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The Sarah Palin baby-name generator!

It’s the Sarah Palin baby-name generator!

Because the fact is, it takes a powerful computer to match the thought process of a woman who names her kids Track, Willow, Bristol, Piper and Trig.

It has nothing to do with Arizona or the environment. But I thought it was funny.

My name, apparently, would be Gamebird Kelp Palin.

JCR

District 27 Green Party candidate touts energy, water plans

As one of the first projects for The Footprint, over the next six weeks I’ll be interviewing a cross-section of candidates and incumbents for state office across Arizona, asking them about their views on the environment, energy, climate change and other topics that interest us.

For our first installment, I spoke with Kent Solberg, a first-time candidate running for the District 27 seat in the Arizona legislature on the Green Party ticket. Solberg, 61, qualified for $32,000 in Clean Elections funding by raising several thousand dollars in small donations in his district. He hopes to be the first Green Party member of the state legislature.

According to Solberg, contrary to some impressions (mine too – guilty) the Green Party stands for way more than just environmental protection. “It’s a misnomer to say that the Green Party is strictly an environmental party,” Solberg says. “The Green Party goes way beyond just the environment.”

The party staunchly opposed the war in Iraq from the outset, and favors immediate withdrawal from that country. Their platform condemns capital punishment, favors decentralized government and strongly supports reproductive rights for women. Except for the fact that they’re running former Rep. Cynthia McKinney for President, and may sap some much-needed swing-state votes away from Obama, I think they’re great, and a much-needed antidote to the two-party gridlock that our country seems mired in.

Yet while Tucson may be one of Arizona’s most liberal bastions, Solberg faces long odds against entrenched Democratic incumbents in District 27.

In our talk, Solberg focused in-depth on two specific environmental concerns: renewable energy – in particular solar power – and water.

Near the top of his priorities, he says, is jump-starting the state’s solar power industry.

“One of the things I would do as a legislator is to fight to make Arizona the world leader in solar power,” he says. “I would encourage the Arizona legislature to work with solar companies, to bring solar companies into the state, to develop solar farms and develop the highest levels of technology.”

There are a few large-scale solar projects under construction in the state, such as the Solana Generating Station, but Solberg believes we’re still well behind where we could be.

“We should’ve been doing this 25 years ago, and we haven’t progressed at the pace that we can. Solar energy has been stagnant,” he says. “There’s ways that the legislature can change that. We can provide tax credits and tax incentives to individuals and companies.”

Solberg sees a bright future in solar, and echoed one of the themes of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign – that renewable energy can be a win-win, both for the environment and the economy.

“I think we could bring in a clean new industry that can’t be outsourced,” he says.

Solberg also fears that rampant development in the Tucson area is outstripping the region’s long-term water supply and putting the Tucson aquifer at risk.

“We’re living in a place that has a limited amount of water, and for us to continue to grow in a sustainable way, we have to address the amount of water we have,” he says. “We have to look at how we can recharge the aquifer.”

Solberg proposes looking at methods to capture runoff from monsoon storms that is otherwise lost. But he opposes uses treated effluent – otherwise known as treated sewage – to recharge the groundwater.

“They’re finding more and more substances and drugs in the effluent,” he says. “Effluent can be used for other purposes. We can learn to use treated effluent in a way that would save the groundwater.”

To contact Kent Solberg for more information or to get involved in his campaign, write to: kent4house@juno.com

The campaign also has a website that Kent assures me will be active soon: www.kent4house.org

JCR

Graham Co. pol wants challenger bumped

SAFFORD — A Graham County supervisor seeking re-election is trying to have his competition bounced from the ballot by claiming his signatures are invalid.

The lawsuit from Democratic incumbent Drew John claims petition circulators working for his challenger, Steven D. Bingham, did not actually witness several voters signing the petition.

The six-page complaint also states that some of the voters who signed are not actually registered in Graham County, an area that includes Safford and parts of the San Carlos Indian Reservation in southeastern Arizona.

