you don't care what we have to say on redistricting, I will focus on why I hope you will be removed next week,” said state Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, while wearing a U.S. Revolutionary War tri-corner hat and U.S. flag shirt.
Yuma resident William Ladd said the redistricting commission was an undemocratic group and suggested it was influenced by political forces in the nation's capital.
“Citizens were duped when they passed Proposition 203 (to establish the commission). This was a well-meaning socialist idea that just doesn't work,” Ladd said. “Then they started out with a lecture from a federal compliance representative from Washington, D.C., threatening us and telling us that we have to bow down and ask their permission to get approval. Somebody needs to tell them that the government works for us, we don't work for the government.”
Two speakers, Constance Uribe and Charles Roecker, implied the maps would foster the spread of communism throughout the state.
“You divided my community. You divided my people. You even divided my family,” Uribe said. “You reached out towards Pima County. When I was studying medicine at the University of Arizona, Raul Grijalva was messing around with a bunch of people studying the politics of ... Karl Marx. I will not tolerate having a communist take over Yuma County.”
Roecker placed what he described as a more progressive map on the overhead projector that showed the former Soviet Union's hammer and sickle placed over the state of Arizona.
I guess I'll have to go back and watch the Yuma afternoon live feed.
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