Once again, Arizona Taxpayers, You’ve Been Had — by Convicted Criminal and Former UA Coach

Thank you for paying more than $1 million for the legal defense in the civil trial of the former University of Arizona track and field coach who’s already been convicted in a criminal trial of assaulting a female athlete. Craig Carter thanks you NOT!

Last week a Pima County jury convicted Craig Carter of choking former U of A thrower Baillie Gibson while threatening her with a box cutter. The state, taxpayers like you and me, has been paying for his defense in a civil lawsuit filed by Gibson against Carter and the UA.

Are you reading this, state lawmakers? State law requires the government to pay for the defense of an employee being sued for behavior that occurred while acting within in the scope of his or her job, according to The Arizona Daily Star. This law needs to be changed!!

 

The Reign of America’s Most Corrupt President Comes to an End

A list of Obama’s Scandals

Abuse of power — using the IRS to punish political opponents

Abuse of power — using the Department of Justice to protect wrongdoing by his administration

Fiscal malfeasance — adding $8 trillion to the national debt

Performance malfeasance — playing golf on average every nine days, exorbitant mis-use of public funds by exceeding vacation allowance all eight years in office

Clunker presidency — he used your tax dollars to attempt to take old inefficient cars off the roads, but the term “clunker presidency” describes his incompetence in eight years as president

Dishonesty — lying and deceit are the hallmarks of his failed presidency

Obamacare — you could not keep your doctor, your premiums rose substantially, your premiums did not guarantee that you actually received medical treatment

Enemy of the people — the Obama State Department was an enemy of the people at the United Nations, where it opposed the sanctity of human life, marriage and religious freedom

Campaign finance violations — Obama, like Clinton before him, accepted illegal foreign contributions for his election campaigns

Billions of taxpayer dollars gambled on “green” companies like Solyndra, NextEra, Ener1, Solar Trust and many others — all of which went bankrupt.

An intentional refusal to enforce federal immigration laws.

Destruction of the economy — bad business policies discouraged 14 million Americans from participating in the work force; the number of Americans out of the work force under Obama increased an astounding 17.5 percent, to 94 million; Obama threatened to close down businesses and private charities for refusing to provide health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs

Stimulus — Obama gave billions of your tax dollars to union friends who in turned gave it back to him in the form of campaign contributions

Food stamp America — 15 percent of Americans are now on food stamps, an unprecedented figure

Weakened the U.S. military and damaged morale by threatening dishonorable discharges for chaplains and service personnel who wanted to exercise their First Amendment religious freedom

Weakened the military by interjecting the radical homosexual agenda onto the armed forces

Operation Fast and Furious — supplied guns to Mexican drug cartels who in turn used these weapons to kill an American border patrolman

Drugs — Obama’s open border allowed illegal drugs into the United States, damaging the lives of Americans and perpetuating drug addictions

Endangering Americans by flying foreign children with communicable diseases into the U.S.

Intervened our military in Libya without consent of Congress

Changed laws through executive order, circumventing the separation of powers

Ran weapons illegally out of Bengazi and left four Americans to die during a terrorist attack and then lied to their families about the actual cause of the attack

Wasted millions of your tax dollars on Solyndra and other failed companies.

Fined oil companies for causing the death of eagles and hawks, but refused to fine wind turbine companies for causing the deaths of many times more raptors

Gave away $800 billion in tax dollars to “shovel-ready” jobs that did not exist

Gave away millions of tax dollars for stimulus jobs in non-existent congressional districts, such as the non-existent 15th Congressional District in Arizona

America’s credit rating was downgraded due to his incompetence

Appointed numerous czars to positions without any oversight or accountability to government agencies, including the communist Van Jones

Appointed Kevin Jennings, a radical leftist who supported pedophilia, to be “safe schools czar”

Sued states and law enforcement officials for attempting to uphold federal immigration laws

Befriended Islamic terrorists

Endorsed Planned Parenthood, an organization under investigation for defrauding the government of millions of taxpayer dollars, refusing to report the sexual offenders of underage girls and illegally selling baby body parts