Because of these issues, the complaint states, Bingham falls short of having the required 61 valid signatures to be on the Sept. 2 ballot.

As a result, John is asking a Graham County Superior Court judge to block Bingham’s name from appearing on the paperwork. His cousin’s wife, Wendy John, is the county recorder.

John is represented by Mesa lawyer William R. Richardson.

Soundbytes: Arizona’s new immigration law

PHOENIX — He’s a native Arizonan and heir to American entrepreneurism as a grandchild of Carl’s Jr. founder Carl Karcher.

But these days, there are moments where Jason LeVecke finds himself spending as much time fighting a new state law for businesses as he does running 56 restaurant franchises covering burgers, pizza and Mexican food.

The law? A bill called “Employer Sanctions” which Mesa Republican Russell Pearce drove through the state Legislature earlier this year in an effort to keep illegal immigrants out of Arizona.

The legislation calls for fines — and ultimately the loss of a business license — for those businesses who “knowingly” hire illegal immigrants. It allows people to file complaints against businesses they suspect knowingly hired illegal immigrants, which are in turn investigated by county attorneys (whose boss, Andrew Thomas, has positioned himself as a vocal advocate for strict immigration enforcement.)

LeVecke says he struggles to make sense of the law. He says it leaves a lot of room for abuse through people who would see a business fail or competitors who would like to corner a market.

He also says its punishment is too severe and could have a chilling effect on encouraging small business entrepreneurship in Arizona.

LeVecke, a Marine on inactive duty, is fighting on two fronts. He is the brains and braun behind a group called Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform and a vocal supporter of Wake Up Arizona!, a campaign launched by several local business elite to derail Pearce’s law.

The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, has “turned free enterprise on its head,” LeVecke tells TZR.

“Nobody who could be for this law — if they truly understood its consequences — could truly call themselves a Republican,” LeVecke says.

The problem, he adds, is the “knowingly” clause. he says that’s the part that is open to abuse. The correct punishment, he says, should focus on the cash-only economy of landscaping firms, for example.

“That’s exactly what should have been passed,” he says. “It will incentivize people to be legitimate employers and pay their taxes. Otherwise, it will be absolutely counter-productive.”

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Part II: The lawman

Russell Pearce
State legislator, R-Mesa

PHOENIX — He’s a fifth-generation Arizonan who, if it were up to him, would happily have his caricature colored in sepia tones.

Russell Pearce brings an Old West, get-r-done approach to politics. His style help pass the state’s employer sanctions law earlier this year. It survived a legal challenge before U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake in Phoenix.

Pearce says that by pushing the new law, he was just doing his civic duty. He says it only adds teeth to existing laws that legitimate employers have been following for years.

He downplayed fears raised by LeVecke and others, saying participating businesses have nothing to worry about.

“Could it be tougher? Absolutely, because the standard is ‘knowingly,’” Pearce told TZR recently. “Nobody is in trouble for making a mistake or accidentally. You’ve got to have knowingly or intentionally violated the law. And it’s been the federal law since 1986. So it’s not like, ‘Wow, new law.’ We’ve given you 20 years to comply. Maybe it’s time you finally start complying.”

Pearce, 60, says it is only one solution to Arizona’s illegal immigration woes. He says that by discouraging shady employers from hiring, less jobs will be available. With less jobs, fewer illegal immigrants will try to enter Arizona.

Supporters say its a bold plan other states should follow. Critics say it could lead to a patchwork of laws around the U.S., have a negative impact on the nation’s economy and strain law enforcement resources, which are already short-handed in the pursuit of “legal” criminals.

Still, one thing everyone does agree on is this: It’s the toughest immigration law in the nation.

That suits Pearce just fine. The Mesa Republican began his career as a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy and rose to the chief deputy post under current sheriff Joe Arpaio. During that time, a finger on his left hand was shot off during a struggle with an illegal immigrant.

