Desert Politics

Over 3,000 people marched in Phoenix today, including Rage Against the Machine lead singer Zack de la Rocha, to protest the manner in which Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio abuses his authority in implementing his 287(g) agreement with ICE. In this program. Isabel Garcia, an immigration activist and attorney from Tucson, and Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times discuss the march, the 287(g) agreement, and the increased scrutiny of the Federal Government.

Photo radar is another one of those things you love or hate. In this program, host Todd Landfried is joined by Representative Sam Crump (R-6) to discuss photo radar, its pros and cons, and its future in Arizona. As always, we take your calls as well.

With all of the talk about the Federal and state budget deficits and stimulus programs, few people pay attention to how the economy is affecting Arizona's 90 incorporated cities and towns. Joining host Todd Landfried to discuss these impacts is Ken Strobeck, Executive Director of The League of Arizona Cities and Towns.

Former Congressional candidate Bob Lord joins host Todd Landfried to discuss local, state and national politics and the future of the Arizona Democratic Party.

Following an election cycle where Democrats gained everywhere else except Arizona, what does the Arizona Democratic Party have to do to be a factor in 2010? Vince Rabago, former Pima County Democratic Party Chairman discusses his ideas with host Todd Landfried.

The Goldwater Institute released in December a scathing report that says MCSO falls seriously short of fulfilling its mission in the three areas of law-enforcement services, support services, and detention. Although MCSO is adept at self-promotion and is an unquestionably “tough” law-enforcement agency, under its watch violent crime rates recently have soared, both in absolute terms and relative to other jurisdictions. In this program, we the report with its author, Clint Bollick.

Who exactly runs the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors: the Board or Joe Arpaio and Andy Thomas? They're firing and suing each other and arresting citizens who simply want to talk to them about waste and abuse in the Sheriff's office. Discussing this insanity with host Todd Landfried are Monica Sandschafer, Joel Robbins, and Dennis Gilman.

The credit crisis isn't only affecting homeowners. Businesses and governments that rely on credit to invest in new technologies and projects are finding themselves frozen out of the credit markets as well. Joining host Todd Landfried are Matt Fabian, senior analyst at Municipal Market Advisors, a leading bond investment analysis house, and Mike Sunnucks, reporter for the Phoenix Business Journal.

Bloggers are increasingly becoming primary sources of information and news for many Arizonans. Sometimes bloggers actually scoop traditional media on important stories. Join host Todd Landfried as he interviews bloggers Sam Coppersmith of LiberalDesert, Ted Prezelski of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, and Evan Brown of the now-defunct PolitickerAZ.

No group has more to lose with a completely Republican Arizona Legislature and Governor than the Latino community. Host Todd Landfried discusses what this means with former Democratic House Minority Leader John Loredo and Lydia Guzman, Executive Director of Respect/Respeto, and calls from the listening audience. The program also includes an opening tribute to the late Joel Sinclaire, who passed away on November 23, 2008.

The Goldwater Institute released a report titled 100 Ideas for 100 Days, which is intended to provide suggestions to the incoming State Legislature. In this program, host Todd Landfried discusses whether all of the ideas are good ones with one of the report's authors, Dr. Matthew Ladner.

Arizona faces a $1.1B deficit for Fiscal Year 2009, and it looks worse for 2010. Joining host Todd Landfried to discuss the causes and the solutions are Tom Jenny, Executive of Americans for Prosperity, and ASU Professor Dr. David Wells.

Democrats in Arizona took it on the chin in the 2008 General Election. Join host Todd Landfried and guests Mike Sunnucks from the Phoenix Business Journal and Dennis Welch of the East Valley Tribune as they discuss what happened and what it means for the Arizona Legislature and Maricopa County.

In the weekend before the election, we discuss the Board of Supervisors' race with Leigh Strickman and Ed Hermes, the Arizona House race in LD-8 with Stephanie Rimmer, the CD-2 race with John Thrasher, and the new Saban campaign poll that shows Dan Saban beating Joe Arpaio with new voters.

Campaign smears by Republicans are becoming more common in Arizona. In this program, we speak with subjects of those smears: Democrat Jim Larson, who is running for the Arizona Senate in Legislative District 6; Carmen Arias, Board Member for Arizona ACORN, Maricopa County Director of Elections; and George Washington, Staff Attorney for BAMN, who discuss voter registration and petition fraud in Arizona.

In the first half of the show, we’ll examine Proposition 101, which is called the “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.” In the second half, we’ll discuss Proposition 202, which is the “Stop Illegal Hiring” initiative.

Proposition 200 would make payday loans--loans with an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 410% permanently legal in Arizona. In the first half of the program, Prop. 200 opponent Ken Clark tells us why it's a bad idea. In the second half, candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff Dan Saban provides some background on his attempts to get Joe Arpaio to debate him. Then, Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times discusses why he thinks Arpaio is afraid to debate Saban.

The Maricopa County Community College Governing Board oversees all of the community colleges throughout Maricopa County. In this program, we speak with two candidates for the Governing Board, Pam Petty and Randolph Lumm.

