Yavapai County Democratic Party

Democratic Women of the Prescott Valley

Newsletter Oct 11, 2007

ISSUES REPORT - ACTION!

September - 2007 Issues Committee
Ginny-Jo
Ralph-Elaine
Kathy

The Economy and Family Values
In spite of Bush’s recent bragging about the economy, the only households whose incomes have really increased while Bush has been in office are those in the wealthiest 5 percent of families, and especially those in the wealthiest 1/10 of one percent. Meanwhile the numbers of those without health care coverage have increased to 47 million, including nearly 9 million children. And Bush just vetoed a bill which would allow the States to expand health coverage for children. Here’s what it looks like from the bottom percentile of wealth in Arizona: A 24 year-old man works a 40 hour week making $9.00 an hour with no health care, He is married so his wife is not eligible for ACCESS. Too bad! If he hadn’t married her, she could be on ACCESS and be eligible for birth control. She did not want another child because she has a pre-cancerous condition. But, he married her, she lost ACESS, can’t afford birth control, now she is pregnant again, with no health care. See any conflict between the Republican Economy and Family Values?

The Election Integrity Project
Arizona finds itself at the cutting edge of voter and election integrity issues especially including monitoring and auditing the voting tabulation machines used in our state. This program has flowed from the hard work of the Pima County Democratic Party who discovered and fought against numerous problems in the elections system. Dr. Ted Downing chairs the state committee and fought for the legislation that we have today. Fortunately, Arizona politicians have recognized the fundamental wisdom of having a paper ballot to audit. The Election Integrity program includes enforcing all of our legal rights regarding the appointment of poll workers; our right to participate in, observe and monitor literally every part of the voting and vote counting process. This includes the central “vote count” operations and includes every aspect of early voting, the actual election day operations, and the vote count on election night. A critical element is the post election audit in which the law provides for a hand count starting with a randomly selected 2% of all precincts. If discrepancies are found, then additional precincts are hand counted; and if further discrepancies are found, the entire County will be hand counted.

This effort will require many volunteers and everyone’s dedication, but this is also a unique opportunity to observe an election from the inside out. By Guest Commentator, Greg Kaighn Steve Scaroni built a $50 million farming business growing lettuce and broccoli. Now he has begun shifting part of his farm to Mexico as have many other US farmers thanks to NO comprehensive immigration reform. Thank Republicans for more outsourcing. The Bureau of Prisons directed chaplains to purge Prison Libraries of thousands of religious materials that are not on a list of 150 “approved” religious books. The Bureau staffed by ideologically strong Republicans thinks anything other than the approved materials will engender militant extremism. A class action law-suit has been filed by the prisoners to protect their religious freedom. The government will spend your tax dollars to defend themselves. Feel safer? The true economic cost of the war in Iraq includes a staggering 2.5 trillion dollars to care for our wounded soldiers. Our soldiers are surviving battlefield injuries at the highest rate ever due to modern medicine but their injuries are truly catastrophic.

JACK WILSON WON!!
Jack Wilson won the Prescott Mayoral race by 141 votes. He is the first Democrat elected to that position in 30 years. Jack ran a smart, clean and organized campaign. The phone bank (which included 15 people from DWPA) contacted nearly all the voters in 28 of the 29 precincts. This shows how mastering old time politics makes things happen! Congratulations to Jack and all his supporters!