A controversial post on social media from southern Arizona Democrats was deleted after attracting significant outrage from around the country.
Last week, the Pima County Democratic Party responded to a post on the platform “X,” calling for the end of school choice in Arizona.
The post that the Pima County Democrats chose to react to was from Greg Price, who, according to his bio, is involved with communications with the State Freedom Caucus Network. Price was alerting his more than 326,000 followers about the news out of the Illinois Legislature, where the state house there adjourned without extending the Invest in Kids program, which gives scholarship tax credits to almost 10,000 low-income children.
Pima County Democrats wrote, “Let’s make this a goal here in Arizona. Let’s kill school choice – send it to the grave.”
People were quick to respond to the post. Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope stated, “Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling. Basically have the government tell families what to do with their kids cuz the government knows best. Nope. Not gonna happen as long as I represent Pima County!”
Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling.… https://t.co/LSjDM3YaVy
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma weighed in, saying, “The Democrats’ desparate attacks on school choice do nothing but reveal their own desire to indoctrinate children with their radical leftist ideologies. They couldn’t stop charter schools or other school choice programs despite decades of trying. School choice is here to stay.”
Even a journalist from the Arizona Republic, Laurie Roberts, added her thoughts about the post. Roberts said, “Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature.”
Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature. https://t.co/UwnqQJHbVG
Despite the pushback on their post and the subsequent deletion of it, the county party continued to attack school choice over the weekend, focusing its ire on the state’s universal ESA program. The southern Arizona Democrats wrote, “Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn’t your choice, it’s the school’s choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them.”
Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn't your choice, it's the school's choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them. pic.twitter.com/GD4WVBxA8D
Their account added, “Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It’s a scam folks.”
Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It's a scam folks.
With the start of the Arizona legislative session just two months away, these sentiments from Democrats in the state’s second-largest county are instructive to ascertain how party activists will attempt to steer the policy movements on school choice issues. In the 2023 session, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs failed to achieve any cuts or increased regulations on ESAs, angering members of her base who felt that she abandoned her campaign promises. After signing the budget she negotiated with Republican legislators, however, Hobbs turned up the dial on her attacks on the ESA program, attempting to smooth over the frustrations of Democrats around the state. The uptick in political bickering with ESAs will be a factor in navigating critical boxes to check, including the completion of the next fiscal year budget.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizonans may be ready to do an about-face on a candidate for President of the United States if recent polls are any indication of next year’s results in the November 2024 General Election.
On Tuesday, Noble Predictive Insights released a poll, showing that former President Donald J. Trump has an eight-point lead over current President Joe Biden in the Grand Canyon State.
The snapshot of the still-distant race has many encouraging signs for the 45th President, although sixteen percent of Arizona voters may still be undecided. Trump holds an eighty-point advantage within the Republican Party for the General Election, while Biden appears to only command a net sixty-seven points inside his own party. Independents, who are Arizona’s largest voting bloc, are split between the two candidates (37-34 Trump), and there are still a significant portion of those voters who are unsure about who they will vote for – if at all – in November’s crucial contest.
Noble Predictive Insights also released a poll of the Republican primary field, showing Trump with a commanding lead over any other competitors. Trump’s numbers in the November survey grew to 53% of the Republican electorate (up from 50% in July), while Governor Ron DeSantis lost three points (19% from 16%). Ambassador Nikki Haley doubled her standing from the July report, acquiring eight percent of the Arizona GOP field (from four percent in July). Vivek Ramaswamy remained at nine percent. This poll was fielded at the end of October, when former Republican contenders Mike Pence and Tim Scott were in the race; Pence pulled in three percent, and Scott, one percent.
In the press release announcing the results of this latest poll, David Byler, the Chief of Research for Noble Predictive Insights said, “An eight-point lead for Trump is striking, but not surprising. Poll averages have Trump ahead of Biden by about a point nationally – that’s a five point swing from the 2020 results. If Arizona – one of the most closely contested states of 2020 – also swung that much, we’d expect individual polls to give Trump a mid-to-high single-digit lead. That’s exactly what our poll – and other recent surveys – have shown.”
The Noble Predictive Insights poll tracks what other recent surveys have telegraphed about the state of the General Election in Arizona: Trump does appear to have a lead over Biden in the state. The latest New York Times / Siena College poll has Trump up by five in Arizona in a head-to-head match-up (49-49 with 603 Registered Voters). Emerson College has the former President leading by two points with a set of polls of both “Likely” and “Registered” voters. And Morning Consult has Trump up four points (46-42 with 800 Registered Voters).
The poll from Noble Predictive Insights computed from 1,010 registered Arizona voters and took placed between October 25-31.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
While the contests weren’t as significant as in other states , last Tuesday, Arizonans concluded a month of elections, which largely took place via absentee ballots.
The majority of races across the state, primarily in Maricopa County, were for bond approvals. Flagstaff voters made decisions on almost two dozen questions, while Tucson voters considered mayoral and city council selections.
