Morlock: Campaigns work the referees
More info
Blake's blog
For more from Morlock, see his blog, Is this thing on?
ADVERTISEMENT
Marana Health Center
Dental Director Sales and Marketing
EVER-READY GLASS
SALES REPS Health Care
Casa de la Luz Hospice
RN Residential Hospice House Manager Administrative & Professional
NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
PROJECT DIRECTOR Health Care
CHILDREN'S CLINICS
MEDICDAL ASSISTANT Finance and Accounting
Sun Van
Accounting Analyst Health Care
CHILDREN'S CLINICS
MEDICAL RECORDS SUPERVISOR
- Most Commented Stories Today
- Most E-mailed Stories Today
The campaigns in southern Arizona for 18 legislative offices and two in Congress have begun.
When voters start thinking about who to vote for, covering the election gets tricky.
It's about fairness, equality and analysis in the form of informed observation. I'll just type it: Reconciling the three can't be done at the same time. They all matter but campaigns are about ideas, events and context.
So, we will provide candidates equal space to answer specific questions, cover events as they matter and try to provide the context that is the key to understanding the issues and races.
Then we'll brace ourselves for all the campaigns screeching, squealing and griping that they weren't presented fully or in the best possible light.
Lute Olson has nothing on political pros when it comes to what the national media calls "working the refs."
Here are a couple of incidents:
A week ago, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords announced that she would introduce a bill in Congress to cut the federal diesel tax to the same level as the U.S. gas tax for the rest of 2008.
Instead, the Citizen devoted its resources to sussing out what went on behind closed doors during President Bush's visit to Tucson. Giffords' people weren't happy.
According to Giffords' office, it would cost $980 million (or put that amount back into the pockets of diesel drivers). She announced it on the day the president held a fundraiser for Giffords' Republican opponent, state Senate President Tim Bee.
The only place she'd comment on Bush's visit was at her news conference announcing the diesel bill. Smart move. Control the story and get her doing something concrete for the economy.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has introduced a companion bill, so it's potentially a viable measure, especially if it's sped along as an amendment. Supporters have to move fast. No hearing is scheduled for the bill and only five weeks of work remain on the House calendar.
That makes the viability of Giffords' bill somewhat hypothetical.
Bush's visit was a cold reality. The Citizen went with the reality. Plus, I have a perhaps immature reaction to being "handled."
There you have it. I explained Giffords' proposal.
Thursday, a pleasant state House candidate, Matt Heinz, called to inform me that he, too, had an organization behind him.
I'd written in an article that day how two of his opponents in the legislative District 29 Democratic primary, Ephraim Cruz and Daniel Patterson, might have an edge because of their campaign organization.
It was just a "for example" line in the article. I wasn't trying to leave anyone out but ceding props to the quality self-promoters.
Patterson has been working the race seemingly since Goldwater was a University of Arizona freshman and has piled up endorsements. Cruz has former Barack Obama volunteers out on his behalf.
Heinz, it seems, has a network of health care professionals out walking for him and organizing on his behalf. Heinz is a doctor focused on fixing a health care system he thinks broke down some time ago.
Heinz was endorsed by the Arizona AFL-CIO, the Arizona Nurses Association, Arizona Medical Association, the firefighters union, the government employees union and the food workers union.
Fair enough. And who says the media are always adversarial?
On a lighter note, this week the Bee campaign sent out copies of a second ad touting the candidate's accomplishments. Something didn't look right. It was supposed to read: "Record funding for UA labs." Instead, it read "Recording funding." A call to the Bee campaign about the typo went unanswered, but the ad was taken off the campaign's Web site the next day. It's back up now. Corrected.
We're running to solve problems, help people and build bridges for positive change.
Democrats and Independent voters in district 29 on the south and southeast sides, VOTE PATTERSON for State Rep in the primary July 31-Sept 2.
Thank you,
Daniel Patterson
for Arizona House (D-LD29)
http://DanielPatterson.net