Written by 
Gov. Jan Brewer in Tucson
Back in July, Greg at Espresso Pundit speculated that Governor Brewer would not run for another term based on how “lobbyists and consultants” were behaving. It turns out she is running and based on how she was treated yesterday in Tucson, it is going to be a rough campaign for her.
Vernon Parker in Tucson
Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker was in the Old Pueblo for a meet and greet for his exploratory committee for Governor. There was not a huge crowd but the people there were listening attentively. The next day, there was a nice feature story about Parker in the Arizona Daily Star by political writer Rhonda Bodfield.
Governor Brewer had a campaign rally at the Pima County Republican headquarters an hour after Parker’s event. The main room was full and by all appearances things went well. No write up from the Star though. Things really got bad at the University of Arizona football game half time though. The governor was booed by the crowd and from what our sources say it was not from just part of the fans but a broad rebuke.
How this translates to an increasingly crowded primary field in hard to predict. One thing is for sure, Brewer has a tough 9 months ahead of her, budget and all.
See, she pushed for less cuts and see what appreciation it got her at the U?
The cuts to education are entirely behind the boos. Until recently I was at UA full time. Both faculty and students regard the state legislature, and in particular GOP reps, as uneducated morons that despise education at all levels. Tuition has risen far faster than inflation and all know it is due to cuts forced by Phoenix.
Consider today’s op ed in the Star.
If you think those boos reflect sentiments that would help a GOP challenger against Brewer, you’re reading too much Seeing Red.
Agreed with x4mr — the boos are because of the cuts to the university budget. I’d say the GOP should be worried, but an unscientific poll by the Daily Wildcat found that 0% of students surveyed even knew there was a city council election this month
You can never spend enough to make Big Education happy. Ever. x4mr, you’re smart enough to know that. Whether you’ll admit it or not is another matter.
“cuts forced by Phoenix” really? And just where is all that money if revenues are billions below expenses anyway? Or don’t they teach that part in doctorate classes? You guys all want a little deus ex machina action and have a pile of dough just appear. Oh, but I guess the dems are trying for a little Barak ex machina for a little more stimulus action.
“Cuts forced by Phoenix” you mean wildly expanding the state spending? thanks Nappy. Oh and the state needs to provide a hundred million that the City of Tucson can spend downtown, a good chunk of which the UNIVERSITY can blow on trips to Piza, Italy and other useless crap for something that never gets built for a downtown redevelopment that does not increase downtown tax revenue but just creates another money vacuum called the Fox Theater.
Oh, and the University signed off on a concert that lost one million bucks–a million dollars that was supposed to be used for TUITION ASSISTANCE but they had a big rap party. Great management skills there.
You want to see prices at state schools fall precipitously, give the kids the ten grand per year the state subsidizes for each student in the form of a voucher and tell them they can either go to University of Phoenix 100% covered by the state or cough up an additional six grand per year to go to U of A and let them decide where they want to go. That would sort things out very quickly.
Great idea, set up a monopoly and then complain that it’s too expensive and needs more money.
Oh, and x4mr, while we’re trading links, tell us more about why state universities need more money….so they can perpetuate Al Gore’s party LInE on climate change?
http://www.espressopundit.com/2009/11/academic-fraud-at-the-university-of-arizona.html
,,,you know, just add it on to our $800 billion tab with China. Geez, even the cast of SNL has it figured out.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/china-cold-open/1178451/
Cabeza, calm down and don’t dramatize my remark (e.g. you want prices at state schools to fall precipitously – I never said that). I also never said all at UA was peachy.
If you think I support Rio Nuevo, ask around. The same goes for TREO, MCTVB, and in particular the Downtown Tucson Partnership.
If you re-read my comment, you will see that it only makes the assertion that 1) the boos come from budget cuts, 2) faculty and students think poorly of the AZ leg, and 3) if you think what’s behind the boos will help a GOP challenger to the right of Brewer, you’re mistaken.
That’s pretty much what I thought you’d meant, didn’t mean to go off on a tirade but that’s also kind of my point in the original comment. And I know how much you “love” Rio Nuevo too.
Not much she could ever do will sway the education crowd from Goddard. They won’t budge. So she should balance the budget and you can blame the legislature, who represents all of the people of this state who elect them or you can compromise for a solution. Gould is trying to show her up, she’s trying to show him up, the legislative leadership tried to show her up by holding the budget from her until the last day. Meanwhile we’re spending more than revenues and making THIS year’s problem WORSE than if we had a balanced but painful budget and making next years problems worse than worse.
It’s quite fashionable to paint the GOP as anti-education and it’s everywhere…the editorial you cited and people at the U. People want the government to provide an awful lot these days and so we’re China’s bitch.
Not everyone there was a student…I was in attendance at the U of A game (RedZone, baby!)… my boo’ing was purely a statement as to how I feel about her entire tenure as governor…not only that, the boo’ing was just as strong from the west side of the stadium, as it was from ZonaZoo. Remember? West side is where all the “old farts” sit…
Well, not *everyithing*… she did say she was going to call the Christmas Tree at the AZ Capitol a “Christmas Tree”. Gotta give her the Kudos for that.
Yes, “people” do want government to provide a lot, but our list of “people” is different. The ones that occur to me are AIG, Exxon, UHC, Pfizer, Halliburton, Goldman Sachs….Why are health insurance companies exempt from anti-trust law? Even universities aren’t, and they are not for profit.
Actually, China is still arousing itself watching us pole dance in our birthday suits, but yes, what’s about to happen is clear. Your choice of words is apt.
Oh wait, aren’t we forgetting the wisdom of Lord Cheney, “Reagan showed us that deficits don’t matter.”
Obscenely irresponsible deficits are just fine with the right so long as the GOP is doing the spending. Outrage over how much is spent is more lie than truth. The true outrage is over who gets to spend and on what. Other than a rare post now and then, none of the conservative blogs, and I mean NONE, said much while W bled the nation dry.
Last year’s meltdown and the unspeakable cost to get out of it may introduce genuine sentiment about the deficit, but the jury is out. We’ll see how much you bitch about the deficit spending of the next Republican president.
Honeslly x4mr, if you look at it, the R’s that would comment on this blog would not be supportive of anyone who can’t figure out that expenses should be less than or equal to revenues. That’s my read on the folks here. And I don’t see the authors of this blog getting any too excited about anyone seeking any office who can’t connect those dots. I didn’t see too much love toward the spending of the last president here. You’re free to see things as you wish.
Whatever the reason, I think it is very rude to boo a governor or anyone else; it’s embarrassing to me that people no longer have basic manners; students and old farts alike.
That’s some education you have there, x4mr. Since it can neither write nor speak, how can a post “assert” anything? Are you an example of the U of A’s “fine, educated” alumni?
GOP Boomer Gal, People have been booing public figures forever (yes, even in the 1950s!), and etiquette is MOOT. It was a ball game, for cryin’ out loud.
Good information, thanks for posting that. I have bookmarked your site and
will come back to see what else you have to say.