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Solar, wind industries aided by federal bailout

Congress finally passed a key renewable energy bill late last week, extending tax credits for solar and wind power. It only took the near-collapse of the American financial system to make it happen.

The $700 billion federal bailout for Wall Street, to buy up toxic mortgage-backed securities, contains $17 billion for wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies.

Am I the only one, or is this completely ass-backwards?

Wall Street gets $700 billion, to throw into a toxic stewpot of bogus securities and incomprehensible derivatives that no one understands, even the folks who invented them. Wind, solar, hybrid cars and alternative fuels — which would create jobs, slow climate change, and reduce our dependence on oil — which most smart people realize is either peaking now, or will in the near future — receive one-fiftieth of that.

Go figure.

Still, the bill is a big shot in the arm for Arizona’s solar and wind industry, which has been struggling to take advantage of the Arizona Corporation Commission’s renewable energy standard.

The Commission mandate requires that the state’s utilities generate 15 percent of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2025.

It’s an admirable goal, but shows you just how antiquated the state’s energy mix is. Right now, Arizona is 46th in the nation for renewable, non-hydroelectric power, with about 0.6 percent of its power from wind, solar and geothermal.

By comparison, Germany, the world leader in wind power generation, is close to 5 percent renewable energy. We’ve got a long way to go to catch up. And somehow, throwing stacks of cash at Wall Street and pennies — relatively speaking — at our climate and energy crisis doesn’t seem to be the answer.

John Collins Rudolf

Arizona growth poses religious challenge

PHOENIX — Arizona is set to experience religious growing pains after waves of new residents have made it more religiously diverse than ever.

But the subtle shift in demographics does not necessarily mean Arizonans will practice more religious tolerance, an expert says. If anything, they’ll have to work harder at building a consensus with these new worshipers.

“Religious diversity does not translate into religious tolerance,” says Reverend Jan Flaaten, executive director of the Arizona Ecumenical Council, which brings together Christian denominations and keeps dialogues going with Jewish, Muslim and other faith communities.

“I suspect that the first time a mosque erects a minaret, there will be a neighborhood cry to take it down,” he said. “The only way to work on these issues is to have constructive dialogue between the religious groups, including the young in our schools and all the members of our various congregations.”

The irony is that people who practice an organized religion are moving into a region where being a loyal religious follower appears to be frowned upon.

The percentage of Arizonans who identify themselves as being affiliated with a particular religious tradition held steady at about 40 percent to 45 percent for at least three decades – far lower than the United States as a whole.

About 63 percent of people in the U.S. identify themselves with a religious tradition, according to the Association of Religious Data Archives. That figure falls to about 50 percent in the West as a whole and 45 percent in Arizona. Arizona ranks 41st out of the 50 states in people who identify with a religious tradition, according to ARDA data.

Further evidence of less enthusiasm for religion in the West comes from a Gallup Poll released this past July. In the West, 59 percent of the respondents professed a belief in God, compared with 80 percent in the East, 83 percent in the Midwest and 86 percent in the South. Those who say they believe in a higher power of some sort equal 29 percent in the West, 14 percent in the East, 11 percent in the Midwest and 10 percent in the South. Those who reject belief in God altogether total 10 percent in the West, 6 percent in the East, 5 percent in the Midwest and 3 percent in the South.

“There are several possible reasons for reduced interest in religion in Arizona and the West,” says Stephen Merino, an ARDA research associate who grew up in Colorado. “As the West was being settled, there was no rich religious culture similar to the cultures that came from Europe to the American Northeast and South, so the tradition wasn’t in place. Second, originally the West was settled predominantly by men, who tend to be less concerned than women about establishing and keeping religious traditions. Also, there is that staunch individualism of the West. People often prefer to be left alone instead of affiliating.”

But loyal followers of several religions are moving into Arizona neighborhoods.

Major religious demographic data is collected every 10 years by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies and distributed by ARDA. In 2000, that data showed Arizona’s population was 5.1 million.

By 2006 – the last year for which an estimate was available on the U.S. Census Bureau Web site – the state’s population was estimated to have grown by 1 million people.