Damaged relations with long-standing American allies

Interfered with elections in Israel and obsessed on pressuring Israel to make concessions to Islamic terrorists

Appointed Tim Geithner, who had evaded paying taxes, secretary of the treasury

Fired government investigator Gerald Walpin for uncovering scandals by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a friend of and donor of Obama

Compiled from staff and news reports, including The Investment Watch blog

Mrs. Bill Clinton: ‘We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good’

Now that Mrs. Bill Clinton has wrapped up the Democrat Party nomination for the presidential election, it’s time to examine her past and who she really is:

As U.S. Senator from New York, Mrs. Bill Clinton’s chief accomplishment was winning a debate against her Republican election opponent.

As secretary of state, she intentionally lied when she insisted America’s consulate in Benghazi was attacked because of a Youtube video that was critical of Islam.

Mrs. Clinton is currently under investigation for using a private server to store classified government documents.

Also, Clinton is a member of the “National Organization for Women Who Approve of Elected Male Officials Who Have Abused Women but Support Abortion Rights.”

Clinton supports Planned Parenthood, which is on defense in several courts for refusing to protect under-age girls from rapists, under investigation for defrauding the government of millions of dollars and under investigation for illegally selling baby body parts. She says abortion should be safe, legal and rare.

She said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Hobby Lobby’s religious freedom is a slippery slope for women – even though the nation has no history of forcing employers to violate their consciences and provide abortion drugs.

Fought in 1993 for the U.S. to fast-track government approval of RU-486, a dangerous drug which has killed several women and girls and caused complications for many more.

She supported the grisly, barbaric practice of partial-birth infanticide.

She supposedly supports women’s rights, but paid her women staffers at the Department of State less than men.

She is a big fan of the late Saul Alinsky and practices his Rules for Radicals – the book he dedicated to Lucifer — in all of her political activities. He invited her to work for him as a community agitator. Clinton says she believes in tactics over principles.

As First Lady, Mrs. Clinton attempted – in secret meetings — to force socialism and government medical insurance on the nation, but failed.

She made up lies to try to justify the firing of White House Travel Bureau employees, allegations which were proven false.

She said the unborn have no rights.

Mrs. Clinton enabled her husband’s rampant womanizing by trashing the women who were used and abused by himd – rather than sympathizing with them and acknowledging  a very serious problem.

Clinton wanted the U.S. to apologize for slavery.

She supported the Defense of Marriage Act, then said she “evolved” on same-sex marriage.

Also, she supports “hate” crimes laws. Even though all crimes are commited with contempt for the victim.

She wrote an op-ed claiming Common Core was recycled Clinton policy from the 1980s and 1990s. She opposes school vouchers.

Clinton believes in so-called manmade “global warming” and supports the Kyoto Treaty and cap and trade policy.

Plagiarized the title of the book “It Takes a Village.” Author Jonah Goldberg said of the book: “No more thorough explication of the liberal fascist agenda can be found than in Hillary Clinton’s best-selling book, “It Takes a Village.” All the hallmarks of the fascist enterprise reside within its pages.” Clinton learned from Marian Wright Edelman how to use children as propaganda tools for her ideological agenda: childhood is a crisis, and the government must come to the rescue. “I cannot say enough in support of home visits,” Clinton said.

Big government advocate.

Clinton said Wall Street donates to me because I rebuilt them after 9/11.

She voted against voter ID, though the Democrats require photo ID to attend their national conventions.

Clinton wants tough gun control and says gun manufacturers should be subject to lawsuits (for individuals’ behavior).

She says that because she is a woman she is a political outsider.

If elected president, Mrs. Clinton says Bill Clinton will advise her and represent the U.S. abroad.

She considers herself a member of the “Christian Left.” It’s a religion whose “god” is government.

She voted against the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Clinton is proud of the controversial nuclear agreement with Iran in which the U.S. got taken for a ride.

As a U.S. Senator, Mrs. Clinton delivered a half-billion dollars in earmarks to 59 corporations. Then 64 percent of those corporations donated to her campaign.

