opinion

Valdez: Arizona leaders don't care what you think. Why is that?

What’s bigger than the Grand Canyon and more mysterious than the Lost Dutchman Mine?

The disconnect between the people of Arizona and their so-called leaders.

Consider how the committed volunteers of Save our Schools Arizona braved the hot sun to undo what their fearless leaders so gleefully did last session.

Volunteers got the signatures needed to challenge Arizona’s scheme to give public school money to private schools through vouchers.

But it took a determination hotter than June or July. And they may not prevail after all.

Arizonans opposed this sellout of the great promise of public education even before the GOP leadership pushed it into law.

But the guys and gals leading this state aren’t afraid of the wrath of these people. Why is that?

They punished us for raising minimum wage

Here’s another example: The people voted to raise the minimum wage last year.

The people wanted a fairer wage. The power elite who control the Legislature didn’t.

So the GOP-led Legislature imposed restrictions on the initiative process that were designed to make sure nothing like that happens again. Arizona’s GOP Gov. Doug Ducey dutifully signed his name.

What makes them so disdainful of the will of the people?

The easy answer: Safe districts and a history of big voter turnout by conservatives.

But the people do show up to vote on social justice initiatives – like minimum wage hike – and they hit the sizzling streets to pass petitions opposing what their leaders do.

They want to punish us for fighting vouchers

Last session, Arizona’s fearless leaders gleefully expanded a once-limited voucher program despite protests.

The so-called Empowerment Scholarship Account program is the darling of those who use the euphemism “choice” to push ideas that undermine public education.

Begun under the guise of giving a few students with special needs some non-public school “options,” Ducey and his GOP gang in the Legislature blew the lid off the voucher program last session so all 1.1 million K-12 students in Arizona will be eligible to siphon public school money for private school tuition.

Never mind that our public schools have been systematically starved of funding.

Never mind that oversight for the existing voucher program is non-existent and vouchers are primarily used in affluent areas.

Never mind that the people of Arizona strongly opposed the expansion while calling for better funding for good, old public schools.

Dark money has our leaders' ears

But the people minded. The civic-minded folks at Save our Schools hit the hot streets and got enough signatures to ask voters to reject vouchers at the ballot box in 2018.

But a vote is not certain because fearless leaders have friends to stand behind what they do.

The American Federation for Children, which lobbied your legislature for the expansion, is challenging the signature-gathering. A court battle looms.

This “dark money” group of outside agitators has the ear of those who are supposed to represent your state. They got their way at the Legislature and in the governor’s office. Now they hope for victory in the one branch of government that is immune to campaign donations.

Only 1 thing scares them: Conservatives

This brings us back to the question of who elects these characters. Or – more accurately – who votes in a state where a great many people do not seem to be well represented by their elected officials.

Gov. Doug Ducey offered some alarming evidence of how he sees his core constituency after Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio – a disgraced sheriff who had been voted out of office.

People all over the state were appalled by the pardon – aside from hard-core conservatives, who did a happy dance. Latinos, who were racially profiled by Arpaio’s official policies, were particularly enraged by Trump’s pardon.

But Ducey is politically savvy enough to know hard-core conservatives are highly reliable voters. He did the politically smart thing when he issued a kissy-face statement giving Arpaio “credit for helping to reduce crime in Maricopa County ... "

(All those sex abuse cases that went uninvestigated during Arpaio’s tenure notwithstanding.)

Ducey knows which side of his bread is buttered. It’s the conservative side.

And it’s clear evidence that these fearless leaders really are scared of some voters.

Arizona’s big disconnect won’t change until moderates and liberals become as skilled as the mastodons at using their votes to intimidate politicians.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez@arizonarepublic.com.

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