Flaaten says the state’s religious profile will have changed even more when the next set of data is presented in 2010 by ARDA. He says some of the new trends will include:

• A greater presence of both Jews and Muslims in the state. Both populations present challenges in developing solid demographic data, Flaaten says, and he believes official counts from 2000 of about 80,000 Jews in the state and 12,000 Muslims could have been low. He says that there has been a strong Jewish tradition in Arizona for decades, so don’t be surprised if there are more than 120,000 Jews and 75,000 Muslims in Arizona in 2010. Part of this growth, he said, is attributable to the general migration of people to the state. Also, he believes better methods will be in place for counting these populations in 2010, so the numbers will naturally increase.
• An expansion of Catholicism. Roman Catholics will continue to make up the largest religious population in the state. Arizona adherents grew from about 485,000 in 1980 to nearly 975,000 in 2000 and should easily exceed 1 million by 2010. The church, which also is the single largest religious body in the U.S., will benefit from the migration of Catholics from other states and particularly from Latin American countries south of the U.S. border, of which many are predominantly Catholic.
• Steady growth of the Mormon faith. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which grew in the state from about 140,000 in 1980 to more than 250,000 by 2000, also will show an increase. This should be attributable primarily to growth in individual LDS families, not by converts.
• A steady decline of Southern Baptists. The Southern Baptist Convention, whose Arizona members numbered nearly 140,000 in 2000 after reaching about 163,000 in 1990, will probably continue to decline in the state. Watch for the rift in social issues to grow, Flaaten says. “This church body is part of the larger group of evangelical Christians, and this group generally is divided on whether Christians should pursue a broader role in society that includes a social justice agenda. Evangelicals, for example, are firmly united in their anti-abortion convictions, but there is an increasing variety of opinions about how to address the whole of life for children once they’re born. Should the church be active in advocating mandatory health care benefits? Should it be fighting for better education systems? Or should it focus on its primary job of preaching the Gospel? As these and other issues develop, they sometimes split churches. This is happening in the SBC, and because it’s not a denomination but rather just an association of congregations, it’s easy for individual congregations to break off and become independent or affiliate with some other group. As a result, membership is declining.”
• A large expansion of Pentecostalism. The Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal church body, nearly quadrupled from about 20,000 to about 80,000 between 1980 and 2000, and Flaaten expects growth to continue. “Many people don’t realize it, but after Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism is the second-largest expression of Christianity in the world,” he said. “It’s especially significant in Latin America. Arizona is attracting a number of people from that area, and the Assemblies of God should benefit from that. Many people want a religion that engages both their mind and their emotions, and this church body will see an increase because of that hunger within people.”
• A plateau and decline in the number of Protestants here. Flaaten expects most denominations within mainline Protestantism to show a decrease in 2010, with the exception of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “The ELCA has been growing, not because of conversions and outreach efforts, but simply because so many people are moving to Arizona from heavily Lutheran states like Minnesota,” said Flaaten, who is himself a member of the ELCA. “For most of the other mainline denominations, the figures probably will hold steady or decline.”

These trends will eventually force Arizonans to become more religiously aware.

“Unless we talk about and to people of other faiths, we will always be suspicious and perhaps fearful,” Flaaten says. “This isn’t difficult, but many of our faith community teachings have an ‘absolute truth’ quality about them, which limits the truth of other believers in God. So we have that obstacle to overcome, but it is possible to create curricula that help us all in the dialogue.”

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

Uranium exploration near Grand Canyon sparks battle with Bush administration

In the fight to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining and exploration, one battle is over, but another has just begun.

Last week, three environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust – announced they had reached a settlement with VANE Minerals, a U.K.-based minerals exploration firm that had previously received approval from the Forest Service to drill 39 exploratory holes in search of uranium deposits in the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon.

Essentially, VANE is back at square one. If they still want to drill some holes, they will have to go through much more rigorous environmental review than they had previously faced.

Thanks to an injunction by a federal judge back in April, “the writing was on the wall that they were going to lose the case,” says Taylor McKinnon, public lands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

With the settlement, VANE essentially folded a losing hand.

It’s a big victory, but the issue is far from settled.

