Arizona Lawmaker Questioned About His Military Status Compares Accusations To IED's

Arizona State Senator Jeff Dial (R-LD18) is fighting back against intra-party allegations that he has exaggerated his military service for political benefit; however, tweeting the headline of a blog post defending him may cause him more trouble.

The headline: "Jeff Dial - Still serving, despite the IEDs of politics".

Dial also posted the op-ed on his website, comparing accusations against him to IEDs, which

have killed and caused numerous Traumatic Brain Injuries to members of the U.S. Armed Services (and others).

The Arizona Republic has prominently (front page) published two articles this month about Sen. Dial's service in the Army Reserve, and has editorialized on it as well.  Yesterday's article prompted a response from "Military Retiree" Jon Altmann, that was posted on at least one blog.

Sen. Jeff Dial posted Altmann's response - complete with the attention-grabbing headline - on his website. That gave it a "jeffdial.com" URL, which he promptly posted on Twitter.

After communicating with Arizona's Politics (via Twitter!), Sen. Dial moved Altmann's headline (on his site) to the article portion of the page, and inserted "Great article by Jon Altmann" as his headline. The Tweet (shown above) remains.

Dial told Arizona's Politics that "in no way does what I'm going through compare with what our soldiers overseas are experiencing with IEDs."

Arizona's Politics had not reported on the issues presented in the Arizona Republic articles.  Now that we have interviewed Sen. Dial on the underlying subject, we will shortly post an article.


We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

WATCH, READ: McCain Senate Floor Monologue Today On Obama, World

Arizona Senator John McCain (R-AZ) took to an empty Senate chamber today to discuss current events, especially President Obama and his lack of a complete strategy to deal with ISIS.

Here is the complete video, along with a transcript (from C-Span closed captioning, read at your own risk).

Transcript of remarks is below the jump.

Managers of Jeb Bush's Campaign and "Campaign" Both Have Ducey, McCain Connections

The leader of Jeb Bush's anticipated Presidential campaign last saw campaign action last year as a consultant for Doug Ducey's successful Arizona gubernatorial campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal today. Thus, both Bush's campaign and his "campaign" are led by men with Arizona and John McCain connections.

39-year old Danny Diaz is apparently a surprise choice to head up the Bush committee, according to

the WSJ.  However, as the lede of the article notes, Diaz has worked for the past three GOP presidential nominees, including Arizona Sen. John McCain's effort in 2008.

Diaz was deputy communications director for the McCain campaign that year; the chief strategist was Mike Murphy.  Murphy has been directing Bush's Right To Rise SuperPAC, which is expected to take on many of the tasks that previously were handled by the candidate's (controlled) campaign committee.

TheHill.com notes that Diaz describes himself (on his PA firm's website) as "the general consultant in Arizona Governor Doug Ducey's general election campaign." In reality, however, Ducey had a covey* of consultants for his general election campaign, of which Diaz - through Deep Red Strategies - was one of the lower-paid.

Deep Red Strategies received $3,000 for work during the campaign against Democrat Fred DuVal. (He did receive $13,886 for work done during the multi-candidate primary campaign.)

*Open to suggestion re: the best term to describe a group of political consultants, or even consultants in general. We chose "covey" because it is close to a "coven of witches". The similarities made it irresistible; the AP Stylebook did not provide guidance.

We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

WATCH: Rep. Franks Getting Pushed To Support Trade Fast Track Measure, By GOP Group Tied To House Speaker; Arizona's Delegation Split

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (R-CD8) is one of 65 Republican Congressmembers being pushed by a Boehner-tied group to support the trade fast track TPA later this month.

The American Action Network is spending nearly $1M on a national TV ad (Fox News, and below), mailers, digital and radio advertising.  They will only use the national ad and digital advertising to influence Franks regarding the Trade Promotion Authority measure.

The campaign by a Republican group backing the Republican House Speaker to influence Republican House Members who may be reluctant to support TPA because of Republican voters is obviously going to "make the Republican case" for promoting trade.

The ad urges passage because "If we don’t lead on global trade, China will.”  It points out that "liberals and labor unions" oppose the measure because they "advocate weakness abroad". (Interestingly, the ad shows a picture of President Obama just before that statement, although the President is campaigning hard for Congress to pass it.)



Franks' position on the TPA is listed as "undecided or unclear" by TheHill.com.  Arizona's Politics has asked the Congressman for his position and will update as warranted.

TheHill's list also describes Rep. Paul Gosar (R-CD4) as undecided or unclear on the GOP side, and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD1) as the same on the Democratic side.  It notes that Arizona GOP Reps. Martha McSally (R-CD2), Matt Salmon (R-CD5) and David Schweikert (R-CD6) are "yes or leaning yes". Equally on the other side, Arizona Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-CD7), Raul Grijalva (D-CD3) and Ann Kirkpatrick (D-CD1) are "no or leaning no".

