“Voters can suppress the suppressors”

Back in June of 2011 and after the SCOTUS rendered their decisions regarding the elimination of one of Arizona’s citizen initiatives and which governed public financing campaign laws and followed by their establishment of Citizens United as the now Public Law, we, here at the Chicano Veterans Organization, called for the public resignations of Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Scalia and Thomas.  We, continue to call for their resignations, yet again, given the consistent and the constant ‘smoldering embers’ among Republican officials here in Arizona. As such, these embers have grown into a full-fledged fire predicated on blatant political animosity.

And one among the many of my favorite writers and columnists is E.J. Montini, of the Arizona Republic newspaper here in Phoenix, and he starts his regular column on the “Voters can suppress the suppressors” and which can be located in the Valley and State section or Page 2, and dated today, February 18, 2014, as well as found on the website of azcentral.com.  

As such, he goes on to demonstrate that the Republican-led legislature and in the Senate Chamber, has the requisite 19 votes necessary for approval on the referendum of Senate Concurrent  Resolution 1003, and if approved by voters in November, will be  added to the Arizona Constitution.  If approved, all voter-centric citizen initiatives will have to come before the voters every 8 years and for “re-approved” in order to remain germane to public law.  Long story short, the Republican leaders went out and hired a cabal of smart and savvy election lawyers, and this was the best they could come up with and done in order to :circumvent” the voters without perpetuating the ongoing stink and ugly smell of and for any political taint.

And now to the short history!  In the waning hours of last year’s legislative session, the Republicans approved and the Governor signed legislation on a two-pronged approach to the future.  Thus, third party candidates would undergo a sizable increase in voter signatures to acquire ballot status.  Moreover, signed and sealed mail-in ballots could not be collected by political operatives and delivered to election officials. Sadly, no one in the Republican Party can support an “only a mail-in ballot system.”  And from this HB 2305, this firestorm escalated.  Shortly after the vote was taken, the Chairman of the Libertarian Party had this to say:  “It’s unbelievable.  It’s bizarre. These people (Republican legislators) don’t seem to understand that to win by exclusion isn’t to win. It’s to cheat.  It’s a lack of moral character

Since then, a large swath of community organizations came together and created the Protect Your Right to Vote and went on to spend thousands of hours, and thereby acquiring well over 100,000 signatures.  This effort culminated on putting another citizen initiative onto the ballot for this November’s voter consideration

In closing, the Republican “dagger to the heart” at the voter is that all citizen-initiatives will be jeopardized. And more so, when the voters have, over all these past years, approved citizen initiatives that include medicinal marijuana, clean elections law, our Independent Redistricting Commission, and just as important, First Things First which enhances our children’s educational successes– from expanding health care and to greater financial funding for education.

Jaango