PHXations—Monday, June 21, 2010
Looks like Republican Attorney General candidate Tom Horne has a short memory:
In a series of annual reports for his law firm, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne wrongly denied having a bankruptcy in his past.
Reports filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission from 1997 to 2000 for Horne’s law firm show that when asked if any partner in the firm had ever been a partner in a business that went bankrupt, Horne checked “no” and signed the form.
In fact, Horne was the president of T.C. Horne & Co., an investment firm that went bankrupt in 1970 and led to him receiving a lifetime trading ban from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
[…]
Horne, who is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general, said he regretted not disclosing the bankruptcy. He said he likely made the error because the bankruptcy happened long ago.
“I didn’t think about it because it was 40 years ago,” he said.
More here
Today, Democrat Gubernatorial candiate confirmed one of the the worst kept secrets in Arizona political circles: campaign manager Rodd McLeod is leaving.
McLeod, who joined Goddard’s campaign in January, said he expected to leave when his firm’s contract with the campaign ended on June 30. He said the move was not prompted by any disagreements with Goddard or the campaign.
“It’s been a great honor to work with the attorney general and be part of this campaign,” McLeod said. “I think we’re positioned to do very well in November, particularly when you look at the rough primary on the other side and the infrastructure we have been able to build.”
[…]
“As the campaign’s contract with MSHC (Partners Inc., McLeod’s firm,) ends and McLeod returns to fulfill commitments to other clients, he leaves a strong infrastructure for the next stage of the campaign,” campaign spokeswoman Janey Pearl said in a press release. “McLeod continues to manage during the transition. Goddard for Governor will have other announcements in the coming weeks.”
The campaign announced the addition of political director Aaron Marquez and Southern Arizona director Catherine Nichols. The campaign also hired consulting firm Strother Strategies for media consulting and the firm WebStrong Group for new media and social networking.
Via Arizona Capitol Times.
The Republic fronts a story discussing the efficacy of Joe Arpaio’s crime sweeps.
It notes that besides the illegal immigrants it catches few actual criminals:
[T]here is no clear data demonstrating the crime-fighting effectiveness of such policies. While it succeeds in locating illegal immigrants, its effectiveness in combating major crimes is questionable, and there are concerns that such sweeps draw resources away from activities that do combat major crimes.
Advocates of the sweeps say their value is largely in discouraging illegal immigrants from remaining in the community.
However, critics suggest they simply scare legal and illegal immigrants alike and drive a wedge between members of the community and law enforcement.
Catching up on an odd bit of election news from late last week:
A longtime Phoenix lawmaker running for justice of the peace has been kicked off the ballot.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Thursday ruled that Democratic Sen. Ken Cheuvront collected nominating signatures on the wrong form.
Cheuvront used forms for a nonpartisan race, but justice of the peace is a partisan office.
Cheuvront, a term-limited state senator, is also the proprietor of Cheuvront restaurant on Central.
2:08 PM
PHXations—Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Searching for the ‘Moderate Middle’:
There’s a fundraiser tonight that looks to boost the fortunes of what might be considered the “moderate middle” in the next Legislature.
Greater Phoenix Leadership is throwing a no-host fundraiser at the Arizona Biltmore to enrich the coffers of 12 legislative candidates in races “whose outcomes could make or break the business environment next year,” according to the GPL invite.
Those pivotal candidates, in GPL’s view, are a mix of Republicans and Democrats, incumbents and newcomers. Business boosters attending the fundraiser are being asked to contribute a minimum $2,500, with the money split between the candidates.
The candidates are Republican state Senate candidates Rich Crandall, Adam Driggs, Bill Konopnicki, Sen. John Nelson and Michele Reagan, along with Democratic Senate hopeful Justin Johnson (son of former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson) who is hoping to oust GOP Sen. Linda Gray.
On the House side, beneficiaries are Republicans Karen Fann, Kate Brophy McGee, Rep. Amanda Reeve, Eric Ulis and Doug Sposito, and Democrat Rep. Eric Meyer.
The AP is reporting that Arizona is being sued over the legislatures raid on clean air funds:
A lawsuit has been filed challenging the Arizona Legislature’s raid on lottery money that has been earmarked for public transportation since the early 1990s.
The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest says its suit responds to a budget bill passed during a special Legislative session in March. The bill halted yearly payments of $8 million to $10 million that had gone to public transportation since the 1990s.
The lottery money helped local transportation agencies expand service as a way to lower air pollution from personal vehicles and meet federal Clean Air Act requirements.
The lawsuit announced on Tuesday asks a federal judge to order the lottery money payments reinstated.
Grim tales from the drug wars in Mexico from the Republic’s Chris Hawley today.
The focus is on the cartel’s war against police officers in the country. Lots of gory details, and this accounting of the plain facts:
In all, 324 police officers and soldiers have been killed so far in 2010, compared with 511 in all of 2009, according to the Reforma newspaper.
“This is not beginner stuff,” said Samuel Gonzalez Ruiz, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “They’re getting more sophisticated and spending more time training.”
Also in the Republic: Joe Arpaio is planning another immigration sweep:
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he plans to launch his 16th crime and immigration sweep on July 30, the day after Arizona’s new immigration law is set to take effect.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t revealed where it will conduct the sweep.
Accounts of the GOP gubernatorial primary last night;
*The AZ Daily Star’s Rhonda Bodfield.
*The Capitol Times AZ Jeremy Duda.
*The Payson Roundup’s Alexis Bechman.
I can’t find video of it yet; would appreciate the tip if anyone else finds it. The video can be found on the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections site.
10:01 AM
PHXations—Friday, June 11, 2010
Last Thursday, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) released a state budget status update on June 3rd. The update was based upon actual revenues through April as well as economic projections.
The JLBC estimates a shortfall in FY ’11 of $368 million, which would increase to $835 million if November’s ballot measures authorizing use of First Things First and Growing Smarter Trust Land funds fail.
These figures take into account revenues from Proposition 100. If Congress does not extend a promised enhanced federal match for AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program, the shortfall could increase to $1.2 billion.
Via Phoenix Legislative Action Network (P.L.A.N.)
The National Journal has put together a list of the House of Representative races most likely to change parties this fall.
Tim Sahd adjudges the top 25 … and not a single Arizona race is on it.
The county supes are cutting a couple more of Joe Arpaio’s purse strings.
They found out the sheriff was paying the Kansas attorney who helped write SB 1070 $300 an hour!:
The Sheriff’s Office’s contract with Kris Kobach, an attorney from Kansas who helped write Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, was terminated last month when a representative for interim County Attorney Rick Romley sent a letter announcing the change.
[…]
“It is, I think, further evidence of potential problems with spending of public monies by the Sheriff’s Office,” said county spokeswoman Cari Gerchick. “We can’t imagine it’s an appropriate use of funds.”
