AZ Official Tim Jeffries Attacked for Offering to Take Employees’ Prayer Requests to Holy Site in France

Tim Jeffries, the quirky director of Arizona's Department of Economic Security, poses with Mr. Smiley outside the DES building. He had the five round concrete barriers (to prevent a car from driving up onto the patio area) painted with clever themes.

The secularists have ignored how the state recruits its employees to automatically contribute money from their paychecks to charities, which include several Christian nonprofits.

The director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Tim Jeffries, is under fire from a secularist group for mentioning to employees in an April email that they could give him “special intentions” to take on his next annual trip to a popular religious site in France. Jeffries is Catholic, and the Grotto in Lourdes is considered a holy place where people go to be healed. He has visited the sacred site every year for the past seven years, bringing letters from others requesting healing or other help.

The Secular Coalition for Arizona is accusing Jeffries of violating state policy by proselytizing. His letter, said the group’s director Zenaido Quintana, is “particularly egregious and could have had him fired from many companies — organizations where policies are in place to prevent work email from being used to proselytize religion.”

But Jeffries didn’t promote the Catholic faith, invite employees to church or request money for religious causes. All he did was offer a service employees were free to accept or reject.  The state policy Jeffries is accused of violating requires that “Any use of State property for other than State-business purposes must be exercised in accordance with your agency’s policies and procedures.”  His supporters have argued that nothing in DES’s policies and procedures would prohibit Jeffries’ email. 

Read the rest of the article at The Stream

Sleazy Don Stapley has the NERVE to run for Congress?!

Don Stapley's two booking photos

This crook has the nerve to run for Congress after the 6+ years of never-ending hell he's put me and others through, and he got the taxpayers to award him a whopping $3.5 million in damages for "stress" because my ex-boss dared to attempt to prosecute him. I just came across this article he wrote where he claims "Small amounts of these funds were mistakenly co-mingled with personal funds, until records were better kept, giving Thomas’s office false license to pick and choose from every checking or credit card account to make up its list of supposedly illegal purchases."

Oh really? Then why did The Arizona Republic reprint HUNDREDS of expenditures from Stapley's campaign finance reports? $86,000 in expenditures from a campaign fund, spent on luxury personal items, does not constitute "small amounts." Was the Republic lying too? I think Stapley really thinks people are that stupid they'll believe his lies. Tellingly, the list of the expenditures has been scrubbed clean from the Republic's website, and also scrubbed from archive.org as well. (the link from this article no longer works -http://www.azcentral.com/…/20100620don-stapley-supervisor-i…)

Jesse Jackson, Jr., was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for the same thing Stapley did, spending campaign funds on personal luxury items! Yep, Maricopa County is now officially more corrupt than Cook County. 

Note Stapley claims Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores was also wrong in concluding that he had violated the law. Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk also stated that the charges had merit against Stapley. So why didn't he file a bar complaint against them as well? Why aren't they disbarred like Andrew Thomas, suffering 6+ years of hell along with the rest of us? 

Republicans in Arizona aren't stupid and there are plenty of better candidates in the race including Andy Biggs and Christine Jones. 

Los Angeles Times: The California State Bar's dismal history shows why it should be broken up

The California State Bar has become as corrupt as the Arizona State Bar. California is a blue state, but even they realize how bad the sleaze is. Why would anyone want to become an attorney anymore? The California legislature is actively seeking to reform its Bar, to make much of its functions voluntary. We tried to do the same thing here in Arizona the last couple of years, but since the Arizona Bar  has the second highest dues of any state mandatory Bar in the country, it was like David v. Goliath; they could afford hours of lobbying that we couldn't counteract. Below are some excerpts from the article. Note the recent SCOTUS antitrust decision — the Ariz. Bar is even worse than the Calif. Bar violating it! 

According to the AZ Bar website, its ratio on the board of governors of attorneys v. non-attorneys is a mere four out of 30:

The Board is comprised of 30 people: four non-attorney, public members appointed by the Board; three at-large members appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court; 19 attorney members elected by fellow Bar members in their district; and four ex-officio members (immediate past president and the deans of Arizona's three law schools).

So here's the relevant excerpts from the LA Times -

Let’s put this in terms that even an attorney with peerless loophole-seeking skills would consider straightforward: the California State Bar is a mess. 

