GOP's one-sided ad hoc committees harm Arizona
Freshman GOP Sen. Sylvia 'the earth is only 6000 years old' Allen is busy on bad ad hoc committees.Most, if not all, of these ad hoc 'committees' are stacked with less experienced politicians, industry insiders and bureaucrats looking to drive a particular hostile agenda they couldn't move in the regular legislative session, and collect more money in mileage and per diem.
One of the worst is the so-called 'energy and water development' ad hoc committee, chaired by Sen. Al Melvin (R-LD26) and Rep. Dave Gowan (R-LD30). No disrespect intended to anyone, but neither of these Republicans has energy or water policy expertise or serves on relevant real legislative water and energy committees, nor does anyone hand picked by GOP leaders for this ad hoc committee. Lawmakers with energy and water expertise are not invited or consulted. Instead of dealing with pressing energy issues, Melvin's group has mostly discussed how taxpayers should further subsidize the hugely expensive and risky nuclear industry.
The Republican-run ad hoc 'mining regulations' committee, chaired by Sen. Sylvia '6000 year old earth' Allen (R-LD5), seems focused on trying to shovel more taxpayer subsidies and loopholes to big mining corporations, many of them foreign-owned, and won't even mention the well established broad public concerns about the history of pollution, ripoffs and conflicts with mining in Arizona.
Fair and balanced, these ad hoc committees are not.
The truth is the legislature is very divided, with Representatives and Senators for millions of Arizonans trying to do the right thing for the common good. The problem is an arrogant and badly out-of-touch GOP majority that only listens to itself and empowers its more extreme members, shutting out everyone else and the broad public interest.
The good people of Arizona are best served when both sides of the legislature try to work together, and I the Democrats have been trying, but closed-minded Republicans are not listening and our great state is suffering because of it.
Let's hope nothing real emerges from these bad one-sided ad hoc committees of 2009.
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And a cautionary note to people who don't pay attention to the down-ballot positions: she was appointed, not elected to the position originally. As I blogged a ways down here,
Senator Allen was not originally elected to the position, but rather she was appointed by our county board of supervisors following the death of the incumbent (thanks, guys.) I will give my own supervisor, J.R. DeSpain, credit for opposing her, but he lost a 4-1 vote. It is true that state law required that they appoint a Republican to the position (since Jake Flake, the guy who died was a Republican) but you would think they would at least look for a Republican who knows the earth was here already before civilization began. There are some, you know. Heck Konopnicki was known to be interested in the position and as the state representative and a member of the same party he would have been the logical choice to run.
Our county board of supervisors (which on paper is 4-1 Democratic) turned around and went with the recommendation of the local GOP (in the process turning down our state rep, who is actually pretty reasonable for a Republican) because three Democrats voted for the Republican recommendation.
And we now all have to pay the price.