by Staff Reporter | Jan 19, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) faced accusations of financial wrongdoing from one of its leaders, days before the party’s convention and officer elections.
The accusations come from ADP Vice Chair Will Knight. In a letter to Chair Yolanda Bejarano last week, Knight accused their treasurer, Rick McGuire, of “self-dealing” and the party of improper reporting. Knight requested an audit of the party’s finances. Bejarano denied the request.
Bejarano called the allegations “defamatory” as well as “false and damaging” in response to the letter, per reporting by the Arizona Capitol Times. The chair said that McGuire received the $66,000 over the course of two years for work done as an independent contractor “beyond his voluntary role as Treasurer.”
Specifically, Bejarano said that McGuire provided consulting services for ADP umbrella organizations that often incurred “substantial fines” from finance errors, namely county parties and legislative district committees. As noted by the Capitol Times, party bylaws don’t prohibit ADP leadership from working as contractors (though they may not work as employees of the party).
The payments to McGuire were for handling finance questions from party members — described as “treasurer training and support” in public reporting — and they were disclosed with the Federal Election Commission and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, says Bejarano.
“The Party does not have extra resources to placate unreasonable claims,” said Bejarano. “What exactly would a costly independent audit show that a review of publicly available information would not?”
ADP paid McGuire $36,000 in 2023 and $30,000 last year. In addition to handling ADP finances, McGuire has worked as an executive producer at Health & Medical Multimedia.
Bejarano said that she, along with ADP’s staff, an attorney specializing in state campaign finance, and compliance firm, all reviewed and found there to be no problems with McGuire’s contracts or their reporting.
Knight, an attorney and decriminalization director of the National Homelessness Law Center, alleged that his efforts to investigate the payments to McGuire were refused. Knight requested financial documents in early 2023 following a budget presentation shortly after his election to the vice chairmanship.
ADP communications director Patricia Socarras explained McGuire’s ongoing payments were a continuation of similar agreements arranged by prior party leadership.
“The Arizona Democratic Party is held to very high reporting standards by both federal and state law, which we enthusiastically meet because we believe all Arizonans should have that transparency from their local parties,” said Socarras. “Mr. Knight’s claim is baseless and a distraction from the hard work that we have ahead to ensure Democrats are prepared to win in 2026.”
The infighting emerged as ADP headed into the election of its next slate of officers during its convention.
Bejarano faced several opponents: Robert Branscomb, an insurance agent, president of the Phoenix Chapter of the National African American Insurance Association, member of Sen. Mark Kelly’s African American Advisory Board, and ADP vice chair; Cathy Ransom, 2022 Democratic candidate for State House District 1; and Dave Braun, an attorney and long-time state committeeman.
During the meeting on Saturday, Democrats rejected Bejarano and elected Branscomb as party chair. McGuire was also ousted as treasurer in favor of Greg Freeman.
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 17, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Freshman Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari was the sole “no” vote among Arizona’s congressional members on a bill to deport illegal alien rapists and predators.
Ansari joined 145 of her Democratic colleagues in voting against the legislation. 61 Democrats voted for the bill, including Congressman Greg Stanton.
The bill by South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace (HR 30) would not only deport illegal aliens convicted of sex and domestic violence crimes, it would expand inadmissibility for immigrants who admitted or were convicted of stalking, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, a sex offense, conspiracy to commit a sex offense, a violation of certain protective orders, or domestic violence.
In response to Democrat congressional members’ criticisms that her bill made unfair and sweeping generalizations of illegal aliens, Mace said she would gladly “demonize” those illegal immigrants who rape, murder, and molest American females.
“Under the border policies of Joe Biden and border czar Kamala Harris, our country has been ravaged by a horde of illegal aliens molesting American children, battering and bruising and beating up American women, and violently raping American women and girls,” said Mace. “My colleagues on the other side of this aisle like to minimize this issue because they refuse to acknowledge the consequences that their open borders agenda is here.”
Mace cited the latest ICE non-detained docket numbers (from July), which reported around 660,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes. Those numbers include over 100,000 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with assault, over 20,000 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with sexual assault or rape, over 12,000 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with sex offeness, over 3,000 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with kidnapping, and nearly 15,000 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with murder.
The ICE non-detained docket refers to illegal immigrants that are physically present in the United States and not in ICE detention, though they may be detained elsewhere, such as a federal prison.
This past year, ICE’s non-detained docket reached 7.4 million per Fox News.
