Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Mark Brnovich -- I am NOT a CROOK!



Democratic nominee for Arizona Attorney General Felecia Rotellini and GOP nominee Mark Brnovich appeared on KTVK Channel 3's weekly news program, Politics Unplugged this week.




Brnovich's on screen persona is rough and tough with a gruff, gravelly voice. It's all a fake out, demagoguery.

Dennis Welch asked Brno about having been endorsed by Cathi Herrod. Brno demurred, saying that he had not gotten her endorsement. The truth is probably closer to that he scrubbed his endorsement list because he knows her name is toxic. He still boasts endorsement by the Arizona Right to Life PAC and makes an emphatic point on his campaign website to let people know he aligns completely with Herrod, for example, on "protecting the unborn," without using her name.
We also have an obligation to protect and defend our laws that concern the unborn. As attorney general, I will defend our state statutes and enforce our laws. I am proud to be endorsed by the Arizona Right to Life PAC...
Damn the torpedoes (and a woman's sovereignty over her own life, and her right to self-determination), full speed ahead. So, why would Brnovich NOT want Herrod's endorsement? He's lined up completely with her dogma anyway.

And while he's at it, Brnovich's employment and advocacy record suggests he's not willing to discuss the fact that he was a senior director for human warehousing and forced labor privateer, Corrections Corporation of America. He was a registered lobbyist for CCA for all of 2007. Prior to his disclosure of that activity, he (clandestinely?) engaged in lobbying for CCA. He must have meant, when he wrote that blurb about his passion for protecting the most vulnerable among us, that corporations, specifically private prison operators, were among those most vulnerable. Again, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Here's what I mean. In 2006, Sen. Bill Brotherton (D-Central Phoenix, now a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge) and then Rep. Judy Burges (R-Sun City/Peoria/Tea Party), together sponsored SB1547. Specifically SB1547 would have prohibited the transfer of private prison inmates into Arizona from other states if any of the following conditions exist:
  1. was convicted of a sexual offense, attempted sexual offense, homicide or attempted homicide committed in another jurisdiction.
  2. has a history of escape.
  3. assaulted a peace officer or correctional service officer.
  4. is infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Tuberculosis or Hepatitis A, B or C.
In other words, a Democrat and a Tea Partier (before there was a Tea Party, however) bridged the partisan gap to introduce legislation to protect Arizona citizens and communities. But then along came CCA, specifically represented by the same Mark Brnovich who now claims he is concerned for the safety of vulnerable Arizonans.

You see, Brnovich advocated for and apparently helped kill SB1547 in 2006. On the legislature's Request to Speak system, Mr. Protect the Vulnerable was registered for the February 16, 2006 Senate Government committee hearing as opposed to SB1547. The opposition was almost entirely made up of people representing the private prison industry, including Mark Brnovich, Senior Director, Corrections Corporation of America.

In that committee, the bill received a Do Pass recommendation by a vote of 5-2 (the five included both Democrats and Republicans). You can bet, however, that CCA and Brnovich were heard loud and clear by then Senate President Ken Bennett because SB1547 was never heard from again. It died without being debated by the full senate.

Make no mistake.


In July 2010, three dangerous inmates escaped from a Kingman area private prison. One was quickly recaptured. Two others evaded authorities long enough to kill vulnerable citizens. John McClusky was one of the escapees.
Fingered by a fellow fugitive and accomplice girlfriend as the triggerman, McCluskey was the only suspect to face the death penalty for the August 2010 slayings of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla., high school sweethearts and recent retirees who had the misfortune to cross the fugitives' paths on a New Mexico highway.
Might the Haas's blood be on Brnovich's head? It does appear so. But I do know that in addition to having lobbied for CCA before registering to do so, Brno later chaired Gov. Jan Brewer's Commission on Privatization and Efficiency. So, besides advocating against the safety of Arizona communities and prison workers, Brno was very much about selling out the public, in general.

Make no mistake, we must NOT elect this charlatan who is all about demogoguing even though he is on record denying it (in the video embedded above, in response to moderators Dennis Welch and Carey Peña).

Make no mistake about Mark "I am NOT a CROOK" Brnovich.

I will examine Brnovich's demagoguery in detail in a future blog post.

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If the embedded video does not play, click this link and view the second segment for the referenced material.

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And on the issue of Russell Pearce being ousted from his vice-chair position with the AZ GOP, Phoenix New Times writer Stephen Lemons reported that it was Sean Noble who started the ball rolling to get Republican candidates denouncing Pearce. Noble, of course, is Arizona's god of Dark Money, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars, largely from the Kochtopus network, into campaigns for GOP candidates in our state and others. He is connected very strongly to the Republican Attorneys General Association, which has already committed to purchase more than $1 million in ads for the Brno/Rotellini race.

Noble has skin in the game and knew that the Pearce problem was likely at least as bad as Tom Horne's reputation had gotten over the last four years. If Noble had not intervened, he would have had a lot of problems in his Koch network.

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Image at the top of this post included under the FAIR USE Doctrine.

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