She said she flew into Bosnia in 1996 and ran through sniper fire on the ground. Video showed a calm, peaceful deplaning, and Clinton later called the lie a “minor blip.”

The Clinton Foundation has accepted millions of dollars in exchange for political favors by Hillary and Bill Clinton, and it is still happening today. The Clintons have accepted illegal campaign cash from convicted criminals like Mauricio Celis, of Mexico, and Norman Hsu, of Hong Kong. They pardoned Mark Rich after his wife gave them a huge donation

In his book, “Liberal Fascism,” Jonah Goldberg wrote: Clinton “is a representative figure, the leading member of a generational cohort of elite liberals who brought fascist themes into mainstream liberalism. … What follows, then, is a group portrait of Hillary and her friends – the leading proponents and exemplars of liberal fascism in our time.”

She was offered an internship in the Berkeley office of attorney Robert Truehaft, a communist who fought for the Stalinist faction the California labor movement.

As an attorney in Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton wrote articles in favor of children’s “rights” to divorce their parents. Goldberg wrote: “Hillary Clinton’s writings on children show a clear, unapologetic, and principled desire to insert the state deep into family life – a goal that is in perfect accord with similar efforts by totalitarians of the past. … She condones the state’s assumption of parental responsibilities … because she is opposed to the principle of parental authority in any form.” She believes families hold children back and the state sets them free. “Hillary Clinton’s ideas are, in general, fascist.”

Hillary’s guru was Rabbi Michael Lerner, who authored The New Socialist Revolution. He wrote of the coming socialist take-over.

One of Hillary Clinton’s most outrageous statements: “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”

 

Arizona Joins in Federal Lawsuit against Obama’s Mandate Putting Children at Risk

Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas today announced that they have joined nine other states in a federal lawsuit to challenge President Obama’s mandate requiring all public K-12 schools to open up boys’ and girls’ locker rooms and restrooms to students of the opposite sex, based on student perceptions of their “gender identity.”

Since the president has threatened to deny federal funding to all schools that object to this outrageous decree,  Arizona has joined Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin in a lawsuit filed in the United States Court for the Northern District of Texas. The lawsuit is focused on who should set these sensitive policies – the federal government via executive order or states and local school districts. The challenge seeks declaratory relief against a number of federal agencies in order to block the implementation of the administration’s unconstitutional interpretation of the law. The Heber-Overgaard Unified School District has also joined the state’s lawsuit as a plaintiff.

“President Obama has no business setting locker room and restroom policies for our schools,” said Attorney General Brnovich. “Deciding how to protect our children and preserve their privacy, while balancing these complicated issues, is best done locally and not by some knee-jerk decree from Washington.”

“When Arizona students attend school, they deserve a safe environment that is free from bullying and discrimination, regardless of their gender identity,” said Superintendent Douglas. “I know that our districts and schools have policies in place to ensure that is the case. The fact that the federal government has yet again decided that it knows what is best for every one of our local communities is insulting and, quite frankly, intolerable.”

On May 13th, the president issued so-called “significant guidance” to K-12 schools nationwide detailing how transgender students should be granted access to Title IX facilities including restrooms, locker rooms, and showers. The guidance came with the threat of withholding federal funding if schools are found by the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice to be out of compliance.

Leftists Know so Much that isn’t True Part I.

You’ll frequently hear leftists say that conservatives and Christians are taking America backwards. The facts don’t support them. Here’s a list of how leftists are corrupting the culture and taking America down.