Opponents of municipal bonds had a decent night of results. On the Arizona Republic’s Election Tracker page, twelve of forty-four of those questions appeared to be rejected by voters. Many of those results came in the west and east regions of Maricopa County.
In the lead-up to the election, both the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) shed light on the spending requests up for adjudication by the voters. ATRA wrote in September that the “$3.5 billion in bonds is easily the largest statewide K12 bond request in history.” The Arizona Free Enterprise Club added, “This level of borrowing being sought by local school districts is both unwise and unnecessary, especially given the large amounts of money that have been pumped into the system.”
Most of the bond questions were approved, however, with several of those results occurring in Glendale and Phoenix. Glendale had five successful bond outcomes and Phoenix had four.
Jeff Barton, the City of Phoenix’s Manager thanked his municipality’s voters for their positive support for the bonds, saying, “Thank you, Phoenix residents, for supporting the 2023 General Obligation Bond Program. Because of your support, we will be able to fund critical infrastructure and rehabilitation needs of both aging City facilities and areas of rapid growth, with new and enhanced parks, libraries, fire and police stations, affordable housing, street improvements and more.”
In 2024, Arizona voters will have higher-profile races to make determinations on, including a President of the United States, a U.S. Senator, and a bulging list of initiatives with critical implications for the future of the state. Although elections in even years have both mail-in and in-person components, most of the voting is still done via absentee opportunities, making the return of those ballots critical to candidates’ and propositions’ successes.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
An Arizona State University (ASU) law school professor deleted a viral tweet detailing a racially-motivated verbal attack against Muslims after it was publicly exposed as a fake.
ASU professor Khaled Beydoun shared a picture in which an individual allegedly called another a “dirty Arab” and told them to go back to the Middle East. Beydoun alleged that an Instagram follower sent him the picture of the exchange (archived here). Khaled’s alleged follower purportedly responded that he was unable to return to the Middle East because the U.S. “gave Israel $14 billion last week to destroy it (Gaza).”
However, users on X (formerly known as Twitter) added a Community Note pointing out that the alleged racial attack message was in blue; on Instagram, that means the complainant sent the racial attack message to himself or herself.
“Blue on Instagram means that the message was sent from his own phone,” said the fact-check note. “Khaled presumably sent the racist message to himself.”
Jen Wright, Arizona’s former assistant attorney general, also debunked Beydoun’s post, and criticized ASU for hiring a supporter of a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, to teach courses advocating for Islam.
“Manufacturing bigotry for clicks is not a very inspiring image for @ASUCollegeofLaw,” said Wright. “Why does @ASUCollegeofLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia [sic] & about Race & the Law?”
Why does @ASUCollegeOfLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia & about Race & the Law?@asu has a wannabe Jessie Smollet on staff ginning up racial tensions. 🤦🏻♀️
Beydoun teaches two courses at ASU, both with an apparent progressive social justice slant: “Race and the Law,” and “Islamophobia and the Law.” ASU hired Beydoun in June.
Beydoun responded to the debunking of his post by emphasizing that he received the image from another individual, and claimed that those who fact-checked him were “bigots.” Beydoun didn’t apologize for the false claim.
“But people don’t read sadly,” said Beydoun. “If was [sic] flagged by bigots who didn’t read the caption then removed. Done deal, bigger fish to fry.”
Wright pointed out that Beydoun, with his massive platform (nearly 295,000 followers on Twitter and over 1.4 million followers on Instagram), was undertaking actions to exacerbate divisions.
“@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria,” said Wright. “As someone teaching Islamaphobia [sic] @ASUCollegeofLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions. Why add fuel to a powder keg on the verge of explosion?”
.@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria.
As someone teaching Islamaphobia @ @ASUCollegeOfLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions.
Wright pointed out that Beydoun also deleted another false post which used pictures from the war in Syria to accuse the Israel government of war crimes. Wright questioned Beydoun’s academic worth based on his consistent issuance of false information.
“[Beydoun] should know to fact check so he doesn’t make false & defamatory claims,” said Wright. “If he doesn’t fact check his posts, does he fact check his curriculum?”
Looks like he deleted the other post that used pictures from Syria in 2017 to lodge false accusations against @IsraeliPM alleging @IDF WAR CRIMES.
Beydoun’s latest book, “The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims,” included a foreword written by Kimberlé Crenshaw; she is credited for popularizing Critical Race Theory (CRT). In her foreword, Crenshaw noted that Beydoun was one of her Critical Race Studies students in 2001.
Last week, Beydoun also claimed that another one of his followers had ordered his book but had received a book on Israel instead.
Beydoun announced that all sale royalties would go to Gaza, governed by Hamas.
Following Hamas’ initial terrorist attack on Israel, Beydoun posted a quote from Malcolm X alluding that Hamas was the true victim and Israel was the true oppressor.
