YOUR VOICE MATTERED

On Friday May 27, 2011, with continued hope and resolve, Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer turned in an estimated 37,500 signatures supporting her recall to the Arizona Secretary of State. While we fell far short of the 432,028 signatures required to recall the Governor, the thousands of supporters of the recall effort are proud of what we did accomplish--most importantly that our voice was heard on restoring the transplant funding for state Medicaid (AHCCCS) recipients which saved lives.

This may not matter to some, but it mattered to the 98 critically ill Arizonans who were bumped from the state’s transplant list literally sentencing them to death (you are not put on the list to start with unless a panel of doctors agree that you will die without one). It mattered to their spouses, their parents, their siblings, their children, their neighbors and their communities. And it mattered to me and the thousands who got behind this recall effort because of their moral outrage that any government leader would stoop so low as to trade human lives to achieve their political goals.

Without hesitation, we send our soldiers into foxholes to rescue their injured comrades while under fire. Without hesitation, we send brigades of firemen into buildings on the verge of collapse to rescue those trapped inside following an unthinkable terrorist attack. Without hesitation, we send our U.S. Special Operations Forces into harms way in Iraq to rescue a single American POW. America has a rich history of courageously taking whatever measures are necessary to come to the rescue of even the few when lives are at stake.

After Gov. Brewer announced that she was cutting the transplant funding, this was reason enough for me to launch this recall committee, let alone her many other reckless policies. Being a Republican, this was not lightly considered. But being a Republican, or for that matter a Democrat, does not make someone right--and certainly not just because they were voted into office. It is not just about the end-game, it is about the moral and ethical path that you use to get there. I believe our voice was heard, that it counted and that we drew needed national attention to this critical issue.

The threat of recall undoubtedly upped the ante for the Governor if not creating the tipping point that caused her to reconsider her cold-hearted decision to cut the transplant funding and ultimately leading her to restore it. Sometimes you win a war inch by inch not mile by mile. Our supporters, many in wheelchairs and on walkers, sat in the Arizona heat day after day participating in the democratic process hopeful that the Governor would hear them about both the transplant cuts and the pending AHCCCS cuts that will leave many Arizonans without a means to pay for medicine or treatment for cancer, autism, hepatitis C and other serious illnesses and disabilities. Many worked and paid taxes their entire lives until they became too sick to work and looked to AHCCCS to cover their medical needs after their COBRA benefits ran out, and because they are otherwise uninsurable.

We know from the thousands of emails we received and the thousands of Arizonans we encountered who signed the petition that the major obstacle we faced was MONEY not a lack of support for recalling Gov. Brewer! The majority of people we heard from had not heard about the recall effort until they had one of these encounters, yet almost everyone who ran across one of our volunteer Circulators wanted to sign, Republicans and Democrats alike.

The problem was a lack of awareness attributed to nothing but insufficient funds to buy the media to get the word out. Where Gov. Brewer had $1,820,004 of mostly taxpayer money to support her re-election, our Committee had only a few thousand dollars donated by grassroots supporters, many low-income, retired, sick or disabled on AHCCCS; students; underwater homeowners and struggling small business owners who are among those most affected by her policies and who gave what they could sacrificially. In addition, Gov. Brewer filed for her re-election on Nov. 06, 2009. If our Committee had $1.8 million+ in taxpayer funds and 12 months to unseat Gov. Brewer, there is no doubt in my mind that we would have succeeded. In contrast, we had only a few thousand dollars and 120 days.

It is sad to say that a recall can be “bought” just like many elections, but this is the case and the harsh reality. Only two governors have been successfully recalled in U.S. history, and only one in modern times. This was CA Gov. Gray Davis who was recalled in 2003 and replaced by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Due to a reported single donation of around $2,000,000 at the outset of that recall effort, the organizers were able to buy the media necessary to put the word out throughout the state, to blanket the state with paid petition circulators and to mail out petitions to registered voters throughout the state. They also had an edge because California does not shut out grassroots efforts by charging them an exorbitant amount to acquire the statewide voter list (the CA statewide list costs only $35 for candidates and ballot measure groups and is free in MI, OH, FL and very low cost in most other states). In Arizona, the list must be obtained from each county at a cost estimated at $0.10 per record. This alone translates to a cost of $319,193 before data merge, conversion, hygiene, processing and list fulfillment costs by a third-party service bureau. This is not to mention mailing and postage costs.

The scales are tipped against the grassroots in this state unless they have one or more major donors behind them. If a major donor with his eye on the Governor’s chair, or who strongly agrees that Gov. Brewer needs to be ousted comes forward with the money needed to win this battle, we have the marketing plan, tools, infrastructure, supporter lists and army of thousands of volunteers, members and petition signers to get the job done. This IS a winnable effort given the resources.

Is this just a matter of pride or a biased opinion? No! Since assuming office, Gov. Brewer has managed to alienate everyone from conservative Christians when she vetoed the religious protection bill to the GLBT community when she repealed legislation put into place by former governor Janet Napolitano which had granted domestic partners of state employees the ability to be considered as "dependants". On the Right, she has managed to alienate both the Arizona Tea Party, and the “Birthers” as a result of her HB 2177 veto, and they too are now calling for her recall and have been in touch. And, she has also alienated NRA members and Second Amendment proponents with her veto of SB 1467.   On the Left, she has alienated pro-choice women by signing HB 2443, not to mention immigrant Americans with the highly controversial SB 1070. Most recently, she alienated the medical cannabis community by bringing a lawsuit called unnecessary by federal officials as justification for discontinuing full implementation of the recent law passed by the state initiative process.