He left to run the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department, where he privatized one-third of its services, added online service and built new locations. He was fired after he helped a Tucson lawmaker fix a constituent’s DUI.

Now he represents Mesa in the Legislature and has won support from conservatives like Matt Salmon and Don Goldwater for his stance on illegal immigration.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Q&A: Mr. Mitchell goes to Washington

[Editor's note: The full version of this story appeared in the February issue of PHOENIX magazine.]

TEMPE — Harry Mitchell, 66, just arrived at his modest Tempe home clad in hiking boots, jeans, and a plaid shirt. He was coming from his grandson’s Pop Warner football game.

This is the guy who beat incumbent J.D. Hayworth — a flashy, Republican sportscaster from Scottsdale — to represent a huge swath of the East Valley in Congress.

Mitchell, a Democrat, is a Tempe legacy. He is a second-generation Phoenician who taught high school government for 28 years and served as councilman, mayor and state senator for Tempe.

TZR spent two hours with Mitchell and boiled the interview down to five questions.

TZR: So how did it feel to beat “the bully”?

HM: “It felt great. As the campaign progressed more and more, I really got more determined…

I really believed that the [Arizona Republic] editorial [calling Hayworth a "bully"] was pretty realistic. And I don’t know if it’s anything special to beat him, but it’s important that when you run any contest or and kind of competition, you want to win.

I never entered this thing to lose. I thought all along we had a great shot at it or I’d have never done it. I think, as I hear from people after the election, I accomplished something bigger than I thought I did.

TZR: When you announced your candidacy, you said you were running because “our basic political system…is broken.” What did you mean by that?

HM: No accountability. There was no oversight. It was just a rubber stamp. Stay the course in Iraq. We havd no-bid contracts, we had earmarks. Everything looked like people were using their influence for their friends and their family and their business acquaintances.

TZR: Hayworth was a 12-year incumbent in a district where Republican voters outnumbered Democrats 3-2. How did you beat this guy?

HM: I think elections like this are like job reviews or performance reviews. How’s he done? He got out of touch with his district.

I think there was a pretty clear-cut distinction on the major issues we talked about, and he didn’t want to talk about them. When he did want to talk about [illegal] immigration, for example, he had a very different view than what I did and what I believed the district had. And I think I was right. [Pundits have agreed with Mitchell, saying Hayworth's "get tough" stance on illegal immigrants actually drove voters toward Mitchell.]

For him to say the whole problem was we have to beef up the border and keep people from coming over here — he never did address the root cause of this problem, which is economics. There is work over here and there are workers over there, and we need to figure out a way to match them.

TZR: What stance will you take on Iraq?

HM: I don’t have a specific plan. But I think Congress abdicated its position. It has a constitutional duty for oversight, to ask questions. The president, Congress and Iraqi officials will have to come up with something.

If the President had a plan like that, he never let people know about it. The military did their job. When they came in, they destroyed the Iraqi army, they captured Saddam Hussein. But they forgot to do the political part, the diplomatic part. Once you get rid of the army and the dictator, how do you bring about the peace? [Mitchell said he will support the results of a bipartisan study led by former Secretary of Sate James Baker and former lawmaker Lee Hamilton.]

TZR: Got any good anecdotes from the campaign trail?

HM: Hmm…Oh yeah. I was walking from my car in downtown Tempe — near Z Tejas [bar and grill] — when a guy stopped me and asked, “Are you Harry Mitchell?” [Mitchell has a 35-foot-tall statue named after him in front of city hall. Indeed, Mitchell's so well-known in Tempe that it's like playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.]

I told him, “Yes I am.”

He said, “Just be honest, will ya?”

It really hit me because more than one person has said that to me. People are telling me that. What kind of perception would they have [of Congress] if we actually sat down and had a long discussion about what’s going on in Washington?

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.