Stephen Lemons on the development here:
Nativist attorney Kris Kobach, the man who essentially wrote Arizona’s new “papers, please” law and who had been retained by Sheriff Joe Arpaio to train his deputies on immigration matters to the tune of $300 per hour, has been cut loose by Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, albeit in a roundabout way.
County Attorney spokesman Bill FitzGerald said that Romley, who was appointed to replace resigning CA Andrew Thomas in mid-April of this year, had a letter sent to outside law firms doing work for the MCAO on May 17, telling them their services were no longer required.
10:53 PM
PHXations—Monday, June 7, 2010
600+ MCSO officers picked up their back pay today:
The county is paying $2.1 million in overtime back pay to 1,690 officers under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor.
A 10-month investigation by labor officials found Sheriff Joe Arpaio mismanaged overtime pay and illegally asked officers to attend pre-shift briefings without paying them.
An Arizona Republic story detailing concerns of widespread mismanagement of overtime pay by the Sheriff’s Office triggered the federal investigation.
The money will come out of the sheriff’s detention fund…
/yaa (emphasis added)
Buzz Mills: the (2.3) Million Dollar Man:
PHOENIX (AP) – Yavapai County businessman Buz Mills has spent nearly $2.3 million in the Republican primary campaign for Arizona governor.
Mills this week reported spending that much through May 31 in what is now a five-way race.
Incumbent Jan Brewer has received $707,000 of public funding for the primary. She’s eligible to receive $1.4 million more June 22 because of Mills' higher spending – if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t block matching funds.
State Treasurer Dean Martin also is running with public funding but hasn’t qualified yet.
Two lesser-known Republicans are also running with private funding. They are Tom Gordon of Mesa and Matthew Jette of Apache Junction
Tucson attorney John Munger ended his privately funded campaign Tuesday.
Via KSWT
/yaa
The Constitution is a mere annoyance to Russell Pearce and the AZGOP:
…Pearce’s proposal, which has yet to be drafted as legislation, may target the right of citizenship now granted to children born here under a wide set of circumstances. His goal, he said, was to stop wasting taxpayer money on people who shouldn’t be classified as citizens and, therefore, don’t deserve the services of the government.
Rep. John Kavanagh, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it’s completely irrational to grant citizenship to people merely because they were born on U.S. soil. He said illegal immigrants take advantage of the system by crossing into the U.S. to have babies here.
[…]
But immigration lawyers and constitutional experts said any law denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants would be plainly unconstitutional and bound for rejection in federal courts. Whatever the state does won’t change the fact that the 14th Amendment outlines specifically that anyone who is born here is a U.S. citizen, said immigration attorney Regina Jefferies.
/yaa
Sheriff Joe may be costing Maricopa County even more money. The Arizona Capitol Times reports that:
Officials who have complained for years about high legal costs tied to the internal power struggle in Arizona’s most populous county have filed legal notices asking for millions in damages, citing emotional stress caused by the political warfare.
Judges, supervisors, employees and one private citizen all say they were wrongfully targeted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas in lawsuits and criminal investigations.
Their damage claims range from $1.75 million to $10 million, and attorneys say the potential settlements would keep Arpaio and Thomas from wrongfully investigating others.
/yaa
The Cactus League is facing some thorny times according to the Republic:
The success in growing the Cactus League is indisputable. But when the economy cratered, tax revenues fell, crippling the long-term outlook for crucial funding for Cactus League cities from the Valley-based Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. That agency is charged with managing and distributing funds collected from Maricopa County hotel and rental-car taxes earmarked for spring training.
Glendale and Goodyear may get no more than just over half the money they expected to help them pay off bonds issued to build their ballparks. The cash the sports authority promised for renovations of other ballparks could fall short, given that teams are demanding more amenities and new facilities.
Mesa, which is fending off a bid from Naples, Fla., to lure away the Cactus League’s marquee attraction, the Chicago Cubs, proposes to sell off land it owns in Pinal County to cover costs for a new ballpark to keep the team.
Meanwhile, protesters are calling for Cactus League teams to leave Arizona because of the state’s new immigration law.
/yaa
The Republic notes that 10 people are competing for the retiring John Shadegg’s Congressional seat in the Republican primary in August.
The three main contenders are Ben Quayle, the son of the former VP; Vernon Parker, the mayor of Paradise Valley; and Paulina Morris, who the paper says supports abortion rights.
There’s not much meat in the story however; Quayle’s big idea, for example, is repealing Obama’s health-care legislation.
The story says there are about 150,000 Republicans in the 3rd District, about 105,000 Democrats, and 110,000 independents.
Here’s a map, courtesy of GovTrack.Us.
(N.B.: PHXations are posted by various PHXated contributors throughout the day).
6:25 PM
PHXations—Friday, May 28
He would know: Sheriff Joe calls troops at the border election year gimmick
ORO VALLEY (KOLD) – Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says when the Obama Administration talks about 1,200 troops along the border, they really mean 400.
According to Arpaio’s math, if each soldier works 8 hours a day, there can be no more than 400 of them on the border at once.
“What took so long to do it now?” Arpaio asks, during a campaign event for republican congressional candidate Jesse Kelly. “Is it an election year? You think 400 troops are going to solve that problem.”
“You solve the problem like I’m solving it,” he adds. “You go after all aspects of illegal immigration. You arrest anybody that violates the law.”
Arpaio says he supports Kelly, because the two think alike on border and immigration issues.
Kelly is running against State Senator Jonathan Paton. The winner of the republican primary faces Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the November general election.
RIP Gary Coleman.
Child actor Gary Coleman died at approximately 12:05 p.m. Mountain. Standard Time at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Family members and close friends were at his side when life support was terminated.
Mr. Coleman suffered an intracranial hemorrhage at his home in Utah on the evening of May 26, 2010. As of mid morning on May 27, Mr. Coleman was conscious and lucid, but by early afternoon that same day, Mr. Coleman was slipping in and out of consciousness and his condition worsened.
Family members express their appreciation and gratitude for the support and prayers that have been expressed for Gary and for them.
—-Information from: Utah Valley Hospital.
The NYT has an overview article today on the reactions of Hispanics in Arizona to SB 1070, which delves into the problems that already existed between Hispanics and some police:
Judge Jose Padilla of Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, says that twice since he became a judge in 2006, the police have pulled him over, alleging minor traffic infractions. Even though Judge Padilla, 60, did not disclose his occupation, he ended up not receiving a ticket. He said his complaints to the police department led to sensitivity training for the officers.
Judge Padilla believes the stops were based on his Hispanic ancestry and the fact that his 1988 pickup truck has large wheels and resembles a low rider, a customized car popular in Mexican-American culture but also favored by some street gangs.
“This has been lifelong, these stops,” he said, “and it is not just me.”