“This has been our flagship battle for a much, much larger war,” McKinnon says.

That’s because if mining companies like VANE are willing to go to the time and expense, they very well may be able to gain approval for exploratory drilling in the future.

While exploratory drilling causes relatively little damage in comparison to, say, a large heap-leach uranium strip mine, environmental groups like the CBD are determined to stop any exploration near the Canyon.

That’s because under the 1872 Mining Law, the bedrock of federal mining legislation, once a recoverable mineral deposit has been found, it gains a whole host of new legal rights and protections and becomes very difficult – and expensive – to stop.

So, until Congress gets around to reforming the 1872 Mining Act – hell, it’s only been 136 years – stopping exploration is the only way to really nip a mining project in the bud.

A few members of Congress have now gotten into the act, seeking to withdraw a huge section of land near the Grand Canyon from mineral exploration – using an emergency declaration that last three years and that federal law says the Department of the Interior is compelled to respect.

The declaration was passed on June 25, 2008, but has been ignored by Interior, prompting a new lawsuit by environmentalists – filed Monday – seeking to compel Secretary Dick Kempthorne to stop approving exploration projects within the withdrawal area.

TZR founder Adam Klawonn has the skinny here.

To Taylor McKinnon, it’s a classic power struggle between the executive and the legislative.

“I think that the Bush Administration objects to the power afforded Congress over the executive branch in this case,” he says.

The Bush Administration in a power grab? That’s shocking. Just shocking.

John Collins Rudolf

South Mountain freeway project could cost $2.4B

AHWATUKEE — The price of a controversial freeway project along South Mountain has gone up 50 percent since May, meaning taxpayers could shell out as much as $2.4 billion for the work.

The new price tag for the proposed Loop 202/South Mountain Freeway came during a Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee meeting last night at the Pecos Community Center. Laurel Arndt, a committee member, quoted the price from a recent report submitted by the Arizona Department of Transportation, which is proposing the project as a solution to East Valley commuter woes.

ADOT has continuously stated that nothing in the proposal has changed, Arndt said, but the price of construction has clearly changed.

“The numbers are real,” Arndt said. “They’re public record now.”

Arndt, who is also a member of the South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team (CAT), said she volunteers as a consultant for decisions on whether the freeway project will move forward. Elements such as air quality, noise, traffic, cultural and preservation impacts are commonly brought up, Arndt said.

“The freeway is an important part of our future whether you are for or against it,” she said.

However, Arndt said Ahwatukee community members still feel somewhat disregarded in the decision making process because the city signed away their right to vote on the freeway, leaving the state with the final say.

“It’s time to get support from people other than the councilman and the mayor,” Arndt said.

In a phone interview, Phoenix City Councilman Greg Stanton, who represents the Ahwatukee area, said he has spent the bulk of his time speaking with residents about the Loop 202/South Mountain Freeway. He says that the majority of Ahwatukee residents are against it.

“The freeway will tear down hundreds of homes and take a big chunk out of South Mountain,” Stanton said.

So far, the proposed project has been split into two segments. Placing the western alignment along 55th Avenue has already been decided, said Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee Chairman Doug Cole.

But residents are still discussing whether to build the east alignment along Pecos Road, he said. The planning committee has voted no on the Pecos Road construction twice, Cole added.

“Building along Pecos Road would lead to the destruction of 400 to 800 homes and could possibly impact several schools and churches along the boundary,” he said.

Cole said the next step is to continue having community meetings discussing the Loop 202/South Mountain Freeway. Although drawing the process out makes the price more expensive, it can also help residents settle on a better route.

“The longer the final decision takes, the better it is for us,” Cole said. “It makes [ADOT] consider alternative options.”

The new cost estimates will be discussed at a public hearing Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Student Union building of South Mountain Community College, 7050 S. 24th St.

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

Eco-hero, minus the cape

TEMPE — Steve Brittle once marshaled an entire Arizona town to shoot video of an environmental catastrophe to get the attention of the authorities.

Eleven years later, this self-proclaimed “hell-raiser” is still digging up dirt on industrial contamination around Arizona, and he shared his adventures at a recent Arizona State University lecture entitled, “Seeking Justice in Arizona.”

