Janet Napolitano, the Governor of Arizona, is frequently mentioned as VP material but folks who do so should be aware that, like another Arizonan, her national reputation is a little different from her reputation at home.

Here in Arizona, she is considered a "centrist" which means she's quite a bit to the right of what's popular with the national base. She reinforced that image with some comments she made today regarding the odious ban on gay marriage proposal that will once again be a proposition on our ballot.

Yes, after having defeated one such measure in 2006 - the first state to do so for such a proposition - we're faced with fighting it all over again this year. Plus we'll have the disadvantage of competing with our neighbor to the west for funds to fight it.

All I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This quarter's outpouring of support was overwhelming and humbling. The financial impact of your support was real and incredibly significant. Just as important, however, was the emotional impact. Receiving nearly one thousand contributions in two weeks from every corner of Arizona and our country gives us the emotional strength to work tirelessly between now and Nov. 4.

And we will work tirelessly, because the stakes couldn't be higher. The critical challenges we face demand new leadership in Washington. Only new leadership will see the opportunities those challenges present and seize on those opportunities to build a future for America brighter and more promising than before.

Wingnut John Shadegg's final end-of-quarter email blast:

Dear Friend,
             
With the FEC financial filing deadline at midnight tonight, I wanted to send you a quick email.
             
As you know, I am a “target” of the Democrat Party.  They are raising large sums of money to use against me this November.
             
This money is coming from national liberal special interest groups in an attempt to turn another seat Democrat. If they succeed, Nancy Pelosi could have another vote for her agenda that includes raising your taxes, taking away health care choices by mandating government-run health care and voting against measures to lower our gas prices.
             
That is why I need your immediate help before midnight tonight.
             
Please make a generous contribution to my campaign of $500, $250, $100 or even $35 by visiting my Web page at: <http://zewola.com/fs/d:l/x7p2c90bab43ku/x86s20ilctcqj8/0> www.johnshadegg.com/contribute.
             
Your contribution, before tonight’s FEC financial filing deadline, will send the Democrat Party a clear message that Arizona does not support their liberal tax and spend agenda.
             
You and I have a common bond - that we share the conservative principles of Senator Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan that include smaller government, lower taxes, and more personal freedoms while maintaining a strong national defense.
             
Your donation before midnight tonight, will be a vote for these principles. It will also be a vote against the Democrat Party’s attempt to defeat me this November.
             
Thank you for your commitment to the conservative principles we support.  Shirley and I truly appreciate your help and dedication to our efforts.
             
Sincerely,
             
John Shadegg

A message can be sent in this race and every other race in the country. The Q2 fundraising numbers will determine which candidates get party support, union support, 527 support, and media attention. This is it, guys. The next fundraising numbers don't get reported until mid-October, too late to impact most allocation of resources. If we want any of our Orange to Blue candidates to get that extra boost, today is the day to give. If you want any of your other favorite candidates to look good this quarter, now is that time to give to them.

I said no more nagging on that last open thread, but I lied. There will be a few more reminders this evening that this is important to every candidate busting their ass to make this country a better country. We need them not just to replace shitty Republicans currently stinking up the joint on the Hill, but also to build a stable of good, solid progressives.

We've got just under five hours to help our hero candidates out.

Update: You guys are dangerously close to hitting the 1,500 goal. You need a better challenge than that. The goal is now 1,600, and at least 600 contributions for every candidate.

Race tracker wiki: AZ-03

It seems that John McCain and his Republican colleagues can't get a break even in his homestate of Arizona.  In my diary yesterday (50 State Strategy: Desperate Times for Republicans in Arizona), I highlighted the problems that McCain and his Republican allies are encountering in Arizona and the good news about a Democratic resurgence in Arizona.  I believe Arizona is very much in play, as a new Rasmussen Poll indicates:

In April, McCain led Obama by twenty points. Now, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows McCain attracting 49% of the vote while Obama earns 40%. Six percent (6%) say they’ll vote for some other candidate and 5% remain undecided. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say McCain is too old to be President while 50% say Obama is too inexperienced.