There’s a sidebar as well, detailing a campaign by some musicians against the state since the law’s passage:
The campaign, called the Sound Strike, has been organized by Zack de la Rocha, the lead singer of the rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, and is endorsed by English-language rock and rap performers like Massive Attack, Kanye West, Conor Oberst, Sonic Youth and Joe Satriani. But the signatories also include Spanish-speaking reggaetón artists and Los Tigres del Norte, perhaps the most popular and influential exponent of Mexican regional music in the United States.
An article in Slate argues that the constitutional approach to looking for illegal immigrants is checkpoints:
If Arizona truly wants to identify undocumented aliens in a way that does not undermine legitimacy, it should try randomized checkpoints. Checkpoints are widely used by police to enforce drunk-driving laws and other routine safety checks—such as seat belt laws—that save lives. Police can do a good job finding offenders without having to play their hunches. Policing agencies are required to have a good reason to set up a checkpoint, of course. But once a checkpoint is set up, individual officers don’t need to exercise their discretion. In fact, they can’t under constitutional law.
The Arizona Republic says that schools are reporting anecdotally but consistently that immigrant families are leaving in the wake of the passage of SB 1070:
Teachers and principals at Alhambra elementary schools in west Phoenix, for example, are saying goodbye to core volunteer parents, who tell them that the new migration law threatens their family stability and that they must leave. The district expects the new law to drive out an extra 200 to 300 students over the summer.
Balsz Elementary District in east Phoenix lost 70 families in the past 30 days, an unprecedented number, officials said.
12:18 PM
Joe vs. the Supes, Con't ...But is it "fever-pitchy"?
Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues to stonewall the county in its quest to look over his financial records, reports the Republic.
Here’s the first two grafs of its story:
Maricopa County sheriff’s officials said Tuesday that financial sanctions imposed by the Board of Supervisors will affect public safety, and the office likely will challenge the moves in court.
Sheriff’s Office attorneys have an 8:30 a.m. telephone conference today with a Superior Court judge on the proposed actions.
The next graf tells us that matter has hit a “fever pitch.”
Two questions. Does all that feel “fever-pitchy” to you?
And if it did, isn’t that the lede, as opposed to the drab one the paper gives us?
The answers are “no” and “yes,” because when you get to the fourth graf, you get to see what the fever-pitchiness is all about:
The board is scheduled to consider a range of additional financial actions against the sheriff at 11:30 a.m. today. The potential sanctions include canceling Sheriff’s Office credit cards, closing its outside bank accounts, restricting non-emergency travel or putting the office’s $269 million budget on line-item. The board had promised the actions would not impact public safety.
Emphasis added.
That’s the lede:
Joe Arpaio is about to have his credit cards taken away.
The Maricopa Board of Supervisors says that if Arpaio continues to refuse to open his books for the board, it will will cut off his office’s credit cards, close some of its bank accounts, and insist on approving every expenditure the sheriff makes.
6:46 AM
Will Arpaio run? Brahm Resnik says no
The reasons are obvious, the News 12 anchor says.
The Supes will appoint a successor who will undue everything Arpaio has done and make his life miserable… and he might not win the general, even if he mops up the primary:
But Arpaio’s vaunted poll numbers slipped as the investigations of his office came to light. He has provided a wealth of negative headlines and sound bites that would be joyfully exploited by the likely Democratic nominee Terry Goddard.
He would appear to many voters as a candidate with no real interest in running the governor’s office (“the governor gets other people to do those things,” he said Friday). Who would those “other people” be?
In a debate he would appear out of touch and, perhaps, at 77, not up to the job.
Meanwhile, the PBJ, citing sources, says Arpaio will announce he’s not running today:
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will announce this afternoon he is not running for governor this year, sources say.
Arpaio has been contemplating a run in the Republican primary for some time, but four sources familiar with the decision say the controversial sheriff will not run. An official announcement is expected this afternoon.
The Business Journal story goes out of its way to note that ABC-15 reported last week that the sheriff would run.
More: Greg Sargent’s WashPost Plum Line blog says the same thing:
But a source close to Arpaio, a leading advocate of the law who’s despised by immigrants’ rights groups, essentially told me just now that he’s not going to do it.
I’m told that Arpaio, the Sheriff of Maricopa County, will not be holding a press conference today, and will only be issuing a one-page statement at 4 P.M. eastern time explaining his decision. Asked if this meant he isn’t running, a source close to him said: “That would be a smart reading of the game plan here.”
5:58 PM
ABC 15 is reporting that Arpaio will "likely" run for governor
Reports the station’s Josh Bernstein, choosing his words carefully:
PHOENIX – Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is expected to announce Monday if he’ll run for Arizona governor.
Several sources confirm to the ABC15 Investigators that Arpaio has already made a decision, and will likely run for the office.
In a news conference after this story was first published, the Sheriff said he was still weighing his options, but also that he would in fact have an announcement on Monday.
Arpaio has flirted with running for governor in the past, but always ultimately pulled back.
While his partisans bruit about his high approval ratings, in fact his electoral support has dropped with each successive race. In 2008 he won with 55 percent of the vote against a fairly uncompelling candidate and then only after a remarkably dirty campaign.
Here’s an Arizona Capital Times report on a recent poll that showed Terry Goddard competitive with any Republican opponent:
The poll, by the North Carolina-based firm Public Policy Polling, showed Goddard, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, with slim leads over incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The poll, which surveyed 803 voters from April 23-25, showed him beating Republican candidates Dean Martin, Buz Mills and John Munger by wider margins as well.
Goddard led both Brewer and Arpaio by 47-to-44 percent margins. Both hypothetical matchups fell within the poll’s 3.4 percent margin of error. Arpaio has said he is considering a run for governor but has not declared as a candidate.
6:52 AM
Fear & Loathing in Maricopa County
The Republic yesterday had a depressing story about how what it calls the “rank and file” in Maricopa County government have been coping with the tensions induced by Joe Arpaio. With the grand jury investigating Arpaio, some employees are talking.
Now, as they wait to see what will happen, a cross-section of county employees spoke with The Arizona Republic, talking publicly for the first time about life inside the county offices during the political battles, lawsuits and arrests going on above them at the highest levels of county government.
Among the details:
Others worried that even minor infractions – a chipped windshield, having a beer before driving home after work – would be an excuse for deputies to pull them over or arrest them.
One Superior Court judge moved meetings with her staff and other judges to the chamber restroom, believing it would be a less likely spot for a listening device.
7:05 PM
Joe Arpaio's popularity takes a dive
From an unbylined Republic political blog:
The new Rocky Mountain Poll from Behavior Research Center showed support from Arpaio has dropped to 39 percent of those polled who thought the sheriff was doing an “excellent/good” job from a high rating of 64 in March 2007.
The pollsters noted that Arpaio’s job approval was dropping most precipitously among Independent voters and has “softened” among Republicans while remaining low among Democrats.
