State News

Arizona Democratic Party

The morning was filled with caucus meetings ranging from the Arizona Democratic Progressive Caucus to the Native American Democratic Caucus of Arizona and the Democratic Hispanic Caucus. It was interesting to hear of all the outreach programs being developed, especially for some of the Native American territories in Northern Arizona. The fact that we have a Native American candidate for the CD1 Primary and a Native American candidate for LD4 is proof that the tribes are producing leaders who hopefully will be representing parts of Arizona in both state and federal legislatures in the future.

Yavapai County was well represented, with PC state representatives from Prescott, the Verde Valley and Sedona. The General Session began at 1.00 pm. There were no substantive votes, though two resolutions were passed unanimously: One was against Proposition 104, the “Arizona Civil Rights” Initiative, aimed at eliminating equal opportunity programs. The meeting unanimously agreed to whatever possible to campaign against this initiative. The Second was to oppose the initiative Ballot Referendum 102, which is requesting a constitutional amendment to redefine marriage. It was agreed unanimously that this amendment should be rigorously opposed.

Don Bivens, the Chair, gave a very encouraging state of the union, and said that with the amazing job in voter registration, and with the continued work of the state party and all the counties and clubs, we could defeat McCain in Arizona in November, and win more congressional seats – including CD1. Don also said there were a couple of initiatives (other than the ones above) which needed to be defeated. The Majority Rule (of all registered voters) being required for all fiscal initiatives was dangerous and would make it impossible for any fiscal initiatives to pass. He also was concerned about the Pay and Loan Initiative.

Maria Weeg, Executive Director, spoke on the development of the Party infrastructure and the addition of lots of new field officers. She explained about the co-ordinated campaign and how well this was working. 70,000 voters had been contacted in the past month, four new field officers had been employed and they were working on future voter identification programs and GOTV programs. Daniel Graver, the head of the field officers, gave an explanation on the new Neighborhood Leader Tool, which would help pcs and local leaders identify and develop Democrats in their area. Our noble Treasurer, Rick McGuire, gave his usual scintillating speech on the economic condition of the party, which is extremely healthy – far healthier than the GOP The various Caucuses gave their reports and the Meeting closed around 3.00 pm