Terry Goddard struck out Wednesday night at incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer, saying if she wants someone to blame for a drop in tourism she should look in the mirror.
During a televised debate, Brewer repeated her contention that the unions that support Democrats like Goddard are creating problems by urging people to boycott Arizona.
But Goddard shot back that far more economic damage is done by comments Brewer has made, both in local and national media, about the violent crime caused by illegal immigration and specifically that headless bodies are being found in the desert.
"Those are false statements,'' he said.
"They cause people to think that Arizona is a dangerous place,'' he continued. "And they don't come here and they don't invest here because our governor said such negative things about our state.''
After the debate, Brewer ignored repeated questions from reporters about her statements about beheadings and why she has neither provided proof or recanted the story. Instead, her security detail ushered her into the elevator at KAET-TV where the show was taped.
Goddard, who has been state attorney general since 2003, said the record shows that violent crime actually is down in Arizona.
Brewer, however, said Arizonans are not safe.
As proof she pointed to a sign the Bureau of Land Management erected near Gila Bend which says, ``Danger -- Public Warning -- Travel Not Recommended.'' It says this is an ``active drug-and human-smuggling area'' and visitors ``may encounter armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed.''
On the broader issue of SB 1070, Goddard said Brewer herself has conceded that the law, designed to give police more tools to arrest illegal immigrants, does nothing to actually secure the international border. Some provisions took effect July 29; a federal judge enjoined others until there can be a trial.
Brewer, however, said Goddard is ignoring what could be its biggest impact.
``Obviously, it's gotten the attention of the federal government,'' she said. That included a face-to-face meeting with President Obama, his unilateral decision to put 1,200 soldiers along the border and Congress approving $600 million for enhanced border security.
While illegal immigration was the focus of much of the hour-long debate, Goddard pushed the conversation to the economy which his campaign contends is the issue more likely to get him elected in November.
He said the state has lost 128,000 jobs since Brewer took office in January 2009 after her predecessor, Democrat Janet Napolitano, quit to take a job in the Obama administration.
Brewer countered that said she inherited a "huge mess'' from Napolitano.
"Arizona was headed into bankruptcy,'' she said. "And then came the recession.''
Goddard conceded part of the point.
"She made some mistakes,'' he said of Napolitano. The former governor pushed through new spending programs, approved tax cuts and then was forced to balance the budget with accounting maneuvers and borrowing.
"But she's gone,'' Goddard continued about Napolitano, saying Brewer "needs to take responsibility for what she has done.''
More to the point, Goddard said, is what Brewer has not done.
He said she has yet to put a full-blown plan to balance the budget before the Legislature. Instead, Goddard said, the budget hasn't even been technically "balanced'' even with sharp spending cuts, especially on education, along with borrowing and pushing through a temporary one-cent hike in state sales taxes.
Brewer said she was proud of having convinced voters in May to approve that. She said they realized that, without the extra nearly $1 billion a year, the state would have been forced to make even deeper cuts in critical programs.
Goddard, who eventually agreed to support Proposition 100, said voters had no choice since Brewer had not come up with a different plan to balance the budget.
"For Jan Brewer taking credit for saving education with Prop. 100 is like taking credit for saving someone from the water when you're the ones that pushed them in,'' he said.
Brewer and Goddard agreed there is a role for private prisons. But Goddard said there has been a lack of oversight which culminated in the escape of three violent felons from a private prison in Kingman -- including two murderers -- with one of them and his accomplice linked to the killing of a couple in New Mexico before being caught. He said the state put 400 dangerous felons there even though it was designed for convicted drunk drivers.
Brewer, however, said the escape was due to "human error'' and people have been replaced.
That escape made an impression on Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Barry Hess.
"I'm all about privatization,'' he said. But Hess said he now believes that their use is appropriate only for drunk drivers and minor offenders.
"The state should be in control of its prisons,'' Hess said.
Brewer and Goddard also sparred over the issue of the new federal health care law and, specifically, the refusal of Goddard to join with attorneys general from other states to sue the Obama administration and Congress for approving it.
"It didn't stack up as a legal proposition,'' said Goddard, saying he believes it is constitutional. He also said the plan will financially benefit the state -- albeit in the long run -- with additional federal aid.
But Brewer said the measure is not only unconstitutional and costly for the state in the immediate future. She said the mandate to obtain health coverage also is a bad idea.