An editorial in tomorrow’s paper rubs it in:
It isn’t just Arpaio who should worry about these stunning poll numbers. The political fortunes of County Attorney Andrew Thomas and as-yet-unannounced Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth, both Republicans, ride largely on the sheriff’s coattails. Without a popular Arpaio preening as America’s Toughest Sheriff by their sides, their prospects may diminish.
It has been a while since Arpaio has been viewed purely as a nails-tough lawman. For two years, he has been a politician first. And this is the price politicians pay.
5:52 AM
The Maricopa County craziness rachets up a notch
The reporter wanted to come film the raid. (?!) The judge, Barbara Mundell, went code red. She went to the Arizona Court of Appeals to block her offices’ being raided. But at the hearing, an assistant county attorney said no warrants were being issued.
Heat City’s Nick Martin cites this as an example of hair-trigger tensions in the court system, as Arpaio and his Dimmer Twin, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, have used just about any aspect of their police and legal powers to harass and intimidate enemies.
The journalist in question is identified only as a TV reporter, and no gender was cited. Unanswered is where the reporter got the tip. According to Martin, the ADA at the hearing said no warrants had been “sought or obtained.” That could mean a) the reporter was lied to; b) the reporter was given a good tip but somehow got the judge in question wrong (a possibility, since he or she seemed to have a screw loose in any case*); or c) Thomas’s office was choosing its words carefully in front of the judge to obscure the fact that some sort of action was about to be taken against Mundell.
Martin says the judge has reason to find herself on Arpaio’s enemies list:
In May, Mundell told a Phoenix TV station she thought Maricopa County’s judges were facing serious intimidation by the sheriff, including possible investigations and retaliation. She said the sheriff was upset, in part, because a judge had just criticized his office for bringing inmates late to their court appearances.
Mundell also fought the sheriff’s office as far back as 2007 over whether his deputies should have access to thousands of emails she and other court officials had sent or received that year. Mundell and Superior Court Administrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer denied the request, and the sheriff’s office eventually sued.
- By which I mean it’s inappropriate for a reporter to find out a raid is about to happen and then call up the target of it to ask permission to film.
7:00 AM
The Arizona Republic lays into Andrew Thomas
After a new round of indictments of Andrew Thomas’ political enemies on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the paper editorializes against the Dimmer Twins:
Even if it were possible for these elected officials to erect a wall between their politics and their crime fighting, Arpaio and Thomas already have botched that job hopelessly.
They have investigated as a criminal enterprise the construction of a new county courthouse they oppose. They have followed low-level county employees to their homes to conduct intimidating interviews. Indications strongly suggest they bugged, or attempted to bug, the county administration offices.
These are not the actions of justice seekers. They are the acts of venal, retribution-minded political actors with badges and guns.
7:25 PM
The Adam Stoddard case gets crazier
As someone who recently returned to Arizona after some years in those parts of the country that supposedly looks down their noses at rubes in the desert, I can say with some authority Arizona’s reputation is not as bad as it might be.
Joe Arpaio isn’t doing the state any favors, of course, and, yes, the Daily Show has taken a couple of shots at various goings-on.
But it’s not like most folks in DC or the Bay Area can, off the top of their head, recite Arizona’s place in the hierarchy of most markers of social advancement. (For the record, they are generally just a few hairs above those in the Deep South.)
However, if Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio keep it up, the rest of the country is going to take a closer look at how backwards and comical the state’s political system has become.
Back to the Adam Stoddard affair. After a couple of days of sickouts by sheriff’s deputies assigned to the courts, Arpaio is now apparently refusing to supply inmates to the judge’s courtroom. Heat City has the story:
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has apparently stopped delivering inmates to the courtroom where a one of its detention officers was caught in an uproar that landed him in jail.
In a statement released late today, Superior Court Judge Lisa Flores said the sheriff’s office has flat-out stopped bringing inmates to her courtroom for their scheduled appearances.
The cutoff comes in the context of …
Since [Stoddard’s] jailing, Maricopa County’s justice system – one of the largest in the nation – has been thrown into a state of chaos, plagued by protests and a likely sickout by Stoddard’s coworkers, as well as bomb threats from a still-unknown source.
Stoddard’s boss, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has described the detention officer as a “political prisoner” in his own jail. Arpaio’s supporters call Stoddard a victim of the ongoing disputes between the sheriff and other county leaders, including some judges.
Meanwhile, Stephen Lemons notes that the Goldwater Institute, in the form of director Clint Bolick, is slamming Arpaio’s handling of the case:
“Sworn law-enforcement officers take an oath to uphold the law. By effectively shutting down the very justice system they are employed to protect, the sheriff’s officers displayed contempt toward the rule of law. Taxpayers should hold them accountable for abrogating their essential duties.”
7:00 AM
A "Joe Arpaio Meets the Press" post-mortem
PHXated was working on another project today and is just getting caught up to the coverage of the aborted Joe Arpaio appearance at the Cronkite School last night.
PHXated’s live blogging of the event is here.
Stephen Lemons, of New Times, and I argued about the disruption afterward; he makes his case in favor of it here:
I spoke briefly to Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan about the disruption, which he naturally abhorred. But, I wondered, wasn’t it to be expected? What if ASU had invited President Lyndon Johnson’s Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to speak during the height of the Vietnam War? Wouldn’t he have anticipated civil disobedience, and far more upheaval?
“Quite frankly,” he said, “if the Defense Secretary came in to give a speech during the Vietnam War, I think it would be protested intensely. Do I think that if you had a group of journalists grilling Secretary McNamara on Vietnam policies, do I think that would be protested? Honestly, no.”
I’ll admit, as I’m sure many will point out to me, the analogy is by no means precise. The carnage of Vietnam is not parallel to the sufferings of the undocumented here in Ari-bama. But the treatment of the undocumented is a moral issue that requires a response, and civil disobedience is a response, a disobedient response.
I’m Lemons’ biggest fan, but he is off his rocker here. Callahan’s right: This wasn’t in any way a speech or a soap box for Arpaio. It was the opposite. Not only were the protesters wrong to disrupt the event, they were being dumb, which is worse.
But of course, they are students; they are allowed to be dumb. Defending them, however, is morally reckless.
In fact, I disagree with Callahan and the school’s handing of the disruption; I heard afterward that the school didn’t want to be in the position of dragging students exercising free speech rights out of a venue called the First Amendment Forum.
But that’s the point: At a First Amendment Forum, goons shouldn’t be allowed to shut down a public event. As a matter of first principles, they should have been removed and the event allowed to go on.
Indeed, absent some clearly amusing or exacerbating circumstance (like, say, if Arpaio were speaking to a bunch of ASU fat-cat donors at an exclusive luncheon, or if student money were used to pay someone as compromised as Arpaio to appear), it would have been wrong for the students to disrupt things even if it had been a regular speech.
I was in the crowd and everyone around me was yelling shut up at the people who disrupted the event. And as Callahan pointed out when he was trying to calm the students up, they had disrupted the questioning just when the professors had gotten around to asking Arpaio about his Civil Rights violations.