The Maricopa County media have failed to provide any real coverage of the Dan Saban campaign to unseat Joe Arpaio as Maricopa County Sheriff. Why is that? Why does Arpaio, who has such a terrible record of wasting taxpayer money, lawsuit losses, deaths of humans and animals, get a pass from the local media, where if he were running in any other state, he would be tossed from office? Host Todd Landfried is joined by attorney Joel Robbins, former journalist and now private investigator Rich Robertson and reporter Stephen Lemons from the Phoenix New Times in a timely discussion of the media and its coverage of Dan Saban.

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to terminate law enforcement services in the Town of Guadalupe. To discuss how elected officials would deny police protection to any community, we're joined by former Guadalupe Mayor and current City Councilperson Rebecca Jimenez and candidate for the Board of Supervisors Marilyn Fox.

This is the second of a series of programs highlighting Democratic candidates for office. In the first half of this program, we speak with candidates for the Arizona Senate, Robert Boehlke from LD-4, and Board of Supervisor Candidate Leigh Strickman, from SD-4. In the second half-hour, we speak with Judah Nativio, who is running for the Senate from LD-18.

This is the first of a series of programs highlighting Democratic candidates for office. In this program, we speak with candidates for the Arizona House of Representatives, Paula Forster and Sue Dolphin from LD-4, and Glenn Ray from LD-22. Each of the candidates' campaigns paid for their appearance on Desert Politics.

Maricopa County Recorder official Tammy Patrick and Maricopa County Election Integrity Committee member Randall Holmes discuss what voters need to know when heading to the polls this Tuesday. The program includes helpful information on which types of ID are required at the polls and what voters can expect when they enter the polling place. For information on election day, voters should call the Maricopa County Elections Office Hotline at 602-506-1511 between 5 AM and 9 PM.

Write-in candidates Leigh Strickman (SD-4) and Michael Williams (LD-20) discuss what it's like to run as a write-in, including getting voters to spell their names correctly, completing the ballot correctly, and raising money. In the last segment of the program, we discuss the demise of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative with BAMN National Co-Chair Shanta Driver

Le Templar, senior opinion writer for the East Valley Tribune, discusses the top local and county races with host Todd Landfried.

Randy Parraz of the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability discusses their efforts to hold the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors accountable for overspending, civil rights abuses, and excessive lawsuits by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other County agencies in the first half of the program. In the second half of the show, Stephen Lemons of the New Times discusses the two stories he broke that are now the subject of flyers targeting Russell Pearce by the group Mesa Deserves Better.

On the primary ballot this September 2, there will be the names of two Democratic candidates running for Congress in Arizona CD-6: Rebecca Schneider and Chris Gramzaio. In this program, we discuss the issues facing CD-6 and get their views on why they believe they are the best person to represent the citizens of that growing district.

The Arizona Department of Real Estate regulates real estate sales agents, associate brokers, designated brokers, home builders, loan originators, rental properties, time shares, rental units, and much more. In this program, we speak with Arizona's Commissioner of Real Estate, Sam Wercinski.

What is the job of the Maricopa County Attorney? Is the current occupant doing a good job or wasting taxpayers' money? Are we safer or being taken for a ride? In this program, we speak with one of the Democratic candidates for the job, Tim Nelson, and get his take on the current attorney's performance and why he would be better as the Maricopa County Attorney.

The job of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has to be one of the most important jobs no one knows about, yet they control a budget totaling nearly $2.3B that covers 40 agencies for the nation's fifth-largest county. In this program, we discuss the current Board of Supervisors, with three people vying for the jobs: Democrats Marilyn Fox, Ed Hermes, and Joel Sinclaire.

After 166 days (six full months), the Arizona Legislature finally passed a FY2009 budget with less than a week to spare before the start of the budget year on July 1, 2008. In this program, we speak with Democratic House Minority Leader Phil Lopes (LD-27, Tucson), who gives us his take on why it took so long, what the good and bad parts of the budget were, and what opportunities were missed. As always, there are calls from the audience.

In this, our last in a series of programs on the facts of undocumented immigration, we speak with Dr. Douglas Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the Co-Director of the Mexican Migration Project, which has gathered social and economic data regarding Mexican-U.S. immigration since 1982. A well-respected scientist in human migration reasons and patterns, Dr. Massey dispels all of the main talking points of those who look to draconian solutions to a jobs and economics-based problem.

In this program, we speak with Paul Waldman, Senior Fellow at Media Matters of America, author of the report "Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News." This report takes a critical look at how some people in the media are using fear, anger, and resentment to distort the facts about illegal immigration.

There are two guests for this week's program. For the first half of the show, we speak with Shanta Driver, Co-Chair of BAMN (www.bamn.com), a grass-roots organization that is challenging efforts in Arizona to repeal civil rights and affirmative action laws. In the second hour, we speak with Lydia Guzman, Executive Director of Respect/Respeto, which works to identify cases of racial profiling that result from the passage and implementation of Arizona's Employer Sanctions law.