 

LEFTIST CAUSES                                               RESULTS

Abortion Nearly 59 million children dead/women killed in abortion clinics/women injured in abortion clinics/abortion increases likelihood of breast cancer and cervical cancer/women suffer psychological harms
Cohabitation More women and children injured and killed by live-in boyfriends/city governments subsidizing through domestic partner benefits/undermines marriage culture/training for divorce/more women and children end up in poverty/problems associated with fatherlessness
Homosexuality AIDs and HIV/shortened life spans/increased domestic violence/anonymous sex spreads disease through communities/unresolved psychological pain/pedophilia/problems associated with fatherlessness/people with same-sex attraction not encouraged to go to counseling to discover the root of the problem/instead they’re encouraged by activists to seek special rights that don’t bring happiness and well-being
Big Government More government control/less individual freedom/more government corruption/people encouraged not to work, but to depend on confiscation of the wealth created by others
Nondiscrimination laws First Amendment to the Constitution usurped
Hate crime laws Special classes created at the expense of others/all crime is committed with contempt for the victims, regardless of victims’ identity
Expanded welfare Cycles of dependency on government/loss of dignity and human flourishing
Secular humanist government Hostility toward Christians/inadequate worldview to cope with social problems and governance/loss of free speech and religious freedom/judicial activism and judges making up new laws, undermining the legislative process and Constitutional freedom
Secular humanist schools Hostility toward Christians/children taught that life doesn’t matter/leftist political indoctrination/liberal cocoon/plummeting quality of education/America near bottom of developed nations in scholastic achievement/children not taught the basics/children not taught American history or civics/declining quality of American work force/Planned Parenthood’s school sex education resulted in more teen pregnancy, more early sex and more STDs/teaching of evolution is teaching that life doesn’t matter, creating culture of death/humanity dehumanized as mere animals resulting by chance/dumbing America down/unemployed and underemployed graduates paying huge debts for substandard college education/increased number of foreign doctors and engineers in America doing what many Americans unable to do
Crime Soft punishment/more concern for perpetrators than victims/short terms for rapists
War on Poverty Poverty increased/dependency on government
Moral relativism Decadence/increased crime/crisis of ethics and honest/people encouraged to make their own morality
Entertainment culture Decadence, debauchery, violence, harmful messages/garbage in, garbage out/amorality and dishonesty encouraged/drug use glorified
Democratic Party Corrupted by unions and radical special interests/stolen elections/
Immigration Laws ignored/border dissolved/drug smuggling/human smuggling/Americans injured, raped and killed by illegal aliens/children with TB brought into the nation with Americans exposed to them/Democrats looking to increase voter rolls/Mexico dumping its welfare dependents and criminals on American taxpayers/radicalized Muslims abusing the system to gain entry into the nation
Religious freedom Americans punished by government for their beliefs/Constitutional protection of churches from government twisted to government hostility toward churches/churches corrupted by homosexual activists/religious schools and colleges threatened with loss of accreditation over biblical beliefs/criminalization of scripture
National defense Compromised/America viewed as weak by Islamic terrorists and many nations/citizens at risk/border invasion/president’s tepid responses to terrorism, world events
Personal well-being Everyone suffers from left-wing policies and practices: leftists, conservatives, independents/lefties have the government, the schools, the media, corporations and their cups are still empty and they are still angry/be careful of what you lefties wish for
Gun control Criminals breaking numerous gun control laws which failed to protect innocent lives from being destroyed/Americans left defenseless against deranged shooters/guns are demonized instead of criminals/problem of mental illness overlooked/deranged criminals committing atrocities in places where they know there will be no armed resistance/Oregon community college security guard unarmed/political correctness is getting people killed

Paradise Valley Community College Restricts Free Speech, Draws Lawsuit

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of a student who is challenging a restrictive speech zone at Paradise Valley Community College. The college restricts students to one designated zone in which they can exercise their constitutionally protected freedom of speech and only with prior permission between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday if the zone is not already fully reserved.

“Colleges are supposed to be a place where ideas are freely shared, not gagged,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer. “A college short-circuits its own purpose when it places its own restrictive speech rules above the freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees to students and all Americans.”

On Oct. 7, Brittany Mirelez, a student at PVCC, set up a table in the speech zone to talk with other students about joining the Young Americans for Liberty student group she is trying to start at PVCC and to hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution. YAL is a non-partisan, grassroots political advocacy group that promotes liberty values on college campuses throughout the country.

Shortly after setting up her table, an administrator informed Mirelez that she was not allowed to be in the speech zone because she did not obtain prior permission 48 hours in advance as the college’s Guidelines for Public Expression on Campus requires. The administrator instructed her to set up her table in the cafeteria, which is not included in the speech zone, as a one-time concession only and said she must abide by the college’s public expression policy going forward.