All in all, it wasn’t a good night for any of the parties involved.
12:00 AM
Joe Arpaio's deputy: I won't apologize
There are many of them right now—this one we’ll call the Case of the Purloined Letter.
During a trial Oct. 19, a sheriff’s deputy working in court surreptitiously swiped a letter out of a defense attorney’s case file where her back was turned. The incident was caught on video tape.
The officer, Adam Stoddard, says that he saw some words on the letter that made him think that the lawyer’s client was planning a crime, and that grabbing it was justified. A judge disagreed, and ordered him to apologize.
Last night, the officer spoke publicly on the courthouse steps, saying … he wasn’t going to. Nick Martin was there:
Judge Donahoe has ordered me to feel something I do not.” Stoddard said. “He has ordered me to say something I cannot.”
The young detention officer, dressed in his brown duty uniform and wearing a badge, told the pack of journalists and other observers in front of the county’s main courthouse in downtown Phoenix that the judge had essentially “put me in a position where I must lie or go to jail.”
“I will not lie,” he said.
Stoddard has the backing of his boss, Joe Arpaio. As I understand it, Stoddard a) stole something; b) violated attorney-client privilege in two ways (first by looking at the lawyer’s papers and then stealing one); c) isn’t too awfully bright (he seems to have forgotten the room was being taped); and d) is possessed of that peculiar penchant of law-and-0rder types who, when caught doing something they shouldn’t, don’t apologize or evince a sense of shame but rather stonewall and bluster.
Stoddard was supposed to report to jail tonight but was not taken in because of a clerical error, Martin reports.
12:00 AM
Joe Arpaio at the Cronkite School: The zoo approacheth
The Arizona Republic and KPHO have both posted stories about Monday’s live “Meet the Press”-style interview of Joe Arpaio at ASU’s Cronkite School of journalism.
Arpaio’s going to be questioned by three profs from the school at 7 p.m.
Both stories are pretty incompetent. The Republic story says that interest in the event will surely swamp the smallish school atrium where the interview will be held, so the school’s going to show it on a large video screen and stream it over the internet.
The paper doesn’t bother to tell readers where the screen will be, or what the web address for the stream is.
For the record, the video will be shown in the public mall just south of the Cronkite building, which is on the east side of Central Avenue between Polk and Fillmore.
The video stream will be here, according to the school.
The KPHO story is equally unhelpful; worse, it lets the sheriff natter on about how good he is with the press:
“There have been blips about some weekly newspaper — we didn’t give an answer to a request — but that’s been straightened out. But I think it’s great. If there’s anyone who has an open door policy, I think it’s the sheriff,” said Arpaio.
As anyone who reads the New Times knows, there are three inaccuracies in merely the first sentence alone. The KPHO reporter doesn’t bother to ask him about them.
The Republic story doesn’t mention that some students plan to protest the event; the KPHO story does, but neither note that local Tea Party activists are showing up as well.
PHXated’s background on the event is here and here.
12:00 AM
Is the Cronkite School's "Meet the Press" night with Joe Arpaio going to be a zoo?
As you might know, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is going to be interviewed by three journalism professors onstage at the Cronkite School on Central at 7 p.m. Monday. The event is looking more and more like it’s going to be a spectacle.
First, a bunch of misinformed ASU students have decided that, since audience members don’t get to question Arpaio at the panel, the school is somehow giving him a platform to spread his views unchallenged.
The students are planning a protest outside the event.
But as the title of the session—"Meet the Press"—makes clear, the point is to have the sheriff questioned closely by some informed professionals.
It’s uncool to say it in this Age of Everyone’s a Journalist, but this serves the public a lot better than having a bunch of Arpaio’s opponents declaiming at him from a microphone. The students should shut up and come watch the session. If it turns out to be filled with lobbed softballs, then they can protest.
(By the way—Stephen Lemons notes here that CBS 5 has a new investigative report on Arpaio scheduled to run tonight at 10 p.m.)
Now the Sheriff Joe contingent is getting into the act, too. Below is a press release I just got from the Phoenix Area Tea Partyers. (Note the slur on the students half-way down.)
Looks like Monday is going to be quite a scene:
Time: November 30, 2009 from 7pm to 7pm
Location: First Amendment Room-Second Floor
Organized By: American Citizens United
Event Description:
This is an event I saw posted on Resistnet and thought our group may be interested.
American Citizens United is organizing a rally in front of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
There is a great push from the Hispanic students of Journalism (some of them children of illegals and others illegals themselves).
They have been encouraged by “La Raza” and other local pro-amnesty organizations to go into journalism so they can have an influence on public opinion. And you can guess what opinion they want to change to get amnesty.
Please keep it orderly, no yelling or name calling. Resist the anger we all feel when our country and those who protect it get attacked. We must remain civilized to be credible.
12:00 AM
Will Joe Arpaio really "Meet the Press" at the Cronkite School?
It’s been an unobtrusive line at the bottom of the this semester’s ASU j-school event calendar:
Meet the Press: Sheriff Joe Arpaio
The title at once says it all and nothing; but the idea, if it works, will be an unusual opportunity for a few serious journalists to question Arpaio about his record and methods live on a stage.
Those scheduled to be asking the questions are three profs from the school: Rick Rodriguez, Susan Green and Steve Elliott. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the second floor atrium of the Cronkite School, which is on the corner of Taylor and Central downtown, just two blocks north of Van Buren.
Already, the event has been misinterpreted; Stephen Lemons of New Times is, unusually for him, off the mark on this issue today in his blog:
As mind-numbingly impossible as it is to imagine, Sheriff Joe, avowed enemy of a free press and brown people everywhere, will be the guest speaker at the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism’s “First Amendment Forum” this Monday, November 30.
Talk about eating turkey after Thanksgiving. Arpaio lecturing at a First Amendment Forum? Too bad Idi Amin’s not around anymore. ASU could have him come chat about human rights.
From the start, the idea was exactly the opposite; Arpaio will not be lecturing, he will be being questioned by three journalists.
That’s why the student activist Lemons cites, who says she’ll be protesting the event because the audience won’t be allowed to question the sheriff, is off the mark as well.
Sure, it’s an old media model—but in this case, it could be revelatory. Arpaio’s a slippery figure, and it will be interesting to see if the three interlocutors, if they’re prepared, can pin him down on the facts he’s so casual with.
And let me just say this about that dull old Old Media format: There’s no substitute from questioning by smart and prepared people; the idea to sacrifice that so that a bunch of political opponents of Arpaio declaim at him from a mike on the floor is not a smart one.
Arpaio could as yet back out, the questioning could turn out to be pallid—but it’s wrong to criticize the school for giving Arpaio free reign to speak when that’s not the idea at all.
12:00 AM
Did Joe Biden meet with Arpaio today?
