The 2012 Elections: Where Are We Now? Last on our show on in late May, Celinda Lake, one of the Democratic Party’s leading pollsters and consultants, returns to Democratic Perspective to review the issues, the candidates and the Democratic Party’s prospects for the 2012 elections. With co-hosts Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson, she discusses what has changed, what races are in play, and what the polling results show so far.
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This week, Democratic Perspective hosted Paul Penzone who is running against Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.”
Penzone studied criminal justice, graduating from Northern Arizona University before joining the Phoenix Police Department in 1998. During his 21-year career, he began as a patrol officer and rose through the ranks to manage the successful Silent Witness program. He has been recognized for capturing high value criminals.
We began by asking why he’s running for sheriff. He answered, “What I’ve seen is a change in leadership over the years where there’s a loss of focus on serving our community and, because I believe so much on what law enforcement represents, I just couldn’t stay on the sidelines when I knew I could make a difference to bring it back to where our community feels galvanized and safer as opposed to fragmented as we are right now.”
Turning to Arpaio’s record, we asked about reports that 75 percent of the cases in Maricopa County are cleared without arrests. “What’s happening there is just a lack of fundamentally sound law enforcement,” Penzone said. “It’s not easy to solve cases, but at the same time, if you’re seeing cases cleared without any arrests whatsoever, what that’s telling you is that there’s not a thorough enough investigation, the deputies are not trained effectively enough to be accomplishing the things that we need. If three-fourths of the cases that you’re engaged in have no arrests, yet there are criminal implications, you’re really failing in your effort to keep the community safe.”
Asked about the 40,000 felony warrants in Maricopa County that have not served, he replied, “We went back and forth on those numbers. It was 40,000 at one time, but now I think the number is around 30,000…because other agencies have gotten engaged.”
“It’s really important that everyone understands that the majority of crimes are committed by a small percentage of the population,” he continued. “And unfortunately, those are the felony cases that we’re speaking about. If you want to reduce crime, you must hold those accountable who are already responsible for crime. If not, they’re back out on the street repeating their behaviors. The sheriff is the only leader, or at least one of the few in our county, that has not committed full-time deputies to a task force focused solely on the recovery of wanted fugitives. That tells me that he’s not focused on the biggest threat to our safety.”
We then asked about MCSO’s failure to investigate sex crimes and child molestations in El Mirage. “I’m very familiar with a lot of these cases,” he said. “As a matter of fact, when the sheriff’s office was removed from that contract, El Mirage started its own Police Department. It was two former assistant chiefs of the Phoenix PD who went out there to – the only thing I can say is to clean up the mess – because, unfortunately, that community was neglected. If we saw that in other communities, I don’t think it would have gone quietly into the night.”
Addressing the estimated $6 million spent on lawsuits defending Arpaio, Penzone said, “Well, actually the number is far higher. The number in the lawsuits is upwards of $50 million of costs and payouts. To put it in perspective, that is about the equivalent of the budget for an entire moderate-sized police department such as the Scottsdale Police Department. That is their annual budget.”
“It’s bad enough when we see a person we elected to public office abuse their authority,” he continued. “But when you add to that law enforcement powers it is a very intimidating, destructive force that can do a lot to tear apart our community. We have a great opportunity here. We, literally overnight in one election, can change the course of the reputation of our community across the nation and send a message that our community will no longer tolerate this. We don’t need the Department of Justice to step in on our behalf. We can get the ship righted.”
Questioned about his own priorities, Penzone responded, “Fugitives must be a priority. We have a severe challege as it relates to drug trafficking, human trafficking and human slavery. There are young people within our community, not just those who are immigrants from Mexico or other countries, but US citizens who are being victimized and treated as slaves and prostitutes on our streets. We have a challenge with crime against children as well as families, in general. We have to protect the core value within our communities, which is our families.”
“For me the priorities would be ensuring that detention centers are being run properly, safely and efficiently, that the areas under the jurisdiction of the sheriff…patrols and the investigative resources dedicated there must be properly allocated for the safety of deputies as much as for the communities,” he continued. “Fugitives and crimes against children will always be a priority for me because they’re our future, our most precious asset, and we must protect them.”
Asked if immigration should be a priority, he stated, “We only have so many resources and so many dollars that can be allocated as relates to illegal immigration. We have to make a decision if we want those dollars spent on criminals in our community…I understand that being in the country illegally is a crime…but I’m speaking of those responsible for robberies and burgalries and sex crimes and other issues. If we spend our resources on immigration and neglect other areas, we are not safer because of it.”
As for Arpaio’s national fame, Penzone said, “I’m a firm believer that the best law enforcement is the one that draws the least amount of attention. The only time we should be seen in the community is when we need help solving a crime or when we need to provide information so you can be safer in your life.”
Competence, Community Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility: Why Paul Penzone Is a Better Choice for Maricopa County Sheriff. Democratic Perspective interviews Paul Penzone, Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff. What would it be like to have a sheriff’s department that is professional, dedicated to proven principles of effective law enforcement, and free from ideological grandstanding? Paul Penzone, 21-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, explains how he would re-focus the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department on its real priorities: to safeguard and serve the Maricopa County community and to provide it with the competent law enforcement it deserves.
