Arizona Democratic leaders had talked up the possibility of taking back the state House in '08, why, maybe even the state Senate. Instead, the local donkey-kongs, true to form, lost seats in the Legislature.
Though the congressional delegation boasted a majority of Ds, and the Dems picked up a couple of Arizona Corporation Commission seats, Governor Janet Napolitano already had her Samsonite packed for D.C., leaving Arizona with the reptilian Jan Brewer in her place and the Republinuts firmly in control.
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Ticked, the Democratic base revolted at the state party meeting in January 2009.
Chairman Don Bivens, though acknowledged by all as a fine fundraiser, was replaced by Tucson politico Paul Eckerstrom after Eckerstrom threw his name in at the last minute and gave a barn-burning speech promising a unified message and a contest in every legislative district. Dems rewarded him with the party's crown.
Two weeks later, to the disappointment of all but cynical insiders (and Republicans), Eckerstrom resigned his post, citing family issues. I've always believed the rumors that party muckamucks forced him out, though Eckerstrom denied such rumors at the time.
Bivens was voted back in, but his executive director, Maria Weeg, was cut loose as a sop to the Dems with pitchforks. Former Grijalva staffer Luis Heredia eventually eased into Weeg's seat.
This backstory was uppermost in my skull when I spotted Bivens in the ballroom of the Wyndham on Election Night. I told him that 2010 was like déjà vu all over again.
He wondered what I meant. Two years ago was oh-so-different, he insisted, what with a gain in the congressional delegation — specifically Ann Kirkpatrick's 2008 win, now returned as a loss in '10.
What about the Legislature, I wondered, with the GOP picking up seats, again, and Russell Pearce hovering, buzzard-like?
"Oh, Steve, nothing's changed there in 40 years," he pooh-poohed. "When's the last time Democrats won the Legislature? Under this districting plan, as it exists right now, it is not possible, whether it was year one or year 10, for the Democrats to have a majority in either the Senate or the House. Our hope is in the new redistricting plan."
Maybe, but what I'd just heard — amazingly — was the chairman of the state Democratic Party conceding the Legislature to the Republicans.
Having majorities in both houses would be difficult to achieve, but at least the Dems could shrink the gap, making it harder for GOP crazies like Pearce and his ilk to pass insane laws like 1070 — a law that became a litmus test for the entire freaking election and every candidate in it.
Bivens also gave me some blather about reaching his hand out to the tuskers. Thing is, Don, with a Republican supermajority in place, the Dems are now as insignificant as the team that always plays the Harlem Globetrotters and loses. Um, or the Suns.
Days later, executive director Heredia sent an e-mail to the party's precinct committeepersons providing talking points that largely mirrored what Bivens had told me: We couldn't help it, it was a Republican year; the Dems haven't taken the Legislature in 40 years; the only statewide seat the GOP picked up was the AG's Office; and on and on.
(History lesson: Democrat Pete Rios was state Senate president from 1991-92, when Dems controlled the upper house. In 2000, the Senate was split 15-15, and moderate GOPer Randall Gnant was Senate president.)
Bivens had to concede to me that the Dems had no unified position on immigration. So, what if we're back here two years from now, having the same lame conversation, with the same tired explanations?
"We won't be," Bivens assured me, Pollyanna-ishly. "On the immigration issue, there's going to be a big push to get the federal government off the dime and do something."
Unfortunately, that push will be coming from the nativist right, not from the pro-immigration faction. Message to Latinos: Prepare to be backstabbed yet again.
Granted, under Bivens' leadership, the party raised around $4.2 million this year for state races, according to Dem spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson. That's expected to outpace the state GOP, as Dems have done in the past.
Yet the Dems are not attracting new voters at the rate necessary. The Republicans, who already have an edge on registration, picked up another 12,000 registrants since the end of July, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. The Dems picked up only 1,700. Independents outpaced both at 29,000. But when indies are breaking right, that's hardly a neutral factor. Hell, by 2012, independents may surpass Democratic totals for registration.
Johnson claimed it was a unique situation, attributable to 2010's not being a Democratic year. Okay, but what the heck happened to all the Latino voters whom various groups were claiming to have registered?
If you ask me, Bivens and some other leadership-level Dems are a little too comfortable with their losses. Bivens is a big-shot lawyer with a Paradise Valley address. And he's a partner in the same law firm that's making bank off 1070 — Snell & Wilmer, the mega-firm hired by Brewer to defend Pearce's bigoted legislation in federal court.
Should Bivens take the fall for the Dems' debacle? Only if someone of substance is willing to take his place and stick to it. No flakes this time. (Two names I hear being floated as Bivens' possible replacement, Jon Hulburd and state Senator-elect Kyrsten Sinema would be colossal mistakes, but that's a future column.) And if he or she can't pull in the cash like Bivens, well, as far as I can see, all that Democratic loot didn't prevent the Republicans from being victorious, or Pearce from becoming state Senate president.