“That is who the left are defending this morning: rapists, murderers, and pedophiles,” said Mace.
Last week, Ansari also voted against HR 29, the “Laken Riley Act,” named for late Georgia student Laken Riley, murdered by an illegal immigrant last February while out for a morning jog on her university campus.
Ansari acknowledged that Riley’s death constituted “a horrific tragedy.” However, Ansari claimed HR 29 would encourage discrimination against illegal immigrants, especially “DREAMers”: those illegal immigrants brought into the U.S. as minors given an alternative legal status under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.
“[T]he anti-immigrant bill being pushed by the House Republicans will do nothing to prevent this kind of violence or reform our broken immigration system,” stated Ansari. “Under this legislation, someone charged — just charged, not found guilty — could be immediately deported. This is a gross miscarriage of justice, and I voted no.”
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 16, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Arizona’s Democratic congressional leaders voted against protecting females in sports from the intrusion of males identifying as females.
HR 28, the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” passed the House on Tuesday with 218 votes, with full support from Arizona’s Republican congressmen.
206 members voted against the bill, all Democrats. Freshman congresswoman Yassamin Ansari joined her veteran colleague Greg Stanton in a “no” vote on the legislation. Raúl Grijalva was one of nine members recorded as “not voting.”
During the House floor debate on the bill, Ansari pushed the claim of her congressional Democratic peers that HR 28 was a “Child Predator Empowerment Act” (per a sign the party propped up during arguments) that would endanger children.
“Everyone in this room knows that this legislation has the power to threaten the physical and mental safety of minors. Schools and athletic institutions already have rules around fairness and safety in children’s sports. This is literally why we have the NCAA,” said Ansari. “This bill is textbook government overreach meant to fuel division. Further, this bill provides no enforcement guidelines, insinuating Republicans are just fine with subjecting young women and girls to invasive, humiliating medical examinations and physical inspections. This is an attack on the physical and mental safety of all girls in this country as young as kindergarten.”
Days ahead of the vote, Ansari issued a statement online warning of “ongoing attacks on the rights and dignity of the LGBTQI+ community.” Both Ansari and Stanton have been consistent defenders of LGBTQI+ ideology. Ansari, Grijalva, and Stanton are all members of the Equality Caucus.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 amends federal law (the Education Amendments of 1972) to preclude federal financial aid recipients operating, sponsoring, or facilitating an athletic program or activity from permitting males to participate in athletic programs or activities designated for females.
The bill defines sex as an individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
HR 28 does allow for males to train or practice with female-designated athletic programs or activities, so long as the male participation doesn’t deprive any female of a scholarship, roster spot on a team or sport, competition or practice participation, admission to an educational institution, or other benefits derived from participation in an athletic program or activity.
HR 28 also directs the Comptroller General to conduct a study on the benefits of females participating in female-designated sports, and the potential “psychological, developmental, participatory, and sociological” harms that emerge from male participation. The comptroller general would then submit the results to the Committee on Education and Workforce of the House of Representatives as well as the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.
The act made quick progress through the House upon its reintroduction earlier this month by Florida Congressman Greg Steube. The congressman invoked Scripture and science during Tuesday’s arguments over the bill on the House floor, arguing that “the radical left” was intent on “dismantling the core of society” by normalizing gender ideology.
“Scripture reminds us that at the beginning of time, God created mankind as males and females and he blessed them. All throughout humanity we have recognized that there are men and there are women as God created, who are obviously biologically different and, dare I say, scientifically different,” said Steube. “Yet our culture and civilization continue to be subjected to the perverse lie that there are more than two genders, or that men can be women or women can be men.”
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 15, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Pima County Democratic Party (PCDP) deleted a post in which it blamed a California fire victim critical of the Democratic governance for their plight.
In a since-deleted post captured by The Arizona Daily Independent, PCDP said that victims were to blame for not paying more into the government. California has consistently ranked the highest in terms of tax burdens in the nation.
“Maybe pay your taxes and maybe local gov[ernment]s wouldn’t be so understaffed,” posted the PCDP.
PCDP was responding to a California resident, Wes Nichols, who posted on X that politicians had failed his home of 26 years in the Pacific Palisades.
“I’m mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us. Unprepared, unimaginative, understaffed, now overwhelmed. Heads must roll for this disaster,” said Nichols.
PCDP deleted their post after it sparked a flurry of criticism.