The Republic says he did:
Vice President Joe Biden offered a strong endorsement of the federal stimulus in Phoenix on Monday and introduced some of the Arizonans personally touched by it.
He also met privately with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, although details of that meeting weren’t immediately available.
Sheriff Joe tweets the same:
Just got done meeting with the Vice President of the United States.
The PBJ, however, throws water on that scenario:
Vice President Joe Biden’s office has a different take on what Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio termed a “short meeting” Monday in Phoenix.
[…]
Arpaio said he had discussed the need for more deputies with Biden.
But Biden’s office said Arpaio was not invited to the event and did not have a meeting with the vice president. He simply shook hands with the vice president as Biden was exiting the building, according to Biden spokeswoman Annie Tomasini.
12:00 AM
County audit slams Arpaio
You remember the sheriff’s half-million-dollar bus. The county instituted a purchasing freeze last year, but the sheriff’s office, taking money out of its jail fund, bought it anyway.
It’s one of the many infantile points of contention between Arpaio and the county. Supervisors have kept the bus in a garage since they found out about the purchase in May.
Now an audit (which probably cost the county money to perform) shows the obvious: That Arpaio violated county guidellines when he bought it.
“There is no evidence that the bus was acquired for the best price, or that procurement controls meant to protect and account for public funds were followed,” the audit states.
Republic story here.
On a related note, PHXated was talking to some courts people recently and heard some anecdotal but plausible stories about the effects of Arpaio’s deliberate slowdown of his office’s work in transferring prisoners to the court system.
Arapio has a certain genius in smelling what ways he can essentially not do his job that don’t elicit public outrage or opposition.
According to the people I spoke to, the sheriff’s office brings prisoners to the court only two days a week, which makes scheduling difficult. Even with those limitations, prisoners frequently aren’t where they are supposed to be, creating cascading waves of delays. (The process also costs defendants, or the state, money, as lawyers sit around on the clock doing nothing.)
In fact, this happened at the case I was watching.
One lawyer said he’d seen judges deliberately let people out on bond who otherwise would not be when the likelihood of a non-appearance by a defendant could have hampered progress on a particular case or hearing.
12:00 AM
Did the Dimmer Twins (accidentally) hit pay dirt with Wilcox?
Reading the two Republic stories on the matter today—here and here—one feels that the charges filed against Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Anne Wilcox aren’t entirely spurious.
That isn’t often the feeling one gets when reading about most of Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas’s brutal use of their police powers.
Wilcox hasn’t as yet given her side of the story, and there are I’m sure all sorts of ways the acts could be benign. But here’s a precis from the paper:
Elected county officials must file the financial-disclosure forms with the clerk’s office by Jan. 31 each year, said Fran McCarroll, clerk of the board. The forms are required by law to help avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of one.
A Republic review showed that Wilcox did not disclose the loans from Chicanos Por La Causa. A spokeswoman with the non-profit said Wilcox and her husband, Earl, received a $7,500 loan in November 2000, a $50,000 loan in July 2005 and $120,000 in October 2008.
According to Thomas—and the paper—she didn’t file conflict-of-interest disclosures either.
9:58 PM
"I have been framed," he said, using a turn of phrase that equates a wooden adornment around a picture with a manufactured criminal charge.
From a 12 News report on the AZ Central web site:
One day after his arrest, Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley tells 12 News he is the victim of an “inquisition” by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, making a reference to a medieval tactic to scrutinize an individual without regard to his rights.
6:00 AM
Don Stapley arrested again
Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies arrested County Supervisor Don Stapley Monday morning at a county building, three days after a prosecutor moved to dismiss charges against Stapley in a forgery and fraud case.
A sheriff’s official said Stapley was arrested on a “different case” but could not elaborate on the nature of the new charges.
6:00 AM
Another legal salvo from Andrew Thomas against county supervisors
The Arizona Republic says he’s indicting Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox on separate charges:
A grand jury indicted Wilcox on allegations that include perjury, forgery and conflict of interest related to votes she made as a supervisor to fund the Hispanic non-profit group Chicanos Por La Causa, Thomas said.Stapley’s counts include fraud, theft, perjury and forgery largely related to the use of funds Stapley received in his effort to become president of the National Association of Counties. Stapley also obtained mortgage loans under false pretenses, Thomas said.
[…]
Thomas said the counts were based on Wilcox obtaining five different loans through Prestamos, the lending arm of Chicanos Por La Causa, and continuing to approve funds for the organization in her role as supervisor without filing any type of conflict notice.
Farther down, the paper notes:
The indictments from a Maricopa County grand jury are the latest allegations Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have leveled against county elected officials and administrators, many of which have been dismissed. Despite the history of Thomas and Arpaio’s allegations against other county officials petering out as they work through the justice system, the sheriff maintained confidence in his investigations.“Let’s wait to see what the criminal justice system does before you start criticizing my investigations,” Arpaio said.
5:02 AM
Live, from the Cronkite School!
Live-blogging as Joe Arpaio meets the press.
* PHXated is live-blogging the event as it happens. Refresh for updates *
Thus endeth the live-blogging.
In the end, a little anti-climactic. The professors did a good job, but Arpaio just blandly deflected the inquiries.
The students who disrupted the event are still milling around upstairs. Seems odd that the school had no way to shut them up or hustle them out. It’s a bad precedent that ten or twenty people—I’m guessing—can disrupt the desires of hundreds of others.
They seem to be ending it.
This is wrong. The event is over. Callahan is trying to lecture the disruptive students. He points out they’ve lost twelve minutes of questioning. And that they’ve effectively left Arpaio to have his views unfiltered in other media venues.
Wide applause from those left here.
A disruption. Protesters are singing a parody song to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody. Arpaio puts a funny hat on, but then took it off.
Callahan is trying to quiet the crowd.
This is embarrassing for the school. It’s wrong to disrupt an event in a venue called a “First Amendment Forum.”
Callahan can’t be heard from the dais. Some students are yelling “Shut up” to the idiotic protesters.
RR is asking him about racial profiling and targeting political opponents. Are you above the law?
Why have there been so many officials saying they were targeted?
A: Implies he got his question from someone else. RR: My words came from me.
A: I don’t know about police chiefs who don’t like me. I don’t know about mayors. RR: Phil Gordon. A: Well him.
He’s getting pressed on making records available—another thing he’s been getting dinged on. He says they are getting better.
SG presses him on releases video of a certain inmate. “I’m not too familiar with that one. I”m sure they got the information."
What do you consider a reasonable amount of time? There’s been an unwritten law of ten days, but when they ask for thousands of pieces of information it takes time.
Steve Elliott: Presses him on his home address being publicized. I found your address in public document in five minutes.
A: There might be some slipperage but it’s still a violation. I have a lot of threats on me.
A: What’s the saying? “The buck stops here? There?” I feel comfortable when I go home at night. Blustering: “I will continue to deal with the media!”
A: “I have nothing to hide. I want to thank you students. You are the future of journalism. I love this Cronkite.”