Is McCain worried about his homestate--you betcha.  And it doesn't help his image one iota when his new campaign office celebration in Arizona is interrupted by protestors.  More below the fold.

Last week, the Christian Science Monitor posed the question, "Can McCain deliver his home state?"

For a senator who consistently gets 80 percent approval ratings from Arizonans, it seems strange, bizarre even, that John McCain would not be a shoo-in to win his home state in November's presidential election. Some in-state analysts say chances are fair, in fact, that Arizona will end up in the Democratic column....

A big part of the uncertainty may be that the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee has not distanced himself enough from the Bush administration to satisfy the one-third of state voters who are independents. But Senator McCain has also seen his support erode among Arizona’s avid Bush supporters and social conservatives, for not backing the president on issues dear to their hearts. Toss in the resources and clout of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who will be pulling hard for her party’s nominee, and anything can happen.

That story line is gaining some steam with new results from Rasmussen out Arizona:

Rasmussen. 6/25. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (4/15 results)

An 18 8 point drop, even in view of Obama's stagnant polling performance, has to be pretty damned worrying to camp McCain, though he has a 60% approval to Obama's 47 in the state. Eleven percent of responders said they'd either vote for someone else (6%) or are undecided. Despite grousing among Arizona Republicans about his immigration stance and questions about his true conservative nature, he has 81% of support from his own party to Obama's 76% of Democrats, and has a 12 point advantage with unaffiliated voters.

But, if McCain dropped 18 points in a little over two months, what might happen over the next four?

As Kossack Bo Jangle's Diary indicated today, AZ's GOP is fed up with McCain.  But other promising and strange things are afoot in Arizona that don't bode well for the GOP and McCain this election year. More below the fold.

This November, for the first time, McCain's name will appear on a national ballot. While Arizona residents know a lot about McCain's political history, the nation, as a whole, knows relatively little. His national image is largely a fantasy created by his public relations machine. It is time now that the nation learns the facts about McCain. What better place to begin than in his home state with his fellow Republicans?

As a resident of Arizona, I have over the years heard nothing good about McCain. In fact when you ask people who live here "what has McCain done for AZ?" you get the same responses, "I don't know" or "nothing". Occasionally you get the "He is a veteran", or the POW comment, but most frequently no one knows why he is a Senator other than he already is one.
If Arizona is so locked down for McCain, why are there not some McCain bumper stickers? I have seen exactly ZERO McCain stickers.

Strange week. Saw my first McCain ad this week...and it is clear he is running as a Democrat. Healthcare, alternative energy, environment...all Democratic talking points. We have gone from Democrats feeling like they have to run as Repub-Lite to Republicans trying to hide behind a Democratic facade. You even have a Republican running for Senate in Oregon trying to claim (falsely) that Obama supports him. This is desperation for the Republicans! It sounds like racist attacks have failed them, though I am sure they will try more as time goes on.

Meanwhile yet more polls show Obama ahead in Virginia and Missouri, tied in Florida, AHEAD IN INDIANA (wow!) and within 1-2 points of McCain in North Carolina, Alaska and Georgia. Each and every one of these states was solid Bush in 2004. Now they are either leaning Obama or effectively tied.

We were in California at Dana Point  when we heard the news on the radio.
It wasn't clear if the people involved in the invasion and shoot out were military or Ex Mexican Military.

However the news out now is plain and simple.

The consensus of opinion from the Phoenix, Arizona police is that at least some of the six cross border raiders were ex-Mexican Army personnel involved in the home invasion homicide on Monday.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/...  

The thoughts of the Phoenix Police officers are that the drug cartels are now performing cross border home invasion raids and murders north of the border i.e. Arizona. The past few months have been difficult for the Mexican Police and some of the drug cartel members who have assumed room temperature. As a result, some members of the remaining Mexican drug cartels are moving parts of their operations into the United States.

