As the TIME Coalition tries to fight its way back onto the ballot through the courts, there are a lot of questions being asked about how the Coalition - backed by Gov. Janet Napolitano and supported by some of the top political consultantcy firms in Arizona - found itself in this position.
The Coalition is trying to put a 1 cent sales tax increase before voters to pay for improvements in transportation infrastructure - an initiative the governor considers vital for Arizona's future. Yet Secretary of State Jan Brewer invalidated a large number of signatures collected to get on the ballot, and unless the Arizona Supreme Court rules otherwise, TIME will not appear before voters in November.
Much of the blame is being placed with Ziemba Wade, the relatively new but high profile consulting firm that was ultimately in charge of the campaign. Though not many political insiders are speaking publicly, behind the scenes there is talk that Ziemba Wade failed its first major test as a power in Arizona politics.
The firm is owned by Tom Ziemba, who was chief of staff for the New Hampshire presidential primary campaign of former U.S. Sen John Edwards (D-N.C.), and David Waid, who left his position as chair of the Arizona Democratic Party to co-found the firm.
Despite the impressive credentials, there are some who question Ziemba Wade's ability to run a campaign like TIME.
One of those people is Chuck Coughlin, president of HighGround, the consulting firm that was originally spearheading the TIME Coalition but dropped the campaign after he felt Ziemba Waid was encroaching on HighGround's leadership.
"Part of the reason we stepped aside is because we didn't agree with their choices" of vendors, said Coughlin. In particular, he said, the selection of Petition Partners, the signature gathering outfit headed by Andrew Chavez, caused the split between HighGround and TIME.
"[Ziemba Waid] are not a petition gathering firm," said Coughlin. "They contacted Chavez to do most of their work. I have not used that firm in the past and have concerns with their business practices. Ziemba Waid was very gung-ho about using the people they wanted."
Coughlin said he thought much of the problem lay with Ziemba Waid not doing an adequate review to ensure a high validity rate ahead of time. However, he also said he thought the initiative would still get balloted.
"We'll see if this is ultimately a failure," he said. "I'm still fairly skeptical it's not going to appear on the ballot. I'm sure they're going to mount every legal argument they can muster." He added, "I don't want to leave people with the impression it's underwater permanently."
Still, the frustration Coughlin enunciated is echoed by many others who won't go on the record, for fear of alienating the governor and her allies.
The biggest criticism being leveled at Ziemba Waid is that the firm wanted to run things its own way, without help or input from others. These critics point to the situation with the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona as evidence that Ziemba Waid's hubris brought down the effort, at least temporarily.
Back in May, the HBACA made a deal with TIME, facilitated by the governor's intervention, through which the home builders put up $100,000 toward the campaign, including signature gathering of their own. In exchange for funding, they secured the expurgation of a provision in the initiative that would have made developers responsible for impact fees that would go toward the transportation fund.
The HBACA collected the signatures, but those signatures weren't included when Ziemba Waid filed with the secretary of state.
"We delivered them to the Ziemba Wade office, and they were returned by the Ziemba Wade office," said Connie Wilhelm, executive director of the HBACA. "We sent a letter to [lobbyist and TIME founder] Marty Schultz advising him they were in my office a couple of days before they filed their signatures. The governor's office was copied on that as well. They are still in my office."
When asked why she thought Ziemba Waid refused the more than 18,000 signatures the HBACA had gathered, Wilhelm said:
"Early on, they had mentioned that they believed we were not quote authorized to collect signatures on their behalf, and then later said they were verifying theirs as they went along, and they felt theirs were somehow better than mine, or that mine might have been a problem."
Wilhelm wouldn't place blame directly on Ziemba Waid, saying, "I don't know who made the decision on behalf of the campaign." Still, she added, "it certainly appears that it would have been prudent for them to take [the signatures]."
There's another side to the debate, though. The TIME Coalition and the governor's office both assert that the signatures were wrongly invalidated by Secretary of State Jan Brewer, and backers of TIME's strategy privately say the decision was politically motivated, as Brewer is speculated to be eyeing the governor's mansion in 2010.
Kate Hutchinson, speaking on behalf of the TIME Coalition, said that the initiative campaign did its job. "The problem is with the secretary of state, not us," she said.
Her assessment was reiterated by Jeanine L'Ecuyer, spokeswoman for Gov. Napolitano.
"I'm not a big fan of placing blame," said L'Ecuyer. "We think, however, there were mistakes made with the secretary of state's office."
L'Ecuyer did blame Chuck Coughlin for much of what was being said about TIME falling short.
"He didn't want to be involved in it, and now for whatever reason he's trying to stir some gunk around it," L'Ecuyer said.
She did agree with his assessment that the initiative could be revived, though.
"It's not over," said L'Ecuyer. "There's a lot more to come."
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"The fault, dear Brutus..."
Dear "Young Az Petitioner,"
That is quite a story you've told. All that it lacks is truth.
So let's add some truth, just to set the record straight.
1. I own a 30% interest in Petition Partners,LLC but have no management role, authority, or control over the company.
2. No petitions have ever been "funneled" to my company, The Media Guys, Inc. and no "conflict of interest," much less "fraud" has ever existed or been alleged other than by you.