The 2008 Elections appear to be a year of significant change in who gets elected to office. In this installment of Desert Politics, we speak with newly elected Tempe City Councilman Corey Woods about his decision to run for office, his experiences on the campaign trail, and what he would like to accomplish in his first term in office.

Scandal, investigations, and public skepticism led to the passage of Arizona's Clean Election Act in 1998. Ten years later, how is it working? In this program, we discuss the Clean Elections Act with Todd Lange, Executive Director of the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, and with Nick Dranias, Director of the Center for Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute.

On today's program, we discuss the conditions in Maricopa County jails, the lawsuits that are the result of these conditions, the organizational and political culture that allows these problems to exist and continue, and what it means to county taxpayers with attorneys Michael Manning and Joel Robbins. We're also joined in the third segment by former MCSO jail resident Shaun Attwood, who adds his take on life in jail.

On today's program, we discuss issues such as property tax repeal, employer sanctions, and the budget with Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Glenn Hamer.

On this, our first anniversary of being on the air at AM1480 KPHX, our guest is Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. On the program, the Mayor discusses major accomplishments of the city in the past year, light rail, the state of the economy, and discusses his objections to Sheriff Arpaio's crime sweeps and shares his views with callers on immigration and how the city is doing a better job of handling undocumented immigrants than the Sheriff.

It seems that County Attorney Andy Thomas has been in the news a lot recently for questionable uses and possible abuses of the law. In this program, we discuss these issues with Phoenix New Times reporter Stephen Lemons and candidate for County Attorney Gerald Richard.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has held self-described "Crime Suppression Sweeps" in Maricopa County over each of the last three weeks. While most of the media coverage from last weekend's (April 4-5, 2008) "sweep" in Guadalupe covered the story from the Sheriff's perspective, there was scant coverage of the people in this community of one-square mile who had to deal with 200 deputies, the bomb squad and posse as well as the media pulling over anyone for the most petty of offenses. Local businessman Jason LaVecke and activist/videographer Dennis Gillman join program host Todd Landfried to discuss what they witnessed that weekend and what it means to the community and the county.

In this installment of Desert Politics, we catch up on what's going on at the Arizona State Capitol with Democratic House Minority Leader Phil Lopes. Issues discussed include the budget deficit, immigration, and health care. As always, the program included calls from the listeners.

On this week's program, guest host Mark Manoil speaks with long-time Democratic activist and Super Delegate Janice Brunson on her 20+ year involvement with Democratic politics here in Maricopa County, the state, and the nation. Also joining them is Donna Gratehouse, a recently elected delegate to the DNC convention.

On this week's program, we discuss what has happened in Aguila since our first broadcast in December. Are they being provided police protection from the MCSO, or do they have to resort to arming themselves? Hint: it's not the former. Joining host Todd Landfried are citizens from Aguila who give us their side of this important story.

On today's program, we discuss Arizona Senate Bill 1214, known to the public as the "Guns in School" bill. Joining host Todd Landfried to discuss SB1214 are Senator Ken Cheuvront from LD-15, who sits on the Senate's Judiciary Committee, and Alan Korwin, author of "The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide" and expert in gun laws.

This program discusses the "Healthy Arizona" initiative created by the group Arizonans for Responsible Health Care (AFRHC). Joining host Todd Landfried are AFRHC founder Glenn Ray and AFRHC President Pete Cerchiara, who will discuss the status of health care in Arizona, how their program will work, and details on funding and using their proposed health care system.

As the largest city in Arizona and the fifth-largest city nationally, Phoenix is a microcosm of cultures, industries, and problems. Joining host Todd Landfried to discuss the issues facing this great American city are Phoenix City Councilman Tom Simplot (D4) and Michael Nowakowski (D7).

Our elected officials down at the state capital spend a lot of time writing new laws that "improve" our lives and promote their agenda. But could average citizens do any better? In this program, listeners call in with their ideas on needed laws that they believe would make life in Arizona better. Joining host Todd Landfried is Ted Prezelski, blogger of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion."

One of the biggest concerns the Hispanic community has with the Employer Sanctions law and other legislation that has been passed in Arizona and is being enforced by the Maricopa County Sheriff is racial profiling. In this program, we discuss the case of a U.S. citizen Israel Correa, who was pulled over, arrested and retained because the MCSO believed he was in the country illegally even though he had a current driver's license automobile registration form and social security card, and as such placed an ICE "hold" on him, keeping him in jail much longer than necessary. Joining host Todd Landfried to discuss this case is one of the reporters who covered it closely, Steve Lemons of the Phoenix New Times. As usual, the program included calls from the audience.

On today’s program, we are joined by Shaun Attwood, who until recently was a prisoner in the state’s penal system and for 26 months was a prisoner awaiting sentencing in Maricopa County’s jails, including Madison St and Tent City. His blog, Jon’s Jail Journal (jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com), highlighted the conditions and happenings in the jail while he was actually IN the jail. Shaun is out of jail and has returned to England, where he continues to write his blog and is contemplating writing a book on his experiences. As usual, the program included calls from the audience.