The policy prohibits students from speaking in any areas on campus outside of the speech zone, including on public sidewalks, walkways, lawns, and other outdoor areas. Instead, students must confine their expressive activities to the zone, and if the zone is fully reserved, they may not speak at all.

The lawsuit, Mirelez v. Dale, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, argues that the college’s policy unconstitutionally chills protected student speech and disables the ability of students to speak freely on campus about recent and unfolding events. It asks for the court to strike down the public expression policy and issue a declaration that the college violated Mirelez’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech.

“As our lawsuit explains, the cornerstone of higher education is the ability of students to participate in the ‘marketplace of ideas’ on campus,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Hacker. “That marketplace depends on free, vigorous, and often spontaneous debate carried out through the spoken word, fliers, signs, and displays. If public colleges stifle that kind of speech, they violate both the First Amendment and a core purpose behind their own existence.”

Kenneth W. Schutt, one of more than 3,000 private attorneys allied with ADF, is serving as local counsel in the case.

A Sign of Hope for the Navajo Nation

 

It was a small sign of hope: a member of the Navajo Nation switching over to the Republican Party. It may or may not represent something big.

Native Americans, long beholden to the party of socialism, may cast him out of the Arizona State Senate in 2016. They may seem him as an outcast, a renegade. We will see what happens come election season.

Carlyle Begay made his decision based on fiscal reasons. Reasons of fiscal sanity. The Republican Party is, with a few exceptions on the state and national levels, the party of fiscal responsibility.

Republicans welcomed Begay to the party and said he is now better positioned to serve his legislative district, including in areas of education and the economy.

The GOP is right, and Legislative District 7 is now in the hands of a state leader who has their better interests in mind.

After all, the socialists are the people of Big Government and Small Citizens with less freedom, the party that refused to even create a budget in recent years when they held power in the U.S. Senate. They are the party that spends more money than the government actually has, and the party that — without resistance — will always call for deficit spending.

You and I can’t operate our personal finances like that, or we’d soon be broke and wouldn’t be able to live within our means.

Hopefully other Navajos will see the wisdom of Began and state leaders who demand the state keep its financial affairs in order.

Hopefully, they’ll realize they’ve been duped by the Democrats for as long as they can remember.

Hopefully they’ll realize you can’t tax yourselves into prosperity, that socialists eventually run out of other people’s money.

Hopefully Navajos and other Native Americans will come around on social issues as well.

They have to, some day. The socialists have led them down the path of destruction. Reservations have been pockets of poverty. Socialists have done them no favors. The socialists are the purveyors of a culture of death, social deconstruction and family disorder. They preach a sexual anarchy that only destroys.

Socialism hasn’t improved employment on reservations. It hasn’t ended social problems. It has not the capacity to do anything to positively impact Native American society. Or any other part of society, for that matter.

Being served by an elected official who understands that is a positive step forward for the Navajo people. We hope they understand that and will re-elect Begay again next fall. Many of his fellow citizens would do well to follow his courageous lead.

The Courage of Supt. Douglas is Worthy of Emulation and Respect

We elected Republicans to go to Washington and fight Obama’s abuses and an out-of-control, unaccountable government. In 2014, we put Republicans in complete control of Congress to do that.

Senate President Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker John Boehner refused to follow the will of the people and do that. They acted like the Scottish nobleman who rode away from the battlefield when William Wallace and the patriots wanted to fight against England for their freedom.

People are tired of being betrayed by political candidates who promise the sky and then refuse to deliver.

Diane Douglas told us that, if elected state superintendent of Public Instruction, she would fight to get rid of Common Core education standards. She bears the scars of the battles she’s encountered in living up to her word. The radical Left wants to recall her.

But on Monday the state board of education voted 6-2 to formally sever ties with the copyright that accompanies Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards — formerly known as Common Core.  Now Arizona can alter its 2010 adoption of Common Core-based standards. Children and the state will be the better for it.