3. The Kelty campaign paid for some petition signatures and reported that expenditure on its campaign finance reports.
Whatever might or might not have transpired between you and the person you identify as "Jenny" is silliness simply because the expenditure was fully disclosed.
4. 2007's hysteria suggesting that large numbers of non-citizens were being registered to vote was, again, shown not to be true.
In fact, validity rates for the 2007 Democratic Party voter registration drive turned out to be well within what both Pima Co. and Maricopa Co. elections officials considered normal.
However, like much news reporting, only the juicy allegation is widely reported while the boring facts that contradict the headline tend to be ignored.
5. You are also wrong about Petition Partners' record of qualifying petitions for the ballot.
For the past decade the firm has qualified more citizen initiatives for the ballot than any other firm operating in Arizona and is the underlying sub-contractor for most "national" petition firms retained by Arizona campaigns. In other words, local campaign groups hire an out-of-state petition firm which, in turn, hires Petition Partners to actually do the work.
Here are a few other facts that you might find either helpful or threatening depending upon your real identity:
1. Since its inception, Petition Partners has routinely referred suspected petition circulator fraud and forgery to law enforcement officials and continues to do so.
2. Petition Partners is the only Arizona petition firm that routinely runs national criminal background checks on all circulators. This is done at the firm's expense and not billed to the firms clients or client campaigns.
Finally, Petition Partners has been leading the calls for reform of Arizona's initiative & referendum system, beginning with an earlier deadline for filing petitions and providing county officials the resources they need to conduct their validity checks.
The firm will apparently have more to say about possible reforms, including its support for prohibiting pay-per-signature and requiring paid circulators to pass a DPS fingerprint and criminal background check.
Also, I do not know who "Larry" and "Cairo" are, but I suspect that going after them to get paid is a better use of your time.
Say it ain't so!
Coughlin stirring gunk? Who would have thunk?
Of course he is. The Governor's folks didn't want Coughlin involved from the beginning. That's why he was forced to bring on Ziemba Wade by the Ninth floor. Think he owes anything to the Governor or his/their subcontractor? As they say, paybacks are a #$&^#^. Can you blame him for just being honest?
And Ziemba Wade blaming the Secretary of State's office? Not a smart move when you are in the political consulting business, and it is assummed you'll be representing other ballot initiatives and clients in the future.
Then again, maybe not.
Enough blame to go around
This is an embarrassment all around— for the Governor, the TIME Coalition, and its consultants. There's plenty of blame to go around.
Coupled with the Trust Land cluster, the Governor enters the final two years of her term without any real “legacy” achievements. Will these two issues be forced to the 2010 ballot, when the name Janet Napolitano is on the ballot for the US Senate? Will they become more of a referendum on her, rather than a debate and decision on the merits of each initiative, putting each measure at further risk? Or, fearing that, will the Governor and her team prevent these needed and long-delayed initiatives from moving forward for her own political sake in 2010? This year might have been the best shot for both, which will undoubtedly be the case if Majority Rules passes.
The TIME Coalition appears to have become the poster child of what NOT to do in this election cycle. Hired and fired consultants...turned away 18,000 petitions that would have made a difference...didn't file the suit against the Secretary of State in a timley manner. It seems it couldn’t do anything right. While all the focus has been on the petitions, what has been buried in the process is the genuine lack of support—even opposition—by many to the initiative itself. The Mayors have been unhappy from the get-go, given the lack of consultation in developing the plan. Pima County leaders see very little regional value in the plan. The transit community and those who support light rail expansion see the plan as anemic at best. While public opposition has been limited (and why should it be vocal—let the campaign implode on its own) it’s there and is sure to coalesce and mobilize if the matter moves forward. To be sure, there will be some enterprising politicos who will come forward, seeing an opportunity given TIME’s demonstrated ineptness.
And then of course, there is the whole notion of a tax hike as a funding mechanism that the public is sure to resist. Fight it in court if you want—it’s still a 17% tax increase. The stars are far from aligned here for the Coalition. The best hope for Marty Schultz, David Martin and company is to have the Supreme Court quash this now, put them out of their misery, and start over on a new plan that has broad support. A loss here will only make next Transportation effort even more uphill.
In fairness, Ziemba-Wade should have the least blame here. They were directed by the Govenor and the TIME Coalition to carry out a statewide ballot campaign even though they have no statewide ballot campaign experience. Can't fault them for reaching for the money. But the contributors should certainly demand their money back, that's for sure. It was a loss when HighGround resigned/was fired from the campaign. While they lose more often then they win, at least they had experience, particularly with the last Maricopa County transportation measure, in which they were able to squeeze out a victory.
petition fraud
Bob and Drew have a history of failing petitions-it started in Tempe with the smoking ban-
Bob you have a great thing going on here-you and Drew tell everyone that Petition Partners is its own company and then you funnel all of the petitions to your own company-they call that a conflict of interest in a court of law.
We could have had a great party building experience but you guys ruined that.
http://sonoranalliance.com/?cat=46
Then you guys paid over 20 people to petition for kerra kelti-I was told to take the cash by Jenny at JSM and never tell anyone-to bad Larry and Cairo did not pay me right in Ohio.
When is the fraud going to stop-mabe when the police come in and handcuff you guys
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