In recent years, the organization has been the target of withering state audits documenting misspent fees by the millions, overpaid executives, and inept management of its all-important duty of licensing lawyers and managing professional discipline. Its reputation is at a low ebb among state legislators, who last month placed on hold the organization’s yearly authorization to collect annual fees because the measure didn’t go far enough to achieve reform.

The Bar’s dual role as licenser and ethics enforcer as well as trade organization pushing policy changes,  critics say, leaves it hopelessly mired in a conflict of interest. 

“You don’t delegate regulatory power to a special interest group,” says Robert Fellmeth, executive director of the University of San Diego’s Center for Public Interest Law and a frequent critic of the Bar. “To let them be the decision-makers is obscene.”

These issues seem to crop up every few years, but seldom with as much urgency as now. That’s because a 2015 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has put professional licensing bodies on notice that they could be guilty of antitrust violations if a majority of their members are participants in the business they regulate.

The California State Bar is governed by a 19-member board of trustees, 13 of whom are lawyers. You do the math.

...

But the Supreme Court ruling sharpens the argument for splitting the Bar in two — into a trade association with voluntary membership, and a government body controlled by non-lawyers and responsible for professional licensing and discipline, much as medical professional standards are overseen by the Medical Board of California and political advocacy is left to the independent California Medical Association.

A measure passed by the State Assembly in June 2 would place the “deunification”  of the Bar firmly on the front burner. The bill would create a commission to reconsider the Bar’s governing structure and report back to the legislature by April. The bill also would restructure the Bar board as a 13-member body with at least seven non-lawyer members — an effort to comply with the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling.

Deunification is “the only real solution to the state bar’s chronic dysfunction,” says Dennis H. Mangers, a non-attorney Bar trustee who has submitted just such a proposal to the legislature. “The Bar should have only one purpose — to rid the profession of bad apples.”

That function often takes a back seat to the policy and social purposes that make the Bar resemble more a professional club than a regulator, according to critics. In legislative testimony last April, Fellmeth observed that the Bar sponsors 30 different programs offering professional services to its members, often at a group discount, including financial advice, insurance, consumer products and software. “No other occupational licensing agency offers any of these goods and services to its licensees,” he said.

The Bar tends to hold itself exempt from state rules applied to other state agencies on grounds that it’s an arm of the State Supreme Court; critics say it still regularly violates the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, which requires at least 10 days public notice of any meetings and forbids members to discuss business with each other except in an open forum, despite a measure passed last year bringing it under Bagley-Keene’s jurisdiction. 

...

In the mid-1980s, the legislature imposed an enforcement monitor for the organization. Fellmeth, who served in that role for five years, found that clients were systematically discouraged from pursuing complaints. For example, the Bar had established a toll-free hotline, but hadn’t listed the number anywhere “a consumer might logically look to find it.”

...

Howle found that the Bar was squandering resources that should have been spent on hiring more enforcement staff. In 2012, the organization spent $76.6 million to buy and refurbish a Los Angeles office building to supplement its San Francisco headquarters — about twice what it spent on discipline that year.

...

The Bar’s structure as a combined trade association and enforcement body dates from 1927 and isn’t unique.  But their day may be passing, says Ted Schnayer, an expert on Bar governance at the University of Arizona.

12 Reasons the State Bar of Arizona is Nontransparent

It fails to tell its members where their money goes. The Bar does not provide members a detailed accounting of its annual expenditures, let alone a yearly income statement and balance sheet. In addition, the Bar uses unexplained indirect cost allocations to account for overhead and administrative costs. Moreover, these partial allocations appear to be based on undocumented time estimates unrelated to measurable factors. Indeed, in the Bar’s “2015 Annual Report,” the Bar states that in 2015 it generated CLE revenues of $2,059,801 against expenses of $1,925,940. This translates into a mystifying expense-to-sales ratio of approximately 94%. Were these allocated expenses reasonably linked to a level of service or benefit received? Without transparency, it’s anybody’s guess whether the Bar’s indirect cost allocations are reasonable, equitable, real and current — or whether they even represent acceptable means for apportioning costs.

Read the rest at The Irreverent Lawyer

Time is Running Short — Let’s Keep the Momentum Going to Save Bear the Dog!

