Rep. Kyrsten Sinema: Giving Connerly and Thomas a proper paddywhack on the rumpus.
It was Ward "Money Bags" Connerly and Andy "Candy" Thomas who figured that this white bread-and-mayo state of ours needed less diversity, not more. And they reckoned their way of achieving this ass-backwards, bigoted goal was the deceptively-worded Arizona Civil Rights Initiative. Thing is, they were as wrong as Wayne Brady singing Rasta tunes, and that's why ACRI is going down like Chloe Sevigny in that flick Brown Bunny.
Currently, the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, which verifies the signatures for the Arizona Secretary of State, is reporting a 45.9 percent failure rate, meaning that's how many are disqualified from the sample they're going through. If this failure rate remains as high during the second round of checking, ACRI will not make it to the ballot, according to Maricopa County Elections spokesperson Kristi Passarelli.
Maybe Connerly, who travels from state to state hawking this loser, and County Attorney Candy Thomas, the state chairman for ACRI, shouldn't have placed their faith in such signature-gatherers as are apparently depicted in the video linked to, here. The anti-Connerly org BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) has posted several such videos on YouTube. But this one is exceptionally wack because it purportedly shows a petition gatherer for the Connerly initiative getting physical with some BAMN folks filming her. Ultimately, the freak flashes the camera, revealing that underwear is a clothing option she opts out of. And believe me, this ain't someone you wanna see nekkid. The original version of the vid showed the hag's naughty bits. Fortunately, someone has cropped 'em out of what's online now.
Further, um, exposing the alleged misdeeds of these petition gatherers, passionate local liberal and state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema today announced that the group she chairs, Protect Arizona's Freedom, would be filing a lawsuit on behalf of two Sand Land college students alleging that "over 100,000 of the signatures gathered by Connerly’s out-of-state team are invalid and must be thrown out due to violations of state law," according to the press release.
Called for comment, Sinema told me that her group wasn't trying to determine if the sigs themselves were valid, as PAF believes that the County will do a good enough job on that front. Rather, PAF is alleging 13 different types of fraud on the part of the petition hawkers, everything from gatherers signing each others petitions over and over to those who obtained Arizona I.D. under false pretenses and felons who have not had their rights restored gathering sigs.
Consider the PAF suit a little insurance on the Connerly initiative, a backup in case the initiative still sneaks through somehow, and a disincentive for Connerly and Thomas should they consider legal action to get it on the ballot. Sinema stongly believes the initiative will get the boot from the SOS.
"The numbers that are coming in from the county [on ACRI] are the worst I've ever seen in my entire life," Sinema told me. "So I believe the Secretary of State herself will de-certify it based just on signatures."
The thing I want to know is why the county's top prosecutor has involved himself with a crowd of petition gatherers that allegedly includes felons and the like? I mean, Candy is the chairman of the Ward Connerly effort, so if he has a bunch of felons working for him (albeit indirectly through a petition gathering co.), shouldn't he be held responsible? And what if some of these sig-hunters committed fraud, as is alleged? What does that say about a County Attorney sworn to uphold our laws?