"It is inherently wrong for the federal government to tell the people of Arizona that you have got to buy something, and if you don't, we're going to penalize you,'' she said.
tededitedit posted at 8:18 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
ILLEGAL immigration is the biggest issue facing the state. The economy, education, health care, and crime are all big problems. These problems would all be improved if the 500,000+ mooches and criminals here ILLEGALY would leave.
getreal2105 posted at 8:22 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
Jan Brewer commented on securing the border, SB 1070 doesn't address the border, she keeps saying the immigration problem is at the border ( as I've stated for years) yet Brewer believes SB 1070 is the answer to fix the problem, is she not of sound mind. Terry Goddard has a plan and will make a very good governor. Brewer can't put three words together without tripping. So far Brewer has raised taxes, diluted our hand gun laws, reduced the drinking laws, removed a revenue generating program, the speed cameras, has close personal ties to the private prision system, and gave AZ a failed immigration bill.....gee she's a real catch for AZ...
snipes posted at 8:24 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
Brewer set the pace in her opening statement where she looked bewildered, perplexed, and flummoxed. Several times she paused for long periods while she attempted to collect her thoughts.
Alas, it was to no avail.
DataMan posted at 8:31 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
Heaven help AZ if Brewer gets elected in Nov. She was nothing for than a babbling uninformed dingbat from her opening statement, where within 1 minute she completely forgot what she was saying!
Yarbles posted at 8:33 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
As a much coveted independent voter, I have to say that after this debate I will be voting for Terry Goddard. Everyone who tries to paint him as left wing is wrong. He proved that tonight and a quick look at his record shows that he has managed his budget, fought against truly bad illegal immigrants, and brought millions of dollars into the state in terms of victorious lawsuits. Jan proved tonight that she will keep the status quo of failure going. Terry won't waste are tax dollars and will provide a nice ideological balance to the legislature in my opinion.
Rich posted at 8:50 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
About all I thought was this moron is the Governor? She needed a teleprompter real bad. Can she actually compose a logical sentence without her staff? I'd like to know who's behind her because she is an obvious incompetent. Who are we really electing Governor if we vote for Brewer? It can't be her, she gets flummoxed breathing.
Of course Goddard is pretty scary all by himself.
Times are rough and electing either of these to mentally challenged candidates means they are only going to get rougher.
DataMan posted at 9:09 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
Oh, and Brewer should spend the rest of her time as Gov in an ELL class, so that she gets a grasp of basic English, sentence structure, and the proper tense of verbs!
"did" and "does" seem to have the have the same usage in her pickled brain!
Mike McClellan posted at 9:55 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
After this fiasco, you will not see Jan emerge in public, except on the one friendly media outlet, KFYI.
Otherwise, she's hiding out until election night.
And despite her clear incompetence, she'll win: She signed a bill, a bill by the way, that will not see the light of day for years since it'll be tied up in litigation.
ChandlerGuy posted at 10:14 pm on Wed, Sep 1, 2010.
Brewer's campaign has apparently pulled all advertising from channel 5 because they are investigating her connections with private prisons that benefit from the arrests of illegal immigrants. She's going to punish them for doing their jobs. This hack has got to go.
Slabside posted at 12:26 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Brewer is the best thing that has happened to Arizona in years. All of you leftists are shocked and bewildered that a governor has the audacity to enforce laws and pursue turning Arizona back over to Americans. She has my vote for sure. GO JAN!!![beam]
forkedlift1 posted at 1:42 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
"We have did what was right for Arizona" is what she said. A double whammy.
I don't think we've seen the end of the financial connections between the private prisons and Brewer and her handlers. Something really smells. I saw that Channel 5 investigative report and ChandlerGuy is right. Their chief private prison lobbyist who is also connected with Brewer's campaign told the station if they aired their report, she'd pull her campaign advertising from the station.
Another thing was the private prison lobbyist's insistence that illegal immigrants are not detained in private prisons. Then came an official from ICE who ought to know and who said just the opposite, that illegal immigrants ARE held and detained in private prisons.
Goddard rightly pointed out that a major decision was made by someone some time ago to house 400 violent criminals in that Kingman private prison built for DUI offenders and the like, without informing any law enforcement personnel and other agencies in the vicinity of this major change. Yet Brewer wouldn't recognize the big picture, concentrating instead on the single recent breakout as attributable to "human error."