From the subscription-only Yellow Sheet Report, an Arizona-centric political newsletter:

Shadegg said, that contrary to what many believe, no one in this country goes without health care. "We're covering them in the emergency rooms and paying a very, very high price to have them walk into the emergency room with a cold or flu."

Emergency rooms don't do anything more than stabilize whatever illness you might have and then send you home. That's not "health care". That's "emergency care".

Sheesh.

If a real health care plan is your priority, help Orange to Blue candidate Bob Lord eliminate yet another Republican roadblock to effective reform.

On the web:
Orange to Blue ActBlue page
Bob Lord for Congress

Race tracker wiki: AZ-03

It was an honor to be the first Congressional candidate named to the Orange to Blue list last week. Thank you so much. It certainly is not lost on me that the candidates named to Orange to Blue all are running great races and will be strong democrats and agents of real change in Washington.

I am by no means a professional politician. My candidacy came about simply because I felt we were never going to meet the critical challenges ahead of us (energy independence, making the economy work for all Americans again, being fiscally responsible, restoring our educational competitiveness) without better representation from Arizona’s 3rd District.

More below the jump.

The past couple of months we’ve seen the Hispanic issue evaporate in front of our eyes.  Individual states started to give us a glimpse at what many knew would come, but the media loved the story about Obama having a Hispanic problem.  The latest proof that Obama is sitting pretty with Hispanics and McCain has a big problem comes from Latino Decision Poll that has Obama leading by 39 points, pulling 63% to McCain’s 24% of likely voters, 60/23 all Latinos.

Cross posted on my site, www.ourhispanicvoices.com.  Drop me an email if you'd like to join my Blogroll.

With 35 Senate seats being contested this year (33 plus 2 special elections), Democrats have only 4 female candidates: Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Kay Hagan (NC), Vivian Figures (AL) and incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA). That's a shamefully low number. The Republicans only have 2 incumbents, Elizabeth Dole (NC) and Susan Collins (ME), and one sole challenger, Christine O'Donnell (DE).

Overall, this is not a great year for women in the U.S. Senate. The overall outcome will be somewhere between minus 2 and plus 4 female Senators. The most likely outcome is somewhere between minus 1 and plus 1.

So, let's look ahead to 2010. Specifically, to which Democratic female politicians might or should run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

The floods in the Midwest have continued and I include some information where I can in the Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin sections. Best of luck to all readers in the hard hit areas.

This week I return to an issue I discussed before: Republican cronies litterally killing our troops with no government oversight. This week Democratic Sentor Bob Casey is demanding an investigation of the electrocutions due to bad wiring that have been plaguing our military bases managed by a Hallibruton subsidiary. More below.

Here's to making McCain spend money and spread his resources thin trying to protect his "safe" states...

Last week the McCain campaign acknowledged that McCain could lose in his home state, Arizona, in November. Remarkably, the McCain campaign has yet to open an office in Arizona. (the campaign headquarters is in Virginia outside of Washington, DC.) In fact, there is almost no McCain campaign activity here, no real meetings, no organizing events, little coordination for volunteers. Last month, McCain was forced to move an Phoenix fundraiser from a reception hall to a private residence because so few people were showing up. This month's polls put McCain up by only 11 points. In his home district he leads by a mere 5 points, within the margin of error.

Take the jump to see the great work that Obama volunteers are doing in McCain's home state of Arizona...

Something stinks in Congress, and if you want to find something that stinks just follow the flies.

Flies are attracted to fresh feces, corpses, and anything that is rotten. Money is unto flies, as corrupt politicians are to feces. The flies in this case would be money, or campaign donations to be precise. Money, in the form of contributions from corrupt PAC lobbies, was filtered through lackeys to the congressional campaign of Trent Franks. Contributions ranging from $500 to $20,000 were linked to dirty money and Abramoff's shifty lobbyist groups.

I was laid off in April from a builder and have had to come up with ways to save money.

I thought what I have found my help others here to lower their energy costs at home and on the road.

Please discuss and add anything that you know may help in reducing costs to this diary.