Brittle, now 57, is the co-founder and president of Don’t Waste Arizona, a nonprofit that promotes public awareness of environmental hazards facing Arizona’s natural resources by tracking the activities of big polluters since 1990.

“It was a matter of keeping the issues in front of the public, and not letting them get away with it,” Brittle said.

As an Air force brat, Brittle says he quickly learned about racism at a young age. He attended to a segregated school for part of his life in Florida. Brittle said this became an integral part of his social upbringing before heading to college at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history there in 1973 and also studied environmental science.

His activist track record spans several Arizona issues and towns. Brittle says he has worked to help get 180 homes and four schools decontaminated. Some very specific movements he is known for are Victims of the ‘92 Toxic Fires, What Goes on at Night Can Kill You and Hayden’s Nightmare. All of them deal with various toxic pollutants creating a public health scare.

In 1992, he helped form a group called the Concerned Residents of South Phoenix (CRSP) to inform people of the environmental issues that were occurring from a toxic chemical fire there. Brittle says the chemicals affected a predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood.

Brittle said most of the houses were filled with chemicals in the air ducts. Hydrogen fluoride was produced, and four years later, the chemicals were still there. When Brittle noticed he had a sore that didn’t heal, he went to a meeting with other neighbors to, “raise hell.”

“I’ve always been a hell-raiser, never been arrested for it,” Brittle quipped.

The CRSP, Concerned Residents of South Phoenix, confirmed that the death percentage increased in their neighborhood. Researchers also proved that the death rate rose since the incident.

Another awareness project Brittle was involved in focused on sand and gravel industry on 51st Avenue, along the Salt River bed and Sun City. It was called What Goes on at Night Can Kill You, based on a video that shows the dust spewed from the projects at overnight.

Hayden’s Nightmare is also an area that many citizens have a high risk of obtaining lung cancer. Brittle said companies tried to blame it on smoking, but that a testing center which analyzed blood from newborn babies in the area were inconclusive. Brittle said when he goes to Hayden; he has to sleep the next day because of all the chemicals.

Regardless of the outcome, Brittle’s tactics are what draws headlines. During the Hayden project, he, his camera crew, and several Hayden residents went around town videotaping environmental issues associated with toxic chemicals.

The town council called an emergency meeting because its members saw the camera crew. Police officers stopped by and ran his plates. The whole operation with the toxic chemicals in Hayden turned off and they have significantly won the battle.

“People want us to do something, so they call and we go after things,” Brittle said.

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

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

AZ species may suffer after Bush rule change

In what critics call a back-door move to weaken environmental regulations, the Bush administration has proposed a rule change for the Interior Dept. that would dramatically reduce the scientific input necessary for agency decisions with the potential to affect threatened species.

The move could have far-ranging impacts on Arizona wildlife, says Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter.

“Ultimately, what it does is it takes science out of the decision making process related to endangered species – and there’s already far too much politics involved in endangered species,” she says.  “We’ve seen that in Arizona with the Mexican gray wolf.”

The Associated Press reported that the Bush administration has sought to fast-track the rule changes by cutting a public comment period from 60 to 30 days.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson) slammed the move in a recent statement.

“I am disappointed once again by the recent announcement that the lame duck Bush White House plans to roll back the protections for endangered species before leaving office. It doesn’t surprise me that the legacy this President wants to leave is one of further environmental degradation and loss of more species who are already on the brink of extinction,” Rep. Grijalva said.

He continued: “This is just one more example of their ongoing efforts to undermine the environmental protections that have been in place in this country for more than 30 years. What the previous majority in Congress couldn’t accomplish legislatively, the Administration is now trying to do through revised regulations.”

The L.A. Times calls the rule change a “bum rush” in this editorial.

Bahr agrees. “Rather than a frontal attack, it’s an administrative action, so it doesn’t require Congress to do anything. It’s basically more of the same from the Bush administration.

“Ultimately, the impact in Arizona will be fewer species protected, and more politics and political decisions,” she says.

JCR

Funding sweeps leave state parks in shambles

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FLORENCE — The steady gaze of Earnest McFarland, who in the mid-20th century served Arizona as a U.S. senator, governor and state supreme court justice, looks down on every visitor to the state park that bears his name, a restored frontier courthouse in dusty Florence, built in 1874.

“We will never be perfect in our government, but high ideals can predominate,” reads a brass plaque beneath the portrait, quoting one of McFarland’s favorite sayings.

Yet perfection is hardly the word that comes to mind during a tour of McFarland State Historical Park. Massive cracks stretch from floor to ceiling on more than one of the building’s original adobe walls. A support beam braces a crumbling exterior wall, keeping the wall and sections of roof from collapsing. In another room, which over the years served variously as a jail, county hospital and prisoner-of-war camp, caution tape warns visitors to avoid a gaping hole in the floor.

“McFarland did a lot for this state and this community, and I think he would be very saddened if he saw the condition of this building today,” says assistant park manager Terri Leverton.

McFarland’s park is not the only one in need of repair. Similar problems plague many of the 30 parks that comprise the Arizona state parks system, from failing septic systems in popular parks along the Colorado River to leaky roofs and crumbling walls at monuments like Tombstone Courthouse and Yuma Territorial Prison.

Fixing all of the system’s infrastructure and maintenance issues would cost $20 million a year over five years, says Arizona State Parks director Ken Travous.

“If you’re looking at the things that need to be repaired or refurbished, you’re talking $100 million,” Travous says. “Buildings are falling down, literally.”

But the cash-strapped parks system found no relief this year, as state legislators again swept millions of dollars from special funds earmarked for capital projects. The money comes from user fees, taxes on boating fuel and a share of state lottery proceeds, and state law dictates they are supposed to be spent on developing and maintaining parks and open space.

The statutes lack a provision that can prevent legislators from steering the funds toward other purposes – a loophole they have taken advantage of repeatedly.

During the economic downturn of 2002, for example, tens of millions in capital funds were stripped to make up for deficits in other state agencies. The economy rebounded, but the funds were never replaced.

“It started getting really bad in 2003,” Travous says. “They cut the money for the grants, and then they cut our capital money. We never made it back to where we were before.”

With the state again in an economic tailspin, pleas for increased funding for the parks system have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, an additional $13 million has been stripped from maintenance and improvement funds to help plug a $2 billion hole in the 2008-09 budget.

“In a year like this, frankly, upgrading toilets is not as important as meeting the state’s budget crunch,” says Arizona Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox. “Right now we were very, very short, and there were no other options.”

As in the past, the stripped funds — which now total nearly $40 million since 2003 — are likely never to be replaced. “It just doesn’t happen,” Arzberger says. “There is never any anticipation that those funds can be paid back.”

Supporters of the park system acknowledge that during the present budget crisis, some cuts were inevitable.

But they also argue that the continual shortchanging of the state parks budget is shortsighted and will eventually cost the state far more because small problems that were once funded year-to-year are snowballing into major restoration projects.

Mounting problems at popular parks like those on Lake Havasu, a big draw for out-of-state visitors, negatively impacts tourism – a bright spot for Arizona in this economic storm.

“Our system is in real decline, and it has been since the last budget crisis, in 2001,” says Doug Frerichs, president of the nonprofit Arizona State Parks Foundation. “Sitting here and imagining that no cuts are necessary is absurd, but serious cuts in the state parks budget – the sweeping of funds – will just devastate this system, and it makes no sense to do it.”

If maintenance issues continue to spiral out of control, some popular parks may have to be closed temporarily, parks officials say.

Buckskin Mountain State Park, near Parker on the Colorado River, is one. State parks officials say it has a failing sewage lift station, which is a critical component of its septic system.

“If that sewage waste system goes down, that park goes down,” says assistant Parks director Jay Ream. “If that were to overflow, sewage would flow into the Colorado River.”

Money could likely be found to repair the septic system, Ream says, but it would come at the expense of pressing maintenance issues at other parks. “It’s getting to be like triage in a train wreck,” Ream says. “You have to take care of the most critical patients first.”