It was quite obvious that Brewer is one who has risen to the highest level of her incompetence.
Rich posted at 2:02 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Slabside
Did you see the same program I saw? Ask Brewer what two and two is and it's a toss up whether she'll come up with four. Kind of doubt the corruption at the prisons however, she's not bright enough to come up with it. That must be one of her "advisors." Who I guess, while she's Governor run the state and tell her what to say. They needed cue cards, without them, apparently, the lady can't talk and think with minimum coherence.
Unisex posted at 7:52 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Rich ...you are so right!
It was embarrassing to see her and she made a fool of Arizona! And I am republican.
Poorman posted at 8:45 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
One thing sure,we voters have a big problem this election. Jan did get SB1070 thru,but she sure seemed to blow it on the debate. And as for Goddard,god help us if he should get elected.I was suprised at Hess,he did fairly well,be he doesn't stand a chance. And as for the other canidate running oh well.he should save his time and the peoples money.
soricobob posted at 8:52 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Ronald Reagan had the sense (and good advisors) to keep him out of the limelight in his later years. They knew his Alzheimer's would embarrass himself and the country. Mrs. Brewer you are not a Mr. Reagan, but your word search skills, ability to focus on several topics at once, coupled with the protruding veins (neck and head) put you at immediate risk, beware.
Carolyn posted at 9:19 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
The word is FEISTY, not "fiesty." News reporters who cannot spell need to go away. As to the discussion, Jan Brewer can be described as beeitchy rather than feisty. VOTE GODDARD in NOVEMBER!!!
Yarbles posted at 9:37 am on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Slabside,
I am anything but a leftist. I consider myself almost dead in the middle. I simply vote for candidates who have some form of grammatical or communicative competence. From what I saw last night, the only thing Jan has proved to me is that she needs to take some college English and Linguistics classes. [wink]
forkedlift1 posted at 12:50 pm on Thu, Sep 2, 2010.
Rich, I don't think the corruption involving the private prisons originated with her. The wind-up Barbie doll does as is advised and expected of her by her handlers. It originated with the dollars paid to their lobbyists to influence legislators and with their campaign donations. Her spokeman/handler Senseman had worked for that one private prison company and his wife still does. After all, everybody's got to make a living, and combative Brewer's limitations make her very malleable.
But more than anything it's Chuck Coughlin, who not only is the well paid lead lobbyist for the private prison industry with his Highground I-can-get-voters-to-approve-anything-and-anybody company, but he's also Brewer's campaign manager according to the paper. It was Coughlin who told Channel 5 that they would be getting no TV advertising from Brewer's campaign if they aired their investigative report.
vickiln posted at 9:05 am on Fri, Sep 3, 2010.
No illegal immigration is not the biggest issue in Az.
We having an overwhelming housing problem,
unemployment is closing in on 20%, the state's
credit rating is in the dire straits and the school
system is in even worse shape. Time to stop
discussing How it got that way but how to help
turn it around. Brewer is not capable of the
leadership, critical problem solving or image
that this state needs now. She is a puppet for
others who are make the decisions and that alone
is scary. Time to vote for the more capable
candidate in every race this year or we will not dig out of this hole in our lifetime.
Rich posted at 9:53 am on Fri, Sep 3, 2010.
Illegal immigration is barely an issue and not very important. People have been crossing the area that is the southern border to go to work, in both directions for over three centuries, and now that work is scarce rarely do so at all. It is just scapegoating to cover political mistakes, however nativism has always had a following. The question is whether or not people will wake up to the need to handle the real issues, employment, housing, education or whether they will be duped into a nearly non-issue to distract them from the problems or not.
Brewer is clearly incapable and incompetent. And, rather obviously controlled by other people. She has a single nearly non-issue that even were it an issue is being handled by the downturn economically.
So the question becomes are we going to recognize the areas that need fixing, such as getting people back to work, restoring real estate values, and climbing out of the cellar in education, or continue to be blinded by a non-issue handling itself? The latter is the only reason to consider Brewer as even a marginally viable candidate, and probably incompetent to handle even that. The election will tell the story, what we consider important.
jlmealer posted at 3:06 pm on Sun, Sep 12, 2010.
Here's an easy one gov Brewer.. ASK AG Goddard WHY the AG's office refused to handle the antitrust issues between Mealer Companies and GM.
Dereliction of duty as an AG is a serious offense.