We started a fundraising drive to save the life of Bear, who belongs to IC’s longtime friend Phyllis. He needs $3,000 to remove the cancer from his mouth or he will soon die a painful death. So far, generous friends have contributed $750. We are one quarter of the way there! But we still have a ways to go. Even if you can only contribute, say, $25, if everyone contributes $25 we will raise the full amount quickly. And time is of the essence, if not treated soon the cancer will spread quickly. If you cannot afford to donate, PLEASE email and post this as many places as you can. 

Click here for more info and to contribute

Consultant Chatter: Ellis Baxter

IC Arizona will be running a series of posts entitled "Consultant Chatter," bringing you the history of some of the most prominent political operatives in Arizona. This is the second installment.

Name: Ellis Baxter  [67]

How many years involved in politics: 52 

 How many years involved in Arizona politics: 5

 What Arizona projects have you been involved with?

Janet Contreras [U.S. House]

Dean Martin [Governor]

John Washington [Scottsdale Mayor]

Bill Crawford [Scottsdale City Council] 

Short summary of how you got involved in politics: 

In my family, politics was the sport de jour. My great uncle was a nine term congressman. My grandfather would have all the state politicos over to the house; I would sit in a small chair while they had some of my grandfather’s apple brandy that he made. My favorite was Big JIM Folsom, the former governor, who was running for office, so I went to his local office and volunteered. I would go to the major highway around the county and put bumper stickers on cars. They displayed, “Ya'll come" -  no name just that. After Big Jim lost in the primary, there was a run-off election and it was between George Wallace and Ryan de Graffenreid. De Graffenreid’s people came by and wanted me to do the stuff for him that I did for Big Jim, but I did not know him. Then they offered me $50 a week to do it so I took it. I was 14 at the time, and from there it just went on... 

What issue(s) got you involved in politics:

I believe in America, I believe in the Constitution, I understood how important it is to be free, to have the Bill of Rights. Almost every president in my lifetime takes the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution and then they try like hell to go around it - and they hook up with the elites, and that is fascism which I fight. 

Who was your political hero growing up:

Big Jim Folsom and Senator Lister Hill, and of course my great-uncle. 

Has that hero changed since you were involved in politics: 

Thank God no ... Hill in my mind has gotten bigger, he co-sponsored the Hill-Burton Act. 

Why are you still involved in politics:

The country is going downhill fast. When I came out here to Arizona, I wanted out of the game, but Arizona has no conservatives in D.C. Scottsdale is a tax and spend city, and they are doing really wrong stuff. I have studied monetary policy for 20 years, and I have many solutions to these problems. I also ran some ground games in Georgia for some of the the most famous Senators in the country! We have lost the way. The Constitution is the vital link; we must fight to elect conservatives to office. Hillary or Trump are both horrible. 

It comes down to choices. This is going to end bad. It is up to us to remove the false conservatives from office. I want to help with that. Arizona does not have a single conservative in D.C.; they are all just working for their careers - all of them. 

Next we face the movement to a new social order; the signs are everywhere but so few can see the links. Neo-fascist ideology is rampant worldwide. They will not go away. It will get much worse before it gets better - and no one here sees this, they're too busy being angry and supporting Trump. Trump will be washed down the drain with all the dirt he has done, and I think he is broke. When this hits, what will all those poor people do? 

What do you hope to accomplish in the next 5-10 years:

I hope to get my debt, banking, and monetary plan out to the public. And to use it to foster the banking plan that would save the country from its self. In addition, right now I am working on the next shoe; the grassroots is always caught flat footed. This "zero marginal cost society" has got to come to a close. They elected a mayor in London Metro, and almost in San Antonio! They are now working on some dozen major cities worldwide. This is the NWO. Just this past weekend, the Swiss had a national income scheme on the ballot. It got 23% support, but this is just round one. Everyone gets a check monthly. Everyone. 

What do you hope your Arizona legacy is when all is said and done:

That I tried to help the underdog candidates, who are trying to do a job of work in lieu of building a career like the current lot do now. Perhaps get people to know what a republic is.

What episode in your political journey has taught you the most:

Watching it change from people who were born to do it into people who want to win at any cost, will do any thing to win. 