In the mainstream, Gov. Brewer has alienated hospitals, hospital unions and medical providers with her cuts to AHCCCS, the cuts she initiated to organ transplant funding for AHCCCS recipients (though since restored), and the cuts to what providers will receive. She has alienated university students, faculty and staff by making cut after cut to university funding resulting in tuition hike after tuition hike. She has alienated our travel, tourism, hospitality and housing industries by instituting policies that have left our state’s reputation in tatters and the brunt of late night talk show banter. And the list goes on and on.

Many believe that Gov. Brewer was swept into office on what was a mandate for SB 1070, not a mandate for her or her leadership abilities. No matter where one stands on this issue, many believe that her backers were not bargaining for all of the reckless policies that followed.

Sure, you’re going to alienate one side or another on any highly-charged issue, but in this case it is clear that she has seriously eroded her own base while promoting consensus that she needs to be recalled among her former friends and foes alike.

Add to all of this, the serious concerns that she is abusing her powers in defying laws voted in by ballot initiatives including Prop 204 passed in 2000 lowering income eligibility for AHCCCS and now Prop 203 passed in 2010 approving medical cannabis as noted above. Supporters of each see through her ploy of seeking a waiver that she didn’t even need from the federal government in order to raise AHCCCS eligibility cutting state Medicaid coverage for 150,000 vulnerable Arizonans, and now the courts to get a ruling on the legality of a ballot measure passed in compliance with the state Constitution. Again, no matter where you stand on these issues, every Arizonan should be concerned about Gov. Brewer’s flagrant disregard of the Arizona electoral process and that she continues to cry wolf to justify her defiance of the law, her duty to uphold the state Constitution and to undermine the decisions of the voters of Arizona.

Finally, consider her character:

     <> Gov. Brewer went back on her word to the voters after they supported her one penny sales tax when she cut K-12 funds anyway after getting what she wanted.

     <> She was caught in a bold-faced lie according to a number of media reports when she tried to evoke public sympathy by claiming that her father “died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany when she was 11 years old” when, in fact, her father reportedly died from lung cancer in 1955. (This was ten years after WWII ended, and it was widely publicized that her father never served in the military).

     <> Gov. Brewer was caught in yet another lie when she claimed that “Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded”, an obvious scare tactic used to gain support for SB 1070. A Fox News team investigated the claim and concluded that, only one human skull had been found in the last two years, and that had been the result of animals. This was confirmed by six county medical examiners in Arizona from Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz, Cochise, Pinal and Maricopa who said they had no records of decapitated bodies.

She also misrepresented that “the money isn’t there” when she callously defended her cuts to organ transplant funding for AHCCCS recipients, when, in fact, the money WAS there all the time (please visit our website's News page for details). It was always a matter of how she decided to allocate the money, what she was willing to consider reallocating and what funding solutions she was willing to explore implementing.

Gov. Brewer showed her true character when she placed funding allocations for an algae study and stadium roof repairs above the value of human lives in becoming the first governor in U.S. history to recklessly cut funding for necessary, life-saving organ transplants (no matter how she tried to clean up the situation later). In fact, she refused to even acknowledge, respond to or sign for registered letters from fellow Republican Steven Daglas who studied Arizona’s budget and came up with 26 low-impact funding solutions, any one of which she could have implemented before making what should have been a last resort budget cut--if even that could be justified. These solutions totaled hundreds of millions of dollars, none of which would have jeopardized the health, welfare, education or lives of any Arizonans--and came to far more than the $1 million needed to save the lives of those needing transplants this year (See Daglas’ 26 solutions on the News page of our website).

Not since President Richard Nixon held office have I seen an autocratic leader who plays it so close to the vest, insulates herself from her constituents, and seems to hold herself above the law (and in this case the Arizona Constitution) because of her position.

As a Republican, I am ashamed to share the party label with Jan Brewer. It isn’t just that she cut the transplant funding in the first place, and restored it only after three deaths, but it is her callousness in dealing with those most affected by the move that left me completely appalled and disgusted. Not once did I hear of her reaching out with a compassionate word to the families. As some begged for their lives on the nightly news, her response was only that “tough decisions have to be made” or to falsely claim that “the money isn’t there” as she refused to consider or even listen to other funding options.

As I told the thousands of supporters of our recall effort, I am proud of what we accomplished. I am proud of achieving the seemingly impossible task of bringing Republicans and Democrats alike together to put their differences aside and to work shoulder to shoulder on something they were able to agree on—the need to recall Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. To be sure, many who supported, volunteered and donated to this recall effort had reasons vastly different from mine for doing so. But none of this mattered because we had consensus that her leadership is wrong for this state and is taking us down a path that may take decades to recover from. We showed respect for one another for having the courage of own convictions and for our mutual willingness to participate in the democratic process.

While it is doubtful that our Republican supporters have turned their backs on their party, they certainly believe the party can do better than Jan Brewer while the Democrats, of course, feel that it will take a Democrat to turn things around. Either way, a successful recall effort would pave the way for a new slate of candidates and would give the voters another chance to weigh in.

Send me a Michael Moore, a Lady Gaga, a Barbara Streisand, a Steve Nash or any number of other public figures who have spoken out against Gov. Brewer’s policies to raise money for us. We don’t have to agree on everything, or in fact anything except that Gov. Brewer needs to go. Or, send me a wealthy but principled businessman with his eye on the Governor’s seat as happened when CA Gov. Gray Davis was successfully recalled after U.S. Congressman Daryl Issa stepped forward, and you’ll see what a strong bipartisan grassroots movement can accomplish!

If not, we'll find a way to continue our journey to restore Arizona to a place of dignity, hope, prosperity, pride and a return to the way of life that made our state such an enviable place to vacation and spend the winters at, to buy a home or retire at, or to get a quality but affordable post-secondary education at.

With hope and resolve,
Mimi
Mimi Pryor, Chairman
Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
www.recallgovernorbrewer.com