Many people are not paying attention and do not know what all the fuss is about. In fact, the Christian Science Monitor asks, “Why is Arizona trying to repeal Common Core?”

The group Arizonans against Common Core helps break down the problems with Common Core:

  1. The standards are of mediocre quality;
  2. They violate federal statutes;
  3. Our state will pay a heavy price to implement them;
  4. These standards intrude on student and family privacy; and
  5. These standards further federalize education and usurp power from the state, eroding state sovereignty.

As long as public education in America is based on a secular humanist worldview, our nation is selling itself and our children short and will not fully prosper. But the example of Superintendent Douglas’s courage and persistence — in the face of overwhelming leftist and union opposition — is worthy of emulation and respect. Oh that we would have this in Congress.

This is a good start in the revival of Arizona’s K-12 system. Now it is up to you, mothers and fathers and taxpayers to lend your voice and insist on better education for our children. Education that will not perpetuate lies and myths while undermining the values of good and honest parents.

Don’t be Fooled by Misleading Tax Claims

Dear Arizona Taxpayer:

Maricopa County Treasurer Hos Hoskins made headlines with the policy letter he included with recent property tax bills for Maricopa County residents.  (Note for those living outside of the “Great State of Maricopa”: this does apply to you, as well.)   Hoskins has re-opened an interesting policy debate about the extent to which property tax burdens have been shifted from business property taxpayers to residential property taxpayers (or vice-versa, depending on your point of view).  We have included some links below about that debate.

Setting aside the debate about the burden shift, Hoskins made a claim that is very counterproductive to the efforts of property taxpayers to fight for tax relief.   Multiple times in his letter, Hoskins made the following claim: “Voicing your opinion to anyone other than your legislators will change nothing.”

That claim is highly misleading.

Consider just a few examples from your property tax bill.  If you look closely, you will see several line-item levy amounts from several different local government taxing authorities: your K-12 school districts, your community college district, your city government, your county government, and multiple special taxing districts.  Each of those taxing districts have authority, completely independent of the state Legislature, to raise (or more rarely, lower) your property tax levy.

(Note: Always focus on the levy, which is the actual number of dollars you must pay, rather than the rate.  If local officials brag to you that they have lowered property tax rates, hold onto your wallet and ask them what is going to happen to your actual levy.)

Many Arizona school districts and municipalities have put budget override and bond measures on your November 3 ballot.  If passed by voters, those measures will increase your property tax bill.  Those measures were not placed on your ballot by the Arizona Legislature.  They are on your ballot, and driving up your tax bill, at the sole discretion of local elected officials.  Your school district board members are under no legal (or in our opinion, moral) obligation to try to push for an override.

For example, Phoenix Union school board members could have decided that spending $9,627 per student  (in current expenditures, not counting capital and other costs) is enough.  Even without the override, Phoenix Union will spend more than $9,000 per student – enough money to put two teachers in every classroom of 25 students and pay each of those teachers $75,000 per year.   Instead of trying to raise taxes via an override, the Phoenix Union board members could cut excess administration and other waste.  See our Phoenix Union flyer HERE, and contact us at bwitbeck@afphq.org if you want us to send you a flyer for your own school district.

We as citizens and taxpayers must hold the local officials in our cities, counties and school districts accountable for the dollars they choose to spend.  See AFP’s Local Government Scorecard to learn more about holding your local officials accountable.

Back to the interesting debate on the business-residential property tax levy shift…  For a defense of the shift and Proposition 117 (which passed in 2012), go here for the response of the Arizona Tax Research Association to the Hoskins letter.  Or go here for Senator Debbie Lesko’s response.

Boaz Witbeck

Arizona Policy Analyst

Americans for Prosperity

bwitbeck@afphq.org

RINOs Worsley, Dial, Driggs and Pierce Help Leftists Keep Unpopular Common Core in Place

By Dr. Susan Berry, Breitbart.com

The Arizona Senate rejected a bill Monday that would have abolished the controversial Common Core standards in that state. Some Republicans joined with Democrats to defeat the bill, 16-13, a fact that underscores that while Democrats could be expected to vote in favor of keeping a federally-funded initiative like the Common Core, the worst enemy of the conservative base of the GOP is actually other Republicans.