Summarize your most memorable moment in Arizona politics:

The first meeting with the volunteers for Janet Contreras for Congress. it was a real grassroots effort. They knew the odds, but were ready to make the effort.  

Who’s your favorite Arizona elected official:

I guess it would be Ben Quayle; he was a class act; he was not driven by money and had conservative ideas. 

What was your favorite campaign and why:

Janet Contreras's campaign for Congress in Arizona. I was asked to try and do something with the mess that was there, they did not really have a structure, and there was eight weeks until the election so we had no ability to alter the mail-in ballots. But IF we could have a good showing on election day we might leave a path forward for Janet. Everyone involved knew it was a long shot, but they really worked to do the best they could. I loved those people; the grassroots is the real deal. The count of the total of the votes was never completed. 

Favorite TV show:

Levin TV  

Favorite writer:

John Keynes, Niall Ferguson, Corsi, and Levin, plus about 500 hundred more. I have read 12,501 books as of today 06-06-2016 Reading Blank Slate tonight.

Favorite hobby:

Reading, audio, photography, repairing watches, guitars & furniture, and listening to music.

Click here for the previous consultant featured, Sean Noble

$5 million dollar claim filed against the State of Arizona by disbarred attorney for malicious prosecution

June 6, 2016, Monday

Briana Hernandez, Press Contact 

Briana@jeffreymoffatt4congress.com

 FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE 

Jeffrey Moffatt, an Arizona attorney who was disbarred inadvertently by Judge William J. O’Neil, the Arizona State Bar's disciplinary judge, has filed a $5 million dollar claim against the State of Arizona for malicious prosecution.

Moffatt argued that the matter O’Neil disbarred him for has already been adjudicated in another state, which found in Moffatt’s favor.

Additionally, Moffatt notes that federal law provides for federal court to have exclusive jurisdiction over the contested matter, since it involved multiple jurisdictions. 

Points of interest Moffatt argued within his $5 million claim:

• O’Neil is required to uphold the state constitution of Arizona and the U.S. Constitution — yet it is impossible for O’Neil to uphold either the state constitution or U.S. Constitution, because O’Neil does not have a valid “oath of office.”  

• The purported oath of office for O’Neil does not have his affixed signature, is not signed off on by an Arizona governor, nor even notarized.

Moffatt went on to say, "Since I am a federal attorney with a limited federal practice, exclusive jurisdiction belongs to the federal court, and specifically the U.S. Tax Court and U.S. Department of Treasury — not the State of Arizona's Supreme Court." 

According to Richard M. Re, Assistant Professor at the UCLA School of Law, from his law review article, Articles Promising the Constitution,

The Constitution requires that all … judges … swear or affirm their fidelity to it. The resulting practice often called “the oath" … And official defiance of the oath would violates the public’s trust, reliance and expectations … [T]he Oath equilibrates the power imbalance between officials and the public and so serves a paradigmatic promissory function.

Judge O’Neil’s failure to have a valid oath of office is exactly what Mr. Moffatt said is the beginning of our Founding Fathers turning over in their graves. He said, "We are witnessing our U.S. Constitution being trashed by the establishment, which is why presidential candidate Donald Trump is leading a political revolution, to take back our country — and so am I."

###

Targeted GOP Attorneys Release Preview of Interview Exposing Corrupt AZ State Bar and its Disciplinary Judge

McCain Senate Campaign Resorts to Misleading Attacks to Fend Off Conservative Challenger

Kelli Ward, a conservative state legislator and physician challenging five-term senator John McCain in the Republican primary, has little statewide name recognition — but McCain is so unpopular she is nevertheless virtually tied with him in polls. She has her work cut out for her though. McCain is spending millions to defeat her, and stooping to misleading attack ads to get the job done.

I should note that I served as the director of social media on J. D. Hayworth’s unsuccessful campaign challenging McCain in 2010, and experienced McCain campaign attacks firsthand. My experience, and what Ward is enduring now, apparently are not out of the ordinary. A couple of prominent Arizona politicians have told me they do not dare run against him because they do not want to put themselves and their families through the inevitable smears. 

