Reposted on Arizona's PREMIRE political blog: Rum, Romanism & Rebellion
And i say that without being the author. Rum, Romanism and Rebellion is THE most watched political blog for local AZ politics.
Well, it seems to have happened. Today, Reps. Pete Rios and Linda Lopez voted with the Republicans in committee to move Weiers’s budget forward. Between the two of them, they added four ammendments to the budget. Oddly, those amendments had been written in cooperation with Republican staff, and they refused to show them to Democratic staff. Further, the two of them reportedly promised the votes of six Democratic House members for the budget in return for the support for the ammendments.
Essentially, two House Democrats broke with Governor Napolitano and the rest of the Democrats to support the Republican budget bill.
Why you might ask?
They got 3 pet projects in their districts funded.
How did they find the money one might ask?
They took the money out of AHCCS which is the state's version of Medicaid, called the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System.
So they took $3 million from poor kids to pay for pork in their own districts
Ted has more to say about this on Rum, Romanism & Rebellion:
I’ve written about this split within the caucus before, and I’ve mentioned that I would understand this if it was over regional or ideological differences. I fail to see anything more than personality clashes behind this. The fact that these folks seemed to sell their souls for so little tells me that this has more to do with getting even than the good of their constituents.
As I said, Lopez and Rios have promised the votes of other Democrats in the full house: Olivia Cajero Bedford, Ben Miranda, Albert Tom and Manny Alvarez. Interestingly, neither Martha García nor David Bradley, who have been off and on members of the renegade faction, are reported to be among those who will vote for the budget. Hopefully, this means that the two of them have come to their senses about this silliness.
So a lot of us Progressive Democrats are thinking of running a huge "purge" against these renegade, selfish Democrats. But with obvious worries about seeming fractured and not unified and not strong.