A Politico article notes that a vote on the TPA is expected within the next two weeks.


We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

UPDATE: Ballard Spahr Law Firm Responds To Arizona's Politics' Article About Fmr. Gov. Brewer's New Consulting Gig

Yesterday, Arizona's Politics published an article about former Governor Jan Brewer's new gig with national law firm Ballard Spahr, and the $3.3M in legal business the firm's new Phoenix office did with the State after Brewer's General Counsel jumped from the Governor's Office to Ballard Spahr in 2011.  We asked* Ballard Spahr's Joe Kanefield and/or Scott Smith for reaction to the article, and promised that we "would be happy to either run a followup or to supplement the article with your comments and/or relevant data."

Mr. Kanefield did respond.  As he raises a valid point (and some not-as-valid points), we are publishing his email in full here. (Our reply is below it.)

Mitch, we appreciate the opportunity to respond to your blog post. We wish you had given us that opportunity before you published the article, and then you would not have made such serious errors of fact. The post falsely states that Governor Brewer "directed $3.3M To Law Firm That Now Hires Her." That statement is provably false. While the firm has represented Governor Brewer in the past, the bulk of the fees the firm received for Arizona government matters over the past four years came from public entitiesindependent of the Governor's Office, including the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission and the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. In addition, it's only fair to note that Ballard Spahr was among several firms that provided outside counsel to the Governor's Office during Governor Brewer's last term, including Snell & Wilmer, Fennemore Craig and Gammage & Burnham. Moreover, as The Arizona Republic article correctly noted, Governor Brewer is a consultant to the firm, not an employee. While we cannot understand why you published the article without speaking with us first, we respectfully request that you correct or retract the statements immediately.

Arizona's Politics does agree with Mr. Kanefield that the one word "directed" is misused there.  While any direction may be fairly implied** by the circumstances and the timeline laid out in the article, there is no "smoking gun" to indicate that Gov. Brewer personally directed all of the state agencies and commissions to begin sending outside legal work to Ballard Spahr.  Arizona's Politics did not use the term in the article itself, and has removed it from the headline.***

Mr. Kanefield also states that "it's only fair to note that Ballard Spahr was among several firms...." The article does not imply anything to the contrary, and focuses on overall legal services to the State of Arizona - as detailed on the State's website.  For the article, Arizona's Politics reviewed the legal billings of all firms that received more than $100,000 from Arizona taxpayers in a fiscal year.  Only one law firm received more than Ballard Spahr.

The large law firms mentioned by Kanefield were - surprisingly - not even close to receiving the approximately $3.3M taken in by Ballard Spahr between July 2011 and January 2015.  Removing the $3.3M which Snell & Wilmer received from the Governor's legal defense fund for SB1070****, those three major firms combined received less than Ballard Spahr (approx $2,4M).  And, at most, those three combined received half of what Ballard Spahr did from the Governor's Office.*****

Mr. Kanefield's attempt to cloud the issue by comparing Ballard Spahr to the very limited amount of legal work given to everyone else is ill-taken.

However, we appreciate Mr. Kanefield's response, and have removed the word "directed" from the headline, and adjusted the language to reflect the "consultant" status.  The article was - and, is - accurate and newsworthy, and will stand.

* The request for reaction was made shortly after publication.  The Kanefield quotes in the Republic article and the State's legal billing numbers speak for themselves, and the article was on deadline.
** Mr. Kanefield's examples of state commissions retaining Ballard Spahr do not make the word "directed" "provably false."  
***Social media references to the term will be changed; however, reposts and retweets may remain.
****The legal defense fund was from voluntary contributions (without limits), not taxpayers' money.
*****If you remove the monies received by Gammage & Burnham for the first months after Kanefield went to Ballard Spahr, and the monies Snell & Wilmer received after Brewer left office, the "big three" combined received approximately $75,000 from the Governor's Office, while Ballard Spahr received approximately $292,000.  Ballard Spahr currently has approximately 30 attorneys in Arizona (website), while the others have more than 400 attorneys (Republic, websites). (No other outside attorneys worked for the Governor's Office.)

We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

Jan Brewer Following The Money After Stint As Arizona Governor; During Her Tenure, Arizona Paid $3.3M To Law Firm That Now Hires Her (FOLLOWING STATE MONEY IN ARIZONA'S POLITICS)

(Update, 6/4/15, 2:30pm: At our request, Joe Kanefield - Gov. Brewer's former General Counsel and current partner with Ballard Spahr - responded to this article. His reaction is published in full, along with our reply.  We have adjusted the wording of the headline - removing "directed" - and adjusted this article to reflect that the former Governor is a consultant to Ballard Spahr and not employed by them.)