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A Blatant Attempt To Steal the Election: Update on Republican Voter Suppression Tactics. Democratic Perspective revisits the Republican Party’s attempts to disenfranchise traditionally Democratic voters, evade the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and guarantee themselves election victories that they don’t deserve.
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Once again, Democratic Perspective looked at Republican attempts to suppress the vote. As we’ve noted before, numerous studies, including a 2007 study by the Bush administration, have found very few instances of voter fraud.
Nevertheless, Republicans have used antecdotal evidence of a few instances to create fear with the system. They would like people to believe that, somehow, undocumented immigrants are going to vote for President Obama. This may be the most preposterous accusation ever, since it’s highly unlikely that undocumented immigrants would ever take the risk of exposing their situation to authorities.
But, for the time being, logic has been completely suspended with new voter ID laws already in place in nine states, many of them swing states that could determine the outcome of the election. These also happen to be states with the highest Latino population growth and the highest black voter turnout – groups that are most likely to vote for Obama.
Make no mistake; these laws are not about fixing a problem. They are all about politics. A Republican leader has as much as admitted so.
In a speech to other Republicans, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Turzai, said the state’s voter ID law “is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”
The push to require voter ID began immediately after the 2010 midterm elections when Republicans gained control of state legislatures and governorships and the effort has gained steam since then.
Of course, Republicans say that IDs are required for other activities, such as driving, flying, even at many workplaces. But those requirements don’t interfere with Constitutional rights.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimates that one in ten Americans lack the types of IDs being required. 10 million American voters live more than ten miles away from any office that issues IDs, and 500,000 of those voters don’t have access to a vehicle.
Moreover, the cost of the documents required for ID cost money. According to the Brennan Center, the cost of the documents is actually more in current dollars than the poll tax ruled unconsitutional in the 1960s.
Restrictive voter ID laws are only one of the methods the Republican Party is using to suppress the vote. Florida is, once again, attempting to expand its list of felons ineligible to vote. In 2000, a similar effort led to thousands of innocent people being denied the vote in an election decided by just 533 votes.
Florida is also one of the Republican-controlled states that have made it more difficult to register new voters. And several states are trying to restrict early voting.
All of this is not to say that we don’t need to fix a number of voting problems. The few known organized voter fraud efforts in the past involved absentee ballots, and they benefited Republicans. Of course, voter ID laws will do nothing to prevent that. There are also some registration problems. It’s difficult for counties and states to keep up with changes of address and deaths. But that hasn’t resulted in fraudulent votes.
Unintended Honesty: Republican Gaffes, and What They Reveal. Democratic Perspective’s co-hosts Mike Cosentino and Gary LaMaster offer a choice selection of misstatements from Republican notables, beginning with Gov. and Mrs. Romney, and demonstrate that when Republicans put their feet in their mouths, they often tell us more about what they really believe than we could find out any other way.
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Repealing the 20th Century: the Ryan Budget Plan. Democratic Perspective explores the Ryan budget plan, which Forbes Magazine has called a Mistake of Historic Proportions. If there’s anyone who still believes that the only responsible economic solution to the current recession is to turn the vast majority of Americans into paupers, he should have a look at what the Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed with its Budget for All.
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That’s how Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman, describes the Romney-Ryan budget plan. Those are strong words, yet they seem inadequate to describe the consequences of this plan if it’s ever adopted.
A study by the Joint Economic Committee shows that the Romney-Ryan plan would increase taxes by $1,300 on those who earn $50,000 to $100,000. For those who earn $100,000 to $200,000 it would increase taxes by $2,600. But those who make $500,000 to $1 million would get a check for $35,000, and those who make more than $1 million would get an average of $285,000.
Not only would this plan rob from the poor to give to the rich. It would result in lost jobs, lower salaries and dramatically higher deficits. In fact, research by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that the Romney-Ryan plan, if enacted, would result in unemployment of approximately 11.6 percent by 2014.
Moreover, the cuts intended to decrease our deficits would all come from safety nets, such as Medicaid, food stamps and Pell grants. The Congressional Budget Office found that the Romney-Ryan plan would result in non-defense discretionary spending of just 0.75 of GDP. (For comparison, since the end of World War II, that number has never been less than 8 percent!) That would make it impossible for the government to afford even the most basic functions.
There would not be enough money to maintain infrastructure, protect the environment, inspect meat, regulate pharmaceuticals, educate children, fight crime or staff air traffic control.
But there would be plenty of money for our military. Even though the defense budget now exceeds Cold War levels, the Romney-Ryan plan would actually increase it!
All of this led Forbes magazine to describe the Romney-Ryan plan as “A mistake of Historic Proportions.” In an article for The New Yorker, James Surowiecki summed up the plan this way: “The U.S. does need to get its finances in order,” he wrote. “It just doesn’t need to repeal the twentieth century to do so.”
Lest you think that it’s impossible to balance the budget without causing harm to our economy or punishing the poor, check out The Budget for All from the Democratic Progressive Caucus. To learn more, read this report comparing it with the Romney-Ryan plan.
Offshoring His Money and Our Jobs: The Cayman Islands? Bermuda? Switzerland? A 15% tax rate when most of the rest of us are paying 25-28%? Mitt Romney wants to be President, but the real question is this: does he understand what the majority of Americans are facing in these troubled times, or does his membership in the 1% blind him to what the country really needs? Democratic Perspective investigates.
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