Chemtrail Claptrap

The McCain campaign bought a barrage of ads in late May associating Ward with the chemtrails conspiracy theory, the unproven notion that there “are long-lasting trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft consisting of chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed for sinister purposes undisclosed to the general public.” McCain’s campaign, using a technique called ad remarketing, got the “Chemtrail Kelli” ads to pop up all over the internet, accusing her of being a conspiracy theorist and insisting she spent tax dollars entertaining chemtrails theories.

Read the rest of the article at The Stream

BREAKING NEWS: Complaint Filed to Disqualify State Senate Candidate Scott Wilk, Assemblyman-Lobbyist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2016
Contact – Briana Hernandez
Phone – (661) 945-6121

Proud Mrs. Star Moffatt and proud Republican California State Senate candidate to represent citizens of California and citizens of SD21

Today, California State Senate Candidate Republican Star Moffatt of Palmdale, who is running in District 21, filed a complaint to disqualify one of her opponents in the race, Scott Wilk, because he is ineligible to run for the position. Wilk was a California Assemblyman representing the 38th District until recently. He resigned from that office on March 15, 2016, ostensibly to run for the state senate.

However, Wilks is a registered lobbyist with Anchor Consulting. California state law states that when an elected official who leaves office is also a lobbyist, there shall be a "cooling period" of one year before the lobbyist can return to office, lobby the legislature, etc. 

Lobbyist Scott Wilk

If Wilk is not disqualified, what type of influence can we expect next from him should he be elected to the Senate? The Santa Clarita Valley Signal reported about his lobbyist influence on the legislature in 2012:

His work for the Washington lobbyist firm Anchor Consulting helped the Castaic Lake Water Agency pursue federal grants year after year. He was also instrumental in getting the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital’s 15-Year master plan approved. Wilk was also involved in developing Westfield Valencia Town Center mall’s Patios area and the city of Santa Clarita’s Open Space District.

(http://www.signalscv.com/archives/66011)

OpenSecrets.org, the website that tracks political candidates and contributions, even refers to Wilk as a "revolving door" due to his cozy relationship between serving in the legislature and lobbying for clients as a lobbyist in the legislature. (https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=74294)

Anchor Consulting coincidentally has a long list of clients in District 21, in addition to the three listed in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal article. Which one of these clients listed will we see given favorable treatment next year if Wilks is permitted to run for office and wins? Note the amounts of money some of these organizations paid for the lobbying - and this may just be the tip of the iceberg. 

Boys & Girls Club/Santa Clarita Valley

California Baptist University $7,500

Castaic Lake Water Agency $120,000

Exquadrum Inc - Defense Aerospace

Glendale Community College $55,000

Grace College $80,000

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital

Indiana Women's Oncology

International Assn of Fire Fighters, Palmdale, CA local I-25

Myrtle Beach Performing Arts Center

Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging

(https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=F25333&year=2011)

The election takes place on June 7. District 21 encompasses northern Los Angeles County, parts of the High Desert, Antelope Valley, Victor Valley, and most of the Santa Clarita Valley. The court needs to do the right thing and disqualify Wilk due to the obvious violation of law. Otherwise his undue influence will hurt the taxpayers for the benefit of his own pockets.

The Milton Marks Postgovernment Employment Restrictions Act of 1990 can be found at http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/government-code/gov-sect-87406.html, and the complaint is case no. #16K06818.

Rep. Anthony Kern, who dared to take on the corrupt State Bar, is having a fundraiser tonight

A fundraiser for the Anthony Kern Campaign will be held tomorrow evening at 6 pm. Location is 7075 West Bell Road Suite 1. The fundraiser is hosted by an attorney who supports our efforts regarding the State Bar. Please come if you can! Paid for by www.votekern.com

California Congressional candidate appealing wrongful disbarment by AZ Bar disciplinary Judge O'Neil

Santa Clarita Valley Signal

By Matt Thacker 
Signal Staff Writer

May 25, 2016 7:10 p.m.

A tax attorney running for the 25th Congressional District has filed an appeal after an Arizona judge ordered his disbarment over allegations of misconduct. 

Jeffrey Moffatt, a Republican from Lancaster, admits that in October 2013 he sent a Facebook message to a woman asking her to send him nude photographs. 

