Republic asks: Where's Bee?

Democrats have already claimed that Senate President Tim Bee's campaign against Rep. Gabby Giffords in CD8 is taking away from his Senate duties... as they'd be expected to.

However, now Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic is getting into the act.

In a post today on the Republic's Political Insider blog, Pitzl points to the example of one Senate Democrat's legislative log jam to make the case that Bee's campaigning is backing up Senate business.

From the blog:

"Senate President Tim Bee was missing, but excused, from duty Monday. HIs staff said he was in Tucson, his home territory, to give a speech, and would be back in the afternoon.

"As of mid-afternoon, there was no sign of Bee, who, coincidentally, is running for the Republican nomination for Congress in the Eighth Congressional District in southern Arizona.

"But Sen. Debbie McCune Davis, D-Phoenix, said there are consequences of the president not being present, even though there was no work on the Senate's Monday calendar.

"One of her bills, which would toughen penalties for failure to properly fill out a real-estate-sale affidavit, is languishing in the Senate while it awaits a third, and formal, vote. McCune Davis pointed to a memo she received from the Senate's chief of staff saying her measure, Senate Bill 1350, would get its third read either last Thursday or today.

"'Tim's not being here means it won't get a third read,' she said."

However, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano herself said it was a non-issue, as evidenced in a Daniel Scarpinato Arizona Daily Star piece three weeks ago:

"Democrat Barack Obama isn't the only one getting help from Gov. Janet Napolitano — she came to the defense of Republican congressional candidate Tim Bee this week. A couple of weeks ago, Democrats launched some grenades at Bee, president of the state Senate, after he attended GOP events in D.C. in preparation for his quest to unseat Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. But Republicans soon countered Napolitano, a Democrat, had left the state in late January to campaign for Obama. She also spent this past Monday and Tuesday in D.C. — both for the National Governors Association conference and to make some national television appearances on Obama's behalf. Napolitano said: 'With all respect to the Democratic Party, I just disagreed with them.' 'I'm A, not critical of President Bee for going back, and B, for me, these are important meetings,' she said."