Saturday, November 8, 2008

Random Rants - By Mark R. Kerr

As they did in September's state primary, so shall they for the November general election so pass the coffee, Red Bull and caffeine tablets since Pima County's questionable Election's Division, the full results of the November 4 general election may not be complete until November 11 or later?

To add to all this was the article in the Friday, October 31 edition of the Arizona Republic that stated that 827,380 Maricopa County residents had requested absentee ballots or had voted early and that Maricopa County election’s officials have seen 566,656, or 68.4 percent, of those ballots returned and since there are about 1.7 million registered voters in the county, the “early (vote by mail) ballots” figure to create a delay in the compilation of final results since the remaining 200,000 or so early ballots won't be marked or mailed early but instead will be walked into a polling place or will arrive via mail on November 4 (election day) and those ballots won't be processed until two days after the election and Maricopa County hopes to have all of them compiled by November 21, so with that, some final thoughts.

Under Arizona law, Arizona Revised Statute (16-311 Sections C-D, 16-322, 16-341 Section A and 16-343 Section 3), a person that was a candidate for a party nomination for a political office and who was defeated for that nomination in the subsequent primary election cannot run for the same office in the general election. For their endorsements in the general election, Echo Magazine still endorsed (posted on their website, echomag.com/endorsements.cfm, as of November 4) such a candidate, state Representative Tom Prezelski who unfortunately finished third in the Legislative District 29 Democratic primary election held Tuesday, September 2.

According to the Echo Magazine, “Echo sent surveys to each candidate seeking office in state, county and Congressional seats. Their responses, and research about each candidate’s record, helped us make a list of endorsements of candidates who are GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender-positive.” How about looking at the general election ballot?

Equality Arizona, the statewide LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) rights organization in their endorsements list updated their endorsements in this race but seemed to have followed Echo Magazine in regard to the State House of Representatives race in Legislative District 30, when they failed to list anyone to either recommend in the race. Andrea Dalessandro, the Democratic nominee is an open-minded, common sense candidate who publicly stated her opposition to Proposition 102 long before her Republican opponents, David Gowan and Frank Antenori stated their support of the measure (which Antenori later during the campaign. tried to skirt the issue).

Dalessandro, who actively court the LGBT vote in District 30 through the events such as Pride in the Desert and attending the Wingspan Dinner and being a sponsor is a smart, articulate individual who had been a teacher and recently retired as an Accountant to serve the entire public. If Andrea is elected, she will be an asset in the Legislature and a person everyone, including political groups would want in their corner and someone who could get positive things accomplished at 1700 West Washington.

Equality Arizona list (located online at equalityarizona.org/Elections/tabid/162/Default.aspx) of endorsed candidates included races for county offices in Pima County but one contested race was omitted - the District 3 seat on the County Board of Supervisors in which the incumbent, Democrat Sharon Bronson, won her primary election and faced Republican Barney Brenner in the general election. It was Sharon Bronson who was the key third vote in 1997, when the Pima County Board of Supervisors became the first governmental entity in Arizona to formally recognize committed same-sex relationships by extending medical and dental benefits to the domestic partners (and families) of county employees. Bronson voted to fight the legal challenge to this vote for which was upheld in 1998. Sharon continued to ensure that Pima County’s AIDS Service Organizations and groups receive funding, as well as organizations that serve the LGBT community, as well as publicly opposing Proposition 107 in 2006 and Proposition 102 this year when very few elected officials would step forward.

Contrary to the blathering of Arizona’s corporate media, voting early or by mail wasn’t just occurring the week prior to the November 4 election as they would have you to believe. On Thursday, October 2, as reported in this column and publication, voting for the general election (scheduled for November 4), commenced but with the “MTV attention span” of the management of the corporate media, as well as their penchant for spewing garbage, it was Britney, Dancing with the American Idol Runway during the Great Race.

So for those campaigns and ballot measures, including Proposition 102, to paraphrase Bette Davis as Margo Channing in “All About Eve,” “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night or two, three, five or seven,” since this will take a while so this 21-month political campaign will continue.

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