This morning, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' spokesman Richard de Uriarte told me the Board has learned Juan Mendez intends to submit a letter to them formally indicating his intent to decline the appointment. The Supervisors, therefore, will take NO action to name a successor to finish Arredondo's term. That term ends when Mendez (along with Andrew Sherwood, the other new state Rep. for LD26) are sworn in at the beginning of the 51rst Legislature in January 2013.
As I noted in prior posts, if Mendez were to accept the appointment, term limits would kick in sooner, preventing him from running in 2018 if he serves consecutively (and is successfully re-elected in 2014 and 2016).
When I asked Mendez about it, he was surprised to learn about "his intent."
To me, this indicates the Board 1) doesn't want to appoint either Randy Keating or Kristin Gwinn (the other two names on the short list nominated by Democratic precinct committeemen; 2) the Board wants political cover in the event anyone questions why they will have chosen to not appoint anyone to finish Arredondo's term and; 3) they want me to be the one to get that message to Mendez.
The practical impact of this series of events, from the perspective of Tempe/west Mesa Democrats and Mendez is simply that taxpayers will not be paying legislator salary to anyone for the position vacated when Arredondo resigned and term limits will be normal for Mendez once he actually takes office. He is already (along with other House Freshmen) seeing about setting up his office in the House and working with other lawmakers to get familiar with the process of submitting proposed legislation.
UPDATE 4:20pm MST 11-20-12
I heard (again) from Maricopa County spokesman Richard de Uriarte. This issue is still OFF of the agenda for Monday, but MIGHT be put on the agenda for next Wednesday. Also Supervisor Fulton Brock's chief of staff has been in touch with Randy and Kristin to request resumes and bios. So, it is again possible for one of them to be appointed to take the seat vacated by Arredondo. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment