Phoenix, AZ – Today the Arizona Free Enterprise Club announced their third slate of endorsements for the 2022 election.
The endorsed candidates represent individuals who align with the organization’s principles and key policy goals. Club President Scot Mussi stated, “It is critical Arizona has leaders and policy makers who are able to articulate and stand up for individual liberties, free market principles, and conservatie values. This slate of candidates has proven they can and will.”
Arizona State Legislature
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House: Vera Gebran
Senate: David Farnsworth
Senate: Gary Snyder
House: Maria Syms
House: Michele Pena (Write-in)
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House: Kathy Pearce
House: Julie Willoughby
House: Mary Ann Mendoza
Local City and Town Council
Chandler
Payson
Fountain Hills
Darla Gonzalez
Tom Morrissey (Mayor)
Brenda Kalivianakis
Farhana Shifa
Allen Skillicorn
Hannah Toth
Peoria
Gilbert
Queen Creek
Jason Beck (Mayor)
Jim Torgeson
Travis Padilla
Mario Chicas
Bobbi Buchli
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Voted for taxpayer subsidized in-state tuition for illegals (2021, SCR1044.). David Cook was only 1 of 4 Republicans in the House that voted for this bill.
Sponsored a bill supported by Democrats to protect sanctuary cities and incentivize illegals to stay in Arizona by forcing governments to accept foreign IDs. (2021, HB2458). A Democrat in the House introduced the same bill as HB2685.
Increasing Taxes
Voted for a statewide sales tax increase. SCR1049, 2022
Sponsored a bill to increase taxes on small businesses’ employee wages in the middle of a pandemic. (2021, HB2805)
Voted with Democrats to impose a new tax on small businesses (2021, HB2161)
Infringing on the 2nd Amendment
Opposed a bill that would allow students and faculty members at universities to carry a firearm to protect themselves and others on campus. (2022, HB2447).
View David Cook’s comments in House Republican caucus. Cook argues that because foreign students attend our universities and are not familiar with our 2nd Amendment rights, that is a reason not to allow CCW holders carry weapons on campus.
Pay Raises for Politicians & Bureaucrats
Voted to give salary increases to Maricopa County politicians, the same people opposing the Maricopa County election audit. (2021, HB2700)
Voted to give himself and fellow lawmakers a pay raise. (2021, HB2053)
Sponsored a bill to protect career politicians by allowing them to pay a fee to be on the ballot to avoid collecting signatures from voters. (2022, HB2581)
Subsidies for the Swamp
Sponsored a bill to give hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies to Hollywood liberals to make woke movies and relocate thousands of California Democrats to Arizona. (2022, SB1708)
Paid for by The Arizona Free Enterprise Club. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate campaign committee. 602-385-0757
We often hear that over 90% of Maricopa county voters voted early in 2020. While this is true, it can be misleading – leading individuals to think that 90% voted early by mail. In reality, less than half actually returned their ballot by mail – 993,000 to be exact. The next largest group, 714,000, were early ballot drop offs. Of those, more than 200,000 were dropped off on election day alone.
This means that an individual went to a polling location on election day, but instead of showing ID and signing the poll book, they dropped their ballot into a drop box. These are often referred to as “late earlies” even though they are received by the election day deadline, and they are a major cause for the post-election days long tabulation process in Arizona.
The county begins processing these after the polling locations have closed. They have to be scanned, “signature verified,” cured, removed from the envelope, and finally tabulated with some going on to be adjudicated. This takes time, which reduces confidence. It also increases the likelihood of invalid or fraudulent ballots being counted.
That’s where SB1362 comes in. Sponsored by Senator Mesnard and signed by the Governor on June 6, SB1362 establishes the framework for tabulating these ballots on-site.
Instead of dropping the ballot off, the voter, if they choose, can show their ID, have the poll worker check the envelope to verify it is their ballot, sign the poll book, and then remove the ballot and tabulate it themselves.
This means more voters casting their ballot at a polling location on election day, showing ID, and signing the poll book. It also means that their ballot is immediately tabulated, preventing electronic adjudication – where election officials decide how a voter intended to mark their ballot out of sight and knowledge of the voter.
With on-site tabulation, if there is an issue with their ballot they will know then and there when they tabulate it, just like in-person voters, providing confidence that their votes are being recorded as intended.
SB1362 is the example of making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. It introduces a new option for voters, providing more access, with strong front-end safeguards like requiring ID and back-end auditability by requiring the county to reconcile the number of ballots tabulated with the number of voters who signed the poll book and the number of ballot envelopes deposited.
However, the process setup by SB1362 is optional for the counties as well. They are not mandated to do it, but they should and we strongly encourage them to do so.
Not all counties currently tabulate on-site even for in-person voters, instead transporting them from the polling location to a central count facility. These counties should move to on-site tabulation – for both election day in-person voters and for election day early ballot tabulation established by SB1362.
Other counties, Maricopa being one, do currently tabulate in-person election day ballots on-site. SB1362 provides these counties, who already have the necessary equipment, an opportunity this November to simultaneously increase access to voters and increase confidence, security, and transparency. They should enthusiastically do so.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
“Let’s just make everything free!” That might as well be the Left’s motto at this point as they clearly don’t understand how a good economy works. While the past 18 months under President Biden is proof enough of that, they’re not done yet. The Left is fully committed to its plan to build back even broker. And now, they’re targeting conservative states like Arizona to do so.
The latest initiative being pushed in our state comes from California unions. (Because apparently no one knows a good economy like a California union.) It’s called the “Predatory Debt Collection Practices Act,” which sounds harmless enough. After all, who doesn’t want to stick it to predatory debt collectors? But just as you would expect from a California initiative being pushed here in Arizona, it’s not only anti-creditor, it’s anti-business. And it would make Bernie Sanders proud.
