Posted on 09/24/2006 11:40:15 AM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Arizona Democratic candidates for state and national office say there is a change in the air that will lead to more candidates from their party being elected in November.
But the state’s top Democrat, Gov. Janet Napolitano, added a sense of reality when she told nearly 200 people attending a brunch Saturday that nothing should be taken for granted. The party faithful, she said, will have to get out and vote to ensure Democratic victory in statewide and Legislative offices, as well in congressional elections. Napolitano said she, too, foresees a new direction for the state if Democrats are elected.
“I can feel the wind of change. Hopefully it is not for men and Terry,” the governor said, mentioning Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who, like Napolitano, is seeking re-election.
Goddard was not present at the brunch rally sponsored by the Greater Huachuca Area Democratic Club. He was attending the funeral of a friend.
Congressional District 8 candidate Gabrielle Giffords also was not present. She was at a previously scheduled family engagement to attend.
Since the primary, the Democrats have been traveling around Cochise County.
Last week, Giffords and U.S. Senate hopeful Jim Pederson traveled parts of the county.
Saturday was a Democratic full-court press led by the governor. It included Pederson, the Democratic candidates for the state offices of superintendent of public instruction, treasurer, secretary of state, corporation commission, as well as local hopefuls, including those seeking positions in the Arizona Legislature, clerk of the Cochise County Superior Court, county Superior Court judge and the Sierra Vista school board.
The governor also spoke at a rally in Veterans’ Memorial Park on Saturday evening, after she had been at events in Bisbee and Douglas.
Before leaving the brunch, Napolitano also spoke to participants with the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s leadership program.
Since the primary, none of the top Republican candidates — gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil, U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl or Congressional District 8 nominee Randy Graf — have made known public appearances in the Bisbee-Sierra Vista area. Kyl is in Washington, D.C., because Congress is in session.
Britt Hanson, who lives in Bisbee and is a member of the state Democratic Party’s executive committee, said some of the candidates see the governor’s popularity as help in their races and they hope to be pulled along by her coattails.
Hanson is concerned about a news report on Saturday that the national Democratic Party is cutting financial support to Giffords ad campaign.
The decision follows a report the national Republicans are backing away from buying ads.
According to an Associated Press story, national leaders of both parties believe Giffords is ahead.
Hanson disagrees.
“I wish they wouldn’t do that,” he said of the Democratic decisions. “We need the financial help.”
Pederson meets with veterans
On Saturday, Pederson kept up his attack on Kyl, this time on the Iraq war.
Before the brunch he met with some young and old area GIs. Some were at the brunch.
Calling the war a tragic error, he said he is trying to get the views of those who have served in the armed forces. “I like to hear from those who were boots on the ground (in Iraq),” Pederson said.
At the pre-brunch meeting. Pederson said he heard from those who have been in Iraq the training being done by Americans for Iraqis is nothing more than teaching Shiites how to kill Sunnis and vice versa.
What he heard Saturday morning and previously is that the doctrine of Gen. Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state, of going into a country with “an overwhelming force and having an exit strategy” was ignored.
One of those who served in Iraq, who asked his name not be used because he is still in the Army Reserves and works on Fort Huachuca, said he deployed to Iraq as part of a military intelligence unit.
“We have no exit strategy,” he said, adding the Powell policy has been abandoned.
The noncommissioned officer and reservist said America’s armed forces are bleeding and dying, and there is not a strong healthcare system for those wounded in Iraq and other veterans.
Pederson said Kyl has agreed to a debate. Some of the questions Pederson wants to put to his GOP rival are what kind of oversight did he do as a member of an intelligence committee and how will he explain the 2.4 average deaths a day of Americans being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Governor on races, her record
The senatorial hopeful then introduced Napolitano, saying she is the person “who will turn around the state this year for Democrats.”
But the governor said she needs to help of Democrats, Republicans, independents and others for that to happen.
To have a better run state government, Napolitano said the top administrative offices in Arizona and the Legislature must be controlled by Democrats. And she said it would be good to have Pederson and Giffords in Congress.
“I would really like in my second term to pick up my phone and talk to Senator Pederson and Congresswoman Giffords,” the governor said.
Napolitano touted her experience as governor, reminding those in the audience that when she took office the state “was $1.3 billion in the hole, but now we have a $1.4 billion surplus.”
In the last two years, 330,000 jobs in the state have been created, she said.
On her first day of the job, outgoing Republican Gov. Jane Hull left three things on the desk — a cartoon of both of them, a large bottle of aspirin and a ceramic jug titled the rainy day fund. Hull took over the governor’s job from Republican Fife Symington, who resigned under pressure. A quarter and two pennies were inside the jug, which Napolitano’s economic adviser said was more than was actually in the fund.
Now there is $650 million in the rainy day fund, despite the Republican-controlled Legislature, Napolitano said.
Many issues face the state. The governor said one of them is to do better on education.
Touching on a local issue, the San Pedro River, the governor said the river’s riparian area is key to Fort Huachuca’s survival “and we need to keep Fort Huachuca.”
Cochise County, like the rest of the state, will grow. Napolitano said action must be taken to ensure development does not harm the environment and that Arizona’s infrastructure can handle the doubling of the population expected before the middle of this century.
With about six weeks left to the general election, the governor challenged the audience, which included a few Republicans, to not become complacent because the campaigning will become harder as the end approaches, with opponents doing everything they can do to win.
“These elections get gnarly at the end,” she said.
The only thing she wants to do the day after the election “is to decide what dress to wear at the inauguration.”
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Hit you AZ Ping list please.
Now, is that a sexist remark, or what?
What else do you expect from Butch!
I saw El Napo this morning on FoxNews. Brian Wilson was interviewing Russell Pearce who was irate over AZ 9/11 Memorial... Butch was presiding over the unveiling.
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