The Fifty-First Arizona Legislature

Why the reduced GOP Senate majority?

While Republicans still muster a majority in both houses of the legislature, the veto-proof majority is a thing of the past.  In spite of the incessant excuses injected into the mainstream media by their communications wonks, the main reason for this reduction lies at the feet of Speaker Tobin and former Senate President Pierce.  Former Senate President Pierce must take the primary responsibility for our fragile majority in the Senate.  He grabbed most of the headlines due to his outlandish actions that led to a huge amount of Republican Victory Committee funds being inappropriately spent in a primary election.  That was compounded by his failure to adequately fund races in competitive districts during the General Election.

Point one was the spending of about $100,000.00 of those funds denigrating Rep. John Fillmore and misleading voters about the "conservative" credentials of Sen. Rich Crandall (Crandall was the lowest rated Republican in either house of the legislature for the Goldwater Scorecard and fell below Democrats in the PAChyderm Coalition Rankings).   The fact that Crandall was committed to voting for Pierce for President and that Fillmore was committed to voting for newly elected Andy Biggs for President was well known at the Capital and was recognized by all the political rail birds across the state as the reason this money was being wasted in a “safe” Republican Primary.

Point two was the refusal of the Pierce Senate Republican Victory Fund to allocate any resources in Legislative Districts eight, nine and ten, all listed as “Competitive”.    Again, the core reason for the refusal to help Antenori, Mott and Ortiz was well known.  They were all committed to voting for Senator Biggs for President and Pierce was willing to jettison them and their conservative Party Platform values in favor of socialist democrats in order to enhance his re-election as Senate President.  Now the citizens of Arizona will have to endure the power of senators like Crandall, Driggs and McComish who are able to prevent passage of conservative Republican legislation.

Last, the evil scheme designed and carried out by Senator Pierce, Speaker Tobin, National Committeeman Bruce Ash, Super Lobbyist Kevin DeMenna, numerous other lobbyists and a long list of nefarious underlings reduced the ability of the Arizona Republican Party to have the resources to independently assist conservative candidates in the General Election.  Numerous sources have documented written correspondence and first party conversations about the system where possible donors were specifically directed to not contribute any money to the party, but to contribute to the Republican Victory Fund and the House Republican Victory Fund.  The irony of this particular action is that the very people who pressured donors to not contribute to the Party are the very same people who then criticized the Party for not having raised enough money to make more of an impact in the General Election.  Worse than hypocritical, this is Chicago gutter politics treachery.

Ridiculous protestations by Sen. Pierce that he had no control where the money was being allocated fit the “fell and broke my *** laughing” category.  Pierce takes credit for raising the money, selected the Chairman and Treasurer of the “Committee” and was the only obvious beneficiary of expenditures made during the Primary and General Elections. 

Every bill that is in conformance with our Republican principles that fails to get the necessary 16 votes in the Senate should be laid directly at the feet of Senator Pierce.  Arizona deserves better, Constitutional conservative legislators deserve better, the Party deserves better, and the hard working Precinct Committeemen and other volunteers deserve better.