SG: Have you rethought that? A: No, there are times you might re-evaluate.
SG: Do you stand by what was done? A: I’m saying it was a learning process.
“Everyone’s afraid to drink with me. The media is not my enemy.” He’s getting a little unhinged.
Would a normal politician agree to this? Green: Absolutely.
A: “I kinda like the media!”
Green bring up his subpoena of all New Times’ information from its web site, including IP addresses of visitors for three years.
A: Not going to go into all the reasons things were done.
He pleads litigation again. But concedes he’s “learning.”
No one’s laid a glove on him yet.
RR brings up New Times. They do hard-hitting reporting. They published your home address. In Oct. 2007, you arrested the editor and publisher of the paper i the middle of the night, on a misdemeanor. I was an executive editor of a paper. We often reported on grand jury testimony. I was never threatened with arrest. Were the arrests appropriate? Was it a mistake?
A: They increased my popularity.“By the way, it’s a free weekly paper.” (Groans from the crowd. A deputy, he said, made the decision to arrest the pair. Most arrests are for misdemeanor. Can’t talk more—litigation.
RR: Is publishing grand jury testimony automatically grounds for arrest in AZ now?
A: It all depends.
Steve Elliott asks him about not sending press releases to the EVT. The scrape wound up in court and the paper won. The judge said you were petty. Did you act properly?
A: Two issues. The judge never ruled against us. “You have to improve,” he said. They had a way to get press releases. They could drive downtown. (!) He said the problems were fixed. We did improve. The releases are now on the web.
Susan Green asks what about those not allowed to a press conference?
A: I average 200 interviews a month with media.
SG: People have shown up and been denied access to press conference.
A: One or two out of thousands. Security reasons. They use the press conference to sandbag me, or disrupt it.
She presses him: They are doing the stories that aren’t so favorable. Are you using access as a weapon?
A: I’m not afraid to face the media. They ask questions that are off the subject of a press conference.
This is a specious point. He has a crazy idea of what a press conference is. She should be pressing him on the fact that he doesn’t allow himself to be questioned on hard topics.
Rick Rodriquez starts off the questioning. “It’s going to be a learning experience for students.”
Q: Media relationships—he got great press coverage for being tough. Your son in law works for Republic. Other side: Journos who do critical stories get frozen, even arrested. Deputies have threatened to arrest a report. Is media a tool or the enemy?
There’s protest noise from outside
A: I have to get to people I serve. I have an open door policy. You can come to the tents. I don’t have to have handlers. [I’m paraphrasing] Sometimes there are problems with media. I’m human. I’m still going to deal with the media.
I’m still here, will continue to do my job. I report to the people directly. I have nothing to hide and I do my job.
RR presses him. What about threatening to arrest a reporter asking for public records? A says he’ll arrest anyone who breaks the law.
Callahan asks for “respect” from the audience and says he’ll stay after and answer questions. His mike is going in and out.
Callahan is explaining the format—he notes there’s been some "misunderstanding"about the “Meet the Press”-style format. He’s referring to the rabble-rousing by Stephen Lemons and some student activists. He’s making the case that it’s appropriate to have profs question Arpaio without letting the audience at him. It’s sad he has to do it, but whatever.
Then he amps it up to “misreporting.” He’s not paying Arpaio. It’s not “a speech, an interview or a debate.” It’s journalists asking questions of a political leader.
See below for background on the three interviewers.
About to begin. The session will last one hour, Dean Callahan just said. Arpaio just walked in, to smatterings of applause.
Some early photos from the event.
The live internet stream of tonight’s event will be here, the school says.
The event will also be shown on video on the pedestrian mall just south of the school. It’s on Central Avenue between Fillmore and Van Buren.
One of the benefits of the event tonight is that I will be able to indulge my fondness for the word interlocutor. Our interlocutors this evening, as described on the school’s website:
The interviewers are three Cronkite professors and veteran journalists: Steve Elliott, digital news director of Cronkite News Service and former Associated Press Phoenix bureau chief; Sue Green, broadcast news director of Cronkite News Service and former managing editor of ABC15; and Rick Rodriguez, the school’s Carnegie Professor of Journalism and former executive editor of the Sacramento Bee.Meanwhile, Nick Martin, at Heat City, is tracking one of the many ongoing Arpaio legal sideshows:
An all-out showdown could be in the works today over whether one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s officers will apologize for taking an attorney’s confidential files. It all goes back to an Oct. 19 incident in which Maricopa County detention officer Adam Stoddard was caught on a courtroom security video swiping a document from the files of a defense attorney while her back was turned. Superior Court Judget Gary Donahoe has since ordered the detention officer to hold a news conference to apologize for taking the document. If he refuses to do so by the deadline – set for today – Donahoe said he would throw the officer in jail for contempt of court.Stephen Lemons, at New Times, continues to be skeptical that the Cronkite School profs will be hard-hitting enough tonight:
Arpaio and his PR staff are practiced media manipulators. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Arpaio play the profs like a flute tonight. Though out of pride, if nothing else, you would hope these J-school teachers would not wish to be bested like that.
The site tonight is the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It’s a key part of ASU’s move into downtown Phoenix; the school sits in a distinctive orange building on Central Avenue, just across the street from the new Civic Space Park and a massive piece of public sculpture, Janet Echelman’s “Her Name Is Patience.”
The school’s Monday evening events are held in its second-story atrium, which allows room for several hundred students to sit in front of the stage and on steps and balconies above it.
Arpaio’s relationship with the press can be said to be dismal. The East Valley Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its investigation into his various managerial and legal deficiencies.
The series, “Reasonable Doubt,” can be read here.
The Phoenix New Times has spent untold resources over the last few years investigating Arpaio’s practices as well. There’s a fairly complete rundown of its work here.
During the course of one of these series, County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Arpaio actually sent deputies to arrest the editor and publisher of the New Times chain, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, in the middle of the night.
While the arrests drew national attention (New York Times story here?) the reaction against Arpaio in Arizona was something less than wholesale outrage, suggesting either that the image of the press is much worse than one might expect … or that Arizonans, being Arizonans, haven’t thought too hard about the implications of mass arrests of journalists.
For the convenience of readers, I’m inserting my previous coverage of this event below.
Live, from the Cronkite School: Joe Arpaio meets the press.
If you’re just coming to the story of Joe Arpaio’s appearance at the ASU journalism school tonight, here’s a precis of developments thus far:
Many months ago the school got Arpaio to agree to a “Meet the Press”-style grilling at the school. The interlocutors will be three professors: Rick Rodriguez, Susan Green and Steve Elliott. The event is at 7 p.m. Monday, that’s tonight, in the second floor atrium of the Cronkite School, which is the east side of Central Avenue downtown, between Van Buren and Fillmore.
(The session itself is open only to students; the school’s going to show the event on video on the mall just south of the building, and will stream it live here.)