Moffatt — a candidate for the congressional seat that takes in the Santa Clarita Valley and is now held by Steve Knight, R-Palmdale — said his actions were a “mistake,” but he believes he did nothing illegal. 

“I happen to have a male drive that on occasion will come out,” he said. “In this case, it was an inopportune time.” 

The woman who received the request filed a complaint in New Mexico, where she was at the time, according to Moffatt. He said the State Bar of New Mexico investigated the claims and determined by December 2013 that no attorney-client relationship existed and that the conduct was not illegal. 

Moffatt said he believed the case was a “done deal” until November 2015, when the State Bar of Arizona filed charges against him. Although Moffatt is based in Lancaster, he handles federal cases and his license to practice law is through Arizona. 

Judge William J. O’Neil signed the order of disbarment April 19. Moffatt appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District. 

Moffatt believes he is being targeted for political reasons, arguing that other attorneys have done worse and not been barred from practicing law. 

“I’m being taken down for asking an out-of-state chick for a nude over Facebook three years ago,” he said. 

His appeal notes that the State Bar of Arizona filed charges only a week after his wife, Star Moffatt, announced her candidacy for California Senate District 21, which takes in most of the Santa Clarita Valley. 

Moffatt alleges the judge who issued the order has a history of targeting high-profile Republican attorneys. 

Read the rest of the article at The Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Tough-Borders Sheriff Arpaio Found in Contempt of Court. The ‘Finding’ is a Contempt of Justice.

Judge Murray Snow

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow found Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three of his top aides in contempt of court for racial profiling. It could lead to criminal charges. As a former Maricopa County Deputy County Attorney who represented Arpaio on a racketeering case, I do not believe he did anything wrong. He’s an ethical straight-shooter — I don’t believe he’s ever even gotten a speeding ticket. I strongly suspect he’s been targeted for espousing a conservative position in law enforcement, particularly on the defense of our borders.

I also know Arpaio’s former Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, included in the judgment, primarily from working with him on Arpaio’s reelection campaign. Like Arpaio, he has a high ethical character, and am convinced he has been targeted for his association with Arpaio.

I have written previously about Judge’s Snow’s proceedings against Arpaio, here andhere. The Department of Justice started investigating Arpaio’s office in 2008 over allegations of racial profiling when arresting illegal immigrants. I’ve written frequently about how the Department of Justice targets prominent conservatives, a practice former DOJ prosecutor Sidney Powell exposes in her book Licensed to Lie. Using the legal system to target conservatives is becoming more and more common, since progressives control much of the judiciary and even many prosecutorial offices.

Read the rest of the article at The Stream

Robert Graham: "Is Trump a Modern-Day Reagan?"

In one of the strongest showings of support for Donald Trump's inevitable nomination shown by a Republican Party leader, Arizona Republican Party Chairman Robert Graham penned an op-ed on Townhall that examined the striking similarities between the candidacies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

It was the worst-kept secret in Arizona for the past year that Graham had his eyes on the RNC chairmanship, and the cat was let out of the national bag at the end of March. Graham played his cards perfectly in front of all of the national candidates from day one - even with Trump. He did not play favorites with any particular candidate, and he was welcoming and helpful to all the candidates who frequented Arizona throughout the past year of rigid campaigning. He even attended the last Trump rally in Fountain Hills.

Graham's political capital is growing within the Trump hierarchy, and his support for the next Republican nominee for President bodes very well for a looming RNC chairman's bid. Time will tell, but Robert Graham's abilities to grow and to unite the Republican Party (as evidenced, in part, by his treatment of Trump's candidacy and nomination) are sorely needed on the national scene. Republicans would be wise to throw their support behind Graham when the vote for RNC Chair occurs.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan endorses Andy Biggs

Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs continues to set the pace of the Fifth Congressional District race to replace Matt Salmon in the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, he announced that he had picked up the endorsement of House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan.

This endorsement is clearly a masterful outside-of-box move by the Biggs' campaign and shows how closely top conservatives in Congress are watching this race. As many in Arizona know - and now many around the nation - not everyone is capable of filling the role being vacated by Congressman Matt Salmon - in the district, in DC, and on the House Freedom Caucus. Congressman Jordan's endorsement of President Biggs shows that he trusts a 'Congressman Biggs' to be a reliable conservative reformer - an outsider needed to make DC listen to the people back in the districts.