Turning Point Action activist Lacey Nagao recalled that PCDP also held a “f**k the fourth” party held in 2022 to protest Independence Day. The advertisements for the event were deleted and PCDP issued an apology following public outcry.
“A group of degenerative lost souls strikes again,” said Nagao.
According to LinkedIn, PCDP’s X account was managed by Shelly Burgoyne-Goode, the organization’s social media and digital strategist and (until last week) their executive director.
Burgoyne-Goode had been with PCDP since 2019; prior to that, Burgoyne-Goode was a digital strategist for Veteran Marijuana Majority, writer and contributor for the left-leaning political site “Blog for Arizona.” Burgoyne-Goode identifies herself as an Army veteran who served during the early years of the Iraq War.
PCDP’s new executive director is Alex Kack, a political consultant launched to significance as the “green shirt guy” who laughed at Trump supporters protesting his sanctuary city legislation at a Tucson City Council meeting. Kack was present that day as a field organizer with the People’s Defense Initiative (PDI), the Tucson-based advocacy organization behind the legislation to make Tucson a sanctuary city from immigration laws.
The Pima County Republican Party (PCRP) criticized PCDP’s post as an “extraordinary lack of compassion combined with a childish understanding of a devastating situation,” which the GOP group ascribed as a common trait of “the far left.”
PCDP has a track record of deleting controversial posts in recent years.
In 2023, PCDP deleted a post in which it advocated for Arizonans to “kill” school choice in its entirety — not just the universal pathway, but all school choice funding.
In 2022, PCDP deleted a post mocking a group of young conservative college men for not having any women present in pictures depicting their showing of the Daily Wire mockumentary, “What is a Woman?” The organization promptly deleted its post after Daily Wire host and mockumentary star Matt Walsh questioned how PCDP recognized there were no women present in the pictures observed, an allusion to the driving question on determining gender in the mockumentary.
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 14, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The city of Phoenix reported an overall decline in crime for 2024 but noted a marked rise in violence against police.
Notably, the city reported a “significant decrease” in homicides: around 28 percent. Overall crime declined by four percent. Yet, the incidents of violence perpetrated against police officers continues to increase (only officer-involved shootings declined). The Phoenix Police Department reported 14 incidents in which officers were on the receiving end of gunfire. One of those incidents resulted in the death of an officer.
“These incidents represent a complete disregard for law enforcement, the important role officers play in our community and the sanctity of life,” stated the department. “We have trained our officers well and will continue to take the next steps in advanced training to minimize the risk to our community members and officers as they put their lives on the line every day and night to keep our community safe.”
Phoenix police attributed part of the reduction in homicides to its 2024 Crime Reduction Plan released last June. That plan dedicated the department to prioritizing crackdowns on violent offenders, active areas of crime, prohibited gun possessors, and those with warrants. Police reported the number of juveniles arrested for homicide dropped from 23 in 2023 to seven last year; the number of juvenile homicide victims dropped from 23 in 2023 to 15 last year.
The city’s police attributed the overall reduction in crime to its coordinated investigations of syndicated crime and repeat offenders. These included Operation Makeup Breakup to investigate organized retail theft, Operation Full Court Press to investigate certain violent offenders, an FBI partnership investigating a hotel operating as a brothel, and Operation Night Owl to investigate a drug and money laundering network.
“The Phoenix Police Department will continue to strive to be a self-assessing and self-correcting agency while looking for additional ways to increase accountability and transparency,” said the department.
Phoenix police reported that staffing continued to be a challenge last year. The department took in just under 2,300 applications for sworn police officers, and about 160 started the Phoenix Police Academy (in 2023, there were about 150 recruits).
The top sources for applicants, in order, were the department website, a friend or family member, Indeed, employee referral, and then social media. However, the top sources for hired recruits came, in order, from a friend or family, an employee referral, social media, the website, and then billboards.
The department remains understaffed. The city has budgeted for about 3,000 officers; total sworn officers as of last November amounted to just over 2,500.
During last Tuesday’s meeting for the Public Safety and Justice subcommittee, Phoenix police also reported that their hiring total reduced from 167 officers in 2023 (150 men, 17 women) to 144 officers in 2024 (124 men, 20 women).
In order to improve its numbers, the police department said that it has continued traditional advertisement forms in TV, radio, print, and digital media as well as creating recruitment opportunities with Arizona Christian University, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona State University, and Grand Canyon University.
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