As the Associated Press notes, repeal measure HB 2190 earlier passed the Arizona state House and the Senate Education committee, but the full Senate rejected the bill as it did a similar proposal last month and yet another last year.

The legislation, which was introduced in the Arizona House by Rep. Mark Finchem (R), would have abolished Common Core, created a new committee to evaluate alternative standards, and banned the state Board of Education from adopting new standards without the approval of the legislature.

The four Republicans who voted against the repeal of the standards are state Sens. Adam Driggs, Bob Worsley, Steve Pierce and Jeff Dial [editor’s note: The Arizona Conservative did not endorse any of them for re-election last year] . AP reports that, despite urging from fellow Republicans to reconsider their vote, these members made no comment as they voted to reject the measure.

Breitbart News reported Monday that the Senate’s rejection of the bill is not surprising since Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was not supportive of it, going as far as to call it “unnecessary” since it is his hope the Common Core standards can be “fixed” in his state.

Ducey ran last year for governor as a candidate opposed to the nationalized education initiative. Just five months later, however, he is telling a different story.

“I don’t think that legislation is necessary because we’re going to fix what’s wrong with these standards,” the governor said, referring to the Common Core as a “distraction.”

In a statement to Breitbart News prior to the vote, chairman of Arizona’s Senate Education Committee Sen. Kelli Ward (R) said she feared HB 2190 would fail on the Senate floor because of a group of pro-Common Core Republicans who are supporters of big government, amnesty and the Chamber of Commerce.

Ward, who is considering a primary run against U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has staunchly opposed the Common Core standards.

“I believe that the Common Core standards are an egregious example of federal overreach into a clearly state issue – education,” she said. “I have been fighting against the federalization of our education system since I got to the legislature.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates in the states, in fact, have strongly lobbied in favor of the Common Core standards as part of a workforce development scheme to ensure government will provide big business with a steady stream of inexpensive labor. The data collection associated with the Common Core testing will be used to channel students into certain jobs and industries, creating a form of planned economy. Many establishment Republicans have signed onto Common Core in the hope of Chamber contributions to their political campaigns.

As Breitbart News’ Dan Riehl reported Monday, strong resistance by grassroots conservatives has led the Chamber to boost its political strategy to “include a greater emphasis on recruiting the right sort of business-friendly GOP candidates and intervening in primaries as it attempts to sculpt a compliant Congress that mirrors its priorities.”

Thomas Donohue, the Chamber’s longtime president and CEO, said last month that his organization will be applying political pressure around the clock.

“We’re just going to run it 24 months in a row, cycle after cycle after cycle,” he said.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, who won her election last November primarily running on an anti-Common Core platform, noted Ducey’s shift in position on the standards since he became governor.

“Despite Gov. Ducey also running against Common Core, he has unfortunately reversed that position, interfering with the removal of two pro-Common Core staff, publicly stating that now is not the time to remove Common Core, and instead asking the Board of Education to review the standards,” she said in a statement to Breitbart News.

Douglas summed up the frustration of anti-Common Core grassroots Republicans who have been deceived and thwarted by members of the establishment GOP.

“I cannot fully express my frustration with a majority Republican House and Senate and a Governor who ran as ‘anti-Common Core’ who have so far refused to act and have in fact, in the case of the Governor, acted to so exactly the opposite,” Douglas said.

With news of the defeat of the Common Core repeal measure, Douglas told Breitbart News, “I am disappointed. SB 2190 is an effort that I fully support because it puts additional pressure on the Board of Education to listen to the will of the people.”

“As the public weighs in around the state, I still believe it will create sufficient momentum for the Board to have to improve the standards,” she added.

The Arizona Conservative notes …

On February 18, this bill passed the House Education Committee by a vote of 5-2. On March 19, it passed the Senate Education Committee by the same 5-2 margin.

The full House of Representatives passed the bill 34-23.