Arpaio’s talks a lot—blusters, really—in public, of course, but he’s a slippery figure; who wouldn’t want to see him in an enclosed space questioned closely by three journalists?
Besides the obvious—the extraordinary number of inmate deaths in Arpaio’s jails, the myriad documented cases of mismanagement, his excessive use of his police powers against rival elected officials, and any number of other abuses of power—it will be interesting, given the setting, to hear Arpaio talk about the decision-making processes that lead to the 2007 early-morning-hours arrests of the editor and publisher of the Phoenix New Times alternative newspaper.
Well, this is Arizona, and things don’t always make sense. Some students, misapprehending the nature of the event, have said they will protest, saying they were “outraged” that there won’t be questions from the audience.
PHXated went to Berkeley and is, uh, not unsympathetic to the idea of student protest. In this case, it’s dumb. It’s a rare chance to see a public figure as brittle and indefensible as Arpaio in a controlled situation. Why not see how it plays out?
As PHXated has written before: It’s uncool to say it in this Age of Everyone’s a Journalist, but this serves the public a lot better than having a bunch of Arpaio’s opponents declaiming at him from a microphone. The students should shut up and come watch the session. If it turns out to be filled with lobbed softballs, then they can protest.
And speaking of dumb, now the local tea party folks are riding to Arpaio’s defense. Again, this being Arizona, they’ve managed to trump even the misguided students. Here’s a press release I got the other day:
American Citizens United is organizing a rally in front of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. There is a great push from the Hispanic students of Journalism (some of them children of illegals and others illegals themselves). They have been encouraged by “La Raza” and other local pro-amnesty organizations to go into journalism so they can have an influence on public opinion. And you can guess what opinion they want to change to get amnesty.Again, it’s tonight at 7 p.m. MST. Let the zoo begin!
Arpaio at the Cronkite School: The zoo approacheth
The Arizona Republic and KPHO have both posted stories about Monday’s live “Meet the Press”-style interview of Joe Arpaio at ASU’s Cronkite School of journalism.
Arpaio’s going to be questioned by three profs from the school at 7 p.m.
Both stories are pretty incompetent. The Republic story says that interest in the event will surely swamp the smallish school atrium where the interview will be held, so the school’s going to show it on a large video screen and stream it over the internet.
The paper doesn’t bother to tell readers where the screen will be, or what the web address for the stream is.
For the record, the video will be shown in the public mall just south of the Cronkite building, which is on the east side of Central Avenue between Polk and Fillmore.
The video stream will be here, according to the school.
The KPHO story is equally unhelpful; worse, it lets the sheriff natter on about how good he is with the press:
“There have been blips about some weekly newspaper — we didn’t give an answer to a request — but that’s been straightened out. But I think it’s great. If there’s anyone who has an open door policy, I think it’s the sheriff,” said Arpaio.There are three inaccuracies in merely the first sentence alone. The KPHO reporter doesn’t bother to ask him about them.
The Republic story doesn’t mention that some students plan to protest the event; the KPHO story does, but neither note that local Tea Party activists are showing up as well.
PHXated’s background on the event is here and here.
Is the Cronkite School’s “Meet the Press” night with Joe Arpaio going to be a zoo?
As you might know, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is going to be interviewed by three journalism professors onstage at the Cronkite School on Central at 7 p.m. Monday. The event is looking more and more like it’s going to be a spectacle.
First, a bunch of misinformed ASU students have decided that, since audience members don’t get to question Arpaio at the panel, the school is somehow giving him a platform to spread his views unchallenged.
The students are planning a protest outside the event.
But as the title of the session—”Meet the Press”—makes clear, the point is to have the sheriff questioned closely by some informed professionals.
It’s uncool to say it in this Age of Everyone’s a Journalist, but this serves the public a lot better than having a bunch of Arpaio’s opponents declaiming at him from a microphone. The students should shut up and come watch the session. If it turns out to be filled with lobbed softballs, then they can protest.
(By the way—Stephen Lemons notes here that CBS 5 has a new investigative report on Arpaio scheduled to run tonight at 10 p.m.)
Now the Sheriff Joe contingent is getting into the act, too. Below is a press release I just got from the Phoenix Area Tea Partyers. (Note the slur on the students half-way down.)
Looks like Monday is going to be quite a scene:
SUPPORT SHERIFF JOE
Time: November 30, 2009 from 7pm to 7pm
Location: First Amendment Room-Second Floor
Organized By: American Citizens United
Event Description:
This is an event I saw posted on Resistnet and thought our group may be interested.American Citizens United is organizing a rally in front of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
There is a great push from the Hispanic students of Journalism (some of them children of illegals and others illegals themselves).
They have been encouraged by “La Raza” and other local pro-amnesty organizations to go into journalism so they can have an influence on public opinion. And you can guess what opinion they want to change to get amnesty.
Please keep it orderly, no yelling or name calling. Resist the anger we all feel when our country and those who protect it get attacked. We must remain civilized to be credible.
Will Joe Arpaio really “meet the press” at the Cronkite School?
It’s been an unobtrusive line at the bottom of the this semester’s ASU j-school event calendar:
Meet the Press: Sheriff Joe ArpaioThe title at once says it all and nothing; but the idea, if it works, will be an unusual opportunity for a few serious journalists to question Arpaio about his record and methods live on a stage.
Those scheduled to be asking the questions are three profs from the school: Rick Rodriguez, Susan Green and Steve Elliott. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the second floor atrium of the Cronkite School, which is on the corner of Taylor and Central downtown, just two blocks north of Van Buren.
Already, the event has been misinterpreted; Stephen Lemons of New Times is, unusually for him, off the mark on this issue today in his blog:
As mind-numbingly impossible as it is to imagine, Sheriff Joe, avowed enemy of a free press and brown people everywhere, will be the guest speaker at the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism’s “First Amendment Forum” this Monday, November 30. Talk about eating turkey after Thanksgiving. Arpaio lecturing at a First Amendment Forum? Too bad Idi Amin’s not around anymore. ASU could have him come chat about human rights.From the start, the idea was exactly the opposite; Arpaio will not be lecturing, he will be being questioned by three journalists.
That’s why the student activist Lemons cites, who says she’ll be protesting the event because the audience won’t be allowed to question the sheriff, is off the mark as well.
Sure, it’s an old media model—but in this case, it could be revelatory. Arpaio’s a slippery figure, and it will be interesting to see if the three interlocutors, if they’re prepared, can pin him down on the facts he’s so casual with.
And let me just say this about that dull old Old Media format: There’s no substitute from questioning by smart and prepared people; the idea to sacrifice that so that a bunch of political opponents of Arpaio declaim at him from a mike on the floor is not a smart one.
Arpaio could as yet back out, the questioning could turn out to be pallid—but it’s wrong to criticize the school for giving Arpaio free rein to speak when that’s not the idea at all.
6:44 PM