There are some inside of the opponents' camps already trying to spin this endorsement as an establishment pickup for President Biggs, which really shows the rock-bottom, desperate games that are played by those competing for a share of the runner-up's support. Congressman Jordan has extremely high scores from many of the organizations fighting against the establishment machine in DC - 93% from Heritage Action; 94% score from Conservative Review; A- from Numbers USA; 98% lifetime score from the Club for Growth; and a 97% lifetime score from Freedom Works.

Jim Jordan, establishment? Those are clearly fighting words to the ears of a host of conservative leaders around the country.

Read the Jordan endorsement press release here.

The argument against Prop. 123

My husband and I will be canceling each others' votes out today. From my friend Vicki, a long time policy expert in education:

I agree that Prop 123 is unlikely to prevent lawsuits. First, it's a compromise that doesn't "fully fund" what spending proponents claim is owed. Second, this plan puts our land trust at risk. It's telling that to my knowledge no finance expert has endorsed this plan. Finally, there is no requirement that funds go to teachers or classrooms.

Another wrongfully disbarred attorney says enough is enough, files Writ of Mandamus against State Bar disciplinary judge

Arizona State Bar disciplinary judge Judge William O'Neil, who has a long history of disbarring and suspending attorneys, which many believe is deliberate political targeting, is finally facing some pushback. A couple of bills were introduced in the state legislature last year and again this year to try and reform the Bar, but the Bar has such deep pockets from charging the second highest dues of any mandatory Bar in the country, that its lobbyists were able to defeat the bills. I've written about a lot of the corruption here, and The Arizona Republic has written a long article about Judge O'Neil's history; his former friend Mark Dixon has been trying to hold him accountable for years with no success.

Enter Jeffrey Moffatt, a Republican candidate for Congress in California. He is admitted to several Bars including Arizona's, but he really doesn't practice law here, he practices federal law. He had an uncomfortable exchange with a woman from New Mexico on Facebook - something that really had nothing to do with the practice of law, nor was it a crime, so the Bar should not be getting involved. She reported him to the three state Bars he is a member of: New Mexico, California and Arizona. The New Mexico Bar properly threw out the complaint. The California Bar, when it heard that the Arizona Bar was going to go aggressively after him, said they would wait until the Arizona Bar made its decision.

Additionally, Jeff told me that the three-year statute of limitations had passed so O'Neil had no authority any more to pursue this against him!

Judge O'Neil promptly disbarred him. This will have a chilling effect on his license to practice federal law, since usually the federal courts just echo the disciplinary decision of the state Bars. He is currently appealing the decision to the Ninth Circuit.

Fortunately, Jeff is a fighter. He looked into O'Neil's oath of office, and discovered it listed no real jurisdiction and was never signed by O'Neil. So he filed a Writ of Mandamus to throw out O'Neil's disciplinary decisions against attorneys, based on his oath of office being invalid.

Jeff and his wife Star Moffatt, who is running as a Republican for the state senate, believe he was targeted because they are active Republicans. O'Neil is a Democrat. Having talked to many attorneys who have had the book thrown at them by O'Neil, it is frankly alarming how many are Republicans and particularly Republican activists (like myself). One of the few Democrats I've come across who was disbarred thinks she was targeted because she is an outspoken LGBT activist, she believes O'Neil does not like gays.

I spoke with Jeff a few days ago, and he has the same wish that I do. We don't want this happening to others. It needs to stop. What the targeting does to your reputation, finances and career is devastating. Which Republican politico attorney will he go after next? Notice he is now brazenly disbarring attorneys from other states, expanding past Arizona.

Click here to read Jeff's petition for Writ of Mandamus
Exhibit P1 - Order disbarring Jeffrey Moffatt
Exhibit P2 - Judge William O'Neil oath of office
Motion for Stay and Injunction

In fact, I've noticed how many Democrats seem to reserve their most vicious attacks for minority Republicans, particularly black Republicans, and if you're a woman on top of that, they really are afraid of the influence you could have. Watch Star in this interview below from a couple of days ago and you will see why they are so threatened by her.

For more information:

http://www.icarizona.com/2016/05/az-state-bar-likely-violating-law.html
azbarwatch.com