There is a good article in the Arizona Republic today updates readers on former Governor Jan Brewer getting used to being out of the public eye, and getting hired by a national law firm. The article quotes Joe Kanefield - the "attorney and longtime Brewer adviser".* And, the article discusses some of the interesting ethical and lobbying issues presented by Brewer's new career.

What the article does NOT touch on is the Governor's relationship with Ballard Spahr** WHILE she was Arizona's Governor.  Her new client was one of the two law firms that most benefited from her term as Governor, billing the State of Arizona approximately $3.3 million in the last 3 1/2 years of Brewer's governorship.

The relationship began within weeks after Kanefield left his position as the Governor's General Counsel in May 2011, in order to become a partner with Ballard Spahr, when he began representing the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.  The firm also quickly began representing the Governor's Office and Arizona's Medicaid program ("AHCCCS"),

Within 10 months, Ballard Spahr had billed the State $1,000,000.  The three straight years of nearly $1M billing is about to come to an end this fiscal year, as Governor Brewer left office in January.  During the past four years, only one other law firm has billed Arizona taxpayers more.

In addition to Kanefield leaving the Governor's Office to move to Ballard Spahr, the Republic article also notes that Brewer's Chief of Staff - who presumably had major input into choices of outside legal counsel - now directs Ballard Spahr's Arizona lobbying operations.

Brewer may currently be back to driving her own Cadillac around town; her new client might want to look into providing her with a chauffeured limo.

(image from the archives)

(P.S. The amount that the State paid annually to outside legal counsel increased dramatically throughout Governor Brewer's tenure (to $19.3M in FY2014).  More on that in separate article.)

RELATED ARTICLES ABOUT GOVERNOR JAN BREWER:
***Gov. Brewer's Super PACs: Retirement Fund, 2016 Run Against McCain, Or Just "Stay Active" Money?

***Governor Brewer, Personal SuperPAC Benefit From Company Privatizing Arizona Rest Stops 

***WATCH & READ, IN CONTEXT: Gov. Brewer On Senate's Immigration Bill, Yesterday and Today: I Have Not Endorsed That Bill 

  *Interestingly, it is not made clear that Kanefield (a) was the Governor's legal counsel during her 1st two years in office; and (b) went straight from his state job to Ballard Spahr.

**Tempting though it may be, Arizona's Politics will NOT abbreviate this law firm.

We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

Gosar Amendment Penalizes DOJ Officials Salaries $1M; McSally 1 Of Only 14 Republicans To Oppose

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (R-CD4) successfully pushed an amendment to take $1,000,000 from salaries for Department of Justice officials.  He suggested that stripping the million from the budget of the DOJ legal activities* would "hold (the Department) accountable for its failure to enforce the rule of law."

Gosar's amendment passed on a roll call vote of 228-198.  Only 14 Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the amendment; Arizona Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2) was one of that group.

Here is Rep. Gosar's short speech explaining the amendment.

The House of Representatives is continuing to debate the appropriations bills past 1:30am.

* page 25, line 3




We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

Arizona Senators Split On USA Freedom Act Today, Restoring Provisions of PATRIOT Act

Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake (both R) split their votes on  the USA Freedom Act this afternoon, which restores key provisions of the PATRIOT Act.  The measure now goes to President Obama's desk; he has indicated he will sign it.

The Senate voted 67-32 to pass the USA Freedom Act, after the House passed it 338-88 on May 13. The bill restores provisions which lapsed this past weekend, regarding roving wiretaps, and reforms the bulk collection of phone data.

McCain had been a vocal proponent of amending the House-passed version; he voted "nay" today.  Flake voted "aye," joining 22 other Republicans and all but one Democrat in passing the House version. (Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) was the only Democrat to oppose it.)

Today's vote continued the showdown between the libertarian-leaning wing of the Republican party - led by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) - and the party leadership and more establishment portion of the party. McCain was a vocal leader of the latter.  (Lee ended up voting "aye", Paul voted "nay".)

Here is video from Sunday night, when Sens. McCain and Paul got into a rules battle:


The leadership tried to gather support for amending the House-passed version, with the risk that the House would not support those amendments and the lapsed provisions would hamper U.S. intelligence efforts.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then noted that the defeat of the proposed tweaks was a "resounding victory for (NSA leaker) Edward Snowden. It is also a resounding victory for those currently plotting attacks against the homeland.”

The issue scrambled the usual party lines in both the Senate and the House.  In the latter, three of the five Arizona Republicans voted "nay", and Arizona Democrats split 3-1 "aye".

We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.