In difficult economic times, a cure for the state parks system’s woes is not readily apparent. That is in spite of the fact that data shows the parks system to be an overall moneymaker for the state, generating over $126 million in tourist revenue per year, according to a 2002 study by Northern Arizona University.

Sen. Arzberger said she supported an eventual increase in the state parks budget, as well as a restructuring of the department’s funding mechanism to ensure a more steady revenue stream. But until the state learns to match its revenues to its expenses, additional spending on the parks department will be a difficult sell to other lawmakers.

“It has to come behind building schools and building roads and meeting the essential issues. It has to come behind that,” Arzberger says.

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

‘Out the Vote’ courts gay voters before fall elections

PHOENIX — A voter registration drive geared toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender voters is ramping up in the face of an electric presidential contest and a statewide ballot measure to ban gay marriage.

Dubbed “Out the Vote” by its proponents, the campaign started as a response to the concern of community activists wanting to get people involved in politics. Its backers say it is nonpartisan.

"People get disengaged with politics because they feel that no one specific party represents them," says Annie Loyd a community leader of Out the Vote. "We just want to simplify the voter registration process and get people voting."

The campaign focuses on providing the resources, education and information for people to register to vote or host registration drives at their businesses.

"We had a similar program in 2004 for the election, and we registered 2,500 to vote from bars alone," says Sam Holdren, a representative of Equality Arizona. "We want to reach out to people, including those who aren’t around the typical bar scene."

The campaign relies on word of mouth promotion, along with the support of GLBT community publications such as Echo and In Touch magazines to reach people who overlook the bars. It is funded by community donations and free advertising from both publications, and it is not endorsing any candidates or positions, Loyd says.

Community leaders insist that this citywide voter registration drive is completely separate from the issues facing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and exists primarily to educate people how to register.

"The Legislature and politicians are out of touch with the people in Arizona," Holdren says. "The only way to change that is by changing who is sitting in the legislative seats. We encourage people to sign up, vote by mail, be familiar with their polling places."

But the fact remains that there is a lot at stake for this voting bloc – namely a ballot measure that would essentially ban gay marriage in Arizona and a sizzling presidential race.

Although Arizona voters rejected a similar measure to ban gay marriage in 2006, the law is alive and well after the Arizona Senate voted to place it back on the November ballot in an extremely heated and lengthy legislative session in late June. Senate President Tim Bee, R-Tucson, cast the deciding vote.

The presidential race features Illinois Democrat Barack Obama versus Arizona Republican John McCain. Both men have stated that marriage should be between a man and a woman but argued against a federal law banning same-sex marriages. McCain is on record saying it’s a state-by-state issue and endorsed Arizona’s 2006 ballot measure that voters ultimately rejected by a 2 percent margin.

Supporters of Out the Vote, meanwhile, are casting a wide net for new voters. The campaign is reaching out to GLBT-supported businesses, churches, event promoters and organizations and providing them with the resources to get their peers interested and registered to vote.

"I think there’s a feeling of ‘one vote doesn’t matter’ but it’s different when it’s a community effort," says Patrick Roland, editor of Echo magazine. "Most gay people don’t live in a box and interact with just gay people. We want to get everyone involved."

The next Out the Vote event is the "Out the Vote Summer Chill" Gala at the Wrigley Mansion on Aug. 16. Participants are invited to stop by and register if they haven’t already done so by logging on to servicearizona.com.

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

Lawyer may cruise to victory in Navajo Co. contest

SHOW LOW — The race for the Navajo County Attorney’s Office may not be much of a race at all, now that one of the two challengers is asking a judge to remove his competitor’s name from the ballot.

The complaint stems from petition signatures that challenger Christian Ackerley, a Democrat, collected to get his name printed on the ballot. He needed at least 478 valid signatures from registered voters in the county to enter the race. Ackerley collected 814.

But the other challenger in the race, Democrat Brad Carlyon, claims otherwise. He is contesting the validity of 571 signatures which, if election officials agree with Carlyon, would ultimately spoil Ackerley’s chances.

Carlyon is currently the deputy attorney for Apache County. He and Ackerley are competing for a seat that was opened after incumbent Navajo County Attorney, Mel Bowers, did not seek re-election.

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