This deceptively named initiative would create a threshold for garnishments at $51,000 earned per year. Anyone making below $50,000 per year would be essentially untouchable by creditors. And it would significantly reduce the amount owed for even those making over $200,000 per year! This would eliminate approximately 60-70% of active wage garnishments on civil judgments. That means businesses, landlords, and judgment creditors would be without legal recourse for unpaid debts.
But there’s even more to this initiative:
It would raise the threshold from money in bank accounts that’s protected from creditors from $300 to $5,000. (This effectively eliminates bank garnishments as a recovery strategy.)
It would raise the amount of equity that’s protected from creditors from $250,000 to $400,000. (This effectively eliminates most payoffs from escrow transactions when someone sells their home.)
It would significantly increase other personal property exemptions, which would allow someone in debt to keep property they never paid for.
So far, the California unions have dumped more than $4 million into their attempt to get this Bernie Sanders Debt Cancellation Initiative on the ballot in November. But even Bernie has stopped at student loan cancellation. This initiative would apply to credit cards, auto loans, interest payments, and retail debt. And while this may sound good to people who are in debt, the question remains. If this initiative is passed, why would anyone feel compelled to pay their bills anymore? The reality is that a ballot initiative like this one would punish those who actually pay their bills while rewarding irresponsible behavior. And it would cause the price of all goods to skyrocket. (Yay! More inflation!) But perhaps there’s an even simpler solution to the debt problem in America:
Don’t spend more money than you make.
Save money to buy more expensive items.
Create and live off a budget.
This is what responsible citizens do. There are even free apps like this one and this one that can help. And they are certainly better options than another union-backed ballot initiative that wants to turn Arizona into California.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Phoenix, AZ – Today the Arizona Free Enterprise Club announced their second slate of endorsements for the 2022 election.
The endorsed candidates represent individuals who align with the organization’s principles and key policy goals. Club President Scot Mussi stated, “It is critical Arizona has leaders and policy makers who are able to articulate and stand up for individual liberties, free market principles, and conservative values. This slate of candidates has proven they can and will.”
Arizona State Legislature
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Senate: Rob Scantlebury
House: Rob Hudelson
Senate: Anthony Kern
House: Ben Toma
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House: Justin Heap
House: Michael Carbone
Senate: Janae Shamp
House: Tim Dunn
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Senate: Suzanne Sharer
House: Leo Biasiucci
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
The Left says it isn’t happening. And they’re quick to run to their allies in traditional corporate media to further the lie that voter fraud is a made-up problem. But then maybe they would like to explain the guilty plea from last week.
On Thursday, Guillermina Fuentes of San Luis pleaded guilty to one count of Ballot Abuse for her role in a ballot harvesting scheme from the August 2020 Primary Election. And she wasn’t the first one to do so. Back in March, Alma Juarez, also of San Luis, entered the same plea. Both women admitted that they knowingly collected ballots from another person, and those early ballots belonged to individuals for whom they were not a family member, household member, or caregiver.
It’s this sort of ballot harvesting that provides too much opportunity for fraud and tampering. And that’s exactly why our state passed legislation in 2016 that banned this practice. Of course, the Left couldn’t handle it, filing a lawsuit that claimed the law was enacted with discriminatory intent. But that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, “racism” has become the Left’s battle cry to gaslight the American public anytime a conservative merely suggests an election integrity reform.
Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t buy into their argument. The high court ruled in favor of Arizona’s ballot harvesting ban last year and found that “Arizona law generally makes it very easy to vote.” (Hmmm… Easy to vote and hard to cheat. Stop us if you’ve heard that somewhere before.)
Now, imagine if this law had never been enacted. These women would’ve never been indicted. They would’ve never pleaded guilty. And they would’ve never been held accountable for committing voter fraud. That’s why we need laws like this. But ballot harvesting isn’t the only issue that jeopardizes the integrity of our elections.
Just look at the some of the recent convictions related to voter fraud:
Marcia Johnson of Lake Havasu City was sentenced to one year of probation for casting her dead father’s ballot in the 2018 election.
Joseph John Marak of Surprise was sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation for voting as a felon six times since 2016.
Tracey Kay McKee of Scottsdale was sentenced to two years of probation for voting for her dead mother in the 2020 election.
Krista Michelle Conner of Cochise County was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, had her voter registration revoked, and was ordered to pay $890 in fines and serve 100 hours of community service for voting for her dead mother in the 2020 election.
These are just four examples…from just the state of Arizona…in just this current year. But along with the ballot harvesting violations, they illustrate why good election integrity reforms are so important.
Cases like the ones above show why it was crucial to pass a bill like SB1485 last year, which removes a voter from the Early Voting List if they fail to cast a ballot in at least one of four consecutive elections and do not respond to messages from their county recorder to remain on the list.
They show why passing HB2492 this past March—which safeguards our state’s voter rolls and ensures that only U.S. citizens are voting in our elections—was such a big win.
And they demonstrate why it’s critical for voters to pass the Arizonans for Voter ID Act in this November’s election. This ballot initiative would help secure our state’s future elections by:
Improving existing in-person voter ID requirements.
Establishing voter ID for mail-in ballots.
Deterring ballot harvesting by enhancing voter ID requirements for in-person ballot drop off.
Providing a free voter ID option to lawfully registered Arizona voters who need it for voting.
As you can imagine, the Left doesn’t like it, but then again, they refuse to admit that voter fraud is a real problem. Instead, they’d rather push an election initiative that makes it easy to cheat and hard to catch. But the people of Arizona deserve an election system where it is easy to vote and hard to cheat. That’s why it’s important to take the next step to fight the reality of voter fraud by protecting the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter with a new reality: universal ID.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
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