“Be careful. Ethnic cleaning [sic] becomes possible and permissible when you paint an entire people as terrorists,” said Beydoun. “‘If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving those doing the oppressing.’ – Malcolm X.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Gilbert residents may face a massive water rate hike of up to 130 percent next year.
The town council discussed three proposed options for water rate increases during its two-day fall retreat last week: cash funded, bond funded, or cash/bond gradual funded. The additional funds would address issues and needs instigated by the Colorado River shortage: a sharp increase in raw water supply cost, infrastructure needs to access groundwater, and additional conservation staffing and programs.
The cash-funded option would require an immediate rate increase of 130 percent: the average monthly residential water bill would increase from $34 to $78 next April. Under this option, there wouldn’t be any new increases planned for the following two years, no new debt, an ongoing capacity of $6 million for one-time Capital Improvement Project (CIP) in the operating fund, and an ongoing Repair & Replacement (R&R) fund capacity of $73 million in the 2029 fiscal year.
The bond-funded option would require an immediate rate increase of 95 percent, increasing the average monthly residential water bill from $34 to $66 next April. Under this option, there would be no increases planned for the following two years, but there would be $205 million of new debt with $110 million of anticipated interest paid over 20 years. The one-time CIP in the operating fund would have an ongoing capacity of $2 million, and the ongoing R&R fund capacity would be $37 million in the 2029 fiscal year. The town noted that this option would have the lowest overall rate increase by total percent.
The cash/bond gradual-funded option would require an immediate rate increase of 50 percent, followed by 25 percent in one year and another 25 percent in two years. This would result in the average monthly residential water bill to increase from $34 to $51 next April, then $64 in 2025 and $80 in 2026. Under this option, there would be a phased increase and $80 million in new debt, with $43 million in anticipated interest paid over 20 years. Additionally, the one-time CIP in the operating fund would be $5 million and the ongoing R&R fund capacity would be $66 million in the 2029 fiscal year.
The Public Works Advisory Board (PWAB) recommended the town council adopt the third option: the cash/bond gradual funded. PWAB further recommended that the town council dedicate staff to research additional financial assistance relief to offset the predicted burden of their preferred rate increase.
The town council expressed a preference for the cash- and cash/bond gradual-funded options.
The town estimated that it will cost around $2.8 billion to undertake pipe replacement when due between the years 2090 and 2110. They estimated that would come down to an average 50-year cost of $76 million annually.
In addition to water rates, town residents also face a 44 percent proposed rate increase for solid waste and recycling services.
Eric Braun, assistant public works director, said that the town had recently taken on the practice of only increasing two of four utility rates at a time because they felt it would mitigate the financial impact on residents. Braun admitted that the plan to not increase rates under the cash-funded option was promissory only and liable to change.
Per a history of rate increases, the town last increased water rates in 2022 by 29.6 percent. Solid waste and recycling increased by 28.6 percent.
Last year, the town increased wastewater and environmental compliance rates by 32.4 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
Rates for all four utilities had no increase from 2019 through 2021.
The town council is scheduled to approve a notice of intent to increase water rates and fees at its Nov. 28 meeting, with a recommended public hearing date of Feb. 6, 2024.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
An Arizona leader has traveled to Israel to show his support of its people as they continue to recover from one of the worst terrorist attacks in their nation’s history.
Peoria Mayor Jason Beck revealed on his Facebook platform this week that he had visited Israel “to meet with and support IDF soldiers, political and religious leaders around the country.”
The first-year mayor surmised he might have been “the first American to visit (the Kibbutz Be’eri) due to the continued threats in the area. This community of approximately 1,100 men, women, and children lost over 120 individuals in the October 7 terrorist attack from Hamas – more than ten percent of its population.
Beck shared he “felt it was extremely important to tour Be’eri and provide an accurate accounting of the horror and the intensity of what took place at this location.” He added that “the lives that were taken, the extreme brutality of Hamas of how men, women and children were tortured, executed and slain is important for someone to take in and carry forward for others to experience and hopefully recognize these heinous acts that took place on these beautiful people.”
As Mayor Beck concluded his post, he challenged readers to stand with this American ally in their fight against their terrorist enemies, writing, “To not support Israel’s ability to defend their people, home and lands from Hamas is to support terrorism and weakness that will surely spread across this world if it is not destroyed.”
According to his account, Beck met with the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen; Rabbi Rabinovich of the Western Wall, and other rabbis and pastors in the country.
Though the west valley mayor has less than one year of time in the political world, he has decades of military and foreign affairs experience through his work in the private sector. Beck is the Founder and CEO of TYR Tactical, which is a “leading global manufacturer of tactical gear and equipment for military and law enforcement.” He also served the United States in the Marine Corps before he veered into his business ventures.
Days after the horrific terrorist attack in Israel, Beck vowed to “send body armor to Israel for the protection of the brave soldiers who will defend their homeland and our Western values.” That promise was fulfilled with an estimate of 2,000 protective vests being shipped to Israel.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
