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I herd a commercial on Air America for Voice of Arizona and that you print the news that the established media won't. What I have to write about is something in Arizona that has gotten very little coverage in our own, one newspaper, state but many people active in the Democratic Party in Arizona know about it. Everybody is watching Karl Rove, Lewis Libby and Tom DeLay but no is watching corruption in our own state legislature or reporting on it.
If an elected official toke money from someone with business before the legislature and put the money in their own pocket, it would be considered a bribe. What some Arizona legislators are doing is taking campaign contributions from lobbyist with business before the legislature and washing it through their campaign committee's and into their own pockets.
One State Senator, with the memorable name of Dean Martin, has pocketed thousands of dollars washing money through his campaign committee to a company own by him and another own by his wife that they set up in a rented mail drop. Senator Martin also spent something like $12,000 on electronics and computer equipment with his campaign funds, all tax free. He also gave himself about $6,900 from his campaign funds which he categorized as "repay loan," the problem is there is no record of him ever loaning his campaign $6,900.
This information can be verified by going to the Arizona Secretary of State's website. No one has ever investigated this matter. The name of Senator Martin's company is Digital Print Design and his wife's company is Grassroots Programs, neither business has any advertising and both are based in the same rented mail drop at Paradise Valley Mall.
It would be nice if someone would let the voters know about this profiting from public office by our elected officials so the people can through the bums out.
An interesting side note, Senator Martin's opponent, Marla Wing, only spent $26 on her campaign and $10 of that was a late fee.
I think this is corruption and should be exposed and investigated, what do you think?
So, what will our ignorant fellow citizens think of local small time politicians and their suspect escapades? If you think about it, we should be paying closer attention to these local politicians because they are more relevant to the average citizen than the federal politicians.
Memory tells me that Arizona's recent history is marked by corruption at the highest level. Governor Fife Symington was convicted of bank fraud in the 1990s. Before that was Governor Evan Mecham who was actually impeached and kicked out of office for obstruction of justice.
Do average voters care? I think not. We could use a good sex scandal though. That's what Americans love. Impeach Clinton for a sex lie and let Bush get away with lying about two wars, 9/11, and his ability to keep us safe in the nook-yoo-ler age. Sex vs. War... SEX! Sex vs. Bribes... SEX!
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